I put in 31 tomato plants this year; a lot for me, but I was determined to get some homegrown tomatos after a disasterous last year in the garden. Thought I'd describe how the various varieties did and are doing for me and see what other folks planted and what varieties they have had success with.
Better Boy
This is the standard garden variety in this area (middle Missouri). If you don't get tomatoes with this one, you probably won't do well with any other. I put out three plants near the end of April, and they survived mild frost. Got my first ripe tomato on about July 4th. Good yield so far, though I've had to water frequently due to an almost total lack of rain in July. Good tasting tomato, though nothing special.
Big Boy
I started three plants from seed directly in the garden. They were last years seeds, and I put three seeds in each hill and got one good plant in each. This is another very common variety here. I've been getting mostly smnaller fruits than usual. Perhaps the hot dry weather is to blame. I do have a few of the big, one-slice-sandwich size coming along now.
Avalanche
This one is recommenced by the local University Horticulture site for this area. First time I've planted it. It seems to be pretty productive, and the fruits are much like Better Boy in taste and size.
Park's Whopper
I planted this one thinking it was an heirloom variety. I've since found that it is a fairly recent product of the Park seed company and is an improved variety of an old standard. The fruits are a pink-red, ripening to a darker red. Good flavor and less seeds than Better Boy and most others. I've gotten only a few I'd describe as whoppers, but many standard size fruits.
Beef Master
This one has been a disappointment. The plants are all somewhat stunted and the fruits are few and small. They taste OK. I do think they may have suffered from their location in my garden. Last fall, I tilled in piles of leaves, and where the leaves were thickest is where my tomatoes seem to be doing best. The Beef Masters are at the end of my tomato rows, and might have missed out on the benefits of the extra organic content.
Show Me
I planted these a bit later than the others. Found them at a local garden center and assumed they had been developed to do well in the local climate, hence the name. The plants are vigorous, but many of the fruit have blossom end rot. Few of the other tomatoes in the garden have shown this, and since the good fruits aren't anything special, I'll probably not plant this variety again.
Roma
The wife does lots of pasta dishes and really likes to use fresh Romas in them. In the past, Romas have been very good for us. They produced many fruits when the other tomatoes were doing almost nothing. They are a determinate variety, so I didn't stake them. In the past, I've used straw under them, but this year I put a black ground cover under them to control weeds and keep the fruit out of the mud. So far we're getting low yields of poor quality fruits. I'm wondering if the combination of the black ground cover and really hot weather might be stressing them. Maybe they'll come back if we get some rain and cooler temps.
Sweet 100 Cherry
These things are nearly bullet proof. The vines this year look spindly, but they still are producing piles of fruits. They're also sweeter than I remember. Good in salads, or just to eat out of hand.
So.....
I'll always have some Better Boys because they are so reliable. The Avalanche look like another good bet. I really like the Park's Whopper, and will plant them again next year. I'll probably try something else instead of the Show Me and Beef Master. I may try another of the plum-type tomatoes next year, though I'll probably still plant the Romas as well, and do something different about a ground cover. The Sweet 100's are an almost sure bet, so I'll do them again.
I tried Brandywine two years in a row with no yields to speak of. I like the idea of the heirloom varieties, which is one reason I put in the Park's Whopper only to find it isn't one. One of my buddies is getting decent yields with Cherokee Purple, so I may try that next year.
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