Tomato Varieties Update

Since it’s time to think about what to grow this year, I spent part of one evening this week going through my seeds, tossing the oldest packets and noting what I needed to find more of for this year’s garden. I am still waiting on the Last Seed Catalogue, the one from my favorite seed source – Sand Hill Preservation Center – before submitting any seed orders, but I have just about worked out what I want to plant. When I have the varieties all chosen, I’ll post those, but this post is about Tomatoes.

In April of 2010, I wrote a post that listed most of the tomato varieties I had tried in my garden, along with a note about each variety’s relative success in my yard. Going through my stash of seeds reminded me that I should probably update the list.

These are the tomato varieties for which I found seed packets (some of which were empty) and that I have grown two or more plants of since the last tomato variety update:

Akers Plum – Large paste-type tomato that produced well and remained healthy in my yard.
Wuhib – My favorite paste/plum tomato. Amazing productivity and disease resistance.
Old Ferry Morse Beefsteak – Good flavor, reasonable productivity (only grown one year so far). Will grow it again this year to verify its hardiness.
Jaune Flammee – Orange-red tomato, medium size, not super productive in my yard, and its flavor, though pretty good, didn’t beat the flavor of some of my favorites.
Yellow Out Red In – An heirloom long-keeper, but I liked Burpee’s Winter Red Hybrid better.
Burpee’s Long Keeper – Its name says it all, but I liked Burpee’s Winter Red Hybrid better.
Burpee’s Winter Red Hybrid – The one I will continue to include in my last planting of tomatoes in June, to provide tomatoes into November and beyond.
Rutgers – Reliable, productive, and good to eat.
Costoluto Genovese – I tried a packet from Cook’s Garden, and it wasn’t like the original I had tried many years ago. It may be that the entire strain has changed, but I might try to find yet another packet from another source..
Cherokee Purple – The seeds I got from Fedco weren’t quite as hardy in my garden as seeds I had used previously (from Sand Hill Preservation, I think). I’m going to go back to a different (non-Maine) supplier.
Olivette Jaune – A cherry-sized, yellow, plum-looking tomato. Very tasty, but the plants don’t survive beyond the end of August in my yard. I will probably be trying a different cherry-type this year. There are so many from which to choose!
Red Chinese – Died in my yard.
Yellow marble – A tart, yellow, cherry tomato. Hardy and productive, but I think I’m going to look for something a little sweeter to try. One very good thing about the yellow varieties is that the color confuses some potential competitors for the fruits – birds and children both seem to be looking for that red ripeness indicator!
Amish – These are seeds I saved, from plants given to me by a tomato-growing friend in Kennesaw. He has saved seeds for this variety for more than thirty years. The tomatoes are yellow with red swirls; they are large, meaty, and delicious, but they are not very productive. However, I will be growing them every year for the foreseeable future. Did I mention the amazing flavor?

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Home gardening can provide a lot of good food for families and communities. It’s also some work, but I love it. This blog is about the garden and yard where I “grow my own,” NW of Atlanta, Georgia.