Sunday, October 14, 2012

Tomato Review 2012 Part 2 - Other Color Tomatoes

This is Tomato Review 2012 Part 2 - Other Color Tomatoes. Part 1 - Red Varieties can be found here. I have to say that we really enjoy a lot of tomatoes that aren't red. They are packed full of flavor and are so so beautiful!!!

Pink Tomatoes:
  • Belgian Beauty - Indeterminate 75 day Mid-Season Heirloom - This is the second year that I have grown this tomato. The fruits are large round and a deep pink color. They weighed around a pound, but can get as big as two pounds. They are very meaty and low in acid. They are supposed to be excellent for winemaking. We are definitely planting them again. Original Seed Source - Landis Valley Museum
  • Tiffen's Mennonite - Indeterminate 80 day Mid/Late Season Heirloom - This tomato is very similar to a Brandywine, both in shape and taste. The fruits are a nice deep color and are medium to large in size with a wonderful flavor. This is one of the tomatoes we use for slicing, salads and sandwiches. I also use it for canning and sauces.Original Seed - Amishland Seeds
Purple Tomatoes:
  • Cherokee Purple - Indeterminate 73 day Mid-Season Tennessee Heirloom - This tomato is one of the best tasting tomatoes! It has always been our favorite. This heirloom tomato from Tennessee was cultivated by Native American Cherokee tribe. It is a very dark colored beefsteak type tomato. Original Seed Sources - Jeff, Daphne, Thomas & Diana
  • Eva's Purple Ball - Indeterminate 70 day Mid-Season Heirloom - This tomato has to be the best all around tomato that I have ever grown. The fruits are perfectly round and average around 5 oz. They are the perfect size for a sandwich. The fruits never crack, it's extremely prolific, great tasting and it is very resistant to disease. No matter what Mother Nature hands out, this tomato always does well. Original Seed Source - Amishland Seeds
Other Colors:
  • Black Cherry - Indeterminate 64 day Early Season Heirloom - This is the second year that I have grown this tomato and we just love it! The fruits are quite big for a cherry variety weighing 1 oz each. The plant does get very big and produces non-stop throughout the season. It's also great tasting! Original Seed Source - Jeff 
  • Kellogg's Breakfast - Indeterminate 80-90 day Late Season West Virginia Heirloom - This is the second year that I have grown this tomato. The fruits are very meaty, orange and very big. Most fruits weigh more then 1 lb. It is low in acid and a favorite of many around here. It didn't do well this year due to the weather. But, I'm definitely planting it again next year. Original Seed Source - Jeff
  • Pineapple - Indeterminate 93 day Late Season Kentucky Heirloom - This is a beautiful and great tasting tomato! It has very large yellow and red fruits. The plant and the fruits get very large. It's one of the favorites around here for slicing and salads. This plant didn't do very well this year either, due to the weather. But, it's on the list, as always for next year! Original Seed Source - Diana
  • Paul Robeson - Indeterminate 74 day Mid-Season Russian Heirloom - This is the second year that I have grown this tomato. Although Cherokee Purple has always been our favorite, I have to say that this tomato is just as good....so, I guess it's a tie! The fruits are very dark in color, purple/black. They are shaped similar to a CP. But the fruits are usually larger. It didn't do as well this as last year. But, once again is on the list for next year! Original Seed Source - Jeff
  • Speckled Roman - Indeterminate 75 day Mid-Season Heirloom - This is the first year that I have grown this tomato. Here is the description from the seed source - Stunning & unique, long pointed red fruit have wavy golden stripes! The fruits are a perfect mid-size fruit, with brilliant color and exotic markings. Very meaty flesh with excellent sweet flavor. They have very few seeds. This great variety was developed by John Swenson from a stabilized cross of Antique Roman and Banana Legs. He called it Speckled Roman. This tomato was a great producer and "The Italian" raved about it flavor. We are definitely planting this one again! Seed Source - Amishland Seeds
  • Sungold - Indeterminate 75 day Mid-Season Heirloom - This is the first year I that I have grown this tomato. It is a cherry type with very sweet, round bright yellow/orange fruits. It produced non-stop throughout the growing season. We loved this tomato for salads and on pizza. We are definitely growing it again! Original Seed Source - Dave
  • Mystery Tomato - I had two mystery tomatoes this year, one was red and one was yellow & red. Some of you may remember the post I did on the yellow/red tomato. The tomato was a potato leaf variety and was labeled Speckled Roman. It probably produced more than any other plant this year. The fruits had no flavor and were very seedy. I never did find out what it was. I guess it will remain a mystery!
I planted 45 tomato plants this year, 41 at the plots and 4 at the home garden. Considering all the problems due to the weather, the tomato yield was good. I threw out hundreds of tomatoes with BER and then the tomatoes took forever to get ripe. The total weighed tomato harvest this year was 358.2 lbs. which does not include any cherry varieties as I did not weigh them. 
 
Pretty soon it will be time to start planning next year's tomato varieties!!

8 comments:

  1. I think the most I've ever grown has been 21. When I could eat them, that would be enough for all the tomato needs for my husband and myself. But I guess my hubby isn't called the Italian. We certainly ate pasta but it wasn't that often.

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  2. Robin,

    I sat down in front of the computer yesterday and ordered 39 different seeds packets of heirloom vegetables, herbs and berries to add to my existing seeds. After reading your previous posts on the different variety of tomatoe seeds you planted, I decided to venture a little on tomatoe seeds. So I bought Dad's Sunset, Brandywine, Caspian Pin, Purple Russian and Plum Lemon for this coming spring. I'm looking forward to trying something different.

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  3. I planted out my tomatoes a week or so ago, now I will watch, wait and water. Of all your varieties the only one I'm growing is Black cherry which probably says as much about how many different varieties of tomato there are, and indeed how much variation there is in variety across the world.

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  4. I had never heard of most of those varieties of tomatoes! Guess I had better expand my vision a little! Nancy

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  5. There is way too many tomatoes to pick from! Good job on growing over 350lbs of them ;)

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  6. My Paul Robeson was a crop failure this year. Boxcar Willie was my prize producer, with Mortgage Lifter failing to impress me once again. My Early Girls went through a late fruit set and are still producing tomatoes. No frost here in coastal southern California. We get a frost about every 3-5 years. Lou

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