There were too many vegetables in my garden to squeeze into one summary, so I’m starting off by taking a look back at my many tomato varieties. What worked? What failed? This assessment will help me when I start thinking about varieties to plant next year.
Dr. Carolyn Yellow Cherry: This heirloom cherry tomato was totally the star of my garden. It produced dozens of juicy yellow orbs and was surprisingly disease-resistant. Plus, my friends all agreed they had the best flavor. I will definitely plant this again next year – maybe I’ll do two plants, in fact.
Silvery Fir Tree: This early heirloom was a total non-starter. The plant, which I ordered through the mail, did very poorly in the spring rains, and had probably suffered from the journey as well. It shriveled up and died before it got even a foot high, though it did manage to produce a couple of fruits. But they got eaten by some pest or another. Maybe it could have flourished under better circumstances, but I’m not inclined to try again next year.
Red Currant: A teensy-fruited cherry tomato, this plant defied pruning and grew willy nilly all over its cage. It produced a huge number of little tomatoes, but I found the taste kind of boring and the skin too thick. Plus, every fruit seemed to burst open after it rained, without healing over as other cherry tomatoes tend to do. I’ll pass next year.
Chocolate Cherry: Such beautiful fruits, but so few of them. The maroon color and sultry heirloom taste were great, but the plant probably only produced about 10 tomatoes and half of them were lost to the birds. Still, I think if the plant hadn’t been crowded out by the neighboring Red Currant, it might have done better. I might try this one again.
Brandywine: Oh, the frustration. I know how delicious these heirlooms can be, since I’ve had them from the market. But I haven’t eaten a single one from my own plant. Squirrels or birds ate the first four or five tomatoes just before they got ripe. There are two green tomatoes on the vine right now, and I have rigged up protective gear around them. If they’re good, maybe next year I’ll grow one behind protective netting.
Roma: I put in three Roma tomato plants relatively late in the season. They haven’t done all that well, and are only now producing stunted little tomatoes. But I think it’s circumstantial. I might put in some Romas or San Marzanos or Amish Paste tomatoes next year. I want to grow some tomatoes that I can make sauce or sun-dried tomatoes with.
Mystery Yellow: I never figured out what this funny yellow tomato was. Some suggested yellow pear cherry tomato, but they’re bigger than what you’d normally consider a cherry tomato. The plant was quite productive, although rainstorms damaged many of the fruits. If I can save some seeds from this year’s plant, I’ll grow it again next year.
Purple Calabash: I planted some seeds from last year’s tomatoes, which came from a plant I was given by Kathy of Skippy’s Vegetable Garden. But the plant got mostly choked out by weeds and hasn’t produced anything. I may or may not plant some of the extra seeds next year. I hear Purple Cherokee is a better dark tomato than Purple Calabash anyway.
Sweetie: A regular red cherry tomato. I’ve gotten some tomatoes from it, but they came awfully late and weren’t anything special. I’d like to get a Sweet Million red cherry tomato next year, which my mom has had good success with.
[UPDATE] Sun Gold: How could I have forgotten to write about these little guys??! These orange cherry tomatoes have been delicious and numerous. I bought it as a large start and so it started producing earlier than all my other cherry tomatoes. I love this variety, and definitely plan to plant it again next year.
Gradually Greener 
Amelia, we found the Cherokee Purple to be so much better than the Brandywine that we stopped planting Brandywine. Cherokee Purple is, by far, the best tomato we’ve come across, both for flavor and for the vigor of the plant. We’ve also grown very fond of Mortgage Lifter, also for flavor it doesn’t quite measure up to Cherokee Purple. We bought a resistant variety of seeds from Souther Exposure Seed Exchange. The plants have grown to seven feet tall and produced gobs of fruit. Southern Exposure said to expect smaller fruits than from the original, non-resistant Mortgage Lifter, but we’ve harvest many in the 1 1/2 to 2 pound range. Big juice tomatoes. I agree about Dr. Carolyn–it’s the best. We plant Romas for canning diced tomatoes, but I wouldn’t use it for making tomato paste. That’s where your Amish paste would come in. Marzano is said to make an excellent tomato for drying or confit.
Says Amelia: Thanks for the recommendations! I will definitely try Cherokee Purple, and maybe Mortgage Lifter as well! I like gettings seeds from SESE because then I know they are right for this area.
oohhh! Thanks for this post! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what tomatoes I’m going to plant next year.
My romas were wicked disappointing this year as well. The produced OK even given that my garden only gets 6 hours of light, tops, but even when they were very red they tasted a little green. I think it was the cool-hot-cool hot weather we’ve had this year.
Also, I’ve made sundried/oven-dried tomatoes out of my beloved Sungolds (although perhaps I’ll try a Dr. Carolyn next year too) and smallish green zebras.
Says Amelia: Thanks for reminding me about the Sungolds! I one of those this year, too. But somehow I forgot to include it in my round-up. Fixed now.
[…] 28, 2009 by Amelia Yesterday I reviewed all the tomatoes I grew this year, and yet there are still so many other veggies that I can’t possible fit the […]
I love your pick of tomatoes. Next year I’m going to try some different types of tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are fun to grow and the big ones will keep you on your toes. Every time I grow big slicers they like to split. Next year I’m going to try plastic around the base so I can control the amount of water.
Love the blog!
[…] After posts detailing my garden’s tomatoes, root vegetables, nightshades and cucurbits, I am finally ready to close the loop on my summer […]
[…] 5, 2009 by Amelia As I said in my tomato round-up, all the fruits on my brandywine tomato plant got eaten by pests just as they were getting ripe. […]
[…] a pot of Cherokee Purple tomato (replacing my Brandywine from last year), plus one pot apiece of Dr. Carolyn yellow cherry and last year’s Mystery Yellow tomato. Contrary to the photo above, I’m actually keeping the pots in my bathroom (away from cold […]
[…] the plant gives up. Could be disease, could be the heat, I don’t really know. But my two Dr. Carolyn yellow cherry tomato plants are robust and disease-free and bearing oodles of tomatoes. I planted two this year […]
The mystery yellow are “sun golds”. I had a plant this year that was crazy productive. Very sweet. I’ve just dehydrated some. Trying to figure out the best recipes for their sweet aromatic somewhat dominant flavor.
The picture you have above the “Mystery Yellow” tomato description looks pretty much like the yellow tomato plant we planted this year, and looks like the tomato exactly. This year was our first attempt at gardening. The yellow tomato plant has grown will-nilly and so huge in size it’s breaking under its own weight. It must be pretty much 5×5, no exaggeration. We have no idea what they are either. Because it’s so huge, and produces relatively small amounts of fruit, my husband doesn’t want to plant another next year.