IMHO Rutgers & Brandywine are the two best tasting tomatoes that God ever created. In a perfect world there would be a Rutgers VFN+ and a Brandywine VFN+ that had IDENTICAL flavor and VFN+ performance under the worst heat & growing conditions. If Carolyn reads this tell her to start working on it. : )

I think he was pretty clear he does not want heirlooms. Taste is a pretty subjective thing...but most hybrids are bred for purposes (like some of your concerns)....OTHER than taste.

My mom in Florida has a gardening friend that is really into grafting heirloom tomatoes onto resistant root stock. I wish I was closer so I could pick her brains as it's fascinating and seems to work from what my mom says. I'm sure it's a lot of extra work, though, and I'm not trying to push heirlooms, it just tickled my fancy for some reason and I thought I'd mention it in case anyone is as nerdy as I am.

As humsi pointed out, grafting offers a good solution : Simply graft any of your favorite OP/heirloom to any VFN resistance root stock. This has been practiced both commercially and by the home gardeners.

Good point. You can also buy grafted tomato plants if you don't mind the $$ price for them. You can also use much bigger containers and use beneficial nems to kill the bad ones.

dave

I am aware of grafting, but I usually have a large garden, so buying plants, much less grafted plants isn't practical.

Should I ever try to do my own grafting on a limited scale what are the most common/popular VFN+ "rootstocks" for grafting heirlooms? What rootstock do the "pros" use?

Thanks for the input, but still waiting for opinions on the BEST TASTING VFN+ hybrids. Spare me the Captain Obvious "taste is subjective" crap. Most people usually agree on what is a great tasting tomato and what is a spitter.

" Most people usually agree on what is a great tasting tomato and what is a spitter."

Like those are the only two options and there aren't a thousand degrees of difference between great and spitter? :-)

Honestly, just based on the many posts here over the years the only 1 variety I can think of that most, not all, agree is a spitter is Yellow Pear. Go to any of the many tomato tasting events and note how close the #of votes are on 50 different varieties being best of show. Nobody wins hands down.

That said, of the VFNs I listed Bella Rosa and Champion are great IMO (as good as Rutgers which I love), Jetsetter and Supersteak are good IMO, better than Better Boy, but many feel Jetsetter is blah and Supersteak only so-so. There are posts here about all of them. Beefmaster I really like the taste of but I can't get it to produce really well.

Dave

Dave

Even Rutgers VF which is very reliable and a good producer in most places is a borderline variety here. I assume because it's not nematode resistant. VF varieties like Rutgers and presumably Jet Star don't do well here either as they lack the "N" after their names.

Here the more "letters" a variety has after it's name the better. That's why you will hardly ever see Bonnie selling heirloom plants at Home Depot because they would go out of business as none of their customers plants would survive. When people ask me what varieties will grow here I tell them to look at what varieties Bonnie is selling at Home Depot. Bonnie can't afford to sell plants that die and don't produce.

It's not me as Better Boy, Sweet 100 and Black Cherry perform well here. BTW: you're right Yellow Pear is a total zero a true "tofu" tasteless tomato lacking any flavor of it's own and most others agree.

Dry Powder, Tight Lines & Green Thumbs

Here the more "letters" a variety has after it's name the better.
That's why you will hardly ever see Bonnie selling heirloom plants at
Home Depot because they would go out of business.

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Bonnie sells both heirloom/OP and hybrids in my area.They don't sell seeds.

They only sell plants, not seeds. So it does not matter to them.

Even Burpee sells both hybrid and OP seeds. Lot of people do not bother to save their own seeds. JMO

Sey

Seysonn - This is a discussion about South Florida 9B. Totally night & day from your 7B. If you have never tried to garden in South Florida you don't have a clue.

It has nothing to do if Bonnie sells plants or seeds. If you want to know what "varieties" of SEEDS to buy for your area see what varieties of PLANTS that Bonnie sells at the big box stores in your area code. Yes of course you can generally grow most Heirlooms in 7B Capt. Obvious. I used to truck farm in zone 7B.

Growing heirloom tomatoes in South Florida 9B is like you trying to grow a Mango tree in 7B - not going to happen.

Bonnie and the big box stores don't sell heirloom tomato PLANTS in Florida Zone 9/10 for good reason - they don't do well.

nighthawk, sorry, I just quoted your statement and commented on that.

Sey

Sorry I said Jet Star as I meant Jetsetter which is VFN. Am trying the new Rutgers 250 this year (no letters on its name) and my nems aren't big and mean as rattlers so beneficial nems keep them fairly well controlled. AND it is early in my season too but so far, so good.

Have you thought about trying some Rutgers seed saving? Wondering if even tho it is borderline for you if the second or third generation of seed you saved from them might develop more nem resistance? If you have the space it might be worth trying.

Dave

Don't worry... people like this usually get the info their looking for and then disappear back into their hole. They are not here to offer any long term help.

No and I get that. But that's what this forum is for. Still, we're a bunch of gardeners... who are trying to help him. How aggressive do you have to be to get the information you're looking for? Nevertheless I'm not too concerned about it. Happy memorial day to you.