Spring 2017 South Florida Tomatoes review

[maxjohnson]

Most of these are grown in root knot nematode soil. Performance results (in term of productivity and taste):

Best - will grow again:
Cherry: Ambrosia Orange UBX (salad size), Blush, Sungold F1
Medium: Cosmic Eclipse, Garden Peach, Juane Flamme
Beefsteak: Curtis Cheek, Green Giant

Average:
Cherry: Ambrosia Orange UBX, Black Cherry, Blue Ambrosia, Pink Bumble Bee
Beefsteak: Delicious, Dragon's Eye (solar flare?), Paul Robeson

Poor - will probably not grow again:
Medium: Black Beauty, Green Zebra, Peach Blow Sutton
Beefsteak: Black Brandywine
Dwarf: Purple Heart, Russian Swirl

~Awards~
Best tasting: Green Giant
Best tasting runner up: Paul Robeson
Earliest and most prolific: Jaune Flamme, Ambrosia Orange UBX (salad size)
Productive in nematode soil: Garden Peach
Least productive: Peach Blow Sutton
BER galore: Black Beauty
Don't like wilt: Green Zebra, White Oxheart


~Descriptions~

Best

Ambrosia Orange UBX - salad size: (photos below) It grew from Orange UBX seed which supposed to be cherry except it's salad size. Very vigorous and healthy plant, 6ft wide. Very early and prolific, continues to produce late, good disease resistant. Skin not thick so may crack.

Blush: Productive, but slow to ripe. Mild sweetness, not very complex, but good eating and no acid.

Cosmic Eclipse: Only moderately productive, slow to ripe. Good crack resistant and store well. Very pretty. Taste good if correctly ripen (purple flesh), otherwise somewhat tart. I like it because it's a durable tomato that stores well.

Curtis Cheek: I will not talk about this, read here for more info.

Garden Peach: Very early and productive, vigorious and handle root knot nematode soil well. Low acid, mild flavor.

Green Giant: Vigorous plant, moderate productivity (in containers) but succumbed to blight. Unexpected great flavor, very fruity, very sweet with mild lemony taste without much acidity.

Jaune Flamme: One of the earliest and most prolific, good disease resistant. Strong tang acidic flavor. Can be watery if overwatered.

Sungold F1: Prolific, early, kinda acidic for my taste despite sweet.

Average

Black Cherry: Normaly super productive, but not so much this year due to disease grown in the same spot. Very sweet.

Blue Ambrosia: A surprise. Moderate productive and very sweet, bigger than Sungold. I grew two type, one with less anthocyanin and doesn't crack and sweeter, one with anthocyanin but cracks a lot and less sweet.

Delicious: Very big plant, moderate productivity, big fruits, but die from wilt. Good traditional tomato taste.

Paul Robeson: Only average productivity, but amazing flavor, buttery smooth, smokey, wine-like, citrusy, balance of sweet-sour.

Pink Bumble Bee: Moderate productivity, no cracks, but slow to ripe and not very flavorful. Store well.

Ambrosia Orange UBX: Not very productive and slow growing, but amazing complex flavor. Sweeter than Sungold with a tinge of spicy flavor.

Dragon's Eye - beefsteak: (photos below) From Wild Boar's Farm, supposed to be small but turns out like Solar Flare, I have a suspicion they are either not Dragon's Eye or got crossed. I grew six plants from the same seed pack, five of them have Solar Flare like red stripes. One of them is more yellow without the red stripes. It grows vertically straight without any help, low productivity, very sweet and gel like juice. Technically it should be categorized as poor due to low productivity, but it's very pretty, tastes good and seems to have durable skin.

Poor

Black Beauty: When in container lots of issues of blossom rotting and blossom end rot. Even in soil not very productive. Slow to ripe. Great sweet umami flavor if proper ripen.

Black Brandywine: Good sweet taste, can be a bit powdery. Not very productive and succumbed to wilt.

Dwarf Purple Heart: Takes forever to fruit and ripen then died from blight. Average purple tomato taste.

Dwarf Russian Swirl: Takes forever to fruit and ripen then died from blight. Excellent fruity yellow tomato taste.

Green Zebra: Died from wilt on two different raised beds.

(Parkseed) Nectar F3: Very early and productive early on, but quickly ween off and doesn't continue to produce. Sweet, crunchy, acidic.

Peach Blow Sutton: Takes forever to fruit, forever to ripe, low productivity. Good taste, bright red juice, somewhat sweet.

[My Foot Smells]

wow. superb photography and nice collection of healthy plants and tomatoes.

I was under the impression that florida is covered with nematodes, but you look to be growing on top of native and plants look fine.

no fruit set here - yet, but got some in the ground and adding as time permits.

[KarenO]

Great reviews and photos, thanks for posting this!
KarenO

[Deborah]

That sliced Green Giant looks so good. I can just taste that on a BLT.