Tomato Taste Test 2024

Only grown 4 varieties this year.............
Sungold - after a late start , this did well and the flavour was good as usual.
Black Krim - prolific enough and juicy but the flavour was on the poor side.
Chocolate Cherry - prolific again, later to ripen and the flavour debateable - some loved it but others weren't overly impressed.
Tumbling Tom ( red ) - average in both yield and flavour.

All grown in unheated GH and no disease.

 

Taste was down this year due to the terrible weather, only a few sunny days above 20c through the whole of June July august

Sungold: Taste: 8 Earliness: 8 Yield: 8
Most reliable although one plant got pretty poorly

Sevryuga: Taste: 7 Earliness: 7 Yield: 8
One of my favourites, large pink ox heart with meaty flesh, sweet, almost no gel or seeds. Plant always looks weedy and weak but puts out a lot of fruit.

Nangina F1: Taste: 5 Earliness: 6 Yield: 9
Blight resistant, still producing even outside, firm and consistent fruit that I'd describe as commercial. Not the best tasting.

Fantasio F1:Taste: 5 Earliness: 5 Yield: 3
Blight resistant, only grown outside, wouldn't grow again due to poor yield

Banan Krasnyi: Taste: 6 Earliness: 5 Yield: 8
Very productive and vigorous torpedo shaped fruit.

Purple Cherokee: Taste: 9 Earliness: 3 Yield: 4
Best tasting tomato, normally produces more earlier for me but this year put paid to that.

Purple Cherokee tiger striped: Taste: 6 Earliness: 6 Yield:5
Dwarf, great looking early ones were a bit mushy but improved. Not nearly as tasty as its parent

Ruthje: Taste: 4 Earliness: 4 Yield: 2
Rubbish small fruits on a weak plant

Rote murmel: Taste: 3 Earliness: 6 Yield: 1
Outside only, vigorous and blight resistant, I ate about three of these currant sized toms the rest either didn't form or were eaten by wildlife.

Roll on next year!

 

Sungold - taste 9, earliness 6, yield 2, for some reason my plant did far worse than the other varieties in the greenhouse. Outside yield was slightly better - then it got blight.
Purple Cherokee - taste 5, earliness 3, yield 5 - yield would rate higher but lots still green and snails keep attacking them overnight! I found the taste a bit watery (lack of sun)
Chocolate pear - taste 5, earliness 6, yield 7 - again I think taste affected by the lousy weather

 

For me everything was late this year but Rosella went on and on. I have just ripened the last indoors. Honeymoon was one everybody loved for taste. First time I have grown that one. In general taste was not so good this year. Next year I shall go back to Black Russian as it has a unique taste and just grow Skykomish outdoors. I didn't monitor yield but in general it was down due to the slow start. House tomato gave me some early toms in pots but not so good as previous years.

Sungold taste 8, earliness 6 lateness 8. Did well outdoors
Rosella taste 7, earliness 6 lateness 10
Toddler taste 7, earliness 5 lateness 8 Did well outdoors
Skykomish taste 5, earliness 4 Did OK outdoors
Honeymoon taste 10, earliness 5 Did OK outdoors

I had no blight this year so couldn't compare varieties.

 

Rosella is still my favourite of the ones I grew, and the most prolific. I still have some that were picked green, ripening on the spare bedroom windowsill.

Rosella taste 10, long season 10 (started ripening earliest, went on longest), yield 10
Gardener's Delight taste 7, season length 7, yield 5 (didn't do well this year)
Yellow Pear taste 7, season length 7, yield 7
Blue Bayou taste 8, season length 8, yield 7
Sungold taste 5 (too blandly sweet for me), season length 7, yield 7

All grown outside in a mostly not very warm summer.

I used the last of a packet of Sungold seeds and I won't buy them again. I'll look out for something else next year - probably another small/cherry type because they seem (generally) to ripen faster outdoors than larger types.

 

Sungold: taste 9, earliness 7 lateness 10, yield 9
In an unheated greenhouse, still picking in December
(Just picked and ate the last one today 10/3/25 - bizarrely tasty after months on a dead blighted plant!)

Rosella: taste 9, earliness 6 lateness 6, yield 7
reasonably long season, lower yield than sungold, really tasty

Big Daddy: taste 8, earliness 6, lateness 8, yield 8
Big tasty tomatoes, very little pith, in an unheated greenhouse, still picking in early December

Cherry Orange Honeycomb: taste 3, earliness 4 lateness 2, yield 4
A bit like sungold, but worse in every aspect! I shan't bother again.

 

I neglected to update on this post last year, so, for info, here are some notes:

Bolivian Orange Cherry. Punchy sweet/tart taste, thin skinned, juicy. A vigorous plant. Good one.

 

De Barao Black. Very productive cooking plum. Good, firm texture. Okay raw but better cooked. Plant didn't mind being on a windy, exposed corner.

 

Still one of the best, in my opinion. Sweet and juicy. Not a cherry, though. Some exceed 150g.

 

Lava Flow. Supposed to be the bee's knees by reputation. I thought it was nice but not outstanding.

 

Aces High. Very productive dusky plum. Meaty flesh. Decent raw but fries up lovely.

 

Darby Striped Pink/Yellow. Old sister line to Tigerella. Very pretty but not much flavour. Decent productivity.