Favorite Variety of Tomato?

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I was just wondering what everyone's favorite variety of tomato is(if you never tried any heirloom tomatoes, I urge you to grow a variety of heirloom). My personal favorite, and the only one I would actually eat raw is the purple cherokee tomato, it is one tasty and juicy variety
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My absolute favorite are Brandywines but since they are almost impossible to grow here my second most favorite is Cherokee Purple.
 

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My favorite snack tomato is Sugarberry. I've also grown Celebrity for use with meals, mainly sandwiches, tacos, chicken wrap, etc. Haven't grown any tomatoes beyond that. Those two plants give me more than enough tomatoes.

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Those Cherokee Purples look and sound terrific, but where I live, if I plant out on last frost date, mature date to first frost date is 10 days, and that's not even at UK light levels.

Maskotka, a Czech large-cherry is my present favourite, but I'm trying a few cultivars new to me this year: Harbinger = UK heirloom standard slicer; Stupice = another Czech open-pollinated variety, cold tolerant, golfball sized and well quoted for flavour; German Orange Strawberry = it's name says nearly all, but it's an early ox-heart type; Mortgagelifter = US heirloom which may just prove to be best open-pollinated beefsteak option for UK (tell me more you fellow members from N.America)
Black Cherry = No guesses and San Marzano = cooking plum tomato.
All these in addition to my 8-10 baskets of Maskotka.
 
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Those Cherokee Purples look and sound terrific, but where I live, if I plant out on last frost date, mature date to first frost date is 10 days, and that's not even at UK light levels.

Maskotka, a Czech large-cherry is my present favourite, but I'm trying a few cultivars new to me this year: Harbinger = UK heirloom standard slicer; Stupice = another Czech open-pollinated variety, cold tolerant, golfball sized and well quoted for flavour; German Orange Strawberry = it's name says nearly all, but it's an early ox-heart type; Mortgagelifter = US heirloom which may just prove to be best open-pollinated beefsteak option for UK (tell me more you fellow members from N.America)
Black Cherry = No guesses and San Marzano = cooking plum tomato.
All these in addition to my 8-10 baskets of Maskotka.
You should try brandywine or black cherry, they are amazing. And mortgage lifter is on my list of tomatoes this year (I try different varieties every year)
 
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Those Cherokee Purples look and sound terrific, but where I live, if I plant out on last frost date, mature date to first frost date is 10 days, and that's not even at UK light levels.

Maskotka, a Czech large-cherry is my present favourite, but I'm trying a few cultivars new to me this year: Harbinger = UK heirloom standard slicer; Stupice = another Czech open-pollinated variety, cold tolerant, golfball sized and well quoted for flavour; German Orange Strawberry = it's name says nearly all, but it's an early ox-heart type; Mortgagelifter = US heirloom which may just prove to be best open-pollinated beefsteak option for UK (tell me more you fellow members from N.America)
Black Cherry = No guesses and San Marzano = cooking plum tomato.
All these in addition to my 8-10 baskets of Maskotka.
Mortage Lifter may very well work for you. I have tried to grow them a couple of times but they are a mid season and don't produce here because of the heat. I get a few of them but not enough to do more than experiment. Excellent tasting tomato although prone to early blight more so than others. Another large tomato you might want to try is called Jet Star, a large low acid tomato that is early to mid season.
 
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Mortage Lifter may very well work for you. I have tried to grow them a couple of times but they are a mid season and don't produce here because of the heat. I get a few of them but not enough to do more than experiment. Excellent tasting tomato although prone to early blight more so than others. Another large tomato you might want to try is called Jet Star, a large low acid tomato that is early to mid season.
Early blight, which is soil-borne, isn't usually much of a problem here for tomatoes, for two reasons:
1) Because of lower UK light levels, we tend to grow our indeterminates as single stems, and remove the foliage below the first truss, so there's less chance of splashing the foliage from the ground.
2) We tend to grow most of our tomatoes in greenhouses, certainly beefsteak varieties, because of the climate, so no rain-splashing.

I've never heard of Jet Star before, I'll see if I can find it.
 
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Early blight, which is soil-borne, isn't usually much of a problem here for tomatoes, for two reasons:
1) Because of lower UK light levels, we tend to grow our indeterminates as single stems, and remove the foliage below the first truss, so there's less chance of splashing the foliage from the ground.
2) We tend to grow most of our tomatoes in greenhouses, certainly beefsteak varieties, because of the climate, so no rain-splashing.

I've never heard of Jet Star before, I'll see if I can find it.
Update, spent 20mins trying to find it in the UK without success.
Still, I've loads of tomatoes on this year, more than enough to content myself with.
 
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Update, spent 20mins trying to find it in the UK without success.
Still, I've loads of tomatoes on this year, more than enough to content myself with.
Jet Star is an old hybrid and not very well known. Not many seed companies carry it.
 
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Juliet and Early Girl, those are the two I usually grow.
 
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My absolute favorite are Brandywines but since they are almost impossible to grow here my second most favorite is Cherokee Purple.
Have you considered growing them UK-style, with only one stem?
Remember that the reason we grow them this way is to overcome a short season.
You may not be inundated with tomatoes, but you could grow them closer together, and this may compensate somewhat.
 
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Have you considered growing them UK-style, with only one stem?
Remember that the reason we grow them this way is to overcome a short season.
You may not be inundated with tomatoes, but you could grow them closer together, and this may compensate somewhat.
Our growing season is from mid March through mid November. My last frost avg. date is April 1 . The problem with growing just about any large tomato isn't the length of the growing season it is the length of the setting season. Once the nighttime temps are above 76F they will not set fruit and this normally occurs late May to mid June so this greatly restricts me to mostly early season smaller tomatoes. This is why I experiment with so many different varieties, always trying to find one that will set fruit earlier. I can grow all of the large varieties such as the beef steaks and brandywines and have big gorgeous plants but little to no fruit simply because it gets too hot before they are mature enough to set. Cherokee Purple is the largest tomato I can successfully grow. I have grown many 1 1/2 - 2 pounds and always grow a minimum of 12 -15 pounds per plant, most years more. I have tried growing Brandywines, Goliaths, Beefsteaks etc every conceivable way. If it is a good year and I am lucky I might get at most 2 fruits per plant.
 
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Our growing season is from mid March through mid November. My last frost avg. date is April 1 . The problem with growing just about any large tomato isn't the length of the growing season it is the length of the setting season. Once the nighttime temps are above 76F they will not set fruit and this normally occurs late May to mid June so this greatly restricts me to mostly early season smaller tomatoes. This is why I experiment with so many different varieties, always trying to find one that will set fruit earlier. I can grow all of the large varieties such as the beef steaks and brandywines and have big gorgeous plants but little to no fruit simply because it gets too hot before they are mature enough to set. Cherokee Purple is the largest tomato I can successfully grow. I have grown many 1 1/2 - 2 pounds and always grow a minimum of 12 -15 pounds per plant, most years more. I have tried growing Brandywines, Goliaths, Beefsteaks etc every conceivable way. If it is a good year and I am lucky I might get at most 2 fruits per plant.
Well, since at 1 1/2-2lbs per fruit you're only talking 6-10 fruit. You have approx. 8 weeks from last frost date until end of fruit setting.
Where I am in the UK, last frost date is 1st of June, and we have to pinch out at end of July/ beginning of Aug to realistically have a good chance to ripen our fruits prior to first frost. That's approx. 8-9 weeks.
I've not grown tomatoes in your climate, but am I right in thinking that, if the fruit are established prior to the high temps. you can grow them in the heat, or will they abort?
 
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Well, since at 1 1/2-2lbs per fruit you're only talking 6-10 fruit. You have approx. 8 weeks from last frost date until end of fruit setting.
Where I am in the UK, last frost date is 1st of June, and we have to pinch out at end of July/ beginning of Aug to realistically have a good chance to ripen our fruits prior to first frost. That's approx. 8-9 weeks.
I've not grown tomatoes in your climate, but am I right in thinking that, if the fruit are established prior to the high temps. you can grow them in the heat, or will they abort?
That is the secret. If you can make them set before the heat starts they will usually reach their normal full size. They will not abort but some may be somewhat undersized. Then there is the problem of sunscald. I must have a good cover of foliage when the daytime temps hover at 100+F.
 
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That is the secret. If you can make them set before the heat starts they will usually reach their normal full size. They will not abort but some may be somewhat undersized. Then there is the problem of sunscald. I must have a good cover of foliage when the daytime temps hover at 100+F.
Remember, even with the door open, a greenhouse (where most UK tomatoes are grown) on a sunny day can easily reach similar temps. We use greenhouse shading, or horticultural fleece, and the supermarkets in UK import a huge number of tomatoes from Spain, where temperatures are not so different to yours.
I am thinking that if you tried to grow your favourite tomatoes the UK way, you'd meet with some success.
If you want to try, I will teach you.
Best get yer skates on.
 

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