Stupice. Not the best tasting, but boy- it produces enough for three families and has a long season. I think that's all I'm planting this year.
Renee

Brandywines are yummy, but the yield is crummy. If you're growing 15 or 20 varieties, then I would include one, otherwise the space is too dear. Any eastern European variety does good here in the Bay Area, Polish Giant was one variety I liked, then there's the usual ones like Soldacki and Stupice. Druzba is good too.
I always have Early Girl, SunGold & SunSugar (the old reliables). You seem to like yellow, try Kellogg's Breakfast.
I do grow most of my crop from seed, but always leave one or 2 spots open to try nursery grown starts. Really it is astounding what local nurseries offer in the number of varieties of tomato starts nowadays.
And I'm going to grow more paste toms this year. For my spaghetti sauce. No sauce from a can compares. Freeze 'em for later use too.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look up these varieties. I usually buy nursery seedlings, but thought of trying seeds this year. I actually would like to grow more purples and blacks this year.

ROMA - I am likely to plant a few more varieties but last season the Roma I planted gave me around 600 or more little containers of yum. None of the other plants came close or lasted as long. I wonÂt bother with seeds myself since you can get the started plants so cheap almost anywhere. IÂm thinking pretty much all my tomatoes will be the small cherry type this year.

Definitely cherry red and yellow, but not sure of any specific cultivar right now. Heard there's a woman down the street in Lomita who sells heirloom tomato seeds and starts, so I might just go with what she has, as my previous choices haven't left a huge impression on me. A roma type does sound good and a nice salsa tomato would be welcome too. But those little yellow pears are what I crave.

Roma to me is a "no brainer" because I plant them every year and harvest tomatoes until October, maybe November until I am too tired of eating them. I have had great success with cherry and grape tomatoes too. But, never tried any heirlooms and this year I want to grow some of those expensive varieties that I always seem to like at the local specialty markets.
Funny thing is that today my local nursery already had the early girl and early boy tomato seedlings. Spring should be upon us quite soon :)

I see Yellow pear on your list. The plant I had last year produced a bundle for a long time. At the time I thought its flavor was bland and wasn't going to grow it again. But, now we are deep in the "winter", I have been using a lot of tomatoes I saved in the freezer. Compare to Sweet 100 and Celebrity, Yellow pear has the right size - no need to cut, just pop them straight into the soup pot and it gives the best balanced flavor in soup. Sweet 100 turned out too sweet.
I think one thing I'll do again is to take cuttings for succession planting. Do the initial planting in late spring, then put in cuttings every 2 months afterward to extend the season. Lazy method, but worked last year. Any suggestions?

I have found that the yellow and orange tomatoes are generally lower in acid and are more likely to produce fruit with a good flavor balance in heat-deprived growing conditions. 'Lemon Boy,' 'Yellow Brandywine,' and 'Orange Jubilee' have all done well for me. Among these, 'Orange Jubilee' was the tastiest.

SuperSweet 100 (my old reliable)
Sun Gold
Lemon Boy
Roma

I may try another variety, or I may plant a few tomatillos, not sure yet.

Cherokee purple
Cherokee green
Black krim
Marvel stripe
Anna russian
NAR
Sungold
Sunsugar
Sugar snack

Grew sungold, sun sugar, sugar snack, black krim, marvel stripe and they did fantastic for me last year.

My marvel stripe had about 70 tomatoes on it and they were big, beautiful, sweet and juicy. Black krim also gave a ton.

Here is a link that might be useful: pics of tomatoes grown

Brandywine
Blk Krim
Blk Sea Man
Orange Amana
Purple Cherokee
Green Zebra
Sweet 100s
Celebrity
and another 5 or 6 I am blanking on right now.

Brandywine and Sunsugar for both of their flavor and productivity. I usually get over 30 pounds of Brandywine per plant (2 lbs each fruit), and over 5 month of Sunsugar in the East Bay.

The only problem with Brandywine was the late season last year. Hopefully it'd be better this year.

I may plant Granny Smith for salad and juice. They have a long season and keep for a long time in my kitchen.

Viva Italia and Pearson. Both determinate, and similar maturity times. Using to can sauces. My 1st "real" go at tomatoes (received a free cherry tomato seedling last year, and didn't do much to/with it).

Step away from the Yellow Pear!

Although they are very cute, they are really low on the taste meter and a complete waste of space, when there are so many more yummy tomatoes out there.

A good place to check out is Morningsun Herb Farm's yearly tomato contest, which has 5 years' worth of ratings on many, many varieties. They are in Vacaville, so growing conditions aren't that far off from yours.

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato taste test 2009

sautesmom, thanks for the link. It is interesting that a lot of tomatoes that get wow reviews on this forum only get mediocre ratings under California growing conditions (dry, no rain in summer, low humidity, warm to hot days with cool nights in the sixties, lots of clay). I notice cherry tomatoes do best in California, which I have found too, just about any kind of Cherry is an old reliable, and large beefsteak type tomatoes rot before they ever ripen. In fact I would say only grow cherry and medium sized tomatoes in California, don't waste you time on large tomatoes.

Ashley,
A friend of ours runs a seed exchange in Mountain View and has seeds of 20+ heirloom types available. She also put on an heirloom tasting festival this year featuring local tomatoes. If you are interested in getting seeds she has them. I'm not sure when she is putting on the next seed exchange.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Bash

Californian

I have no problem getting large tomatoes to ripen here in norcal.

It was my first year growing also. You should discourage people from trying to grow big beefsteaks. They aren't that difficult.

If you are short on summer heat units where you live, staying with more modest-sized fruits is good advice (not just with tomatoes, but peaches, melons, citrus and anything else that needs heat). It's a botanical fact that it takes heat to

1. put good size on a fruit
2. sweeten a fruit

There isn't any way to breed a tomato out of those physiological constraints; it's part of a mathematical equation known as Liebig's Law of the Minimum. Breeders can produce low-acid fruits, which might have a better flavor balance with less-than-optimal sugar production, but a good low-acid tomato isn't the same as a high-acid tomato packed with sugar to offset the acidity. There is a difference between merely ripening a tomato, and growing a tomato with to-die-for flavor. If your available heat units limit you to one or the other, which would you rather have: a really big tomato or a good-tasting one?

I wouldn't be too cavalier about the ease of growing tomatoes near the coast if you've been at it less than a decade. Tomato success varies dramatically from year to year near the coast. I grew some good-sized, good-tasting tomatoes last year, too, but last year wasn't a typical tomato year.

Dick_sonia

You are correct about heat units but a large part of california has those heat units. A lot of california has great weather to grow large tomatoes, melons, peaches.

This is the california forum. To tell people not to even try for bigger tomatoes and stick to only cherry tomatoes is silly.

You might as well try even if it is pushing the envelope a bit.

I'm with Tammy on her opinion. And my squirrels just love them some big fat tomatoes.
And here's another of my opinions on tomatoes. Too much water makes them taste bland. Your yield may be stupendous, but they may taste like "blah". I have a neighbor who builds houses, funnily enough right in our neighborhood. You know, buys and razes older houses and builds some fancy new homes to sell. At one of his properties he was able to utilize the backyard one summer to grow tomatoes while the new home was being constructed. He had big plants with lots of tomatoes, and there were lots of varieties and he shared, but these tomatoes did not taste like much to me. He watered a lot. My opinion is to mulch and not water so much...yield might be less but flavor improves. Just my opinion.

Californian:

I'm curious about your statement that your beefsteaks "rot before they ever ripen"

I have never had a large tomato rot unripe, unless it either got punctured, got blossom end rot because of calcium uptake issues (usually only with its first "practice" tomatoes), or if I did not pick it when it WAS ripe, and it hung there until it fell apart. Probably 50% of the tomato varieties I grow are large beefsteaks and hearts.

Does this happen for you with all varieties you try? Are there unnoticed disease/bug issues going on for you?

Carla in Sac

Amazingly, it really DOES matter where you live in the Bay Area.
I am on my seventh year veggie gardening and I will NOT be doing tomatoes this year. Too much space taken for too little harvest.

I now live in the Inner Richmond and I CANNOT get a big tomato.
But when I lived in Duboce Triangle, just a mile or so away, I got toms.

I have tried EVERYTHING, When I say everything I mean it. Growing from seed, from plant, special order, cold weather, cold tolerant, earthboxes, in the ground, in a protected spot. I MEAN EVERYTHING. I have spent so much time in the last couple years, on this forum, researching everything for my desire to grow toms.

Carla in Sac, and a few others were part of my discussions last year, and I tried some of the varieties they mentioned as well.
The plants were gorgeous up to about three-four feet.....until they were not.
I just do not get enough sun and heat to make it worthwhile.

The cherry toms do seem to do ok, but I wouldn't call the harvest abundant.

If you are new to gardening, i think you should try it all, but I would not have high expectations for loads of large tomatoes.

Dgbeig,

I just moved out of san francisco and am now in marin. The richmond area is NOT conducive to tomato growing. That's for sure but boy oh boy do greens do well all year round.

Carla,

I suspect californian may have issues with BER. if I can recall correctly from past posts he plants directly in clay soil.

I should mention one other thing. I live at the bottom of the north side of a hill which means cold air flows downhill into my garden. And up until last year both my neighbors had giant clumps of Eucalyptus trees that from one side put my garden in the shade in the morning and on the other side put my garden in the shade in the afternoon, so I only got about five hours of good sun. They cut them down last year so this year I may have better luck ripening large tomatoes before they rot. My yard temperature usually reads three degrees below what is reported at the official weather station three miles away, which is good for getting more chilling hours for fruit trees, but bad for ripening fruit.
BTW, not having learned my lesson I will be growing nine varieties of tomatoes this year including four large blacks (Carbon, Nyagous, Paul Robeson, and Black Krim). And I will try Brandywine for the fourth time although I never got good results so far.

Truth be told, I've never grown a tomato that didn't taste better than what I could buy at a store or farmers market. I've tried a lot of different varieties including the hard to find/pronounce ones, and never found taste to be the limiting factor. The challenge has been to find varieties that grow to a manageable size and stay somewhat attractive in the heat of summer. A plot of 12'x8' shabby monsters does not work for me.
My plan for this year:
* Silvery Fir Tree: Great performer, old timey tomato flavor on well behaved plants. Attractive foliage. No bug problems. I've been growing these beauties for many years now. They do perfectly fine in the ubiquitous garden center cages.
* Husky Cherry Red: 1st year trial
* New Big Dwarf: 1st year trial

Brandywine
Celibrity
Oxheart
Black Krim
Black Cherry
Roma

Can't believe I'm trying again....probably whatever Morningsun has....

I bought my first three plants today. They are in 4" cotainers and are each about 8" tall and look very healthy.

Roma
Sweet 100
Husky Cherry Red

Let the battle begin. Haha sorry, too much TV.

Well I have been going over many of the threads on the tomato growing forum about best tasting tomatoes and I think my grow list for this year includes many of the most touted ones. I just ordered seeds for the varieties I don't already have so in no particular order this is what I will be growing this year. Some of the varieties are old seed I had leftover and aren't touted here but I planted them just to see if the old seed was still good. I hope I can sell at least 20 plants to try to recoup part of my costs because I have over $50 invested in just seed, but of course I can use leftovers for the next few years which will spread the cost out.

Neves Azorean red
Carbon
Paul Robeson
Nyagous
Cherokee Purple
Marianna's Peace
Black Krim
Pink Brandywine
Opalka
Sun Gold Cherry
Black Cherry
Supersweet 100 Cherry
Chadwick Cherry
Fox Cherry
Yellow Perfection
Matina
Moneymaker
Ace 55 VF
Henderson's Pink Ponderosa (free seed, probably dead)

Last year Marianna's Peace was productive and very tasty in the early part of the season, then stopped producing in the heat. Black Krim died before producing. Pink Brandywine gave me three tomatoes.

I'd like to hear reports from everyone on what works for them this year. That doesn't mean they will work for me next, but I'll try...

I won't quite have room for all of these varieties in my garden, but some are for sale/give away. I'm still trying to decide which ones aren't going to make the cut.

Amazon Chocolate
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Beauty King
Brad's Black Heart
DeWeese Streaked
Donskoi
Earl's Faux
Early Kus Ali
Early Ssubakus Aliana
Giant Sicilian Paste
Gold and Green
Goose Creek
Green Moldovan
Grub's Mystery Green
Indian Stripe
Japanese Black Trifele
Kosovo
Lucky Cross
Matina
Milka's Red Bulgarian
Orange Russian 117
Paquebot Roma
Purple Dog Creek
Rosalie's Early Orange
Russian Bogatyr
Ukrainian Heart
Vjerino Paradajiz Sjeme
Wes
Woodle Orange
Yubileyny Tarasenko
Zogola

Cherry:
Aunt Ruby's Yellow Cherry
Chocolate Cherry
Koralik
Marizol Magic
Prize of Trials
Rosalita

California tomato growers are really passionate about their favorites. For those of us living in the greater bay area, we now have a new walk in source for an amazing selection of tomato seeds. Baker Creek Seeds has opened a "seed bank" in an old bank building in downtown Petaluma. My daughter in law visiting from her home in France, where seeds are very expensive, and I spent a couple of hours marveling at the seed selection. We both went over budget but are anticipating many new varieties this year in the garden. Al

calistoga,

I envy you with the new Baker Creek Seed Bank. I'd be like a kid in a candy store in there.

Last year here in Berkeley near University and San Pablo - a couple miles from the bay - my Sungolds and Candy Isis and Cherokee Purples were prolific. Black Krim, Early Girl and Better Boy did fine. No diseases, one hornworm *creepy*.

This year I'm only doing heirlooms *except* I can't imagine life without Sungolds and Candy Isis so will do those again!

I plan to grow from starts and this is my list IF I can find all these varieties as starts....

Aunt Gertie Gold
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Berkeley Tie-Dye (have to - I live in Berkeley!)
Black Krim
Brandywine (black, pink..whatever I can get)
Cherokee Purple
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
German Giant
Green Zebra
Marianna's Peace
Mexico
Neves Azorean Red
Old German
Paul Robeson
Persimmon
Royal Hillbilly (my name is Royal - have to!)
Sunset's Red Horizon
White Wonder

Cherries:
Candy Isis
Riesentraube
Sungold
Snow White
Sugar Lump

I will expand my garden this year and the new spot gets much more sun! Plan on planting first week of April...

Good luck all!
P.S. if anyone knows any places to get these starts, I would much appreciate the info!

Last week, I found a (7 year old) pack of Juliet tomato seeds and tested them in wet paper towel and got 100% germination. I'm contemplating whether I should try a few of Juliet this year and see how they grow.

I also may do a few popular variety such as Early Girl, Celebrity, or Beefsteak. I plant one or two of these every year because they're earlier. Yet they always disappoint in flavor, compared to the heirloom.

Last year all my heirloom tomatoes did lousy, and hope this season will be better. Yesterday, I went to a class on what to plant in March. The speaker said to wait at least 2-3 more weeks before buying tomato seedlings, but I couldn't resist. Bought Stupice (1st time growing) and Yellow Plum heirloom tomatoes, and chili d' arbol and red bell pepper. Each 4" container had from 2-4 seedlings, and I already have several self-sown cherry tomato seedlings growing (poss. sweet 100). Now, I just have to protect the seedlings I bought yesterday.

Hungarian Heart
Sungold
Green Sausage
Amish Paste

This is my first year with space for tomatoes, since I moved to California. I'm so excited!

Momotaro (pink/red Japanese hybrid globe)
Break O' Day (old commercial open-pollinated red globe)
Sungold (hybrid gold cherry)
Brandy Boy (pink Brandywine-like hybrid beefsteak)
Green Giant (large open-pollinated green when ripe globe)
Opalka (long pink/red open-pollinated torpedo-shaped paste)
Paul Robeson (medium sized black open-pollinated beefsteak)
Black Cherry (black open-pollinated cherry)
Brandywine Sudduth's Strain x Ace (F4 large pink globe)

My first attempt at tomatoes. I planted three 2" plants on February 20th:
Sweet Baby Girl
Brandywine OTV
Beefmaster.
Flowers on all three today.

I'm obviously missing something because I've never grown or even tasted a black tomato. Do they have a special flavor or just an intensity?

I'm growing sungold and beefsteak this year and browsing here to decide what else...

Onion you obviously are missing out if you havent eaten or grown black tomatoes, shoot me a pm i have some extra starts, looks like you may be close

In my garden this yr
black krim
cherokee purple
black plumb
chocolate cherry
black zibra
red zebra
brandy wine (sudeth)
brandy wine red
I started seed in early feb. and those are ready to go in ground, maby this weekend ( OH HAPPY DAYS!! )

Riesentraube
Tigerella
Belarus Orange
Cherokee Chocolate
Beefsteak

Tigerella was purchased as a plant. The rest are seedlings inside under lights and about to get their second set of leaves.

We moved last spring and I was without a garden for a season, can't wait to have home grown tomatoes again!

I'm not sure why I bother to grow tomatoes. I don't like them except in sauces, salsa and a slice on a hamburger. I grow them for my wife who likes them but she seldom ventures out to pick them. She says the vine stinks...... Most of the tomatoes get eaten by possums when they get overly ripe and fall to the ground.

None the less I picked up a San Diego and a Sprite cherry tomato this week and put them into the ground. I have never tried these varieties before but since no one will likely be eating any I guess it doesn't matter too much....