Which Varieties Exceeded Your Expectations?

[Dee]

Which heirloom/OP tomato varieties blew you away with respect to production and/or flavour when you started growing them?

For me so far, the varieties with the "wow" factor have been...

Green Malachite (The plants were loaded with tomatoes. This was one of the most productive large tomato varieties I've grown.)

Dwarf Roza Vetrov (compact, productive)

Scotia (PRODUCTIVE and early)

Early Annie (PRODUCTIVE and early)

Carbon (The first heirloom tomato I ever grew. I'd never tasted a tomato so delicious.)

Principe Borghese (compact and PRODUCTIVE)

Paul Robeson and Black Krim (the flavour...!)

Hungarian Heart (I am still surprised at how much I enjoyed the flavour of this variety. The tomatoes looked nice, but plain, nothing special. WRONG!)

Brad's Black Heart (Last summer was the coolest, wettest, cloudiest growing season since I started gardening. Despite this, Brad's Black heart produced a lot of large tomatoes, and they were quite early to ripen on the plant. That's usual, as typically the large tomatoes get picked right before the first killer frost in late August/early September and most of them have to ripen indoors in boxes).

[Shule]

Edit: I missed that you asked for heirloom/OP varieties (but I marked all the hybrids with F1, F2+, and the word cross)

It's not the same every year, for every kind, but here goes:

Eons ago:
* Red Pear (production)
* Yellow Pear (production)
* Early Girl (production)
* Random cherry tomatoes (production)
* An unknown paste (production)
* A cross between the unknown paste and one of the aforementioned pear tomatoes (production; not a slicer! Might have been great for sauce; flavor was super strong and tomatoey.)

2014:
* Early Girl F1 (flavor, and production)
* Park's Whopper F1 (poor production, but phenomenally delectable skin)
* Husky Cherry Red F1 (great production)
* Roma (production)

2015:
* Green Giant (taste)
* Early Girl F2 (taste)
* Pruden's Purple (taste on hamburgers)
* Galpagos Island (production)
* Paul Robeson (taste)
* Kellogg's Beefsteak (taste)
* Husky Cherry Red F2 (taste)
* Peaceful Valley's Beefsteak (taste cooked on pizza)
* Golden King of Siberia (taste; however, it filled me up too fast for my taste)

2016:
* Ovita (taste)
* Matina (production and taste)
* A Jim Dandy cross (taste and production)
* Thessaloniki (production; great texture)
* McGee (taste)
* Super Sioux (taste)
* Jackie (taste)
* Pink Cheeks (both)
* Chapman (both)
* Ron's Carbon Copy (taste)
* Medovaya Kaplya (taste)

2017:
* Tatura (taste)
* Marmande (taste)
* Sweet Orange Cherry (production)
* Black Beauty (production and taste)
* Black Bear (production)
* Pakenham Pear (production)
* Sub Arctic Plenty (production and texture)
* Husky Cherry Red F-something (production)
* A different Husky Cherry Red F-something (taste)
* White Queen (taste)

2018:
* Brandy Boy cross F1 (production, but good taste)
* Sausage (production)
* Galapagos Island cross (production)
* Husky Cherry Red x Sweet Orange Cherry cross (production)
* Mountain Princess (both)
* Green Tiger (taste)
* Burpee Gloriana (both, but production didn't continue long)
* Alpha Pink (taste)
* Porter (both)
* Garden Leader Monster (taste; maybe it didn't blow me away, but I've been craving it ever since, and regretting how I didn't save seeds)

2019:
* Brandy Boy cross F2 (the tart PL one; taste; production was decent, though)
* Marion (both)
* Galapagos Island (production)
* Sheboygan (taste; production had potential, too, but got a late start)
* Napoli (production)
* Polish Linguisa (taste)
* Sweet Orange Cherry (production, for the soil it was in)
* Husky Cherry Red x Sweet Orange Cherry F2 (production)
* Juliet F1 (not from my garden; taste; not sure how prolific it was)
* Bloody Butcher (production, but not its end-of-season harvest)

I didn't count varieties where the awesome taste only occured with one to a small percentage of the fruit (e.g. Cherokee Green Pear, and Sugar Lump).

I may have missed a few.

[Dee]

Thanks for that great post! There are a number of varieties you listed that are new to me. I'm going to have fun looking them up.

[HL2601]

WOW Shule-impressive post!
While not as organized, here are some that have been exceptional over several seasons for both taste and production.

Orange Russian 117
Brad's Black Heart
Lavender Lake
Lithium Sunset
Lucid Gem
Mocha Splash
Chocolate Stripes
Girl Girl's Weird Thing
Indian Stripe PL
Medovaya Kaplya
Iva's Red Berry
Chang Li
Japanese Pink Cherry
KARMA Pink
Cuostralee
Rosovyi Krupnyi

[Dee]

Nice! I have been very tempted to try Orange Russian 117. Now even moreso.

[ddsack]

I had two new to me varieties in 2019 that exceeded my expectations.

Queen Marbena, which had a more intense, sweet flavor than I expect in many yellow/orange tomatoes.



and Smiley Worms, which I grew because of the weird name, but it had a light sweetness, not found in the Roma types, good production, and I loved being able to cut it in a lot of little equal sized circles for salads or for topping cracker appetizers.

[Dee]

Great pictures, thank you for sharing them. Both those are new to me (and I thought I was the only one who sometimes grew things purely based on theirs names LOL!). Smiley Worms looks a bit like Auria.

[Nan6b]

For great taste and great production:
Bajaja
Berkeley Tie-Dye Green
Dotson's Lebanese Heart
Dr. Carolyn
Hardin's Miniature
Post Office Runt
Post Office Spoonful

For great taste & better than average production:
Butter Apple
Dark Galaxy, gorgeous.

For great taste only:
Maglia Rosa
Wild Tiger

For great production with good taste:
Heinz 1439
Pomodoro Sorrento Selection
Velvet Red (mild & sweet)

[Shule]

Of those I listed in my previous post, the ones that were most exceptional, with regard to flavor, on those particular years, included the following:

Early Girl F1 (2014)
Green Giant (2015)
Husky Cherry Red F2 (2015)
Early Girl F2 (2015)
Ovita (2016; really surprising and good flavor)
Tatura (2017)
White Queen (2017)
Brandy Boy cross F2 (2019; tart, PL)
Marion (2019)
Sheboygan (2019)
Polish Linguisa (2019)
A micro Husky Cherry Red F-something (2017)


Of those, I've only grown Early Girl F1, White Queen and Tatura more than once, so far, and they didn't taste the same, nor as favorable, the other times. Tatura tasted like a regular red instead of totally awesome and White Queen tasted sour (like sour milk, sort of, except not bad sour milk, if that makes sense) instead of sweet as it had tasted. Well, I tried growing Green Giant again, too, from saved seed (in 2017), but it was crossed with Golden King of Siberia. I grew the micro Husky Cherry Red again, but it's unstable and different every year.

The tomato to gain the most favorable response from a certain relative of mine was New Yorker V (grown in 2017), although I didn't personally list it above. Another relative really seemed to like Market Wonder (2015); I really liked it, too, actually.

Matina in 2016 had appeal to a lot of people.

Of those in my new list, I plan to grow these this year:
* My tart Brandy Boy cross
* Marion
* Ovita
* Sheboygan

[FarmerShawn]

I almost always opt for flavor over production, but both are a nice surprise. My list as of now:
Wes
Sheryl's Portuguese Red Heart
KBX
BKX
Juliet F1
Brandywine, Sudduth's Strain or Cowlicks
Orange Russian 117
Matina
Lucky Tiger
That Russian Tomato
Russian Mini Yellow
Dwarf Numbat
Dwarf Rosella Purple
dwarf Loxton Ladd
I could go on, but I guess I won't right now.

[Nan6b]

I forgot about Matina. Very good taste and very good production. Also, my mother gets good taste & production every year with Big Beef and Early Girl F1.

[Gthegardener]

I've only been gardening in the Northeast for 3 years, but I have managed to grow quite a few varieties so far! Here is my top list for taste and production:

Cherries:
Black Cherry (taste and production)
Lucky Tiger (taste and production)
Maglia Rosa (taste and production)
Sunrise Bumblebee (taste)
Pink Bumblebee (taste)
Sungold (taste and production)

Medium sized tomatoes:
Black from Tula (taste and production)
Green Zebra (taste and production)
Dark Galaxy (wild boar farms) (taste)

Large tomatoes:
Cherokee Green (taste)
Cherokee Purple (taste)
Girl Girl's weird thing (taste and production)

Dwarfs:
Dwarf Tennessee suited (taste and production)
Dwarf purple heart (taste)
Dwarf Brandyfred (taste)

[Shule]

[mention]Dee[/mention]
Sorry, I missed that you asked for OP/heirloom varieties. The ones that don't say F1, F2, F3, etc., or cross in my posts are heirloom or OP varieties. Well, technically the F2+ are literally open-pollinated, but not true-to-type.

[WoodSprite]

My favorite OP/Heirloom tomatoes are:

Juane Flamme
Eva Purple Ball
Matina
Green Zebra
Black From Tula
Gardener's Delight

I grow for flavor and don't pay attention to production. Even so, none of these were stingy with production.

[AlittleSalt]

It is thought that Gardener's Delight is one of the parents of Sweet 100 Cherry F1.

Black Krim and Rebel Yell are unbelievably good tasting. Production is dependent on so many things.

My opinion: If it's a PWR (Pink when ripe) tomato - grow it.

[PlainJane]

A few years ago I grew Lime Green Salad and was shocked both at how good it tasted and how prolific it was.
Last year I decided to grow Green Bee instead. Completely different growth habit, but the flavor and texture...I just love it. I put in 4 plants this year.

I always grow Carbon and Solar Flare for the taste. Solar Flare is also one of the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen. Under appreciated.

Last year I was very pleasantly impressed by Clear Lake Heirloom. It had very early fruit set, good production over a long period, and was decently disease resistant (I don’t spray). The taste doesn’t quite come up to Carbon or Paul Robeson but it’s very good. The fruit is also consistently decent looking, little cracking, scaring, cat facing, etc.

Probably the single tomato in my garden last year for knock your socks off flavor was Jazz.
Downside - in my climate it’s very disease prone and not a generous producer. I put in one plant this season anyway, just to get a couple of fruit. I won’t be sharing them, lol.

[OhioGardener]

I loved reading through this thread for ideas for next season. Here are mine:

Taste and Production:
Juane Flamme (Sand Hill Preservation, intense, complex, fruity, and so many that you get sick of picking them)
Peacevine Cherry (Restoration Seeds; flavor continued to improve and peaked in fall)
Blue Ridge Mountain (Funke's Nursery; like a good Brandywine but earlier and more of them)
Saraev Svetloplodnye (Tatiana's Tomatobase; sweet and not bland and a good keeper for a heirloom tomato)
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (my only complaint was the relatively concentrated ripening period)
Vechniy Zov (surprisingly early with surprisingly tasty fruit and a lot of them in spite of being in a semi-shaded corner of the garden)
Purple Calabash (strain originally purchased from JL Hudson in 1990; intense and complex and may be too much for some)

Also worth mentioning:
Black Beauty (the only extra dark antho I've tasted so far that has balance)
PI129129 (the sweetest tomato I've tasted by far and not bland; it was in container and I''m re-growing to see if can repeat in ground)

[Shule]

I'd like to add to add Yellow Plum to the list, for flavor (for fresh eating). It definitely exceeded my expectations. I just figured it might be a good yellow tomato, but it's super sweet and really good.

[GardenGuy00]

2017

• Brandy Boy F1
  Black Cherry
  Pineapple

2018

• Abraham Lincoln
  Stupice
  Japanese Black Trifele
  Pruden's Purple
  Supersteak F1

2019

• Kentucky Beefsteak
  Honey Delight F1

Sadly this year has been a pretty bad year for tomatoes all around, however.

[wykvlvr]

This was my first year to grow Tigerella. Love the tangy flavor mine were not mild or bland by any means. Also shocked at how productive my single plant is/was. Yep that uncovered plant has survived an inch of snow and 4 days of below freezing temperatures and our recent 3 days of freezing temps and is still growing. In fact I spotted a flash of red orange deep inside yesterday so will have to check it out today...