Sungold: Cherry
Momotaro: 2 to 8 ounce dark pink

I'm not sure (Shirley - loved that movie, too) about what works best in your climate, but I will have to say that the sweetest of the full-sized tomatoes we grew this year was Kellogg's Breakfast. It's a bright orangish-yellow beefsteak, and very prolific. And did I mention, sweet? Can't ask for better than that!

So I beseech you, what varieties (larger than a gumball) would you think would sweeten up in my cool climate?...

I dont know where you are Cool, but one or more of the following full-sized tom cults should satisfy your wife's penchant for a sweet-tasting tomato:

• Ananas Noire
• Dr Wyche's Yellow
• Kellogg's Breakfast
• Tennessee Surprise

With the exception of Ananas Noire (which is multi-coloured), these all produce yellow-orange ripe fruits.

Also seems (from my limited experience) that sweetness in any given non-small-fruited cult (esp OP's) is an attribute that is not very consistent season-to-season. Of course, sweetness is a rather easy characteristic for most folks to rate, whereas most other taste attributes are more subtle.

Reg

Bingo! Thank you very much Reginald! :)

I, too, was trying to single out one very-sweet tomato for next season, and Ananas Noir was on my short list of possibles that I was going to ask about, if nobody had started a list like this already.

My neighbor begged me to grow "those really sweet" tomatoes, whatever that means -- I never figured it out. She's from Mexico, near Cancun, so that could even mean naranjillas, which won't grow here. contrast.

Well, Stupice does well when temps are cool here, but probably just barely meets your size requirement. This year all varieties in my garden were less sweet than usual (due to all the cloudy weather?), except Stupice, which was sweet as ever.

Sungold

**Almost any typical gold/red bicolor of which there are over 100 different varieties. Lucky Cross , Burracker's and Big Rainbow are three of my favorites.

Pink Sweet
Sandul Moldovan
Bulgarian Triumph
Eva Purple Ball
Large Pink Bulgarian
Bulgarian #7
Omar's Lebanese

Carolyn

I asked the same question in another tomato forum. These are some of the responses I received. Some others I have listed are ones that I picked out of Dr. Carolyn's book based on the descriptions.

Anna Russian
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Ashleigh
Black From Tula
Brianna (pink PL)
Bulgarian #7
Cherokee Chocolate
Cherokee Purple
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Earl of Edgecombe
Earl's Faux
Eva Purple Ball
Evergreen
Gogosha (PL)
Grandfather Ashlock
Granny Cantrell's German Red
Green Giant
Hugh's
Humph
Kellog's Breakfast
Large Pink Bulgarian
Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
Little Lucky
Lucky Cross
Mano
Momotaro
Mortgage Lifter Bi-Color
Olive Hill
Omar's Lebanese
Orange Strawberry
OTV Brandywine (PL)
Pink Sweet
Polish C
Rose de berne
Sandul Moldovan
St. Pierre
Sungold

It is also my quest to find SWEET tomatoes. I have been planting STUPICE for many years and they are SWEET but they are not too much bigger than Cherries in my opinion. I live inland and they do GREAT, my guess is they will be fine by the coast.

This is my first year growing Momotaro and it will not be my last. I plan on half a dozen next year. :o) They are wonderful.

Dr. Carolyn: I am interested in Pink Sweet but could not find it in the seed books I have and a google search came up empty. Could you kindly give me a source? And a brief description? Please!!! I really need to buy your book but wanted to buy it together w/ my seeds from TGS.

Nancy

I'm sure somebody, probably Carolyn(smile), will correct me but I've heard and tried adding lime to the soil if it tends to run on the lower end of the ph scale. Also make sure thereis lots of organic matter in it. It's probably my highly acute taste buds-LOL, but toms grown with natural fertilizers-compost and poop taste- better than ones grown with manufactured fertilizers. Okay...I'm open-fire away. But, try it anyway it can't hurt.

Dr. Carolyn: I am interested in Pink Sweet but could not find it in the seed books I have and a google search came up empty. Could you kindly give me a source? And a brief description? Please!!! I really need to buy your book but wanted to buy it together w/ my seeds from TGS.

*****

Even using a Google search doesn't always turn up sources for specific varieties b'c not all are scanned by Google.Pink Sweet is available from Sandhill Preservation and it's an indet with globe shaped pink fruits of about 10-14 oz.

It was received unnamed by my friend Craig LeHoullier and it was he who named it.

When at the Sandhill site please note when they do and don't take seed orders, but a wonderful place to buy seeds at a low price with lots of seed, a good reputation for seed purity and no tomato seeds sold are over 2 years old and over 400 varieties to chose from.

And please do call me Carolyn, not Dr. Carolyn. No one would know about the Dr. part if it weren't for that info in the back insert of my book. ( smile)

Carolyn

Neoguy, that's a pretty long list. I guess sweetness is a matter of taste (no kidding), but some of those I wouldn't describe as very sweet. Just on the sweet side. For instance, Eva Purple Ball, which I grew this year, I didn't find it to be VERY sweet, just a tiny bit on the sweet side. It didn't impress me enough that I would ever grow it again. (And, man oh man, did the blight wipe that thing out FAST). The Cherokee tomatoes have a very distinctive kind of taste that I would call on the sweet side, but they stand out more for a particular kind of "red wine" flavor they had. For me, anyway.

Sweetest tomato I grew last year: Burgundy Traveler. Sweet, tangy, a little bit fruity, sort of approaching a black cherry tomato in taste but not as extreme. Best medium or large tomato I ever grew.

Generally, I've found the pinks to be more sweet with less tartness.

Doof-
Burgundy Traveler sounds really yummy. Where did you get it and do you know anything about it desease resistance. Especially to TMV, and the blights? Does it have a slightly "smokey" flavor that the blacks are known for? Was it a lightly flavored tom or did it have guts?

There are a bunch of threads where we argued about what color it should be. The ones I grew were relatively small, about 4-6 ounces, larger than Eva Purple Ball. They were a bit on the juicy (rather than fleshy) side. The skin color (for me!) was darker than normal, a kind of maroon/firebrick color, shading to darker brownish at the top. The inner flesh was a darker red with green gel. (Is there some Cherokee Purp in its family tree?) Others here have different reports about the color.

Reportedly, Burgundy Traveler has a kinship to Arkansas Traveler (or just "Traveler"), which is a popular pink OP non-heirloom developed back in the 70's. I haven't grown Arkansas Traveler, so I can't compare the two.

Disease resistance, in my experience, was poor, but it did just barely manage to survive what killed my Eva Purple Balls, Black Cherries, and Marianna Peaces.

I kept one alive, if somewhat crippled, through the past few months, buoyed by some vain hopes for a comeback, and (Woohoo!) I found new buds on it just today! Really, is is a pathetic sight at this point, about eight feet tall with leaves at the top and the base and in between a long vine, like a lion's tail. In its glory, it was HUGE.

I might get some more toms off of it before it finally caves in. I'll be sure to upload a pic of the fruit.

Carolyn, thanks for the suggestions. I did grow Bulgarian #7, and Sandul Moldovan. They were OK but not what I would call sweet. Note that the Sugary my wife grew in the shielded patio were candy sweet, those I grew in my seabreezy back yard did not compare for sweetness, no how, no way.
Her problems = Mildew due to still air, aphids due to dark green colored leaves, due to all the fertilizer in her e-box I suppose. But I digress (as usual). Exactly what is AAD?

Now back to our scheduled programming:

doof, my Eva Purple Ball, Mariannas Peace were a big flop.
Based on your experience, maybe it wasn't totally my fault!
Cherokee Chocolate just immediately turned toes-up as well.

Now I grew a supposed Black Cherry, but the fruit looks a lot more like Black Russian Truffel Tomato. The plant has been struggling, but still has fruit while many of the spring plants have long ago given up the ghost. I kinda like the smokey flavor.

BTW, did you know mites can devour eggplant in just a few weeks? I didn't know what hit me. I guess I'm kinda thick, it took a while to realize that grey mottled color on my tomato leaves (matching the damage on the eggplant leaves) was obviously caused by the same critters. So I can't really separate my disease/mite disasters.

Gary

doof,

"guess sweetness is a matter of taste" and soil amendments and soil condtions and weather and the amount of sun and....did I miss any? LOL

I don't have any personal experience with the varaities listed. They are suggestions from other folks and from some simple research on my own. I plan on doing more research this fall and winter before making decisions on what to grow.

coolbythecoast/Gary, I see you are growing Olive Hill. What can you tell me about it, source, place or origin, growth taste, etc. Do you know if might have come from Olive Hill, Kentucky? I am especially interested in acquiring any Kentucky Heirloom tomato varieties.
I look forward to hearing from you. My e-address is listed here at GW.
Another Gary