Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#61

Post: # 49618Unread post bjbebs
Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:54 pm

Salobre, followed by AWV and Dwarf Sweet Scarlet.

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sjamesNorway
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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#62

Post: # 49709Unread post sjamesNorway
Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:14 am

LK2020 wrote: Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:34 pm I thought of another good one if you are including red hearts: EM Champion. I've grown it a couple times (bought the seeds through Ebay from a Russian woman) - grows vigorously, productive, early, very tasty. I've grown it in 5 gallon containers, so I imagine it would do even (a lot) better in the ground.
I agree - EM-Champion is a great tomato, and my favorite red. (The only reason I didn't mention it was that it's not "round, oblate, or beefsteak".)

Steve

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JRinPA
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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#63

Post: # 51663Unread post JRinPA
Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:17 pm

I picked the first cuostralees today. They were pretty good tasting for as ugly as they are, and these first ripe ones are usually defects of some sort, so for that consideration, they tasted great. I don't think pollination was very good this year. Even some of the hybrid trusses are were having rough sets. We'll see how they turn out this next month. I need to find my c sharp tuning fork or buy another one. The first broke after some use, the second one just hid itself away...three years ago?

These taste good, but the shapes...a lot of loss. I ate the two on the left. I don't like the third one with clearly fused blossoms, one half ripe, the other half green. The ones on the right, I think I nipped the leader off a month ago. It was 2 ft of stalk, a truss, and no leaves left. The are clearly dried out and likely compost. That little thing goes with the stalk set.

We finally got some rain last week, about 1/4", and then a good 1" yesterday. You can see a couple trying to burst.

Those first two pics had Vivid color mode on, the latter two are true color. That Vivid makes all the rust on the truck glow!
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edit: One of my Costoluto Genovese plants had to be pulled last week. It had some tomatoes one it that were about ripe, but the third truss of them started going gray/black on top...it took me a minute to realize the vine clip, the 1" black circle thing, actually broke the vine. The vine had gotten really fat at about 2 ft high, fatter than the clip diameter, and the clip girdled it, then split the vine. So I'm down to three or maybe four of them. The fruit on the others at this point seems pitifully small.
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JRinPA
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Cuostralee

#64

Post: # 51757Unread post JRinPA
Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:27 pm

I know these will taste great. [mention]Shule[/mention] I saw you have cuostralee marked as mild? I would call it full flavored, not particularly acidic, never tastes "green" or bland.
This evening I saw a truss with 2 or 3 red ones and one green, so I went to pick the red ones, and they were all the same tomato - that big one on the left. A whole lot of the cuostralees' first truss tomatoes are fused one way or another. I've always thought these were good size tomatoes, but I don't think they always do this - just the weather this year. But clearly they do not form as perfectly as a hybrid like Big Beef F1.
The big one is just shy of 2-1/2 lb. But it is 3 or 4 tomato blossoms.
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These 3 are all fused as well. edit: two pics are of same tomato, reversed
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edit: two pics are of same tomato, reversed
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Shule
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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#65

Post: # 51765Unread post Shule
Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:19 am

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
I grew Cuostralee in 2016. That's the year I watered everything a lot, and I didn't use black plastic to warm the soil (which often increases flavor potency), either. Most things were mild that year for me. That's good to hear it can be stronger in flavor (although it was still good).
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#66

Post: # 51794Unread post JRinPA
Thu Aug 05, 2021 11:19 pm

Anyway, so what's your favorite? Feel free to evaluate them even if you didn't like them, though.
From that long list, I only see four others I've grown.
Rutgers Select -I grew this once but it was 12" raised bed so not a fair comparison to the good clay soil. It wasn't a spitter, but it practically was...not for fresh eating. Acidy is about the balance of what I recall. I had a bunch planted at a remote garden but that year was terribly dry and nothing did well there.
Moskvich - growing this year, first time. So far I've only had a few. They were the first to have ripe red tomatoes on one truss. Not much taste to speak of though. Tasted like a 4th of July, or Better Boy hybrid to me. Should have more of an idea by next week. I hope it is good because it did put out early even though it went in late.
Costoluto Genovese- growing this year, 2nd or third time. Still green. I don't particularly remember the taste. More the disappointment of finding them collapsed/overripe. We'll see this year.
Thessaloniki- I grew this last year and it was flavorful. Maybe a bit acidy, a bit tart. Strong flavor. But rather thin walled and not what I though of as meaty. But not a real fair test because the one plant that I knew was thessa was in a bad spot. I had...I think 5 that were in a row that lost its markings, but nothing did real well in that row.

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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#67

Post: # 51854Unread post Shule
Sat Aug 07, 2021 1:39 am

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
Thanks for the feedback on those.

My Thessaloniki that I watered a lot in 2016 had much bigger, rounder, meatier fruits (and was more prolific, and easier-to-harvest, too). Every other year I've grown it (with drought) it was about 70% smaller (but still a decent medium to medium-large size), beefsteak-shaped, and pretty juicy (I wouldn't say it was super thin-walled for me, but much thinner-walled than in 2016). The drawback with all the watering is that the flavor is much, much milder (but it's not unpleasant; it's just mild--but the texture is good). I may have given mine extra potassium and/or other things that year, too, but I'm not sure. It's like a whole new variety.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Re: Favorite (for taste) red OP medium or large round, oblate, or beefsteak tomato

#68

Post: # 51884Unread post JRinPA
Sat Aug 07, 2021 2:18 pm

Yes, thessa was juicy.
I think there is something to that - that some tomato varieties favor certain conditions. Some need more water, some tolerate more direct sun.

I don't think OR117 liked full sun at all. It hated its own premier spot and cage at the full sun comm garden a few years ago. The few that pollinated the whole season were soft and collapse-y. It had previously thrived in a double row of cages in the backyard "by the house" bed, that gets sun 8am to 2pm EDT in June, then full house shade the rest of the day. In that same bed/year, Costoluto Genovese was a poor performer...as was KB and Stump of the World and Cherokee Purple. What did well there that year in that spot was the OR117, my fauxpice little saucer specials, and the Eva Purple Ball.

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