To start this thread off:

Yellow Pear: Pretty, Productive & No Flavor.

Black Cherry: Fairly Productive, Healthy & "Unique" flavor that I wouldn't recommend. This will surely start a fight as I know a lot of people rave about Black Cherry. Other people on GW have also said it's over rated so I'm not the only one. All things being equal 90% of the time most tomato lovers generally agree on taste - Black Cherry is an exception.

I agree on Yellow Pear - not worth the trouble for it's bland taste.

Black Cherry is not all that productive and not that wonderful a taste.

Juliet F1 - acidic.

Silvery Fir Tree - acidic.

Jaune Flammee - acidic.

Lemon Drop - acidic.

Brandywine Red - takes too long to mature and rots before ripening (for me).

Brandywine - as above, but I LOVE the taste.

Rutgers - tasted like store-bought!

Purple Bumblebee - tough skin.

Linda

@Labrador - Rutgers must taste different or not do well in your area. In most places there is no finer full flavored tomato than a Rutgers. Try a home grown one outside your own area sometime.

I will
NOT plant EARLY tomatoes again. Here is why:

- Early tomatoes - B.I.G. disappointment

- Late season tomatoes ripped BEFORE early season tomatoes

- How are your EARLY tomatoes?

I might just try that NightHawk. I was SO disappointed as I really wanted to know what "old fashioned taste" was like. My Rutgers were gorgeous and plentiful, but not even good when cooked :-(.

Linda

@Linda - At one time 70% of the maters in the US that were grown were Rutgers, and for many families it was the traditional "heirloom" tomato that their great grandfather grew - including mine.

It has a Full old fashioned flavor & aroma that you can taste even on a sandwich & burger. Taste one slice of a Rutgers and you'll immediately know what people mean when they say "old fashioned" flavor. Rutgers is a tomato lovers tomato.

Rutgers was the official Campbell Soup tomato for many decades. It is my favorite tasting tomato including Brandywine which is my 2nd favorite. It is also very prolific and easy to grow at least in the US Mid-Atlantic regions. My family grew it every year in 7B with much delight.

Rats! I must have had an "off-type!"

Linda

There are a couple of Rutgers varieties floating around. If you get a pack of Burpee seeds off the rack for a $1.50 they will say "superb flavor" on it. They are listed as being indeterminate, but in my experience they are a semi-indeterminate which would make sense as they are the product of a cross between a determinate & indeterminate variety back in the 1930's. Rutgers can be container grown in a 5 gallon bucket and stay manageable.

Rutgers is an acidic canning tomato variety that is also excellent fresh for most people, which might be the issue. It won't be quite as sweet as a Brandywine, but is more full flavored.

Red Brandy Master thick, tough skin, and flavor that while not bad, was not all that great either. Production was ok.

Abe Lincoln produced ok, flavor was again middle of the road. There are others that taste better, and produce better.

Better Bush horrible luck with them here. Taste, and texture to me were mediocre.

Sweet 100 a monster of a plant. Productive as all get out within h skins that are too tough for my wife's liking.

Tomatoes You Will never Plant Again - Part I

Tomatoes You Will never Plant Again - Part II

Tomatoes You Will Never Plant Again - Part III

Tomatoes You Will Never Plant Again - Part IV

I think over half the existing varieties are included at least once in the many replies in these discussions from last year. Some love 'em and some hate' em.

Dave

Yes, AS Dave has linked, this subject has been discussed many times .

But to say something here ; I agree with Daniel : Not to grow the so-called EARLY varieties . Especially those with small fruits slightly bigger than cherry. And they are : BLOODY BUTCHER, STUPICE, MATINA, EARLY TREATS. yeah and they gad huge indeterminant plants.

Sey

Out of
the half dozen of Early tomatoes that I planted, STUPICE was the worse. I picked up
the first fruit on… September 1, long after most of my tomatoes – including late
season tomatoes - already had fruits. Btw, Stupice’ DTM is… 52 days. Yeah,
right !

EARLY
GIRL was also awful.

I planted
Stupice, because it was highly recommended by some, here in the forum. Unfortunately
it didn’t work in my garden; looks like in Sey’s garden it didn’t work either…

Rutgers=very productive= horrible flavor

Mortgage Lifters=productive=same as above

Jon - Rutgers is one of the best tasting tomatoes ever to which most would agree. Mortgage lifters have issues, but their flavor while mild doesn't suck.

Another voter disappointed in Stupice. Slow to produce, and lost all 3 plants to (crazy fast) early blight while no other plant around them was affected. Taste in the small bowl of ripe tomatoes I got before I had to pull them was meh.

Making myself a liar I always also say Cherokee Purple. Can't get them to produce for me, but I usually try at least one each year, just being stubborn. This year is the first year I haven't had one in the garden, though, so maybe I won't plant it again.

Cherokee Purple - I know many here love it, but I had to spit out the bite I took and when my daughter tried it she also ran to the trash can and spit it out. I am wondering if it was watered too much or overripe or underripe. Who knows.

San Marzano types, or at least Tiren f1. BER like crazy, I've decided the plant was developed for hydroponics or greenhouse production and not to be outside in variable weather. Plus, it will be beautifully red on the outside but unripe inside in the non-BER parts of the tomatoes. Ugh.

@Marianne W - I was having the same issue with various San Marzano types I tried until I hit upon San Marzano Lungo no.2 (husband loves San Marzano for his salsa so I couldn't give up!). Crazy good production, large fruit and almost no BER in my garden other than toward the end of the season. Just in case you like them well enough to try again...

@Mike - not here. I've tried Cherokee Purple for 4 summers and 3 winters from three different seed sources and they're completely disappointing in my garden. Taste was great, production was dismal. Last summer was 3 tomatoes off 2 plants, with an extremely long growing season. I think I've given up until I move.

Sounds about right Humsi.. Cherokee's are known for weak production, but the fruit is very tasty as you said .. So don't feel bad, you're not doing anything wrong lol =)

Martino's Roma--few setting, fruit drop, BER = near zero production

I agree . CP is not a workhorse. But the taste compensates. I am trying Indian Stripe which is said to have the same taste but with better production So far from the number of the flowers it sounds to be true. By the end of season I should be able verify that. Then if it were true I will drop CP.

Sey

I will second Martino's Roma. Healthy looking plants with sturdy dark green rugose foliage. Every single fruit was affected with BER and I ripped out the plants, never to grow again. There are better-tasting varieties to grow anyway.

Linda

Indigo Rose and yellow pear because bland taste.

Love the flavor of heirlooms but they get blight in Northern Virginia. Last year all 8 plants were killed by blight before many tomatoes could ripen, especially Brandywine. This year will start spraying sulphur early, but no Brandywine, alas.

Francesco at DeBaggios Nursery advised me that I really should not grow two tomatoes in a box in Earthboxes, no matter what the manufacturer says. This year, one per box, be more conscientious about cutting leaves that touch the ground, turn yellow, and sulphur spray often, and hope for better.

Can't think of any tomato I've grown I hated, but some are meh. Looked on DeBaggio website to refresh my recollection but he's not carrying them any more, guess other customers said meh, too.

Unlike others, I like Cherokee Purple.

Early Girl - plant is too big, and since I grow in containers, that's a problem. I'm going to try the bush version maybe

Mortgage Lifter - grew SOOOO slowly that I never got any fruit before the heat set in down here in FL. I may try one this winter just to see if it was the time of year, because some people have reported success. I'll have to plant seeds very early indoors (like now) so I can have a good-sized plant before cold weather sets in.

Juliet - too acidic

Cherokee Purple - I'm on the fence about this one. I love it, grew it all my life in SC, but in FL, it splits so badly that it's almost unusable. I have to pick them just as they start to turn and ripen them indoors so the insects dont' get them once they split. I do love the taste, but just hate the splitting. I'm looking for a nice, big beefsteak that does well down here, but haven't found one yet.

Stupice and Indigo Rose. The plants produced okay but most of the fruit got composted because the flavour was not good.

Earliness in tomato varietals is not conducive to the best flavor or productivity. Early tomatoes are a compromise which allow the millions of gardeners that live in areas where there are only 60-75 warm days to raise a decent crop.

For example: A location that has 120 frost-free days may only have 60% of those days with an average mean temperature high enough to produce a reasonable rate of growth for warm season crops. This is why Days to Maturity (DTM) written on the back of seed packets is just a rough estimate. Growing Degree Units (GDU) are a much more accurate method of measuring growth and maturity. For tomatoes, any temps below 50F equal zero growth, and temps below 60F equal minimal growth. Healthy tomatoes require a steady supply of days with 12+ GDU to remain reasonably healthy and productive.

Second, to be a fair judge of tomatoes, a person *should* (my opinion) be a fan of good old TRADITIONAL tomato flavor. More acid than sweet, and "tomatoey." People that like strongly acid should go judge citrus fruit, and people that prefer sweetness over all other aspects should be banished to the sweet corn patch.

Disappointing tomatoes are the result of inaccurate/incomplete descriptions by seed marketers/suppliers and improper application/unrealistic expectations of growers.

I'm not a fan of yellow pear, but if I had a niche to fill where I needed a steady supply of chopped yellow tomatoes for a salads (or a restaurant,) they may very well fit the bill. (Yellow pear is from the 1880's, so it MAY be at a disadvantage with newer yellow varietals.)

I've grown Oregon Spring quite a few times and when compared to other early tomatoes they didn't fare very well. They were fairly acidic, the skins were soft, and the fruit size was not uniform in the least (especially the original versions of Oregon Spring.) BUT... They were the perfect choice for a direct seeding project in a windy area (because they are short/stocky) and they produced several hundred pounds from a 30 foot row (because they are ultra-early and determinate.) Direct seeded in zone 3A and produced before frost Sept 6th!? They definitely fit a niche. Also, they are capable of growing in cool marine climates like coastal Oregon/Washington where setting fruits are tough. So, although they might not win a blue ribbon at the county fair, I'm still grateful they were created and are available.

Large Red Cherry. I was so excited when I saw how big this cherry tomato was. It was very bland tasting and most of them had green shoulders.

@dirty - ML & CP both had issues for me last fall & I probably wouldn't grow them again here, but the one thing about ML was that it grew BIG and FAST for me, even if the quality of most of the fruit was poor and had issues. The couple of decent toms I got off the ML were meaty tasty & enjoyable, but mild. But most of the fruit was small misshapen and rotted on the vine.

CP plants like most of the Heirlooms were weak & sickly looking for the last 1/3 of their life span. I only got 2 CP's per plant when I grew them here in 9B.

Agree with the Tiren F1. Massive BER for me last year and the ones that didn't get it never tasted ripe. A waste of space for me. It's too bad because the tomato it replaced at Johnny's Selected Seeds is no longer available. It was a hybrid called San Marzano 168 F1 and it was fantastic.

Also on my dump list are black plum - which was a mealy low producer that came up as a grape tomato instead of a small plum - and Cherokee Purple, which has never thrilled me here in my climate. Black Krim seems better suited for my area, and always gives me fruit that looks like Cp promises.

Black Russian. Prone to cracking. Very mushy. Very needy. I still resent the time I spent with him....but I may have found his replacement in my recently acquired Mr. Stripey. His reputation is not good either, but I always get a tester variety. It's a throw of the dice, I suppose.

Nighthawk, my inlaws grow only Rutgers and they are some of the most flavorful, productive tomatoes, but they were so bad for me I didn't want to waste the space to try them again. This was the seeds