How Was Your Tomato Season?

How Was Your Tomato Season?
Summer Bounty!

The longer I grow tomatoes, the more my preference to grow a particular kind of tomato seems to shift. The first image that comes to mind when you think about a tomato, is the regular slicer that you would buy in a store. So, when you start thinking about growing your own, it stands to reason that you would focus on growing those kinds of tomatoes .

However, once your kitchen is overflowing with slicing tomatoes and you need to start thinking about preserving them, you realize that perhaps you ought to start growing a different kind of tomato. Let’s face it, you can only eat so many tomato sandwiches. When you want to use tomatoes for sauce, canning, drying or roasting there are simply better options than slicing tomatoes (they contain too much water and seeds). Enter the plum/paste tomatoes! Not only are they excellent for all your cooking needs, some are also just as good for eating raw.

My absolute favorite plum/paste tomato is Gilbertie. Yes, I know, it is a bit tricky to grow. It is very susceptible to blossom-end-rot during the entire growing season (not just early on). So it is important to give it some extra calcium and never to overwater this plant. Since it is an heirloom it is also susceptible to a number of diseases. On the other hand, it grows so rapidly that it often outgrows the diseases and it will keep on producing until well into October. The tomatoes from this plant are large and very meaty: they make absolutely the best slow roasted tomatoes ever!

From left to right: Gilbertie, Granadero, Juliet

I have tried a number of other plum/paste tomatoes, mostly not very successfully. I have tried San Marzano and Amish Paste and I thought they were underwhelming at best. The plants got diseased before they really started to produce and I found the tomatoes kind of small. Who wants to skin that many tomatoes if you want to can them? I did not think the taste was all that great either.
I have tried Big Mama, but holy smokes, what a magnet for early blight and septoria blight! My gardens have been pestered with both over the past several years, so why bother with a plant that is super prone to getting these diseases?
This year I am trying Granadero (Cooks Garden). I don't think I will grow that one again either. It is also very prone to every blight known to mankind (and does not recover as well as Gilbertie for instance) plus the skin is super, super thick. Forget about trying to skin these tomatoes: way too much flesh sticks to the skin. In addition, although the skins are red, often the inside of the tomato was white and hard as a rock.
I am giving Roma VF from Southern Exposure a 2nd change. Unfortunately, I find it just as "blah" as San Marzano and Amish Paste.

Other tomatoes I grew this year were slicers: Tropic VFN and West Virginian 63, both from Southern Exposure as well. They were okay, but not outstanding. Oddly enough, despite all the diseases, the trusted heirloom Big Rainbow, out-performed all the other slicers.

Big Rainbow

Of course I also grew Juliet, my all-time favorite tomato! It is sweet, prolific and very versatile. One plant will keep the entire family well supplied for a season. (I should get royalty payments or something like that because I grow Juliet seedlings for neighbors and friends as well).

In general, I think this has been a tough tomato year. Lots of diseases and fewer tomatoes per plant than other years. I would love to hear what your experience was this year and whether you have any suggestions for plum/paste tomatoes to grow for next year.

Whatever you grew, I hope it did NOT look like this:

Seeds sprouted INSIDE of the tomato!

How Was Your Tomato Season?