I have lots of cherry and porter size. I need big tomatoes for canning. I am not a fan of Roma or most paste Type.

maybe more flavorful ones.

any ideas?

Kim, do you watch Living Traditions Homestead? They grow many Jet Star for diced tomatoes and Roma for sauce. (they're in Missouri) I've never been so organized. I've just used them all for all purposes. BUT, I want to be more organized this year.

Why don't you like Roma or paste? Is it how they grow for you or some other reason? I'm about to order tomato seed, so really want to know. :)

I'm trying to clear out my older seed so I'll be going through & picking them over the next couple weeks. But definitely want to plant sungold or snow white, those were insanely prolific last year.

Jennifer

is partly how they grow and the flavor is bland.

i do watch them. One of my favorites.

i have some jet star Dawn has sent me years ago.

I may just order new and save those

Okay. I think I have it. My list of varieties is small this year....but my gut says to keep it uniform, for some reason. (Almost) last year, we had many varieties and it was a lot of fun, but I had them packed in so tightly that it was hard to get to them to care for them--in both gardens. Still...an overall successful tomato year as is reflected in our pantry.

So...for canning diced tomatoes: Jet Star and Jetsetter

For canning sauce: Roma and one other "paste" tomato that I haven't chosen yet.

For cherry tomatoes: Sungold, Snow White and Black Cherry

For other tasty tomatoes: Dr. Wyche and Black Krim. Possibly a couple of other varieties if I'm tempted to purchase plants. And maybe an Arkansas Traveler or two. I have the seed for all of these except for Sungold.

I'll also start a few Tiny Tim for a SmartPot or two...and for my Mom's back porch.

That looks like a great variety Jennifer.

i have not done seed inventory yet. I am going to do 30 plants. That is the space I am allowing for tomatoes this year.

Heidi is the best paste tomato and you can put it in a salad, too, because it tastes good. Dawn turned me on to this one. Heat tolerant and prolific. Somewhat compact plants.

I will plant black cherry and large red cherry. We tried a couple of other cherries last year and didn't care for them. If we get more chickens i will put those cherries on the chicken run.

I will plant early girl and jetstar/jetsetter for hybrids. (Dawn always did a few hybrids in case it was wet and disease became a problem.)

Cherokee Carbon (best tomato). Gary 'O Sena, Vorlon (need to save seeds), Grandma Suzy's Beefsteak (my favorite flavor), Sioux and or Super Sioux. Maybe Black Brown Boar (heat tolerant). Maybe Baker Family Heirloom. Always Arkansas Traveler. Probably Indian Stripe.

I have to grow Ramapo for Ron (New Jersey tomato) and I may give Heinz VF another try.

I have 2 so called dwarf tomatoes, Fred's tie dye (which has done well for me) and Chocolate Champion, which I keep trying to make work. We will see. If I hold it to 16, I only need 2 beds, which is my goal. I could probably squeeze in the dwarfs. Or put them in a feed tub.

Thanks Amy I knew there was another type besides standard Roma

Going through my seed inventory I found several marked Dawn. I will have to grow at least one of each this year

I went through and pulled everything older than 2017, wound up with 20 varieties. I'll put these out to wintersow like I did last year, I had much better results from them than I did my indoor ones. And if they don't germinate then no big loss. Then I need to see if I have enough variety, if it looks like all I have is cherries or one color, I'll pull a few more.

I want to grow ALL THE TOMATOES. I’m waiting on a few more. I’m torn between doing mostly failsafe varieties and a few new ones, and doing one each of 28 varieties, both old and new. I went a bit off the rails buying cherry tomatoes, too. I think I’m the only one who eats them.

Working list:

paste:

Heidi

Picus (new, Seeds n Such)

cherry:

Juliet

Baxters Bush Cherry

Porter?

Red Pearl (new, Johnny’s)

Jasper (new, Johnny’s)

Sugary (new, SnS)

slicers:

Bush Early Girl

Bella Rosa

Dixie Red

Big Beef

Fourth of July

Brandy Boy

Mountain Merit (new, SnS)

Goliath Original (new, SnS)

Tribute (new, SnS)

Defiant (new, Johnny’s)

I could add...I should remove a couple cherries. I don’t need 6. If I get more feed tubs, maybe.

That looks like a great selection, Rebecca.

I had 3 Baxter's Bush plants last summer. They do not get big at all but produced even when I started neglecting them. I hope you have the same experience with them. They are slightly bigger than a standard cherry--sorta like Juliet only round instead of oblong.

I'm cutting back on cherry tomatoes too. In the past, we had a larger office staff and they happily took all my extras. And when church was only "in person" and unmasked...people gobbled them up. I just didn't have the people to share with in 2020. Sungold is still my favorite cherry. I think I'll do maybe 4 plants total for cherry type.

(Speaking of feed tubs, I'm going to put tomatillos into those. I only have 3 tubs. )

I am at a loss as to what to plant. I think I have some of the Goliath and Mountain series of seeds that I may try in containers. I need to come up with something with less labor. I will try container again this year. I also need to move my tomato area, it has been in the same spot too long. I may move some of my stuff over to the wildlife garden close to my neighbors house, he will help look after it. I think he has almost as much fun in the wildlife garden as I do, and is a great help to me. My neighbor has large polycarbonate greenhouse that I think we are going to put stuff in. I know he is going out of his way to help me, and I really am thankful for it.

We had to take our car to Ft. Smith for repair yesterday and I just had to go by Atwoods and get bunching onion seed and spinach seeds. Its been a long time since I have grown bunching onions, and I dont even remember when I planted them, but I do remember that they grew like crazy.

I finished my seed inventory this morning. Yay!

Tomato list is all experimental this year except for Cherokee Green.

Arkansas Marvel

Beefsteak

Costoluto Florentino

Delicious

Jersey Giant Paste

Matina (early maturing)

Sunny Boy

Isis Candy Cherry

Igleheart Yellow Cherry

Amy's Sugar Gem Cherry

I'm going to try these 3 cherry tomatoes at Lincoln. . . probably only the Isis here.

There are two of those that remind me of you, Amy, and Ron! LOL And that wasn't on purpose. Amy's Sugar Gem, and Jersey Giant Paste!

That seems like a fun list, Nancy. I haven't heard of most of them, but cool names.

I did grow Isis Candy Cherry last year and it was really tasty. It was a pretty tomato too. Slightly larger than other cherry types and mottled in color. It really was just lovely. (I'm not sure why it's not on my list this year. haha)

HJ, good to hear, slightly larger than other cherry types. I would have ordered Egg Yolk again, as it was also a bit larger--but couldn't find it from any of our usual online nurseries. I got Delicious and Costoluto Fiorentino from SESE, the rest from Tomato Fest. Sungolds were just too little! I'm anxious to see how Jersey Giant Paste does.

I want to go check out those on your list, Rebecca!

Over the last decade I've had an increasing amount of native pollinators causing crossing in my garden, and I've been getting increasing busy, with less time to work out there. So, I will plan on fewer varieties and larger planting of them.

I'll probably go with Baker Family Heirloom, Heidi and Black Cherry. If possible, I'll put some Sioux out for the fall. They're always amazing in the fall.

Here's a lengthy thread on Heidi. I remember when Carolyn Male first introduced it, but it took Dawn's recommendation to get me to try it. Up North, it's just okay. Here, in "the broiler," it's amazing. Reminds me of the time I agreed to have a college student from Cameroon work in my garden (got to show him Heidi too :) . It was above 90 F. and, after weeding and hoeing a bit, ... he took off his sweater. That's how Heidi approaches heat.

Baker Family Heirloom is very good, just needs plenty of support. It's a fabulous all purpose tomato which handles our conditions very well. I want to do larger plantings and more selection with both of these tomatoes. Ron Cook (Heavy Hitter Okra fellow) has shown me just what can happen when one does this over many years.

I simply must plant Black Cherry. It's our favorite cherry. My wife always gets on me if I haven't planted it. Last year I planted it, but in a part of the garden which is more difficult to water and to weed. Though it produced some, we hardly got to eat any.

I’m still deciding on which to cut, but I will be working from the list below:

Cherries:

Bumblebee, Purple

Bumblebee, Sunrise

Reinhard's Goldkirsche

Large Red Cherry

Pearly Pink

Salad:

Black Vernissage

Bloody Butcher

Garden Peach

Green Zebra

Sauce:

St. Pierre

Abe Lincoln

Teton de Venus

Italian Heirloom

Genuwine F1

Slicers:

Black from Tula

Pink Berkeley Tie Dye

Brandywine

Brandywine, Pink

Caspian Pink

Cherokee Purple

Dr. Wyche's Yellow

Gold Medal

Japanese Black Trifele

Paul Robeson

Persimmon

Pineapple

Purple Calabash

Pork Chop

Solar Flare

Thorburn's Terracotta

Marleigh, I made a comment to someone about "I've never met a tomato I didn't like", so they sent me a huge packet of tomato varieties. One was purple calabash with a note that it would be the one I didn't like. Of course that means I HAVE to try for myself! If you grow it, I'd be curious to hear what you think of it.

Jen—I actually grew Purple Calabash last year from some seed someone sent me. The flavor was very good (I love purple and pink tomatoes best), and it is definitely very hardy. My only complaint is the fluting—they make a nice sauce tomato but I hate peeling them! I’m going to grow some from some actual nursery seed this year, because I felt the fruits were rather small compared to what I have seen from Calabash in photos. I’ll be interested to compare notes!

Roma and Cherry, that's it. I give in to Oklahoma's crazy weather swings. I had the best Roma's last year from SEED! I planted several rows and picked the best and they did great! I will get a plant or two for earlier ones.