I have grown amish paste and san marzano. San Marzano was very productive and for me produced heavy yields of what I thought was pretty bland flavored elongated pair-shaped tomatoes. To be fair I only planted one plant and never got enough to make a sauce with. It seemed they did not keep very long on the counter so I could never really build up a stockpile. It was indeterminant. If you had a bunch of plants they could really keep you busy. Most of them went into bottles with a whole lot of other varieties. Processing was easy, you just slice the top of with one stroke! Then pop it into a waterbath for a minute or two and the skin comes off easy.

Amish paste is not really a true paste because its too wet. I was not particularly impressed with it, but I grew it in the worst spot in the garden to be fair. I am going to try it again this year in a sunnier spot. production was average, taste was on par with alot of the popular hybrids such as bettter boy, early girl, and others. From my perspective, those hybrids are not that great taste wise.

I don't know what you have grown, but opalka is popular as a paste. I like itallian though not a true paste either, it produces well, its meaty enough to make a good sauce, is pretty good as a fresh slicer, and the skin just slips off when canning.

The only ones in your list that hold any interest for me are Amish Paste and standard San Marzano. Maybe Polish Linguisa. The San Marzano 168 and Grande San Marzano are F1 one-hit-wonders sold by only 1 seed company so what is the attraction to them?

My primary question would be "why all the paste types"? Lots of BER potential in your list and no real 'slicers' in the bunch.

Dave

I haven't grown any of those specifically, but I've grown a couple different San Marzano hybrids, Opalkas and Romas, and was disappointed in the sauces I made from them. All had some problems with BER. For several years I've been making sauce from a mix of oxheart and beefsteak types, and had outstanding taste results. Yes they are juicy, but I just cut them up and let them drain for a while before cooking. Following the advice of some of my favorite Italian chefs, I leave the seeds in. My tomato sauce wins raves from family and friends.

I'm not looking for new varieties of slicers nor of cherries, just new paste types. The ones I have listed are ones available from companies I am likely to place an order with for other seeds. With the high costs tacked on for "shipping and handling" I like to keep my orders consolidated to one or two companies. I like the flavor of San Marzanos, perhaps it is my soil. Certain others that I liked before moving here seem too tart now. I have mostly cleared up my BER problems with proper liming (yes, my soil test said I needed calcium) and mulching and watering.

So far, 3 answers, 3 different opinions. ;) Dave likes Amish Paste and San Marzano, Kevinitis doesn't, but mentions Opalka, which Ohiofem dislikes along with the marzanos, but she does like oxhearts, which I have listed 2, but she hasn't grown those... It's like a soap opera but about tomatoes! LoL.

sunnibel - have you read any of the many past discussions about the flavor/quality advantages of using non-paste varieties for making sauce? Or at least not limiting yourself to paste types if sauce is the goal?

Dave

Dave, yes, and I guess it isn't clear that I don't use only pastes, but I do like them to make a good bulk of the sauce. I'm a bit under the weather aand having trouble concentrating today. Sorry. Anyway, I just have run out of seed of paste tomatoes, still have good seed for other types, so that's what I'm focusing on. Thanks!

If you are not locked into the companies you normally order with here is one with a couple good varieties. One is Christopher Columbus which I have grown and is an excellent all around paste/canner (see photo). Another in the red section is Ludmilla's Red Plum another excellent all purpose plum tomato. Ami

Here is a link that might be useful: Christopher Columbus