New Variety Winners of 2017
 

For over 10 years I have been trying lots of new varieties , in search to find a few that I like. In fact about 50% the varieties that am growing ( ~ 16 ) this year are new to me.
I had had my share of disappointment and surprises.

Here are my top FIVE surprises this year:

Indian Stripe PL
Esterina
Cuostralee
[B]German Queen[/B]
Indigo Cherry Drops

This is, of course , in addition to the varieties that I have grown in the past.

Ok, What are some of your surprising discoveries this season ?

Trying Soldaki for the first time this year. I'm still waiting for it to ripen but the plants are loaded with fruit. I love Cuostralee! It is on my grow list every year.

do you care if it is OP heirloom or hybrid picks? I know everyone has had their gripes about Burpees but I tried 2 new varieties this year. One is Honey Delight... it is supposed to be a 4 oz tomato but I knew looking at the picture it was not a 4 oz tomato. it is a large cherry maybe about 2 oz. excellent tomato. and Orange Slice Hybrid. an excellent large orange slicer.

My biggest surprise this year was finding out our ground has Fusarium wilt race 3.

2. Big Beef is as good as others have told me.
3. Gargamel was fun to grow and tastes good. It's striped and changes colors.
4. Anna Margaret's Heart - everyone who likes hearts needs to try this one.
5. Japanese Pink Cherry is my favorite sweet cherry tomato.

[QUOTE=clkeiper;658785]do you care if it is OP heirloom or hybrid picks? I know everyone has had their gripes about Burpees but I tried 2 new varieties this year. One is Honey Delight... it is supposed to be a 4 oz tomato but I knew looking at the picture it was not a 4 oz tomato. it is a large cherry maybe about 2 oz. excellent tomato. and Orange Slice Hybrid. an excellent large orange slicer.[/QUOTE]


No ! It does not matter to me/others but to you who likes a variety , regardless of OP/hybrid designations. I have a few hybrid favorites myself ( like Big Beef, Brandy Boy , ...) But they are not new to me in 2017.

I think now [I]have close to 12 varieties that I have found all these years that I like.
Come 2018, NO MORE new trials for me. I have enough to suit my limited growing capabilities.
Next season, few varieties and fewer plants . Gotta enjoy gardening and relax a bit. I am getting old. :twisted:
[/I]

New ones that were Good in 2017:
1) GGWT - Beautiful with excellent taste and a good producer
2) Gladiator - 1st Burpee Intro since Brandy Boy that lives up to its hype. Huge yield of very large paste tomatoes.

MikeInCypress

So far with only about half of the varieties ripened, Daniel Burson is the leader on production and flavor...it's a winner this year.

[QUOTE=Gardeneer;658801]No ! It does not matter to me/others but to you who likes a variety , regardless of OP/hybrid designations. I have a few hybrid favorites myself ( like Big Beef, Brandy Boy , ...) But they are not new to me in 2017.

I think now [I]have close to 12 varieties that I have found all these years that I like.
Come 2018, NO MORE new trials for me. I have enough to suit my limited growing capabilities.
Next season, few varieties and fewer plants . Gotta enjoy gardening and relax a bit. I am getting old. :twisted:
[/I][/QUOTE]

I certainly hope you can give DLH one more chance! It is an exceptional plant!

Chocolate Stripes PL - wonderful taste and production
Kapidag Red from Two Seeds in a Pod - just a wonderful throw-back taste to a time when tomatoes tasted like . . . well, tomatoes!
Sungold

Robert, (AlittleSalt) mentioned "Anna Margaret's Heart" and it is a favorite of mine as well. But I may be a little prejudiced as Anna Margaret is my aunt. And the "surprise" I had this year was a grow out of a possible mutation of this variety which is showing orange instead of the pink tomato. Notice the one "normal" surrounded by the mutants in the picture below. But more on that as the season goes on.

George

[ATTACH]76062[/ATTACH]

Wow, Pondgardener, those are very different.

I'm planning on growing next year's Anna Margaret's Heart grafted to a FFF,N rootstock. They did very well here growing through RKN and Fusarium 3, but it did effect them eventually just like all others. Grafting is completely new to me. I plan on practicing with seeds that I have a lot of (Way too many of).

Your post to this thread is inspiring to me, and I thank you for that.

My favs for flavor in 2017
 

These are all new for me:
1. Sun gold (Good in salads, salsas, and dehydrated. Pure yum! Now I know what all the fuss is about here at TV.)
2. Jaune Flammee (Tastes really good dehydrated. Surprised because I didn't think I would like a tangy tomato.)
3. Dwarf Purple Heart (Tastes great but I've only gotten one so far that didn't crack before ripening. I will plant in-ground next year. It's unhappy in the EB.)

Grandma Oliver's Chocolate, two enthusiastic thumbs up. Thank u Marsha.

My favorite new variety cherry is Pink Princess. Flavor to die for.... very complex. EVERYONE loves it.

So far:

1) Indian Stripe PL, delicious, productive, 55 dtm in my greenhouse!
2) GGWT, a "jewel" and yummy, productive, 70 dtm in the greenhouse.

Both set fruit well in the heat.

Steve

The best of 2017 until now:

1) Black Opal. Exceptional flavor, both sweet and rich. Also, very vigorous in growth, new sideshoots and flower trusses develop so fast i can hardly keep up with it. This one seems to be a multiflora.

2) Cherry Falls. Deep tomato flavor that also has sweetness! Pretty color as well dark red with some green spots.

3) Ditmarsher. The description calls this delicious, and so it is. Sweet with some acidic bite.

For others I am still waiting... Brandy Boy seems very prolific and vigorous, just as advertised.

[QUOTE=charline;658836]My favorite new variety cherry is Pink Princess. Flavor to die for.... very complex. EVERYONE loves it.[/QUOTE]

Hello Charlie, the Fedco pink princess?

I had really good luck with a few that I tried in the past before I was grafting and they were total failures then due to my fusarium wilt problems. The best was probably 1884 followed closely by Kentucky Wonder and Granny Cantrell. All three produced big wonderfully tasty tomatoes. Another that I hadn't had much success with in the past due to the fusarium was Big Cheef which did quite well and tasted wonderful.

I now wish I had kept some of the seeds from other varieties that were perpetual victims of fusarium wilt so I could try a few of them grafted.

Bill

[QUOTE=Gerardo;658851]Hello Charlie, the Fedco pink princess?[/QUOTE]


I dont know. I got the seeds from Tormato in the swap.

Black from Tula & Virginia Sweets were good varieties this year along with my normal favorites.

[QUOTE=clkeiper;658785]do you care if it is OP heirloom or hybrid picks? I know everyone has had their gripes about Burpees but I tried 2 new varieties this year. One is Honey Delight... it is supposed to be a 4 oz tomato but I knew looking at the picture it was not a 4 oz tomato. it is a large cherry maybe about 2 oz. excellent tomato. and Orange Slice Hybrid. an excellent large orange slicer.[/QUOTE]

Save seed from the Orange Slice, F2's are very good, F3's are doing good this year. I think BarbFL is up to F5.

Matsu Express for me. Delicious (one of the best tasting I have had) very nice balance of acid/sweetness.

[QUOTE=pmcgrady;659008]Save seed from the Orange Slice, F2's are very good, F3's are doing good this year. I think BarbFL is up to F5.[/QUOTE]

cool. thanks. maybe I will but we have widespread bacterial speck here this year. the inside tomatoes look fabulous... the outside ones terrible. so I am not sure I should save anything this year.

[QUOTE=charline;658994]I dont know. I got the seeds from Tormato in the swap.[/QUOTE]

You got the seed (1, :?:) in the swap. Yes, it's Pink Princess (gene pool) from Fedco.

Have you saved ANY seeds, yet?:?::?:

T;)RMAT;)

Two new ones that are doing very good for me are
Chapman and Blue Ridge Black. BRB is the best looking potato leaf plant I have ever grown with tons of tomatoes but they aren't ripe yet.

[QUOTE=charline;658994]I dont know. I got the seeds from Tormato in the swap.[/QUOTE]

I sent in some Fedco Pink Princess to the swap last year. :D

Woodle Orange. anyone else tried it? I had a kellogs brekfast and a woodle orange ready today. Woodle Orange won hands down.

[QUOTE=Tormato;659054]You got the seed (1, :?:) in the swap. Yes, it's Pink Princess (gene pool) from Fedco.

Have you saved ANY seeds, yet?:?::?:

T;)RMAT;)[/QUOTE]

Yes, sure I have...;)

One new addition I will grow from now on is the green zebra alternative (possibly Tiverta F2, I had a thread about it) currently named Green Saber. Great strong taste, steady production of mostly round but sometimes more flattened tomatoes in the 3-5 oz range. Texture is not as great as the original tomato I bought, and taste still didn't reach those incredible heights, but it may be due to growing techniques.
Still have to grow it next year to see if it's stable or not (the two plants I have this year are very similar), then maybe I will share seeds.

I had the pleasure of trying Santa Maria this year, and found it frustrating and amazing in equal measure; amazing because the tomatoes were lights-out good ... frustrating because it's so hard to get seeds from it.