Here you go. Lots of opinions.

Looking for a good paste tomato

Best paste variety

Dave

Polish Linguisa for me and they are good sliced long ways on sandwiches. They seem to take less calcium than opalka to dter BER.

I should add that they don't HAVE to be Paste tomatoes specifically, but oxhearts or any other options that are thick/solid enough to be used as paste tomatoes and fit the taste criteria, etc ... I have grown almost no oxhearts and would be interested in some varieties that could double as paste tomatoes with good taste!

Dave - thanks for those links. I actually did a search before posting but it didn't turn up much (only 1 of those threads you linked to). Lots of discussion on paste varieties, not too much on other varieties that could be used as paste type tomatoes.

Also, no mention about the paste variety "Smokey Mountain". Is this because it is rare, and rarely grown ... or because it's just not good enough to be mentioned in these type of threads?

try this link

Here is a link that might be useful: google

Given your criteria then you already have the best one to meet them all - Opalka. For the oxhearts, my personal favorite is Bull's Heart

Dave

Opalka is my favorite all around tomato, they are GREAT for making sauce and I find they are tasty enough for many other uses. They are so solid, just pure tomato flesh, very little seeds and goo, they are my favorite tomato for a fresh chopped salsa.

80% of the plants I put in each year are Opalka, and I never regret planting so many.

Im a big fan of Martino's Roma for paste and taste. I am trying Opalka and Polish Linguia this year as well...

Opalka certainly seems to be the winner for paste tomatoes ... I am already planning to try this one for the summer so I'm looking forward to it.

I was hoping to hear from anyone growing or who has grown Smokey (Smoky) Mountain as a paste tomato, I'm curious about this one.

Dave, thank you for the Bull's Heart suggestion, I will look into it. I am looking for a couple good oxheart varieties to try, especially ones that can be used to double for paste tomatoes, and I appreciate the suggestion.

Thanks :)

I liked the taste of Opalka much better than San Marzano, which I thought was bland and mealy. The problem I had with it was that most of them weren't ripe when we had our first frost.

In '10 I grew Amish Paste, which was earlier for me than Opalka, and had decent flavor for a paste tomato. I'm growing it again this year. I'm also trying one called Romeo, which I don't know too much about, other than it's supposed to be large for a paste type.

I have seeds for several oxheart type tomatoes, but haven't grown any of them out yet. From what I've read, most aren't overly productive, and I don't have enough space for low producers, even if they taste really good.

Just my 2 cents,
Bonnie

Last year I grew italian heriloom. I know its not a true paste tomato, but it was grown in Italy where they make a lot of tomato sauces. I found it was a good slicer eating fresh because it was almost the best tasting tomato in my garden, but also meaty enough to make a good sauce. It was fairly productive and is going to be a staple in my garden. Taste wise it was about 3rd out of about 35 varieties. Thats saying alot because I choose most of my varieties based on their taste reputation.

I also grew san marzano, amish paste. San marzano I thought was too soft and spoiled to easily for my uses, though it was VERY productive. My amish paste was not planted in the best of locations in my garden (a somewhat shaded area) but it had fair production of tomatoes smaller than usually proclaimed for this variety. It was middle of the pack for me on taste (possibly because of less sun). I am going to try it again in a more sunny location because I believe I really did not give it a fair shake. It has a good reputation locally here in Utah on taste, productivity, etc.

Last year I grew a couple Martino's Roma. It's a slightly pear shaped Italian Heirloom. They were very prolific and very good quality.