Tomato reviews likes & dislikes 2015 - 2020

[bario1]

Galina

This got a rave write up in the Realseeds catalogue, and I wanted a yellow cherry variety so I took a punt on it. It's a potato leaved variety apparently from Siberia, so I thought it'd do fine here in Scotland in my polytunnel. However, the plants never looked that robust, and seemed to want to put all their energy into forking and sideshooting rather than producing large stems or leaves. The most disappointing thing though, was that only one or two fruit set on each truss - all the other flowers fell off unfertilised, while the Sungold grown in exactly the same conditions two feet away set 100% of its fruit.
The fruit that did set was tasty, not too sweet, and a beautiful opaque uniform yellow.

Earliness - 7/10
Health and vigour - 6/10
Taste - 8/10
Crop - 2/10

Would I grow again? - absolutely not, I only grow 8 plants and I can't afford two of them to be poor croppers.

[Guest]

Not the best year to rate them but will pick out a few anyhoo.

Peacevine

In one word- 'awful', so much so I stripped the fruits of and composted the plants.

Health and vigour 3/10 (the toms had a strange look to them, plants were ok)
Taste -2/10 (the first ever bitter tom I have had)
Crop - 6/10
Would I grow again - if I had a change of heart, space I would give it a second try.

Stonors Most Prolific

Health and vigour 6/10
Taste ?
Crop - got 1 fruit which had BER
Would I grow again - I would give it a second try.

Black Icicle



Health and vigour 9/10 (vast improvement on last year due to gh shading)
Taste 8/10 but I like this as a cooker as it is on the drier side. Has a more complex
flavour and I wouldn't class it as sweet or acidic.
Crop - 8/10 lots of decent size fruits
Would I grow again - yes, definitely.

Black Cherry

My second year growing these and they always prove popular.

Health and vigour 8/10
Taste 9/10 (late to develop) a sweet tom
Crop - 8/10
Would I grow again - yes, now on the must grow list

White Cherry

Health and vigour 6/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Taste 9/10 it is like the black cherries slightly acidic partner
Crop - 6/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Would I grow again - yes, definitely

Blush

Health and vigour 4/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Taste 7/10
Crop - 4/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Would I grow again - yes.

Yellow Pear

Health and vigour 6/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Taste 7/10 an earlier tom so flavour wasn't quite there.
Crop - 7/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Would I grow again - yes.

Gelbe something or other (a Nellie-M tom)

When googled I found it was Golden Queen tom. However I grew a golden queen tom for the VSP last year and they are two very different toms. The VSP one was an early one that lacked flavour. However Nellies I would say is a mid season tom a very nice flavoursome salad type tom. (On the sweeter side)

Health and vigour 7/10
Taste 8/10
Crop - 6/10
Would I grow again - yes.

Moonglow



Health and vigour 6/10 (unfortunately in gh1 with blight issues)
Taste 8/10 nice when yellow but gorgeous when it was luminous orange
Crop - 2/10 (got 2 tomatoes)
Would I grow again - yes, definitely

[Scarlet]

^^^^ deffo not to be confused with Gokden Queen.....It is a german tomato (don't slap my wrist Nelly if I'm wrong ) but I think it's Gelbe Konigin?

[Scarlet]

I didn't grow peace vine this year but on previous occasions they have been prolific plants!

[maverick451]

Orkado


Proved to be a very good outdoor variety, my heaviest cropping variety, taste was good, maybe not as tasty as crimson crush but still nice, ill grow this variety nice year to take over from Shirley as I think I get a heavier crop.

Earliness - 6/10
Health and vigour - 8/10
Taste - 7.5/10
Crop - 10/10

[Lumpy]

Tumbling Tom - Yellow

Late to start ripening (my fault me thinks) but now they have Whooo Hoooo sweet and very tasty.

Sweet Million - loads of green for ages - slow to ripen - some very, very tiny. Nope for next year.

Tigerella - more rella than tig - thick skinned and very little juice so nope for next year.

Princeps Borghese - when one is ripe enough to eat I will let you all know.

I have 2-3 other varieties but have somehow lost the labels.

My tom growing is terrible so please don't take any notice of the above.

Smurfs next year just because I like the name.

[SusieG]

Lovin my Black Cherry ~ tho not black but a muddy brown..... yes for 2017
Tigrella ~ nice shaped fruit and good flavour
Black Russian ~ jury still out ~ growing VERY large but not a ripe one yet so not tasted
Oxheart ~ a lovely large pinky-red tom, great for stuffing!!!
100's & 1000's ~ latish to ripen, but sweet oh-so-sweet ........ good for gorging on in GH but not much else really ........

Defo need to try some different varieties next year!!!

[maverick451]

Pannovy
A good allrounder, I grew it inside and out and both did well, vigorous, good cropper, taste good but not exceptional, a bit like a slightly better performing Shirley

Inside


Out


Earliness - 6/10
Health and Vigour - 8/10
Taste - 7/10
Crop - 9/10
Would I grow again- Probably grow a couple next year.

[Scarlet]

^^^good amount of toms per truss. Outside one leaves still look really healthy too.

[jimj]

Cambridgeshire

Hundreds and thousands

A big favourite of mine because the taste is just wonderful. You get tiny little tomatoes about the size of a marble at most and sometimes as small as a pea but there are literally hundreds on a plant, each of which is a little bomb of perfect flavour. They did very well this year. 10/10

Gardener's delight
My standard tomato with a great traditional taste and look. I didn't get as many fruit this year, not sure why but I may have over fertilised them. I do find their skins a little on the soft size: I prefer a firmer bite but there's no faulting the taste. 9/10

Red alert
I grew these for the first time because they are one of the earliest tomatoes. They duly arrived earlier than others but the taste is lacking. They're not especially sweet or acidic, just bland rather like supermarket tomatoes. I won't be growing them again even though it is nice to get an earlier crop. I'll just wait a few more weeks for my other varieties to ripen. 6/10

[Penellype]

Ferline

I've been dying to try one of these. Blight resistant variety.

Earliness 6/10 (140 days - absolutely forgivable, given the size of the tomatoes)
Health and vigour 8/10 (tend to wilt in hot weather)
Taste 8.5/10 (not quite as good as Shirley or Sungold in a direct comparison taste test, but not at all bad).
Will I grow again next year? YES

Almost jumping about with glee here. In 4 attempts at growing beefsteak tomatoes in my semi-shaded garden I have had 0 ripe fruit, even with growhouse protection. I wasn't even expecting these to be big. The trusses one one of the plants were so heavy that the main stem snapped - but although the leaves have wilted the tomatoes are still ripening. One of the plants has produced normal sized tomatoes, which is a little strange!

These are the first of the crop, pictured on the right alongside the bitterly disappointing total crop of Legend (which is supposed to be big fruited and was grown a couple of feet away):



I keep picking them up and stroking them

[Lumpy]

Can I ask a really stupid question -

After looking through my latest batch of seed cats there are quite a few more 'green' variety toms.

How do you know when they are ripe as they start green and stay that way?

[Penellype]

I presume they change colour slightly and become soft when ripe.

[Snadger]

I grew a few old favourits this year and I'm glad I did!

Ailsa Craig has performed the best for me. Normally susceptable to 'Greenback' mine have had none of it this year and they are my best toms!

Just goes to show, some times the oldies are the best!

My tigerella were woeful with small toms and not much striping. I still have high hopes for my Black Russin but have only had a couple of toms off up til now........though they were tasty!

[Penellype]

Update on Legend - I cut the plant down because it was looking pretty much dead, and noticed a brown stain on the inside of the stem at the bottom. Together with the yellowing leaves and wilting I think this is fusarium wilt, which is apparently common. I've never had it before. The advice is to grow resistant varieties as the fungus can remain in the soil for years, and guess what - all of the other varieties that I've grown in the soil (Sungold, Shirley, Roma, plus Mountain Magic and Ferline) are resistant. Legend is not.