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Ok this may have been asked before  ::) but what is the best tomato to grow? What would you all reccomend. I have not ordered or sown any seeds yet so I am interested to know you opinions before I go gung hoe into seed buying and sowing.

Thanks  ;D

You are going to get many different varieties suggested, what one person likes another might not. 

My husband is very fussy about his tomatoes and the only one he really really likes is Sungold.  Thompson and Morgan are selling seeds for only 20p at the moment. 

Sungold will grow well outside, it makes a very tall plant and needs staking.  The tomatoes are a good size for a cherry and it usually produces loads.

If I could only grow one it would be Sungold. After that probably Tigerella & Golden Sunrise, then Black Russian. Then I'd start on ones that look like "normal" ones - Tamina, Matina, Outdoor Girl, The Amateur all make nice, normal salad toms.

I think I'd choose as my favourite Ailsa Craig, or perhaps Tigerella, which has Ailsa Craig in its parentage.

Edit: If you're asking what are you actually growing, I've just looked out our seeds.  We normally plant about 90 tommies, so several varieties.

Round
Ailsa Craig
Alicante (boring, I know, but reliable, and decent enough flavour)
Matina
Tigerella

plus Orkado and Pannovy which are this year's experimental varieties for us

Plum
Principe Borghese
San Marzano 2

Cherry
Gardener's Delight (well, you've got to, haven't you?)
Sweet Baby (good last year)

plus Venus as an experiment

You cannot do better than "Brandywine" as an excellent flavoured beef tomato.      Cheers,     Tony.

Sungold is my favourite but the OH prefers beefsteak type and we grow one in the greenhouse called FAWORYT it's beautiful , huge,pink and juicy.
We used to grow a Marshalls one called Vicky it was a small plum which was the best variety we had ever grown,but they stopped it and while I managed to save seed for a couple of years ,the blight finally wiped them out  :(

I can give you some "nots"

Moneymaker
Aisa Craig
Alicante
Shirley

The above will give you yeild and reliability bit in my opinion not flavour


Sungold for a cherry, you can't beat it, unless you want one that is not a hybrid in that case go with one of the open pollintaed sungolds

For a mid size tomatoe I would go with Old Brooks at about3-4 ozs it is a nice size, it isa perefect shape has a bit of blight resistance and has a very good flavour

For a large tomato I would go with Brandywine, actually there are a great many once you get to this size which have excellent tatse and yeild.

Another good one which has excellent taste , yeild and is not a late one is Cherokee Purple, you can't gpo wrong with that one. the fruit is bigger than Old Brokks but not as big as Brandywine, it matures earlier than Brandywine too.

All of the above are easily obtainable by mail,

XX Jeannine

Sungold are gorgeous. Also grow Harbinger for nice standard size red toms. Both in greenhouse. Big fat tasty Marmande outside.

If you havent grown them before then i would pick up a pack of gardeners delight for 39p at aldi. You can grow them in or out and they are reliable.
Bear in mind that with the non bushy toms you will be taking out the side shoots reguarly and watering and feeding so be prepared.

My freind used to tell me how poor tomoatoes were - turns out she used the same grow bag for 5 years and never took out a side shoot- the result was maybe 3 toms per plant!

x sunloving

If I was only growing one it''d be a toss up between Black Krim, a very early Polish beefsteak(ish) or Giant Spanish Yeloow, which is probably the nicest grilled tomato I've ever had...... Or possibly San Marzano, given how many cooked tomatoes I eat, or Heinz due to it's brilliant cooking quality though the distinctive Heinz twang might put some people off (you know when yuo're eating Heinz ketchup or tomato soup because of it).... for raw eating I don't think I could split Black Cherry adn SUngold, very different tastesbut both superb.... I'm just glad that with my greenhouse being as large as it is (and with a polytunnel on the plot soon) I don't have to make a "one tyep only " call..... it can be a struggle getting my list down to 15 types and limiting myself to 40 or so plants total....

Thank you all for your suggestions :) I am spoilt for choice lol.

I was thinking about building a DIY polytunnel maybe later on this year during the summer as I suppose that is the best time to build a polytunnel when it is at its warmest. Once that has been built the plan was to grow many varieties as I am a massive tomato fan :) I just love eating them  ;D

Again thank you all for your suggestions most helpful.

I might be back later asking about DIY polytunnels  ;D

Decide what type of flavour you like - if want a big juicy sweet one to slice in salads, go for one of the red/yellow/green beefsteak types like Marmande or Ananas or the "black" varieties. If you like the sharper taste you might want one of the smaller types like Tigerella which is very tasty. For cooking, hard to go wrong with San Marzano.

Black truffle, lovely.

A variety of tomato that was mentioned was San Marzano which after a little research looks like a nice plum tomato. I have tried plum tomatoes before and not had much luck. How many tomatoes do you get on the San Marzano per truss (a rough amount) also what is the flavour like and skin texture. Does it have a tough skin?

I have decided to grow a black tomato maybe black russian and I am looking for a nice medium sized red tomato and I might try this plum.

Probaby the one I am NOT growing.

Quote from: the_snail on March 03, 2012, 16:14:41
A variety of tomato that was mentioned was San Marzano which after a little research looks like a nice plum tomato. I have tried plum tomatoes before and not had much luck. How many tomatoes do you get on the San Marzano per truss (a rough amount) also what is the flavour like and skin texture. Does it have a tough skin?

I have decided to grow a black tomato maybe black russian and I am looking for a nice medium sized red tomato and I might try this plum.

You get a lot of SM's on a plant, the plant is vigourous and needs controlling too though, and it's a good idea to limit the trusses depending on conditions.... Also they tend to ripen in flushes (well they did for me indoors last year) so you either have a picking's worth to make tomato sauces etc from or you don't have any....

Go with the Cherokee Purple for the black, XX Jeannine

I'd still go for Sungold.... but who can only grow one sort of tomato...  :-X

I was sent some Jet Star seeds last year from a kindly member here, and they were definitely the best of the bunch, decent size, quite "meaty" and great on the grill.

Sungold for cherry type, Fantasio for golf ball size.