I grew Cherokee Purple for the first time, here in Montreal, and it is a great taster. Unfortunately groundhogs or something got to most of them (selectively, pretty much ignoring anything else). I grew Stupice which also tastes great and is early, but more a salad tomato than a slicer in terms of size.

Check out all the varieties that Gary Ibsen at Tomatofest recommends for far north growing. Quite a few to choose from and many of them are Russian heirlooms so should do well in your climate.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomatofest - Cooler varieties

I don't think you have to look for cooler season varieties at all. I'm also in a zone 4b/5a in upstate NY and I can grow any tomato I want to and have it mature before the season ends as long as first killing frost holds off until about mid-September.

And here it is Sept 29th and just a light frost to date that didn't affect the tomatoes.

So if it's a large RED beefsteak that you're looking for I'd suggest:

Neves Azorean Red
Aker's West Virginia
Chapman
Red Penna
Milka's Red Bulgarian
Russian Bogatyr

...... to name just a few

And for a smaller usually earlier RED:

Kimberly
Matina
Moravsly Div, really early and great taste
Sophie's Choice, from Canada

I also suggest you go to Google and enter Tatiania's T- base, she's in Canada, and look at her list of early varieties and also via Google look at Casey's Heirlooms of Airdrie, also in Canada who also has an excellent list of earlies.

If you were in zones 3 or 4 as are many in Canada it would be a different story, but you're in a zone 5 which many of us are.

Also, you might want to consider saving Tania's link to your faves b'c she has pages for over 3,000 varieties, most with pictures, and describes the traits of the varieties as well as seed sources.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn, not editing b'c she has to finish setting up some tomato fermentations ASAP. ( smile)

Lets go back to some of the requested traits. He wants a good flavored nice size productive red slicing tomato adapted to an extreme northern climate. The key words there are "nice size productive". That automatically excludes all cherry tomatoes and most other tomatoes under 2 inches diameter. It also excludes any tomatoes with maturity over 80 days. Yes, I know they can make a few ripe tomatoes, but the objective is to get a heavy crop in a relatively short season.

I'm still going to give a recommendation that he try Bloody Butcher but only one or two plants for the simple reason that they are highly productive in his climate and they have pretty good flavor for a 55 day tomato.

Then I'd recommend he give Box Car Willie a try as a main season 75 to 80 day tomato. Flavor and production are both excellent. It is also one of the better indeterminate varieties producing a steady succession of ripe tomatoes.

Then I would recommend Gregori's Altai for 65 day maturity and exceptional flavor. It is deep pink, moderately to highly productive, and delivers excellent flavor.

Last, I would suggest Eva Purple Ball for the simple reason that it produces a ton of ripe tomatoes and makes a pretty darn good juicing tomato. Grow a plant or two just to see what you think, but don't expect it to be the best flavored slicing tomato.

Note that I did not recommend any tomatoes with maturity over 80 days. This excludes many of the larger beefsteaks and a lot of very good flavored tomatoes like Yellow Brandywine or Lillian's Yellow that have 85 to 90 day maturity

DarJones

I grow Big Beef; it produces well and has good flavor. I also grow some heirlooms, but I know with BB (a hybrid), I'll have tomatoes for making salsa.

When I'm looking for a tomato that has certain traits such as size, days to maturity, disease resistance, etc., I visit tomato seed web sites such as TomatoGrowers or RareSeeds and read the descriptions. If I find a couple that may fit my desires, I'll ask if others have tried them.

Mike

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and references. I have saved these responses and will review them during the winter and then make my choices. My mother had a green thumb, but I have no idea what varieties she grew, and sadly, she passed on several years ago before I became interested in gardening. Hope you're having a better Fall than we are. It's no fun doing fall cleanup with all this rain. I guess we'll be thankful come spring. Happy Gardening, all!!!

I would like to add one additional suggestion to Carolyn's list and that is Box Car Willie. Have heard from others that Mountain Pride and Mountain Fresh do well in your zone but have no personal experience with these two varieties.
Victor

And I would like to suggest Italian Heirloom and Helen's German. I am in WI z5, and both have been tremendous producers for me. Planted out late May, even with our crappy summer they started to produce late August, and I just picked the last of them yesterday. Beautiful fruits, no cracking, excellent for eating fresh or preserving. Six plants gave me more than I needed for fresh eating and canning, and oh those BLTs, absolute heaven. Check my page, I have seeds.

I'd add Beaverlodge Slicer, Harnas, Polar Circle, Farmer Reds, Canabec Super, Early Chatham, Morden, Victoria and the paste Veepick.

All grown here in northern MI, put outside end of April.

Amazing and NOT cherry size...all slicers.

Sconticut, Skeip, and Northernmich, thanks for your additional suggestions. I will add them to my list. It is so great to have so much choice.

It has been a wonderful experience getting informatiion from the members of this forum. So much advice, willingly shared. I posted this exact request on another forum and was quite surprised by offending and rather unhelpful responses. Thanks to you all here.

Early Girl ...65 days and continues producing ripe maters for 3 months.
I gew aboute 10 -12 vars. this year. my favorits are;
EARLY GIRL, JULIET, BIG BOY, SUNGOLD and some grape.
I was not thrilled with BRANDYWINE, BLACK CREME, CHEROKEE PURPLE. they are/were too late; cracked, rotted an very very low producers.

northerner
I live in Washington State and my best producers of medium to large tasty tomatoes were Kosovo and VB Russia. You should consider either/both of them.
Jim

OOPs
Disregard previous post,this subject,as my recommendations are Pink varieties,not Red

Cyrus thanks for you additions. I grew several of the Brandywines, and agree with your comments. And Jim, don't worry...someday I may want to grow a pink tomato. Thank you for the thought.