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Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 8:04 pm
by Shule
What are your favorite 4 to 6 ounce round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes that are either indeterminate or long-producing determinates (or semi-determinates), and why?

I think mine are currently these:

Current top favorites:
* Matina (early; great taste; vigorous plant)
* Early Girl F1 (prolific; early to early-ish; can be tasty; big harvest at the end of the season)
* Frittata Kitchen (early; prolific; great flavorful taste in cooking; sport of Bloody Butcher with the same plant/production habit, but different fruit; I favor FK over BB since FK has firmer fruits, stronger flavor, more seeds, and it's excellent in cooking--I use this size of tomato in cooking a lot; FK was a kind of weird taste fresh, though, but it's still good and flavorful, IMO; you know how bubblegum tastes weird? It's kind of that kind of weird, but it doesn't taste like bubblegum, exactly, and the weird flavor is only one of its flavor tones--the rest of the flavor is similar to Mountain Princess: tangy.)

Other favorites:
* Mountain Princess (early-ish; great taste; good production; plant clumps a lot at first, and takes a while to get very big, but then it grows nicely)
* Chocolate Chestnut (for taste; tastes like brown sugar; I hear it can be very prolific, but mine wasn't in 2020; trying again in 2021)
* Cosmic Eclipse (seems to be a good producer; soft fruit; while the taste wasn't a selling point for me, it's certainly edible; stripes; anthocyanin; round)
* Nodak Early (kind of like Mountain Princess, without the small/clumping start, firmer, rounder fruit, and milder, less-acidic taste)
* Sub Arctic Plenty (in containers, it can be prolific and have a good texture; might not produce all-season in areas with longer seasons, or where it matures earlier)
* Red Beauty (very attractive fruits, even before they're ripe, with decent production; tastes like tomato soup; about 70 days to ripe fruit, from the transplant; beefsteak shape; anthocynin and stripes)
* Bloody Butcher (fun to grow; soft fruits; mild but good novelty taste; produces less at the end of the season, but it produces all season long)
* New Yorker V (excellent taste; I need to grow it more to evaluate whether it produces all season)
* Manitoba (I need to grow it more to evaluate whether it produces all season)
* Lemon Boy F1 (Similar to Early Girl F1, but yellow, with longer internodes, somewhat bigger fruit, a much bigger plant, exceptionally long vines, and somewhat lower production.)

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 12:17 am
by MrBig46
Beefsteak tomatoes?
Vladimír

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 1:09 am
by Shule
MrBig46 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:17 am Beefsteak tomatoes?
Vladimír
Yes--round, oblate, or beefsteak shape (I don't mean beefsteak sized, and I don't mean the variety called Beefsteak).

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 5:16 am
by PlainJane
Hmmm ...
I’ve been trending toward bigger tomatoes lately but I’ve grown Lime Green Salad several times and it falls into that size range. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I really like it.

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 5:58 am
by MrBig46
I would recommend Start F1, whose seeds RJGlew and I offered this year. Relatively early, size 4-5 ounces, beautiful red tomatoes, fertile and excellent taste. I don't know better.
Vladimír

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 11:24 am
by Labradors
My favourite is Little Lucky. With Brandywine as a parent, it inherits that wonderful taste :).

Linda

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 4:26 pm
by Tormahto
Bulgarian Triumph, although the size might be mostly in the 3 - 4 ounce range.

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 4:51 pm
by habitat-gardener
Rose de Berne --it has been my most consistent producer through the season, in two slightly different climates. It has done well in part shade, in full-inferno sun, and everywhere in-between. Consistently produces several tomatoes every week, once it starts. Good flavor, though when I'm growing 50 other varieties, this is the one I tend to share most because it looks so traditional (not GWR, not an odd shape, not too big, unblemished).

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 4:59 pm
by Labradors
I was going to say Bulgarian Triumph too Tormato as it's one of my favourites for taste, but Tania's page said it was only 1-2 oz! I do think that mine are bigger than that.
I LOVE that this is a compact plant which can be grown in a wimpy tomato cage :).

Linda

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 6:02 pm
by PlainJane
Labradors wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 11:24 am My favourite is Little Lucky. With Brandywine as a parent, it inherits that wonderful taste :).

Linda
Am growing it this year for the first time. We’ll see!

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 8:55 pm
by Gardadore
Have been trying to determine which varieties I grow that fit into this size category. Thought of Little Lucky so glad to see it listed. I don’t weigh my tomatoes unless they are very large. But this summer I will weigh some of the smaller ones to see if they fit into this category!
You should be very happy with Little Lucky, Plain Jane!
The only other one that fits this description in my mater list is Esmeralda Golosina a GWR that I love to dry in the oven. It is the perfect size to slice in half or thirds and has a wonderful flavor when oven dried. Left it off the grow list this year just because I had no more room!

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 10:15 am
by Gardadore
In rereading this thread I realize I have seeds for Rose de Berne. They are from 2009 so may not germinate easily and don’t remember anything about them one way or the other. Might give them a try again next year after the great review here! Hope I can get them to germinate!

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 4:50 pm
by Sue_CT
I have really only grown early girl I think in this catagory, because I prefer my tomatoes a bit larger. If I might ask, why specifically this size? I would guess the smallest I like is more like 6-8 ounces. Does Azoychka fall into this catagory? I like that one, too, but not sure if it is closer to 6-8 ounces.

Re: Favorite all-season 4-6oz round/oblate/beefsteak tomatoes

Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 6:05 am
by Shule
Sue_CT wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 4:50 pm I have really only grown early girl I think in this catagory, because I prefer my tomatoes a bit larger. If I might ask, why specifically this size? I would guess the smallest I like is more like 6-8 ounces. Does Azoychka fall into this catagory? I like that one, too, but not sure if it is closer to 6-8 ounces.
Well, I realized there was a dearth of discussion on tomatoes this size. So, I figured I'd get some going.

Plus, it's my favorite size for an all-purpose tomato. Well, all purposes except dehydrating. Big tomatoes are so much faster/easier to dehydrate. Big tomatoes are easier to can, too, in my opinion, but 4-6oz tomatoes aren't difficult (and they don't usually have tough cores or super strong stems; I don't mind cores in canning personally, but I know some people like to remove them first).

Tania says Azoychka is medium, or 6-10oz.