If you’re on the lookout for a delicious tomato variety, I’d love to hear your recommendations! There are so many types out there, from sweet to tangy, and everything in between. Some varieties stand out for their incredible flavor and versatility in dishes like salads, sandwiches, and sauces. Have you grown a particularly flavorful variety that you would recommend? Let’s share our favorites and tips for growing the most delicious tomatoes in our gardens!
There is a lot to be said for a really good green when ripe tomato. I suspect that to get the best flavor you have to have a green when ripe tomato that is well adapted to your climate. For me, Dwarf Saucy Mary, Dwarf Kelly Green, and Tom Wagner’s Muddy Waters had dramatically superior flavor. Michael Pollen, Green Vernissage, Brad’s Atomic Grape, and Green Zebra all just seemed like a nice color variation. I think the difference though might be timing- the ability to ripen during the pinnacle of my tomato season during the hot and dry part of the Western Montana summer. I managed a cross with Muddy Waters but haven’t gotten it very far- couple F1 seeds left though, and I can try again. However, I had also made a cross with Brad’s Atomic Grape and I planted a nice F2 of it in 2024 and found what I think were some examples of that best green when ripe flavor with nice stripes and anthocyanin skin. Which leads me to think that I may need to try some sun grown Brad’s Atomic Grape as I grew it on a shaded porch, but also to my above conclusion that your green when ripe has to match your climate to get the best flavor- so it might vary which one is right for you- but I would say worth it to try a good number of green when ripe varieties.
In other colors I also think Dwarf Eagle Smiley, Coyote, Amethyst Cream, Black Cherry, and Dwarf Gloria’s Treat have notably good flavor here in Western MT. Sungold F1 has notably good flavor as well. I’ve noticed some others with good flavor’s including Terrior seeds strain of a cherry tomato sized “Cheesemanii” and the Galapagos islands tomatoes may be a great place to look for some good flavors in general. Orange tomatoes tend to be good in my experience. I noticed in 2024 that the F1 of a cross I made with Dwarf Eagle Smiley seemed to be particularly good- which is I think a positive sign that Dwarf Eagle Smiley’s amazing flavor might be transferrable to new crosses. Will have to see what the F2 does in 2025 though!
I’ve been trying to stabilize a remarkable good and fruity flavor in a line of Joseph Lofthouse’s promiscuous tomato project but while it recurs in some of the plants the line has been remarkably unstable and almost certainly outcrossed to multiple fathers in 2023. 2024’s grow out included some segregants that were anthocyanin skinned potato leaf dwarf bicolors and with so many recessives it may be easier now to find the uncrossed offspring- we will see in 2025!
Lots of tomatoes that are supposed to taste good can be grown and seed saved here but I doubt they produce their best flavor here. The Western Montana mountain ranges tend to drain cold air at night and some only ripen in fall here and I think that is too late for best flavor. Growing in a high tunnel would probably fix that but I don’t think plasticulture is compatible with organic philosophy. The French used to use deep manure that composted and gave off heat and glass cloche’s, and glass houses preceded plastic high tunnels, so I suppose it is technically possible to do some season extension that wouldn’t lead to microplastic in our foods.
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We’ve been growing a selection of 20ish tomato varieties out of 50+ variety collection in the last 10+ years.
Taste is something few people can objectively agree on. Also culture, habit, previous experience hugely influences taste preferences.
Our bar for what we call “salad tomato” is rather high, in fact in my nearly half a century of living on this good Earth, the only people I’ve met with higher standards for tomatoes were my grandparents.
So I can recommend varieties, even if some of the ones we grow are unnamed, coming from long gone babushkas in villages around the country. But all must consider that any recommendation is a reflection of personal preference and not some universal scale of quality.
One other thing that must be mentioned is that soil, sun, temps and most importantly - water, have enormous influence on taste. In our garden we do not fertilize and water very sparingly, which never results in watery, bland, tasteless fruit, unless the variety is super shit ofc.
Here’s a list of several named varieties, which we prefer in a salad.
- Golden Medal
- Black Pineapple
- Cherokee Green and Purple
- Yellow Dusya
- White and Black Oxheart
- Calaman’s Pink
Usually we use mostly large size pink and red tomatoes but none of those are “named” varieties, they are named after the person we got the seeds from. We have 15ish varieties of those; they don’t yield large numbers but 800-1000 g per tomato is common, esp the first two clusters.
Here’s a short video of me slicing one of those to show the structure;
Ofc we grow 10+ varieties of cherry tomatoes on the side + 5ish more of paste tomato like San Marzano, Rio Grande, Rio Fuego, Speckled Roman and a few more unnamed ones. But the cherries we consider snacking tomatoes and usually most end up being eaten by all the kids around here + all the guests.
Let me know if I can be of any further help.
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Hot climate here, so we have two never-ending trials: special tomatoes that can cope, and decent tomatoes that will set fruit in warmer than average temperatures. From the special tomatoes list: Carbon (a descendent of Cherokee Purple), an in-house selection from Berkeley Tie-Dye Green, Isfahan (the best-balanced cherry tomato I’ve ever had), and Black Cherry Improved.
We’re not focusing on landracing tomatoes right now, but we don’t make any efforts to isolate, and seed gets saved into two jars: special flavors and textures and extra heat tolerant.
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Beth: are you hot and dry or hot and humid? Definitely enjoying this tomato discussion by all.
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Hot and dry.
If someone hot and humid is up for a trial, Flamenco has very open foliage, so would seem to have good potential in that climate. I didn’t have issues with sunscald, which was my biggest concern.
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After the past two summers, that sounds like one I need to try.
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