Which tomatoes are we growing in 2024?

[@8thcelisabeth]

Hey neighbor! SE SD here. Growing 80 varieties plus trialing some brand new varieties via breeding projects. I do a seed giveaway on a couple of garden forums, mostly from all the varieties I don't want to grow anymore. It's hard to cull some of them, right? Love your list for 2024! Some questions/comments: 1. How does the Ruby Crush compare to the Sweet Million, Sweet Apertif and Super Sweet 100? I am doing an experiment to see which of those three does the best based on flavor, health and productivity. Might need to add Ruby Crush for next year. Side note, I make pizza sauce and cherry tomato marinara with my snack size maters. I like fiber so skins don't bother me, especially for the small batch pizza sauce. 2. I grew Candyland in a hanging basket one year. I thought the maters were too small, so not growing it again, even though the flavor was good. 3. Love that you test Brix. I did not find it directly correlated with how my palate perceived sweet on all the tomatoes, but was close for most. I added Brix to all my taste tests last year. More a fun toy to play with. 4. 14 gallon pot for large maters, sweet! I practice High Intensity spacing. Partly because I have a suburban backyard and grow everything (including grapes and fruit trees) and I like to play around and run experiments. Last year my tomatoes were 8-10 inches apart (did great) and this year 10-12 inches. I can grow for volume or variety, but not both. Variety for the win! 5. Last year my largest tomato was from the close spacing mater patch and the tomato plants set alone with 5-10 feet spacing each? Small maters. I swear, tomatoes just do what they want. 6. Hungarian Heart is a FANTASTIC tomato. They are so meaty and large! Tasty too. 7. You mentioned Hillbilly, my favorite large tomato. I grow both the regular leaf and potato leaf. Aunt Ruby's German Green (and all the other greens) are some of the best tomatoes I have tasted. 8. I tried Paul Robeson for three years, two different seed vendors. If I even got a healthy plant, the taste was bland and nothing worth noting. I think I may be the only person on the planet who doesn't like it and will never grow it again. 9. I am growing a Cherokee Purple Oxheart this year. Something new. I have a video listing my varieties (by category) but I purchased this on a whim at the Farmer's Market. I hope it makes a great oxheart because aren't oxheart tomatoes fantastic? 10. I make sauce from every size tomato. From canned or frozen tomatoes. If I don't give it away or use it, I'll preserve it. 11. Pink Tiger is my favorite small tomato. The Tiger series from Fred Hempel (rest his soul) is the best small mater series, even better than the Bumblebee series of his. I've grow pink tiger, green tiger, lucky tiger and blush tiger. Excited to find your channel! Subscribed.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Hi and thank you! It's been crazy getting everything in the garden this year. We were still planting things last night. Every year I think this is the year that i'm going to just grow a few varieties and then I end up adding more. Maybe next year. Thanks for your comments/questions. I'll try to answer them in order. 1. I can't really tell Sweet Million and Super Sweet 100 apart as far as looks and flavor. I'm growing them sisd by sid this year to see if one produces way better, but they are very similar. I haven't grown Sweet Apertif yet, maybe one to try next time. Ruby Crush is a grape and I think it tastes sweeter than the other two. It was vey productive for me, nice fruit, good flavor, no problems with splitting. We have 36 varieties of the small tomatoes this year so I need to find a plan for them. I will donate a lot of them, but I was also thinking I could juice them and make a great tomato juice. Most of them are so sweet. Then I wouldn't have to worry about the skins either. 2. Our Candyland red currant is huge and even though the fruits are so small they are really sweet, and there are a lot of them. I foresee that picking them will be a job this summer. Still working out what to do with all the tiny tomatoes. I have the Candyland Red, Gold Rush Currant, White Currant and Spoon tomato all growing this year. 3. I agree with you on testing Brix. It will be fun to see where everything lands. 4. I love the high intensity spacing. When our main garden did not have so much shade we could string up tomatoes 9 inches apart. I too love the variety, and even though each plant had a little less fruit, having that many plants meant we still had a ton of tomatoes! Since like you I'm working with the limitations of a suburban lot most of my tomatoes this year are in containers. Sounds like our gardens are very similar! 5. Tomatoes do seem to do what they want. Several times I have tried to trellis different tomatoes. Some really like it, others do not. I'm learning to listen better to what they need than try to make them do what I want. 6. Hungarian Heart is one we sell that has a fan club. It is all the things you said. most paste tomatoes don't have great flavor amd they are kind of dry. This one manages to be delious, juicy and meaty all at the same time. Great for making sauces. 7. Hillbilly is my brother's favorite! I have not had really good luck with growing it myself, but I should give it another try. Lots of good flavor reviews. I like the greens too. The first time I tried them my brain was just expecting unripe tomato flavor, but if you close your eyes and just taste them its amazing! 8. I know Paul Robeson has a fan club too. It's fun to see what everyones different favorites are. The conditions they are grown in can make a flavor difference too. We lost most of my black tomatoes due to herbicide drift damage earlier this year, so I won't have this one in the garden this time but we are growing a few dwarf tomatoes like Chocolate Lightning and Tasmanian Chocolate, and Maralinga which is reported to have great flavor. We'll see how they do! 9. I love the oxheart tomatoes. I hadn't heard of the Purple Cherokee oxheart. Pause while I look it up and add it to my growing tomato list :). I hope it tirns out great! 10. I usually throw all the tomatoes together when I make sauce too. All those flavors are amazing. 11. I need to try the tiger series. I haven't tried any of those yet! Thanks for taking the time to share your insights and suggestions! I think your garden sounds amazing!

[@lizxu322]

I'm crying because I live in Australia and cannot get my hands on most varieties you mentioned, they sound fantastic

[@kimlund5369]

Ananas Noir is a fantastic tomato as well. I grow over 200 in my garden every year and this will always be in my garden

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I’m super excited to try it this year!

[@8thcelisabeth]

I did not have the best luck with it last year (I did do a taste test) but am trying it again. Wish me luck!

[@stevenm247]

@@8thcelisabeth best of luck this year!

[@kristiryan740]

That one is so yummy

[@deshavetalkwithkit8935]

200 ???? Kit

[@ross-smithfamily6317]

Your video is chock-full of detailed information on so many tomato varieties! It helps to know the good, the bad, and the ugly *before buying seeds, planting, and growing them.* Thank you so much!! 🍅🍅🍅

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thank you for your kind words!

[@8thcelisabeth]

I love that about them too. I film my taste test videos in the summer, but I edit and post them when I have time, which happens to be when people research their seeds! Winter. Have a great garden season. 😀

[@johnnieutah]

I grew Caspian Pink a very long time ago, when I was living in Utah. It seemed to grow pretty good, enjoyed the taste, visual appeal and texture, nice sandwich tomato..

[@antondavidoff150]

never got lucky with that caspian pink tomatoe

[@MARS-GREENH0USE]

Blue flannel. Were friends now . Good very good work! Thank you. You have now become my favorite in this topic.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thank you!

[@rmravon]

Love your channel. You guys are great. Lots of wonderful information here. I love growing tomatoes too. I am in zone 6B Ohio and can’t wait to get my seed started indoors probably in another month.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thank you!

[@adrianf1969]

I’m in eastern Iowa and I grow about 15-20 different varieties of tomatoes each year. The favorites the last few years are Amish Paste and Mexico Midget-both have great tomato flavor. Each year I grow them to compare to new varieties, I’m creating the 2024 lineup right now. Brimmer tomatoes are another good one I rotate in and out. I have heard that Chef’s Choice Pink is a good sub for Brandywine, but I’ve never tried it, so, who knows? I’ll try it one of these years. Thanks for great descriptions, it’s helpful!

[@annmc3878]

I like that you are discussing some varieties that are different. I am growing cherry: Juliette, Black Cherry, and Sungold. Sauce: Plum Regal and Grandero. Slicers: Galahad, Chief Choice - Orange, Chief Choice - Striped, Chief Choice - Red.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Great choice!

[@cmchatton1680]

You'll love Juliette! It will produce all the way to frost! John McHatton

[@deshavetalkwithkit8935]

Voted by France, Germany and Switzerland as the best tasting tomato...... I grew this tomato and it is better than any other Beef steak type of tomato I have ever tasted ... sweet great texture very nice round shape little to cracking and very productive..... "Rose De Burne:" This needs more attention on this side of the Pond......My favorite and a for sure for 2025 season and forever......Kit

[@eugenececcano2853]

Great review , love the video. Will keep watching 👍

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thank you!

[@midwestribeye7820]

I'm in NC Iowa and had good luck with Wapsipinican Peach and Cherokee Purple last summer.

[@MontanaMidValleyFarm]

Love this type of video! Thanks for sharing. We are in the initial phases of becoming a market farm and tomatoes are a big focus for us. Of course we have been growing for a while prior. We have different growing climates with less rain here and different soil than in Iowa so things will likely perform differently for you but I wanted to share some of our favorites that you didn’t mention. Bloody butcher- early, cocktail, red, and great for container growing and early tomatoes, but will produce all season Bushsteak- nice solid red tomatoes, but very compact plants that produce a ton of fruit and they are uniform, these are our go to for production and the flavor is good Virgina sweets and anais noir were new to us this last season. Glad you are trying them. Well worth it and we will grow again. We will add ruby crush, two tasty and maybe black strawberry from your suggestions. 😊 We did try the tumbling Tom yellow last year and unfortunately we found the flavor horrible. So bad that we stopped picking them because we didn’t want them mixed in at the farmers market with our other cherry tomatoes. Sorry to mention that! Subscribed to your channel! ❤

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for sharing that good information! I really appreciate it. Best wishes for your success with your market farm! Thanks for the Yellow tumbling Tom review. We are trying several new tomatoes for the hanging baskets. I wonder if we can find another yellow one to try. Thanks again!

[@MrDahlia.]

I planted a super sweet 100 in July, it was 8ft tall by September!!!!

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Yep! It’s tasty but it can take over :)

[@jilllampe9781]

I built a very tall trellis for mine out of cattle paneling two years ago and I continue to do so. It's makes a great arch tomato.

[@facewrinkles3886]

My family tried a Bulgarian heirloom called Mikka from TomatoFest. It did extremely well in a midwest climate without being human-watered even once during the growing season. Some fruits were over 1 pound, red, and meaty with exceptional flavors. My two cents. Thank you for yours!

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for sharing that recommendation! There are so many tomatoes to try! Mikka sounds like a good one!

[@C3Voyage]

I grew Lemon Boy Plus. It is not mild at all. It is super tangy, sharp. Well, at least for me. Sart Roloise died quickly in my garden. Did not like our heat. I've heard Mariana paste is an exceptional standard, but mine this year is Shelby. Enjoyed the video. Thanks.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I don't remember what we said about Lemon Boy Plus, but in my flavor notes, "tangy" is how I described it. We had Sart Roloise in two spots - one is a newer raised bed and it performed very well; the other was a spot known to have a root disease (I'm guessing fusarium) and it died there. I'm sure it is old enough it doesn't have a great disease resistance package, but where it lived it did very well. The descriptions of Mariana paste and Supremo which we grow is basically identical with the main difference being Supremo starts ripening about a week earlier. I'm familiar with the company that developed Shelby and they have a really good track record so between the two you mentioned, I'd put my money on Shelby. I'll see if I can my hands on some seed of that one this year. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@C3Voyage]

@@iowabackyardfarmer2952 Nice. I've got about 200 total plants growing this year, but most are my own breeding. I do get some others to use as controls or trial comparisons. Hope you have a great year. Subbed.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

@@C3Voyage Our Shelby seeds arrived today!

[@C3Voyage]

@@iowabackyardfarmer2952 Nice. I'll be watching.

[@joeellerbach2095]

I have to stop watching tomato videos, because I want to grow them all, lol. I learned a lot from this video, though. Thanks for all of the great info! I like Pozzano as a San Marzano replacement. Similar taste but more productive, larger fruit, and no BER. I am trying Gladiator this year and I'm trying some dwarf tomatoes for the first time. Brandy Boy was a winner for me, and I thought Pink Delicious from Park was very similar but more perfectly shaped but less productive. I tried Caspian Pink once but I think the plant died. I still have seeds, so I will try that one again! Supersauce was a winner for me as well--interesting that you described it as more of a determinant. I tied to trellis it as well.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

It's true! We have added so many varieties to our test plot this year. Thanks for your help and input! I'm excited to trial so many dwarf varieties this summer!

[@rmravon]

I think I have over 30 varieties of seeds, but not sure how many I’m going to start. I was thinking maybe 10 determinate and 10 indeterminate and see how it goes.

[@ourv9603]

Heres out list from best tasting to least- Champion2 (as always) Moskvich SF Fog Early Girl Ace 55-we have just harvested the first fruit off this-we need to sample more to determine for sure where on our list it will fall. !

[@tearose3763]

Purple Cherokee is always my favorite in greater kansas city

[@JohnJude-dp6ed]

Depends is very correct. Midnight Snack for snacks For salad Candy Land Red Best All around Black Krim Best on grill beef sandwich Black Brandywine Interesting and thank for more suggestions

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for the recommendations! I haven't tried Black Brandywine, but that sounds amazing!

[@mtaylor9055]

For 2025 you should check out Red torch, it's a larger cherry tomato. It has a thicker skin but it is fantastically complex. I often pick them too early but this one if you eat it off the vine a bit too early it still tastes great

[@kristiryan740]

Virginia sweets became a staple in my garden 3 years ago. Its beautiful and delicious

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm looking forward to trying it!

[@omeshsingh8091]

I only grew traditional Oxheart heirloom tomatoes in 2023. The positives: the fruits have amazing flavor, great ratio of usable fruit to seed cavity size as well as soft skin. The negatives: shelf life is not as great as some other varieties, and the growth habit of the plants are not the best. In 2024 I'll grow a bit more variety: Salad/Snacking Plums: Ukrainian Purple; Green Plum; Golden Sweet; Tiger Plum (multicolor) Uniform Round: Black Cherry (dark); Purple Bumblebee (multicolor) Paste: Oxheart (saved seeds); Balsak; Supremo Roma Large: Rosa de Barbastro; Cherokee Purple (dark); Black Krim (dark); Berkeley Tie-Die Pink (multicolor)

[@nathaniverson]

Your video helped me decide to grow Black Strawberry, Alice's dream, and Sart Roloise this year.

[@teenadamron7654]

love your video will keep watching you!

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Yay! Thank you!

[@twirlingswirlinggirl]

Really love your videos and the expertise you bring. That you have grown each of these types of tomatoes and can comment so knowledgeably is of such value to me as a gardener. Thank you for sharing your experiences!! PS. My current favourite tomatoes include Wessel's Purple Pride (an indeterminate paste), Eva Purple Ball (the most perfectly round tomato ever!) and Muddy Mamba (which looks quite a lot like an Ananas Noire).

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I had never heard of Wessel's Purple Pride until now. A cross between Sausage and Purple Cherokee sounds interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[@timx9661]

Caspian Pink rivals Pink Brandywine in taste (almost as good, which is saying a lot, in my opinion). Far more productive, has better disease resistance and is much more forgiving than Brandywine if you have a very hot, humid, rainy summer. Big, thick-vined plants produce big tomatoes, just slightly smaller than Brandywine. I grow both every year in SE Pennsylvania. Really good tomato.

[@Begreen9]

Great review. Do you have a website that list these in chart form? We are looking for an alternative to sungold, they split too early for us and are early blight susceptible. Our sweet million did better, but they too split early in our cool fall this year. Juliet were rock stars. They laughed at blight and are still growing, slowly, in November. We have had great success for Early Girl for several years so Goliath Early is interesting. I agree with Brandy Boy. It's much more productive than Brandywine. For sauce tomatoes we've been growing Pomidoro Squisito which has preformed much better than San Marzano with greater productivity and less blossom end rot.. We also grow the heirloom Blue Beech which has wonderful flavor and a sweetness that makes tomato sauce sing. However, it is not the most disease resistant plant. I have to nurse it. I would love to find a more disease resistant variety that matches this great flavor.

[@jilllampe9781]

growing sunpeach this year. Love the flavor. Beautiful tomato.

[@jilllampe9781]

My Estiva produces beautiful, large tomatoes but gets blossom rot. I've lost 6 already this year. :( Working on getting it some nutrients.

[@jilllampe9781]

My Caspians in previous years have done reasonably well and taste good.

[@jilllampe9781]

My Marmande is a fantastic producer, huge, beautifully shaped, and my first producers. Great flavor. I love this tomato.

[@jilllampe9781]

I grew a Virginia Sweets from the Amish greenhouse last year. It was beautiful. Produced like crazy. However, it gets soft, so be careful pulling it off the vine. Still beautiful, delicious and it made a nice tomato juice.

[@jilllampe9781]

I was able to find a SuperSauce after yours were damaged by spray and WOW, is it huge. It's doing well, no blossom rot. Long wait for the first ones to ripen but it looks to be an impressive one. Very happy with it so far.

[@Mugsmaster]

Big Zac taste really good.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I'm really looking forward to trying it!

[@kimlund5369]

Just a suggestion, if you are growing these maybe take your own pictures of the tomatoes. Most of the ones on the packages are not great photos.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for the suggestion! You are right they aren’t great. Doing the video mid-winter was not a good time to remember I needed photos of all of these. It is the plan for this year to both take pictures of the plants and the fruit both on the plant and also what it looks like inside. That way you will have a much better idea of how they grow and what to expect! Thanks!

[@8thcelisabeth]

@@iowabackyardfarmer2952 I film my taste tests and part of the process is a photo of the tomato tested, with the weight listed on the card. I wait to post the videos until winter (when people buy seeds and want a first hand account of the tomato then) and it gives me time to collect a few more photos by the time I edit. I will say it's a tedious process to do taste test videos because I want to provide all the info and post each variety separately. Not to mention finding a good representative tomato at perfect ripeness, but not if it's recently rained... All that has to happen at the same time you actually have time to film. I find after filming 40 taste tests I need a darn break from it, so winter editing and posting it is. I look forward to yours!

[@dutchmiller704]

I have saved this video and will be trying some tohisfall

[@tomatofarmer8042]

I love oxhearts. I like True Colors and Midnight Sun, both are oxhearts with whispy foiliage. And for dwarf oxhearts I like Dwarf Purple Heart. And it does look more purple than the Tasmanian Chocolate. I actually really like Tasmanian Chocolate, but I can understand it is not the most appetizing color, kind of brown. The Purple Heart is more of a dark brick red.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for sharing! I've been looking for new oxhearts to try. They are amazing tomatoes even if the foliage drives me crazy sometimes. I will try those. I did end up putting Tasmanian Chocolate back on my trial list for this year to give it another chance. It does have good reviews. We're doing dwarf trials this summer too. Thanks for the recommendations!

[@dutchmiller704]

Where can I buy the white currant tomato seeds. Ihave been looking but to no avail yet. Thanks

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I get them from Baker Creek Seeds www.rareseeds.com/tomato-white-currant

[@dutchmiller704]

@@iowabackyardfarmer2952 thank you.

[@CHICHISWEETS]

I enjoyed the review. I tried some different tomatoes from MI 😮Gardner, & they didn’t perform well here in SC. -I grow Cherokee P. , Blue Beauty every yr, these taste incredible, but production isn’t high. I’m looking for a more disease resistant, classic taste, smaller size tomato. If I wait for the big tomatoes 🍅 to ripen, I may not get many due to Blossom End Rot & pest pressure. I have been growing more cherry types , to dodge those problems. What’s your recommendation for a medium size, classic taste,& disease resistant tomato 🍅?

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Thanks for the comment! South Carolina is going to be hotter sooner and have more disease pressure than either Iowa or Michigan. The Mountain series would be very good. We have grown Mountain Magic which is a smaller cocktail size for years and love the larger Mountain Rouge too. Mountain Majesty would be a good medium size one. Any of them would be worth trying. I’ve liked all of the ones we’ve tried. That series is developed by North Caroline State University. Arkansas Traveler is a pink one with great flavor that performs in the heat. Hoss tools would be my place to buy seeds. They are in the southeast and focus on selecting varieties that do well in your high heat high pest environment. Hossinator is a 8-12 oz one we are trying this year. Celebrity is a good one that has done well since the 1980’s. Bella Rosa says it has heirloom flavor and is a medium size tomato that we are trying this year. Florida 91 is another one to consider. Some of these varieties will more resistance to blossom end rot as well.

[@timx9661]

Have you tried German Johnson? They aren’t small but they are several weeks earlier than the big heirlooms and they taste great. I grow them up North, but I understand they come from North Carolina and they are very popular there.

[@stacyoliver3250]

Why I cannot open the website?

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

It was down randomly. I think it is fixed now.

[@kimlund5369]

Heart tomatoes are very dramatic plants, always look sick compared to others Virginia sweet is a super tomato, and Virginia sweet meat is an awesome red.

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

Good to know! Thanks so much!

[@JohnJude-dp6ed]

To Big isn't a problem with cattle panel.Bigger plants produce better

[@karunald]

I will never understand why Juliet is such a 'thing'. Especially with that rubbery thick skin. Good to know re BER with paste types. I'm trying to grow some this year

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

The plus side of Juliet is that it does not split but it does come at the cost of a thicker skin. I agree there are sweeter thinner skinned grape tomatoes out there!

[@teenadamron7654]

where is cherokee purple

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

We grow Cherokee purple every year. It’s a fantastic grower. Nice strong plants and good tasting tomatoes.

[@Mugsmaster]

I liked Giant Crimson

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I have them up and growing. They look good so far!

[@jenicepye2997]

What's another name for poppies tomatoes?

[@iowabackyardfarmer2952]

I tried looking it up but I couldn’t find which variety was used for growing poppies tomatoes.

[@michaelcasey-il4xi]

Your mics volume is too low cant hear you