Neighbor mentioned above suckers to two stems tied snug to rebar he got free. I would est that he harvests 9-12 fruit per plant. His garden is very very picturesque. I wonder how ten people would rate the taste of the Goliath vs Big Beef? Doubt all ten could even tell the diff if grown in same soil by same method.

Probably a lot more than 9-12. More like 30-40.
I never grew Goliath, but by opinions around the forum, it sounds like most people would be able to tell the difference.
Of course, there's always the question why grow something better to sell when 80% of customers don't care about the difference or can't even see it. Usually to have a better profit per amount of work. So you sell less, more expensive for those few customers that care, so you can do it by yourself, with the family, no need for employees etc. Or just to be able to enter the market as a new seller.

Nope. Not suckered or suckered to four or five stems maybe. But I have first hand knowledge of his plants. Suckered to two stems the plants get about 5ft tall and produce three or four clusters of mostly 3 tomatoes the size of baseballs or softballs.

I have a couple of Chefs choice hybrids this year. Hee em for my neighbor but she convinced me to grow a couple. Hope they don't suck.

[QUOTE=BigVanVader;640844]I have a couple of Chefs choice hybrids this year. Hee em for my neighbor but she convinced me to grow a couple. Hope they don't suck.[/QUOTE]

Are those Orange color? Heard they're really good.

We just grew seven compact determinate Defiant PhR as our commercial hybrid "insurance" tomatoes, thinking that at least they would resist the EB. Have picked 55 surpisingly tasty 3 oz pretty red tomatoes so far. A bit small for my liking, looking for 6-8 oz insurance. Trialing Merced OP next season.

[QUOTE=Gerardo;609679]Marbonne tastes good.[/QUOTE]
Hi. What was the yield of marbonne? Can you tell us more about this variety. I'm very interested in growing margold, marbonne and marnero.

[QUOTE=Jimbotomateo;640893]Are those Orange color? Heard they're really good.[/QUOTE]

I should have specified these are the pink. I think they have an orange as well though.

[QUOTE=BigVanVader;640844]I have a couple of Chefs choice hybrids this year. Hee em for my neighbor but she convinced me to grow a couple. Hope they don't suck.[/QUOTE]

BigV, I am trialling the Chef's Choice Geen this year along with Cherokee Green.

Ah I will be interested to see the results. I keep meaning to grow Cherokee green but never do.

Me too. I love Cherokee Green. All of the Cherokee tomatoes I have tried grow very well. The weakness is that they tend to spiral/radial crack on the top, which is much less of a big deal if you are not trying to sell them.

I haven't grown a lot of hybrids, but this is how I'd rank the taste (from most favorite to least favorite taste):

* Early Girl F1 (this is my favorite tomato for flavor even including OP varieties)
* Park's Whopper F1
* Lemon Boy F1
* Husky Cherry Red F1
* Grape F1
* Bush Goliath F1
* Celebrity F1
* Early Harvest F1

I've tried some probable crosses and F2+ hybrids that were pretty nice.

I've never had another tomato variety that tastes quite like Early Girl F1. I think McGee has been the closest, but it's still fairly different. Lemon Boy F1 is probably the next closest in taste. McGee is a favorite, too.

We haven't grown early girl F1 for a couple years now, but that was a staple in the garden when we bought plants at the stores. Sauces always tasted fine, and the plants produced, but the early girls have big seed cavities so I never liked them for eating fresh on BLTs.

Chef's Choice Orange has quite good flavor and texture.

[QUOTE=AKmark;621226]Karen, great question. I do sell plants, and eventually would like the bulk of my plant sales to be my own stuff, and varieties from friends too. I also sell the classic heirlooms and hybrids also. I have Mat-Su, and Ak Sunrise and Sunset F6 F7, and a couple semi stable, and a bunch of crosses, F1 -F3. Sherry has several in the F6- F7 range, and many semi stable too. You will really like the stuff she is doing, all are very early and have good tastes, and they are so different from each other.

Anyway, to answer your question the best I can with limited experience. I cannot quite capture the earliness, and perfect shaped fruit of Brandywine x Bloody Butcher F1, and they are tasty too. The later generations look more like a typical heirloom with a little irregular shapes, are bigger, are also almost a week later to ripen, but they do taste a bit better to me.
On another note, for me the F1 negates BB. Maybe for a super early good tomato, that's as early, has a perfect shape, tastes better, and is bigger than BB, the F1 may be hard to beat. So I think it is up to the grower, you may choose a different one than I would. If we are dealing with good tomatoes, most offspring is pretty good too, in many combinations also.
A couple other semi stable ones are, PL Black Krim x PL Early Girl. The F1 is much earlier than the F4's, but I like the taste of three different versions that have been segregated better than the F1. Since EG is a hybrid, I had a few variations to select from, everything from small red tomatoes to purple beefsteaks, a very fun cross to tinker with. The F1 is more consistent, even though a hybrid was used, but I really like the semi stable ones.

BB X Dester follows the same pattern..

I am not sure if a pattern is clear though, but capturing that exact F1 has been tough for me. Personally I like stabilizing them, and think there are many opportunities in growing out crosses to get something that is good, and different.
Sherry may have an opinion on this, she has a few lines she has stabilized.[/QUOTE]

Mark Im very very interested in what you do. Im growing tomatoes comercially in Sweden in a high tunnel, mostly heirlooms or open pollinated varieties.

I would like to know which ones of your F1 hybrids where succesful and consistent. I have some varieties that I want to cross, thinking mostly of crossing Matina or Jaune Flammee with Sudduth Brandywine, Prudens Purple, Cherokee Purple and Crnkovic Yugoslavian. Some experience with these?

Could also buy some of your seeds if you are interested in selling, even some of the varieties I grow (as I suspect that I have inferior strains or maybe some crossing).

Anyone tasted well grown Marbonne, Margold and Marnero? Im thinking of growing some of these for early productive bigger tomatoes to complement my heirlooms that come into production later in the season.

I am down in Lexington, SC, just outside of Columbia.Do you grow any heirlooms?If so do you have any tricks for keeping them healthy?Family favorite is Cherokee Purple but have to fight to keep plant healthy / alive!!
Thanks
Rick

Among all the heirlooms I grow (over 200 varieties per year in recent years), a few hybrids hold their own, and make my grow list every year. Big Boy F1 and Big Beef F1 top the list for beefsteaks, and Jet Star F1 is not bad, but a very reliable producer. Sungold F1 and Esterina F1 are always in my cherry patch. Cherry Bomb F1 from Johnny's produced stunning numbers of really tasty red cherries, and Juliet F1 fills a niche I haven't been able to find an OP replacement for, as it is bullet-proof in my fungus-laden garden.
Shawn

I've found the same here Shawn. All those mentioned do well here. I haven't tried cherry bomb yet.

I haven't tried Cherry Bomb either; but SunPeach is the bomb for me. Cherries are bigger than SunGold and don't split.

The pink/red cherry tomatoes I loved last year, can't compare in taste. My plants are huge and when we had really cold (30s last week), both plants withstood the cold better than either Esterina.

Also growing SunChocola but no ripe ones yet.

Thank you very much for your reply.One I can vouch for even in my horrible growing conditions is Big Beef.Has performed better than all others over last 5/6 years.Spring to first frost.Only plant I have grown that will do that.

Me again, is there any schedule of spraying, foliar feeding, ect. that you use to keep your heirlooms healthy.You are in a totally different growing environment but would appreciate any help or suggestions.
With temps. 95+s July & August and max humidity perfect environment for every foliar disease.
Thanks
Rick Padgett

Cherry Bomb is great!

[QUOTE=FarmerShawn;677961]Among all the heirlooms I grow (over 200 varieties per year in recent years), a few hybrids hold their own, and make my grow list every year. Big Boy F1 and Big Beef F1 top the list for beefsteaks, and Jet Star F1 is not bad, but a very reliable producer. Sungold F1 and Esterina F1 are always in my cherry patch. Cherry Bomb F1 from Johnny's produced stunning numbers of really tasty red cherries, and Juliet F1 fills a niche I haven't been able to find an OP replacement for, as it is bullet-proof in my fungus-laden garden.
Shawn[/QUOTE]

My cousin grew Sekura this year, and they are quite good.

I grew Sakura too; nice plant and tomatoes held up better than most at the end of the season.

Now I want to grow Cherry Bomb.

Just a ★★★★★ note from here in Lexington SC, 8 days of rain every day.Can't even try to do any work with my tomatoes.