We went with your standard hybrids last year in our tomato planting, and this year we’d like to get into some of the heirlooms. We’ve already chosen Cherokee Purple, but we’d like to try a couple more full-size tomato varieties.
Anyone have any favorites?
I love the Brandywines, and there are a few varieties to choose from. I’m not planting a garden this year due to irrigation issues, so I can’t reel off my other favorites off the top of my head (I’m staying away from seed catalogs because they make me feel bad if I can’t plant a garden.) I love the heirlooms though, and I’ve planted quite a few of them, but I always come back to Brandywines.
Thanks, CJ. I wasn’t leaning toward the really big tomatoes, but you’ve sold me. 
I wonder if CA and Ohio have a better climate than I do? It gets pretty hot and dry here in the summer.
I grew heirlooms last year (Caspian Pink and something else that began with a G)and just didn’t think they tasted as good as my hybrids.
Are Yellow Pear considered heirlooms? I’ve been growing those for years.
I’m doing Caspian Pink, Yellow and Red Pear (yes, they are heirlooms), and Pineapple. I’ve grown Mr Stripey, and Brandywine too, but they don’t do so well for me.
Pineapple is a weird one. If the weather is hot and wet, its very sweet with Pineapple-y undertones. If its cool or dry it tastes like latex.
Brandywine is wonderful. One warning, though. You often get more tomato than you can eat at a time! Those things are HUGE!
I’ll go through my records and see how I rated the various ones I’ve tried through the years. We moved to a house that’s surrounded by shade, so last year’s crop was, predictably, a huge disappointment. This year I’m going to plant them in Earthboxes and plop them in the park up the street.
Is Brandywine a heavy or light producer? According to one website, it grows an enormous vine and likes cool soil. Anyone care to confirm or deny?
There is no such thing as more Brandywine than I can eat at one time. The question is, can I get it into the house before I eat it?
It does grow the enormous vine anad like cool soil. Productivity requires lots of light and water. My garden is sadly lacking in the former.
Brandywine is an “indeterminate” type tomato. That is, it keeps growing and producing all season, as opposed to growing to a certain size and producing all its fruits at once.
Anyone know anything about Azyoshka tomatoes? They’re some kind of Russian yellow heirloom variety that I got free with my other seed purchases.
Brandywine is the heirloom variety I grew for a couple of years. They were tasty but I wouldn’t recomend them for a sloppy gardener like me. When the weeds would get to high or I’d miss watering for an extra day the heirlooms were the first to suffer. The modern hybrids seem much more forgiving of mistreatment.
My current favorite is the Sungold tomato. Here they grow to about cherry tomato size but in warmer climates they get bigger. One plant gave me loads of tomatoes, it was the first one producing and the last to die. I was eating tomatoes off of it in October!
I like my tomatoes tart rather than sweet and here are some I like.
I’ve planted Bloody Butchers and Druzbas but I’m not sure which was which. One turned out a 2-3" fruit that was very round and smooth. They ripened earlier than anything else and kept putting out. Last year, with the crappy weather we had, they were the only variety I planted (out of 7 or 8) that ripened. Good flavor for an early bird.
The other one had weird-shaped fruit. Pointy at the end and…weird. They were a deeper red and average sized. They tasted ok but I didn’t get many and I planted those in the best tomato season I’ve ever had. Which ever one they were I don’t recommend them.
I’m not sure of the name of it but I got a large, yellow tomato with bright pink streaks in it at the farmers market. It was excellent. Also good (from the same vendor) was what was (I think) either a Black Krim or a Cherokee Purple.
Gardener’s Delight (I’m actually sure of the name of this one) is a nice non-hybrid cherry tomato. I don’t know if that makes it an heirloom but they’re good. They’re about 1" and are tarter than most cherry tomatoes I’ve had.
I’ve done Cherokee Purple and Brandywine and liked them both. This year, I’m thinking of planting Bradley tomatoes, a pink variety from my home state of Arkansas.
Yep! I love tomatoes and won’t eat them in the winter because I have learned not to disappoint myself.
Last year I grew Green Zebras and they were a nice somewhat lower acid tomato and they look really cool. I saved some seeds and will grow them again this year.