I didn't have good luck with the Boars.

I can't even whittle my own list down to a reasonable amount, so how in the world do you expect that I'll be any help with yours? I'm laughing at myself when I say that because I have been trying really hard to reduce, reduce, reduce the number of both varieties and total plants that I grow, and despite my efforts we keep ending up with far too many tomatoes every year. Oh, and for the record, in my most wild-and-crazy-I-want-to-grow-them-all year, I planted 600 plants representing roughly 150 varieties. It was the best of years (so many plants, so many tomatoes, so many options) and it was the worst of years (all I did was pick fruit and give it away, over and over, every single day), and that was the first year the deer found plants growing outside the fenced garden and ate them all down to the ground at mid-summer, which at that point was sort of a relief. Having learned my lesson that year, I cut back to ony 300 plants the following year, and I think I've been cutting back each year, more or less, since then.

I've grown and likeg many of the varieties you listed, so rather than comment on the ones I thought were worthwhile, I'll list the ones I can't comment on because I haven't grown them: Grandma Suzy's, Lithuanian, Maya & Sion's, McKinley KY, Not Purple Strawberry, Purple Dog Creek, Defiance, and all the dwarf's except Czech Bush Dwarf, which produced zero fruit in a very cold, rainy spring when I grew it and only a handful of fruit the next year when it was hotter and drier. I don't grow many determinates but always have liked the determinate form of Rutgers. Of the boars, Black and Brown Boar produced better for me than the other boars, but I have a lot of blacks that produce better-flavored fruit so don't grow it much any more.

You already know which ones on your list I regularly grow and adore, so I'll just add that when I do my own list, I aim for a wide range of colors and DTMs. For that reason, I no longer grow Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate and Indian Stripe all in the same year very often because they are pretty much the same tomato with only very minor variations. Some years I grow both CP and IS, though, because we love them so much that it is hard to choose between them.

Early Girl is valuable as an early sacrificial plant, but then I leave it alone for as long as it thrives, and some years it is the only tomato setting fruit well in July and August. That makes it a plant well worth having. I rarely see much mention by people of the fact that EG produces really well in the heat, but it does. My own list tends to lean heavily towards pinks, purples and blacks, so this year I really made an effort to grow more reds and to grow Tim's favorite tomato, which is Nebraska Wedding. My dad always grew Big Boy and I usually buy one as an early sacrificial plant, but as soon as other varieties are producing , I just give its fruit away. I grew up eating them and like them fine, but there's a lot I like more.

We learned what we like and don't like merely by growing them, and I try to grow a mix. While I prefer plants that produce heavily, some varieties (like Brandywine, for example) produce such superbly-flavored fruit that I will plant them even though their production is poor in our typical summer weather. Other gardeners can tell you what does or doesn't produce well for them, but no one but you can determine if a given tomato appeals to your taste buds. Each person's taste buds are just as individual as they are, so all of us perceive flavor differenty. Even productivity can vary wildly depending on the sort of weather we have in any given year. About the only consistent factor that I have found affects my plants' productivity is getting them planted early. The earlier I plant, the more they produce, as long as I'm not putting plants into soil that is too cold for them (below 50-55 degrees). I probably get twice the yields from plants put in the ground in March than from plants put in the ground in April. so the timing of the planting seems to matter more than the variety up to a point. However, productivity isn't everything. In my 600-plant year, I had 6 plants of a variety called Super Boy, and each plant produced about a million tomatoes each, and we didn't think they had good flavor, so we gave them all away.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to grow only one or two varieties, because it would simplify life so much. However, I don't think I could do it.

For me, one thing that helps me make decisions is knowing what I like. For example, since I liked Black Krim and Cherokee Purple, I went looking for varieties with similar flavor and that's how I found all the other blacks and some really good purples.

Thanks Ladies! I liked Pink Boar last year, but DH didn't. Will try the other one this year. I'm surprised about Czeck Bush, Dawn, what I read said it was productive. I am a Quarter Bohemian (Czech), so I have to try it, and Mariana's Peace, which also has a beautiful back story. I had decided the Cherokee Chocolate and or Indian stripe could be a July replacement plant. On the other hand, we love CP and growing more than one wouldn't offend me. I have eliminated some that have reps for big fruit (don't tell DH) because with just the 2 of us a giant tomato may be too much for us. I really liked Grandma Suzy's taste last year and I hope better soil and a (hopefully) different weather season give me a better test this year. Same with Randy's Brandy. Maya and Sion's Airdrie Classic was from one of the exchanges, a cross of brandywine and stupice, supposedly early and productive. It may hate our climate, but a productive brandywine....I'm wondering about Polish Paste and Speckled Roman. How big are the vines? If I planted in July would I get a crop from them? Where to put them and how many plants is my last big decision.

BTW, apparently it's Defiant, not Defiance. Got it from Johnny's after reading about it's disease resistance in a Mother Earth News article.

The disease resistance or tolerance that matters most to me cannot be bred into tomato varieties yet so I don't go out of my way searching for disease-tolerance or disease-resistance in tomato varieties, and it took me quite a while to learn that. Certain diseases are much more prolific in some areas than they are here where we live and I imagine those folks really need certain hybrid varieties in order to get a good crop most years.