Wednesday, September 09, 2015

comparing paste tomatoes

tomatoes plum IMG_3660b
From left: Tiren, Stump of the World, Cordova, Opalka, Heinz 2653, San Marzano, Nova
Not shown: San Marzano G3, Polish Linguisa

I'd like to eliminate 2 or 3 varieties. And grow less variety for my paste tomatoes. I really prefer the big meaty tomatoes, but they produce fewer tomatoes than the smaller ones. Of course one big Opalka is the size and meatiness of 5 or 6 tiny Novas.

My Notes:
Tiren: Very early, heavy producer, seems hollow, not so meaty
Stump of the World: I think not a paste tomato, a saladette, Huge production of sweet small fruits
Cordova: Good production, med sized round fruits.
Opalka: Amazingly beautiful and the meatiest tomato I have seen. Very few fruits.
Heinz 2653: Hard for me to distinguish this one from Cordova.
San Marzano: Similar to Cordova in size, maybe thinner and a bit longer. Low production.
Nova: Lots of tiny fruits.
San Marzano G3: This was my standard paste tomato, but it produced very few fruits this year in sprite of the front row seat I gave it.
Polish Linguisa: This one is performing stellar in my Mom's garden. It's a late producer of few fruits in my garden. Fruits are large, delicious and very meaty.

I think I will eliminate Stump of the World and Nova and double up on Opalka and Polish Linguisa

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fedco has a great paste tomato, Blue Beech, named after the farm where it was grown, selected and saved. I have started and planted them here in Maine for the last 4 years. For me not planting BB would be like not planting Sungold.

Mike the Gardener said...

I feel in love with Amish paste ... easy to grow and they taste so sweet.

kathy said...

All right! I'll try these two next year. Blue Beech and Amish Paste. My next choice for one to give up would be San Marzano. They are late, never produce very well for me and are quite small.