Can you define what a lot of fruit means to you? It means different things to different folks. Cherry varieties are the most productive by far - hundreds of fruit easily - if fruit size makes no difference to you. Hundreds of varieties to choose from. Sungold is very popular as is Sweet Million, Sweet 100, Gardener's Delight, etc.

Next most likely high production comes from hybrid, 4-6 oz sized, round reds like Early Girl and Jetsetter. Better Boy, etc.

Otherwise the number of fruit depends on lots of variables - good soil, in ground rather than in a container, lots of nutrients supplied regularly, good consistent watering practices, sun exposure, no pruning, good support structure, no pests or diseases, etc. All those factors determine the # of fruits any variety produces.

Then there is taste to consider. More is not always better. :)

Dave

Lots of discussions on this you might want to review.
Tomato Productivity

Thank you

tim45z10, some here like Brandy Boy.

I have found a few this year:

=== Big Beef (F1)>>> Outstanding producer. It keeps pumping. Average fruit size 6 oz. Some as big as 10 oz.

=== Willamette (OP) >>> Saladete siize. A workhorse (~ over 60 fruits)

=== Azoychka (OP) >>>Yellow beef steak . Fruits size 6 to 12 oz.(~ over 30 fruits)

Those are the 3 of my best producers out of nearly 30 varieties in my garden.

Whats more is that they are Early-Mid season.

I do have few more favorites but none is as productive as above 3.

Sey

> ...2 or 3 hundred...?

I wish I get that too...

I probably harvested over 100 pounds of Sungold alone from 3 crammed together plants, and they are still coming. I don't think there is any beating Sungold.

< I planted 2 Big Beef and 1 Carmello and have picked 2 or 3 hundred >

Aw come on Vince. Two or three hundred fruit from only those 3 plants?? You'd better call the world record folks. ;-)

Dave

2 or 3 hundred medium/large tomatoes from 3 plants? I agree, time to call the Guinness Book ;)

Maybe a few pictures could clarify things...

These were picked on two separate days 4 days apart. I have picked many more times.

Actually 3 days apart.

Vince, do you have pictures of the plants ?

The one on the left is Carmello the other two Big Beef. They came to the top of the cages and down the side. They are probably 8 or 9 ft tall. Been picking since June 26 and the photoes were taken August 8th and 11th. I have given away a lot.

I have never had close to this kind of production. Didn't do anything different than I usually do. That's why I'm doing this variety from now on.

Vince, your toms are like the Energizer Bunny bellow [picture's Copyright Energizer Batteries]

Looking at your tomatoes reminds me of the idiom "don't judge a book by its cover." NOBODY would suspect how productive are those plants only by looking at them. I think...

100 tomatoes/plant still sounds like a tall tale to me.... no offense, they are certainly nice.

I expect about 8 bushel each year from 12 plants for canning. (Early Girls, Better Boys). A bushel is about 50 lbs or about 100 average tomatoes. I got all of that this year and then some.

Some don't believe me but my neighbors do. There are around 75 on the vine now and picked these 35 this morning.

Oh, well, some of those are very small - 35 tomatoes that fits on a single plate....

Don't get me wrong I am not saying you have a bad harvest, definitely not!

That's not a dinner plate, about twice that size. First you don't believe how many I got from 3 plants then complain how small they are. I want to see your massive tomatoes.

Hey like I said it is a nice harvest! I doubt I got any more than you did from my 6 regular sized tomato plants (twice as many as you)... so congrats and enjoy! Just, 100 large variety tomatoes per plant is quite a boast I think. :) .. but who knows, its not like I have been growing tomatoes for 20 years. Surely it is possible with a long enough season... which I guess you've had?

Vince, understand us: we NEVER heard here in this forum of 100+ tomatoes per plant (well, of course except cherries.) Hudson said something about 60 tomatoes or maybe close to 100, but he grows his tomatoes in a... GREENHOUSE. Very different story. Growing OUTSIDE and getting 100 tomatoes, well... CONGRATS !

The most I got was maybe 30. I mostly like large tomatoes, and I doubt that somebody can get 100 tomatoes from a Brandywine plant.

Now, I start thinking that maybe the place where we buy the seeds is more important than we thought.

Anyway, please describe - IN DETAIL - your growing techniques (seedlings growing, fertilizing, fungicide, mulching, watering, etc.) For sure, some of us will learn a thing or two. Tx in advance.

Tim,

I would suggest that you visit area gardeners and find out which varieties are great producers for them - that is a great place to start !! Then - while you are enjoying tomatoes that you know will be a success - you can experiment in future years with other varieties suggested by others - including this forum

Well I try never to lie but until this season the most I ever got on one plant was maybe 40. I did a few things differently this year, I bought one full spectrum LED grow light to start the seedlings. After one month the seedlings were over a foot tall with flowers everywhere and the stems were so thick I didn't even use a fan. I hardened them off for 3 weeks because it was too early. I burried 3 eight gallon pots about 1/4 in the soil and the tomatoes 10 inches deep with bone meal and lime and then Fox Farm nutrients. Even though I just planted them they were about 2 ft tall. I put nothing on top of the soil and I squirted water hard on the outside of the plants to give the roots extra oxygen whenever I watered. BTW I gave the seedlings half strength fertilizer. Maybe I was just lucky this year but I plan on the same thing next year. I think the LED grow lights get the plants off to a great start. Sorry I was so pissy earlier but the arthritis in my knees and hips is really bad today

Just as an aside to the discussion... I learned long ago that any real comparative measure of yield MUST be measured by weight, not simple numbers of quantity.

This isn't to put the Op, or anyone else, down. An individual could do fine comparing one year to the next by measuring quantity, but with all the potential variables, weight is the most unbiased measure of yield across conditions, varieties, and gardeners.

Just as an example, I crowded 27 plants into a space that another gardener may have planted 4-5 plants. Their per/plant yield would probably/hopefully be much higher than mine, but the only true measure that would determine which produced more is weight per sq. ft.

Another gardener might prune off every stem and flower, leave one to absorb all the resources, and get a whopper of a tomato. Someone else may have gotten many more fruits, and even more weight from not pruning. So, while comparisons of yield are best measured through weight, there are other variables that are only measured by aims, and goals achieved.

Weight, or even volume, are better 'apples-to-apples' comparisons of yield than numbers of fruit. That is all...

I have tomato exhaustion. I've used all my quart canning jars. They're piled up on my island. Tonight, I made ketchup. TOO MANY TOMATOES.

big beef

I believe Vance's account of 200 tomatoes out of 3 plants. That is like ~ 65 per plants. Probably my Willamette has produces that many maybe more and still pumping. It will produce well over 100 by the end of season. But fruit size is about 2- 3 oz at the most.

My Azoychka will pump more than 50 by the end of season, fruit size up to 12 oz. Then I have a KB for example that has 3 green tomatoes as of today.

So I will zap a lot of varieties and instead will grow more of my top 5 : Willamette, Big Beef, Azoychka, Brown Heart ( no name) and Black from Tula

Vance has been picking/harvesting since late June., close to 3 months. . One tomato per day per plant (average) will add up to 90 easily.Also have to mention that we have had the best tomato summer on record , here in PNW.

Sey