I would go to a couple of farmer's markets and buy some different types of heirlooms to see which one(s) you like and save the seeds from those varieties. If you want to order seeds, Sandhill Preservation, Seed Savers Exchange and Southern Exposure all have lots of different varieties. If you'd like to buy plants instead of starting seeds, Selectedplants.com has a nice selection; I ordered from them for the first time this year and will be a repeat customer. Good luck to you!

Check out the tomato forum. I get seeds from Johnny's, Harris, and Tomato Growers Supply (for links see www.gardenwatchdog.com)
I'm fortunate in having a local nursery that grows at least two dozen varieties both hybrids and heirlooms. My favorites this year were Supersonic (a reliable main crop) and Kellogg's Breakfast (golden beefsteak type, big, mild and solid). But I also grow Opalka (for sauce) and Stupice (extra early) as well as Sungold (yellow cherry and the sweetest tomato available).

I second, check out the tomato forum. do a search there and you'll find all kinds of threads for good tasting tomatoes for color, size, early, late and another thing you could want to search for.

Bill S

I'd check your soil too. Your soil lends to the flavor of what you grow. Adding compost if you don't already might make a big difference.

Yes they do; you just need to experiment and do some research. Since aquiring a piece of land 2 years ago I have been going a little crazy and have an "experimental" garden. Since I have 1.5 acres devoted to garden I have space for some comparasins.

This year for tomatoes I had about 40 varieties (yes that amounted to about 120-150 plants). And even though we had crummy weather-drought followed by drenching rains I still have some good standbys.

All of my heirlooms come from Seed Savers and here is a short list of my favorites from this year and years past:

1. Brandywine; sudduth strain-Large pink tomato, delicious but very succeptable to cracking and moulding in unceasing rainstorms.
2. Green Zebra; Delicious and pretty, very crack & disease resistant.
3. Basinga: Huge yellowish/white with a pink spot on the bottom. Delicious flavor but like the BW's very easy cracking and moulding in the wet weather.
4. White Beauty; One of the prettiest plants I grew, full green foliage, medium white tomatoes with a good flavor. No cracking or rotting.
5. Gold Medal: Large Yellow with red stripes. Good flavor and size but same problem as the BW's & Basinga's.
6. Jaune Flame; Small orange tomato, with a flame of pink when you cut it. Stronger acid flavor than most, supposed to be good for drying. Medium split resistance.
7. Husky Gold; Not an heriloom but very good flavor, medium size fruits, good crack & disease resistance.
8. Pompeii: My favorite pasta tomato (only available from Renee's Garden). Huge clusters of fruit. Ripens later than most.
9. Plum Lemon: A Yellow pasta tomato shaped and colored just like a lemon. Not for eating fresh cuz of its lack of juice, but great for canning.

10. Sun Gold: The ultimate cherry tomato. Hundreds of small orange fruits. Super-sweet. I put this in a pot on my deck each year and even in the semi-shade we have at home it gets 12-15 feet tall and is covered in fruit.

Hope this list gives you some ideas. Happy Growing!

What varieties have you been growing, clairdo2, and under what conditions?

Dave

Tomato Bob - do a search on the web. I've ordered from him the past 2 years. Amazing variety of heirloooms and nearly all the seeds come up. I've spent about $12 on seeds each year and had more plants that I know where to put. Too bad not many ripened this year - but that's not his fault, its the weather.
You may be picking them too early also. I've been picking mine earlier than normal this year because they are ripenning so late and I'm afraid they will freeze before I get them. They aren't nearly as good as in years past.
Which makes me think of something else - is the weather a factor in taste? Even my ripe ones don't seem as flavorful this year. I wonder if that's a lack of hot days? What's the weather been like where you are?
stacey

stacey - I have heard alot of people say their tomatoes are slow to ripen this year. What zone are you in and what type of weather have you had there ?

Here we had lack of rain much of the summer. Temps may have been about normal though.

Clairdo2: buy Carolyn Male's book "100 HEIRLOOM TOMATOES FOR THE AMERICAN GARDEN". It's fantastic and you can't go wrong with the varieties she has showcased. Some are particularly tasty, like:

Bulgarian Triumph
Black from Tula
Omar's Lebanese

Wayne

clairdo2,
Since you are in a northern climate, it might effect the tomato growing some?

I keep hoping for a reply from the original poster of the question. It would be nice to have additional information or some indication if any of this info is helpful? Otherwise we are just guessing at the problems or just preaching to the choir. We already know that yes, hundreds, if not thousands, of good tomatoes still exist. ;)

Dave

I'm in 7 (I think, I always forget). Basically the great northwest in what used to be a rainforest. Made worse by the fact that our house in at about 1000 ft elevation. Makes for great savings on lack of airconditioning, but very hard to grow heat loving plants. And this summer was particularly cool. So i know that's exactly why I have a ton of gorgeous green tomatoes, but few ripe ones. Its not too late, I'm still picking, but the clock is running out.
Stacey

I agree Dave. Common courtesy would normally dictate that one check back and acknowledge other people's efforts to help them. However more and more lately, I am seeing people post what I consider something deliberately controversial in hopes of stirring up conflict.

Sure, God did make little green apples and he also made lots of great tomatoes. Man (and woman) has helped discover and refine them There are variables in the way they are grown, the soil, season, location and circumstances of course, but it is probably more likely that clairdo2's taste may have changed than the tomatoes, if she? has not had a good tomato in awhile. Aging sometimes does that and so does quitting smoking, or medical problems. I quit smoking after smoking heavily for 54 years and a triple by pass operation and it really threw my taste buds for a few loops. I have adjusted now and most things taste more normal, some too spicy, some too good! ":^)

We had over two months of tropical type deluges this past spring which made almost all of my tomatoes (with few exceptions) taste too bland, but that cleared up when the rains let up. One can usually find some positives among the bad, I was really surprised at the lack of cracking and had practically no BER. I also had great production and the milder than normal summer (which is still plenty hot) has allowed many of my spring tomato plants to make it through our hot weather and they are blooming and bearing again now. I counted 30 tomatoes ranging in size from smaller than a marble to bigger than a tennis ball on one Big Beefsteak plant yesterday. That one is still my favorite with the old time tomato flavor. Our average first frost date is Nov. 17th, depending on which chart you look at, so there should be time to get some good, ripe tomatoes. I have seen it when we had no freezing weather before Christmas and this has been a crazy year weatherwise, so who knows what to expect.
Just my drive by .02
Bill P.

Park and Ferry Morse are selling some heirlooms.You can find them at Wall-Mart.More stores have heirlooms now.More and more people are growing them,for obvious reasons.
Jackman

Don't be too hard on the OP. I don't know about you, but I visit several different places on this board, another garden board, pond boards,food boards etc and sometimes I forget where I posted.
Now I keep some post-its next to the puter and jot down anywhere I've posted. Nancy

If I remember correctly, clairdo had also posted somewhere asking advice on what would be a good tomato to grow for her short season area. I can't remember what thread it was though.

Maybe a good tomato recommendation for her area (Northern Ontario) would help too.

Claire, I would recommend Early Girl.

Zone 3 is going to be real tough to get a ripe tomato, Stupice maybe.

Best would be to make a small green house to cover your tomatoes to get an extra 4 to 6 weeks of growing

Only a darn few tomatoes listed as sub-artic. Vesey's in PEI has a few, I think that Stokes in St Catherines have a few varietys for extra short seasons. I didn't like the taste of the sub-artics

Johnny's seeds in Maine has a few short season varieties too

Rutgers paste is about 60 days, Granted it's a paste tomato but better tasting than most hybrids.

Another tip, if you have the room, start seeds about 12 weeks early, at about 6 weeks transplant into 1 gal pots.

As to the original question, I agree with several other posters - there are certainly a lot of good tomato varieties out there, probably more than one person could grow in a lifetime. To narrow the search, it would be helpful to know the intended purpose. Cherry? Slicer? Paste? Eaten raw, cooked, or canned? With nothing more to go on, we are indeed (as another poster stated) just preaching to the choir.

Short Canadian seasons would certainly limit the choices; but started early enough, and given protection at both ends of the season, many varieties should mature successfully.

My best recommendation would be to start with varieties that have demonstrated their ability to produce in Canada. To that end, Canada's own heirloom seed organization, Seeds of Diversity Canada, could be of great help. I have grown a Canadian paste variety, "Quebec 1121", that performed exceptionally well for me in Wisconsin.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds of Diversity Canada

My advise is dont buy any seeds,,,,,,,,untill your soil is in really good shape. Start with the soil forum here at gw. bill

yes they do, hybrids as well as heirlooms. for me, I always include a selection of good tasting, productive hybrids, for example Momotaro and Sun Gold. There are many others. I have found that heirlooms require a lot of hand-holding and are not so productive down here in Zone 8a, although the few that I manage to harvest have excellent taste. I like them all, hybrids, OPs and heirlooms.

I planted all heirloom tomatoe plants this year from a local grower of heirlooms and they were the best tomatoes I have had in years. I had almost given up on getting a good tasting tomatoe till now. I am planting heirlooms from now on. I save some seeds so am going to start my own next year.

I planted:
Yellow White Cherry - we LOVED these! I am planting at least 6 plants next year.
Jaune Falamme- not very big, but great flavor. Also planting more then one plant.
Costoluto Genovese - sweet and very meaty but small to medium size.
Super Marzano - great pasta sauce tomato but also good for sandwiches and salads.
Mr. Brown - didn't produce much.
Purple Calabash - cool looking tomato but didn't like the flavor, very musky.

Clare

Howdee

It all depends of what flavor you like. It has taken me year to get what I like and what works for me. I have tried a pile of different varieties. What works for me and grows good for me does not grow well for my neighbor 20 miles away. I live in northern area of California.

What I did to find what I wanted was look at what I did with tomatoes. I can alot so I need a tomato to stand up to that and a tomato for eating and a tomato for paste. I acutally grow about 10 regulars now and throw them all together and volia' I have the flavor I want. Mind you I blend them up and shove them in a jar but its what I want and what works for me.

Good luck and if you have any questions please email me I also have piles of seeds to trade.

Purpleacres

It is hard to answer this question without knowing what 'type' of tomato taste you prefer. If you like a tomato with little gel and nice acidic taste try better bush which is a hybrid resistant to lot of things. You will get lots of bread sized tomatoes which don't turn to mush as you eat the sandwish. The better boy bush is also good but it is determinate (will poop out in about three weeks).

I like Red Mortgage lifter from the heirlooms. The 'regular' Mortgage lifter is a milder tomato with more of a beefsteak taste but also very good.

I was happy with 4th of July hybrid from burpee and had very early tomatoes but others weren't happy with it. Might depend upon the soil.

My garden started on bank run gravel - so bad it didn't grow weeds. I used a pail of composted cow manure per plant and harvested some great tomatoes in what looked like a desert.
Years of adding compost have turned that gravel into loam BUT what seems to be the controlling factor on tomato taste, after selecting good tasting varieties, is the weather. Warmth and sunlight are needed to develop good flavor and sugars and that puts our friends in the northwest in a difficult situation.