Hybrid tomatoes
 

I'm looking for good tasting red,black or pink hybrid tomatoes. Is there any variety worth growing?

Black: Cherokee Carbon. Healthy plants, excellent production, beautiful and delicious tomatoes.

Reds: We still grow Better Boy and Park's Whopper every year and Big Boy most years; I'm also a big fan of Supersonic. Big Beef seems to be the most popular now but hasn't done well for us in three attempts; will try one more time. Bodacious was pretty good but maybe less disease-tolerant and heat tolerant. I've given up on Moreton and Super Fantastic due to disease. Maybe Beefmaster or Jet Star? Lots of new-ish determinate reds seem to be popular now, but I don't have experience with those. The only determinate red slicer I've tried is Mountain Merit, which was pretty good.

Pink: Maybe Momotaro? I've only grown it once -- liked the tomatoes but production and disease resistance were poor. I'll try it again some time because conditions weren't great that year. I grew Brandy Boy last year -- plant was huge and production was amazing, but I didn't love the flavor of the tomatoes, and there was a fair amount of cat-facing. Steak Sandwich tasted good but the tomatoes were smallish after the first few, and tolerance to disease and heat wasn't great. I have seeds for Think Pink but haven't tried it yet.

Have you tried the Chef's Choice series?

[QUOTE=Gardenboy;772350]I haven't tried the Chef Choice varieties yet. Are they worth growing?[/QUOTE]
Most of the varieties are AAS winners. The seeds are sold by multiple vendors but here are the description from the Totally Tomatoes website.


[url]https://www.totallytomato.com/category/154[/url]

[QUOTE=VirginiaClay;772347]
Reds: We still grow Better Boy and Park's Whopper every year and Big Boy most years; I'm also a big fan of Supersonic. Big Beef seems to be the most popular now but hasn't done well for us in three attempts; will try one more time. [/QUOTE]

I have had a similar experience with Better Boy and Big Beef. Better Boy is on my must grow list and I'm giving Big Beef another try due to all of the positive reviews.

I haven't tried the Chef Choice varieties yet. Are they worth growing?

I haven't grown hybrid slicers since...going on 10 years I guess. I don't really consider Big Beef a slicer. All purpose, I think of it as.



Supersteak was a pretty good slicer for size and taste, for two tomatoes! That was a purchased plant. Nothing else got big. I let it sprawl on a trellis but only had morning sun. My aunt loved it, and grew the seed out and thought it was great for 3 generations. She didn't understand F1-->mystery F2, F3 F4 etc. After a while she said it didn't do as well anymore, or she didn't like it, or something. More than anything I think she needs new soil in her raised bed and the cages sprayed with bleach.



Supersteak was basically shaped like a big brandywine, red though I think. Big beefs stay much more rounded for me, unless they get a perfect finish. I think 2020 or so I had a whole of big beef that were perfect and 17 and 18 oz each, without being watery.


I have considered getting a pack of supersteak and trying them again one year.



A big pink that came out a few ago that people like was called Mountain Rouge F1, I believe. They were a buck a seed at that time.

I’ve grown Purple Boy F1 for 3 years and really like it. It’s not as good as a big juicy OP such as Polaris (but nothing is as good as Polaris!), but it produces a lot. Also nematode-resistant.

Benevento F1 is striped on the outside and raspberry red inside. It’s a wonderful sandwich tomato. I’ve grown it for several years; the first time was from seeds Fred Hempel was giving away when he first released it, and now we grow it for the annual master gardener seedling sale every year.

Chocolate Sprinkles F1 is a delicious dark striped cherry tomato, if you’re looking for cherries. I grew it last year and will be putting in two more plants this year.

These 3 are not just good hybrids; they are at the top of my list of favorite tomatoes.

Honorable mention
Momotaro F1 and Brandy Boy F1 are good-tasting pinks that I grew once or twice and might grow again, but they are not grow-every-year tomatoes like the ones above.

Thanks for your feedback. Will try to find some Polaris tomato seeds
I've been growing heirloom indet. Tomatoes for 50 years. This FL season has been the hardest. Mosaic virus took over half my plants. Wanted to try hybrids for next growing season. I grow in 20 gallon containers. Will try Cherokee Carbon next season also. Carbon was one of my favorites along with Caspian Pink.

Medusa is a fairly new F1 introduction ....... cross between Damsel Hybrid and Cherokee Purple ..... haven't grown it personally, but looks interesting

[QUOTE=Gardenboy;772358]Thanks for your feedback. Will try to find some Polaris tomato seeds
I've been growing heirloom indet. Tomatoes for 50 years. This FL season has been the hardest. Mosaic virus took over half my plants. Wanted to try hybrids for next growing season. I grow in 20 gallon containers. Will try Cherokee Carbon next season also. Carbon was one of my favorites along with Caspian Pink.[/QUOTE]
If mosaic virus is typically a problem for you, it would be good to look for hybrids that have that resistance. A hybrid without that resistance won't necessarily help you compared to heirlooms. Cornell is a good resource for specific resistance information:
[URL]https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/pest-management/disease-factsheets/disease-resistant-vegetable-varieties/disease-resistant-tomato-varieties/[/URL]

Note that there are two main mosaic viruses of tomatoes (tobacco and tomato); varieties may have resistance to either one or both or neither. Some of the better-known hybrids with resistance to at least one of the mosaics:
BHN-589
Big Beef
Bigdena
Bolseno
Bush Early Girl II
Caiman
Celebrity
Chef's Choice (not all of them)
Cobra
Early Girl
Estiva
Goliath
Heatmaster
Jetsetter
Momotaro
Mountain Gem
Whopper
Polbig
Primo Red
Red Deuce
RuBee Dawn
Think Pink
Tough Boy

I tried a hybrid a few years back...I'll stick with real tomatoes.

The best tasting hybrid I've grown is Momotaro

I second BIG BEEF. My favorite red. I am also growing Better Boy