What is your Must Grow Tomato?

[Yak54]

For the last 14 yrs. my "must grow" tomato has been Momotaro. And it is the ONLY hybrid that I've grown for close to 20 yrs. If I could only grow one variety, this one would be the one I would have to pick based on my current tomato experience up till now. My typical tomato garden includes 7 or 8 heirloom varieties of 2 plants ea. and 2-3 Momotaro plants every year.
VERY GLAD I don't have to pick only one though !

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Teddy Jones was far from being anything like Brandywine as far as I know, please see the link below, post #4

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...y+Jones+tomato

And yes, when making selections from Big Boy F1 to try and recapture Teddy Jones, I got the closest I could get , but not close enough since the only ones who COULD taste it were the folks at Burpee maintaining it and the when John Peto left Burpee he took TJ seeds with him when he started Petoseed in CA and it was used as one parent of Better Boy F1.

The man from Burpee who worked there who contacted me said absolutely nothing about taste.

Burpee was ahead of most others in sending reps out in the field to find new varieties, back then they weren't called heirlooms, and they must have thought that TJ tasted pretty good, but no info about that at all.

When I think of the money that TJ gave back to Burpee and Petoseed, I was going to say it astounds me, but fact is there are a few varieties that I've introduced that are listed by many seed vendors that have made them money, but I never expected to make money from heirloom varieties, I just wanted to spread them wide and far to preserve them, which I've done for several decades and continue to do. And there are others who have done the same as I have and for the same reasons.

One that is listed at lots of places is:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/O...b=General_Info

And there are many more commercial places that Tania doesn't have listed and note she hasn't yet updated for 2015 except for varieties she has seeds available for.

Carolyn, edited to add that I just realized you must have done a search here at Tville and found what I linked to above since nowhere else would the man who contacted me from Burpee have shared that with anyone else, and I know I also posted it at possibly two other message sites as well. Not a problem, it's all good.<G>

You are right, I saw you write that on another message site, about it being a disease prone , spindly plant, at least I think that is what you said and no you didn't say it was tasty, I just assumed that it was, since I love Better Boy, my favorite tasting hybrid.I often wonder if the other tomato was an old old commercial type like Rutgers or something similar that was bred with Teddy Jones to create Better Boy. and that was the first time i saw the link you posted, TY, it was very interesting

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by Yak54

For the last 14 yrs. my "must grow" tomato has been Momotaro. And it is the ONLY hybrid that I've grown for close to 20 yrs. If I could only grow one variety, this one would be the one I would have to pick based on my current tomato experience up till now. My typical tomato garden includes 7 or 8 heirloom varieties of 2 plants ea. and 2-3 Momotaro plants every year.
VERY GLAD I don't have to pick only one though !

I read somewhere that Eva Purple Ball was very much like Momotaro.I may be way off base, seems like I read it somewhere anyway.Have you ever grown Eva Purple Ball? It is one of my must grows every year.It is a little late getting started but when it starts it never stops and the great thing about it is that it is loaded with green and blushing tomatoes when the cold weather hits.First frost here last year was the first week in November.The green tomatoes have no cracks (Eva never cracks), perfect for inside ripening.I ate them in salads into January last year.

[Yak54]

seaeagle

Yes, I have grown Eva Purple Ball, and it is similar to Momotaro in shape and size. I should grow it again cause I did think it was a good tasting tomato. Also certain similarities to Rose De Berne, which I also thought was a good tasting tomato with good production.

[Karla]

Uncle Mark Bagby

[Labradors2]

I grew Momotaro and Eva Purple Ball last season and couldn't tell the difference between the two. I wrote about it here on TV and somebody else agreed with me. Eva is a great variety to grow!

Linda

Originally Posted by seaeagle

I read somewhere that Eva Purple Ball was very much like Momotaro.I may be way off base, seems like I read it somewhere anyway.Have you ever grown Eva Purple Ball? It is one of my must grows every year.It is a little late getting started but when it starts it never stops and the great thing about it is that it is loaded with green and blushing tomatoes when the cold weather hits.First frost here last year was the first week in November.The green tomatoes have no cracks (Eva never cracks), perfect for inside ripening.I ate them in salads into January last year.

[HollyinNNV]

I've placed numbers next to tomatoes that received more than one vote. So Anna Russian-2 means 3 people voted for Anna Russian.

African Queen
Amazon Chocolate
Ambrosia Gold
Amish Cherry
Amish Gold
Amish Paste-1
Ananas Noire-1
Andine Cornue
Anna Russian-2
Aunt Gerty’s Gold
Aunt Ginny’s Purple
Aunt Ruby’s German Green-1
Azoychka
Barlow Japanese-1
Bear Claw
Beauty King
Better Boy
Big Beef-1
Big Chef
Big Mama Hybrid
Big Rainbow-1
Big Zac
Black Cherry-2
Black from Tula-1
Black Krim-1
Black Seaman
Blue Ridge Black
Blush-1
Brandyboy
Brandywine Cowlicks
Brandywine Pink-1
Bulgarian Old Sort
Captain Lucky-2
Carbon Copy-3
Charlie Chaplin
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Purple- 18
Chocolate Cherry
Chocolate Stripes-2
Cleota Pink
Cosmonaut Volkov-3
Costoluto Genovese-1
Cowlick’s Brandywine
Creole
Cuostralee-1
Dagma’s Perfection
Dester-2
Dwarf Mint Streak
Earl’s Faux
Early Girl
Eva Purple Ball-1
Fox Cherry
German Johnson
German Red Strawberry
Gold Medal
Golden Rave
Goose Creek
Grubs Mystery Green
Indian Stripe-7
Jagodka
Japanese Plum
Jaune Flamme
JBT
Juliet-3
KBX-3
Klara
Koralik Cherry
Lemon Boy
Limbaugh’s Legacy
Limbaugh’s Potato Top
Linda’s Faux
Little Lucky
Lucky Tiger
Maiden’s Fire
Maiden’s Gold
Malachite Box
Marglobe
Matt’s Wild Cherry-3
Mexico
Momotaro
Mong
Moonglow
Napoli
Neves Azorean Red
Nonna Antonina
Opalka-1
Orange Russian 117-1
Pale Perfect Purple
Pantano Romanesco
Pink Berkley Tie Dye-1
Ponderosa Pink
Pork Chop-1
Porter
Pruden’s Purple-1
Purple Dog Creek
Rebel Yell-1
Red Cherry
Remy Rouge
Rose Quartz Multiflora
Rosella Purple
Russian Mini Yellow
San Marzano
Santa Maria
Shannon’s
Sibirskly Velikan Rozovuy
Skykomish
Siberian
Siletz
Snow White Cherry
Speckled Roman
Spudakee
Striped German-1
Stump of the World-5
Stupice-2
Summertime Green
Sungold F1-8
Surpriz
Tasmanian Chocolate
Taxi
Terhune
Uncle Mark Bagby
Yellow Brandywine
Wes
White Cherry
Wins



Special Recommendation to Tomato Growers Who Are Also Cannibals: Solanum Uparo

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

You are right, I saw you write that on another message site, about it being a disease prone , spindly plant, at least I think that is what you said and no you didn't say it was tasty, I just assumed that it was, since I love Better Boy, my favorite tasting hybrid.I often wonder if the other tomato was an old old commercial type like Rutgers or something similar that was bred with Teddy Jones to create Better Boy. and that was the first time i saw the link you posted, TY, it was very interesting

Dr. Shifriss who bred Big Boy F1 when he was at Burpee did tell me the other parent of Big Boy F1 and asked me to promise him that I would not reveal that variety. Oved passed away several years ago and I have kept that promise to him. Lots of folks have made guesses, and that's OK, but I can't confirm any of them.

I never knew the other parent of Better Boy F1.

But those two are still going strong as two of the first really good hybrids that were bred, and I'd also add Ramapo F1 and Moreton Hybrid, and also Supersonic F1 and Jet Star F1, but would have to check the release date for those last two.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Yak54

seaeagle

Yes, I have grown Eva Purple Ball, and it is similar to Momotaro in shape and size. I should grow it again cause I did think it was a good tasting tomato. Also certain similarities to Rose De Berne, which I also thought was a good tasting tomato with good production.

I've known about Eva Purple Ball since 1991 and have grown it many times:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Eva_Purple_Ball

...... where you'll see some taste comments that are all very positive. And the number of folks who list it in the SSE Yearbooks is still huge and it is beloved by many.

Those of you who have grown Eva Purple Ball have noticed that there are small white spots on the exterior, and here's another one,called Redfield Beauty, that has those same spots and is a dead ringer for Eva Purple Ball:

http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_redfield-beauty.html

And I had to do a Google search for the above since Tania doesn't list it and then chose the one from Victory Seeds.

Eva Purple Ball is one of only three heirloom varieties that I'm pretty sure ARE heirloom varieties from Joe Bratka's family near the Black Forest of Germany. The other two are marizol Gold and Marizol Purple. I had a student from Germany and she told me that she thought that the word marizol was a contraction of a small village in the Black Forest that is called Maria's Zell, meaning maria's village, and I think that's a reasonable explanation.

Joe went on to breed many tomato varities, but also said if folks wanted heirlooms, he'd breed them, and so he did and gave them fictitious histories.

Recently his niece appeared here looking for some of his varieties and I told her that Joe had never mentioned he had any relatives here and that surprised her very much. Yes, I knew Joe very very well and got some excellent varieties from him since he participated with trades at the then National Gardening magazine as well as the Organic magazine.

Carolyn

[Yak54]

Thank you Carolyn for that history lesson. I'm constantly amazed by your contributions to our tomato culture. I probably should put Eva Purple Ball and Rose De Berne on my grow list again for next season. Hope you are well.

Dan

[geeboss]

Toms Yellow Wonder
Virginia Sweet
Cherokee Green
Big Beef/Jap Barlow
Cherokee Purple/
Matts Wild Cherry
Sun Gold

[Father'sDaughter]

Hmmmm... One of these days I'll have to give Cherokee Purple another try. The year I grew it production was good but the flavor didn't wow me. It was good, but nothing special compared to the others I grew.

[Spartanburg123]

Omar's Lebanese
Cherokee Purple
Pink Brandywine (Sudduth's strain)
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Early Girl

[a sunny day]

Also Wes, Brad's Black Heart and Pink Boar for must grow tomatoes. And one of my favourite tasting tomatoes, with great production as well was Caspian Pink, but I don't think I picked any for the season that didn't show circular cracking, which was so disappointing. I'm not sure if it's typical of the variety or if I should try it again from another source.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by a sunny day

Also Wes, Brad's Black Heart and Pink Boar for must grow tomatoes. And one of my favourite tasting tomatoes, with great production as well was Caspian Pink, but I don't think I picked any for the season that didn't show circular cracking, which was so disappointing. I'm not sure if it's typical of the variety or if I should try it again from another source.

There are three kinds of splitting that one can see with tomatoes and what you refer to is called Concentric splitting and that kind of splitting is quite common, it's just part of the genetics of a variety.

I have grown Caspian Pink but it was so many years ago that I can't remember if the fruits had concentric splitting or not.

Here's some info about it and some pictures:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Caspian_Pink

Carolyn