I plant Burracker's Favorite almost every year... likewise with Earl of Edgecombe & every other year Mountain Princess for an early determinate. New Big Dwarf & Sophie's Choice too. For cherries, nearly every year for Matt's Wild Cherry, Galina's & SunPlum in addition to Sungold.

I grow Omars Lebanese for a big tomato, Opalka for a paste, Russian 117 for a beautiful oxheart (many times double), Anna Russian for a fairly early gal.. I don't here these mentioned in this forum very often.

my favorite that I plant every year is Quarter Century (Burpee's). This year I also tried Eva's Purple Ball for the first time--- it will definitely be added to my permanent list! I try several new (to me) varieties every year --lots don't make it here in the Alabama heat, but I keep on trying!

I tried some "new" old varieties this year that are now favorites. One is Winsall, another is Old Brooks

Old Brooks is a good one. Makes me think of Brooks ketchup which I dont think is related.

KC135 is one I really like and no one seems to know about. I sent seeds out to someone else at Tomsto Mania to give away. Dont know that there were any takers. That's what happens when you don't have some romanticized name I guess.

Mozark and Mosage are other really good general ones. Mozark has been bred with a red and pink form.

There is no bad homegrown tomato.So I grow 7 different kinds every year.I do this because,I love the surprise of the produce.
Jackman

pink peach, Ildi yellow grape, White Queen,
I grew Furry Red Boar for the first time this year and I loved it.

Campbell's 1327--this has got to be the Timex of tomatoes. It was one of the earliest and latest croppers in my garden--very long season which was unexpected because it's a DET, cropped quite well and remained relatively disease-free on hip-height plants. And it tasted good fresh too, but cooked it was even more yum, which is the nature of a canning tomato.

Upon reading the original post I could only think of the 2 comparisons that I've made in side-by-side plantings of (1)Cherokee purple and Cherokee Purple, Potato Leaf. Try the potato leaf variety if you haven't yet.

(2)The other comparison was SunGold and SunSugar. Some say that SunSugar doesn't taste quite the same but I can't tell the difference and I experience far less fruit cracking than with SunGold.

Other than those two topnotch varieties that you mentioned I tend to agree with Jackman- "No bad tomatoes". However there have been a few disapointments.

Bmoser, I do not suppose you know where some could get Cherokee Purple Potato leaf seeds or could you spare a few seeds? I can send a SASE if you have a few to spare as I would like to grow Cherokee RL and Cherokee PL next to each other for next year. My e-mail is:

craigweber77 at hotmail.com

Thanks,

Craig

IÂd like to mention a few varieties that I grow year after year primarily because of their taste to many people in zone 5/6, their dependability (consistent yield and "health"), and their beautiful colors to share with others.

Favorites include: Amish Paste, Anna Russian, Aunt RubyÂs German Green, BuckÂs County Hybrid, MariannaÂs Peace, Persimmon, and Stump of the World.

Close seconds are: AkerÂs West Virginia, Black Krim, Brandywine (Suddoth), Eva Purple Ball, German Red Strawberry, and Stupice.

Must-grow cherries include Black Cherry, Galina, Sungold and IÂm still looking for a perfect red like a cross between MattÂs Wild Cherry and Chadwick Cherry!

I totally agree that the same seeds for some varieties in the same place can vary from year to year depending on weather conditions.

Sara Jane

I also grew Persimmon this year It is just delicious! It's a pretty tomato too.

I'm like Jackman in that I grow different varieties every year. That will change as this year I grew Neves Azorean Red and from next year on it will alway dominate my garden. Sunset Red Horizon/Rostova was a great Tomato this year as well and will also plant it next year.

I believe they are two different varieties, though similar.

NC, Ananas Noire is French name that translate to Black Pineapple. NOT pineapple. ( ananas = pineapple ;; Noire = Black). However , the name is misleading . AN is nether like pineapple nor it has any resemblance to black tomatoes.It is more close to GWR class.

Sey

Paul Robeson, Purple Dog Creek and JD's Special C-Tex would be our not so trendy picks. We also like 4th of July as our not so popular hybrid.

Shell62

I like Pomodoro Red Pear sel. Franchi and Malakhitovaya Shkatulka.

Back when I could grow heirlooms, Carbon was always my favorite. It was very productive, too. I have also always liked the hybrid Big Beef which does tolerate my nematode problem really well.

Persimmon, Orange Strawberry, Polish Linguisa, Green Giant.

Bull's Heart... I've read some scathing reviews but I grew it 2 years ago from a nursery plant, it was very productive and my friends and neighbors liked it the best. I saved seeds and grew it last year and it was even better then the previous year. I have tiny seedlings now and will be growing it this year, if they survive....have to.

JX ..... Right on .... Carbon is a good one. Have you tried the Cherokee Carbon hybrid in your soil? It was good for us. We don't have RKN but it seemed very tolerant for us.

Shell

I really like Azoychka, Matt's Wild Cherry (mentioned above in a post), Black Seaman, and Rose De Berne. They have been repeaters in my garden, I like them because they are reliable producers in the ever so unpredictable summers in NY.

Many of these suggestions are far from unpopular. But they're good suggestions.

roma … a lot of peeps are down on its flavor … but it is great for homemade salsa … especially when you want the onions and peppers to sing ...

We've an 'Heirloom Brandywine' of unknown provenance that is ugly, susceptible to all those things like cat's whatever and blossom end rot, produces irregularly and has nothing going for it except taste. Oh, and it has few seed, it is almost solid, hardly any drippy stuff when sliced.

Powers from Virginia. I was so impressed with it and when I saw it wasn't in the 2017 catalog from TotallyTomatoes, I bought 20 packages from their website at clearance price. I have them all in freezer bags with silica and dry rice!

According to Tania's Tomato Base, Powers a yellow plum which is open pollinated, so you can save the seeds if you want to.....

Linda

Perhaps it is me but I heard how fantastic Sungold was so I bought some seed. I grew them for 2 years. Yield was good. Flavor ok but did not light my fire. I will not grow that variety again.

I do grow some unknown variety of an heirloom I got. It had a name on it but does not match the description of that variety at all. It grows great, yields well, and best of all I have not had any early blight issues with it and I do not spray anything to prevent blight. Maybe I get lucky each year or little blight in my area? I continue to same my own seed each year on whatever this variety is.

I have grown Cherokee Purple and loved the flavor. Did not like the yield. At least for me the 2 years I trialed it in SE WI the yield was very poor.

Anyone have better luck with Cherokee Carbon in the upper mid-west? If so, is the flavor of Cherokee Carbon as good as Cherokee Purple?

@ Spartan ...... We're in the lower midwest and grew both varieties last year. Cherokee Carbon (CC) was good. It ranked in our Top 5 out of 50 varieties for taste and yield. CC's taste is not as good as Cherokee Purple (CP) but decent. CC's production was way better than CP. CC will be invited back. This year we're growing CP for plant sales only.

Shell 6A

Thanks for the info Kansas! I will have to put CC on my list for seed. Much appreciated.

With Sungold, I have to wait until they are really ripe i.e. ready to fall off the plant. Then I find them delicious.

Indian Stripe is more productive, and a strain of Cherokee Purple.

Linda

Yeah, agree with Linda--sungold has to turn outright orange before they acquire full sweetness. They're still good if picked a bit early but aren't exceptional.

Linda .... for sure Indian Stripe is more productive than CP. We do not see much difference between the RL and the PL variants. Spudakee out performs all of the CP strains in our garden. It seems to be more heat tolerant.

Shell 6A

I love yellow/orange tomatoes the best. I grow lemon boys each year. This year I found a lemon boy hybrid that I am trying. Black Krim is my other favorite and won't do without tomato. Sungold is my favorite cherry.

I container garden and the Black Krim and I are still figuring out what is the best conditions for large fruit in the containers.

I did get some brandywines last year. The plant was pathetic and anemic and struggled. The handful of fruit it made were amazing. I'm trying a hybrid of it this year and seeing the taste.