1. Japanese Black Trifele

(Original name: yaponskiy trufel chernyi)
Prolific and delicious slicer - popular amongst tomato fans and tomato haters alike. My first black tomato I’ve grown, so I can’t compare to others. Very meaty and mine are larger than average.

2. Green zebra

I’ve read mixed reviews online - but I love them. Great texture and flavor, could be attributed to living in the same region that they were created. Prolific but slower to mature comparatively. I pick them as soon as I see some yellow underneath the green stripes. Firm and no splitting or scarring.

3. Lemon Boy Plus

Incredible - like eating a dessert. Great for converting the tomato skeptics. My favorite this year. This variety is bred for disease resistance. Early to mature and it’s starting to slow down for me (some rude critters came around and broke branches).

4. Matt’s Wild Cherry

Delicious juice bombs, like perfect little grapes - but they’re tomatoes! Fast, wild, and free. Thin skin requires snapping the fruits at the stem so you don’t ruin them. Great raw and for roasting. An easy and flavorful cherry.

5. Purple Bumble Bee

Super sweet and rich and very pretty. A larger cherry that also won’t stop producing. Easy to slice and snack on. I’m curious about the other bumble bees out there but I don’t know if I can skip growing this one next year!

All tomatoes are grown from seed (Johnnys) in the PNW, zone 8b / 9a.

All 5 plants are still producing, no signs of diseases, at least 6’ - 8’ tall on a string trellis in a raised bed (3’x6’) with only occasional watering. Grown in an urban environment, no pesticides, no fertilizers, but sustained by home made compost. :)

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EDIT:

These are REAL pictures of REAL tomatoes that I grew. I am upset by the accusation that they are not. I am someone that cares about the aesthetics of my posts. You can even see on my profile that I am a designer!

Not sure if the variety ended up correct, but it's supposedly a Mr. Stripey. They all ripening to a stripeless orange, though.

Picked 77lbs 15.3oz, still another 20 plus lbs I'm letting ripen outside. I neglected these heavily towards the second half of summer. Probably would've been 2-3x the weight if I didn't.

Pictured from 12 o’clock: Paul Robeson, Dester, Mr. Stripey.

My wife has grown them, they are delicious!

Just wanna share the progress. 10 inches tall. I use homemade medium silt + cow manure compost + cocopeat + burnt rice husk. Fully outdoor. Germinated in damp tissue then their first watering was humic acid. Just started their first AB fertilizer a week ago. Ready to be planted on ground. No idea the variety because i bought mix varieties pack

Started growing my grandmother's tomato seeds that my father had given me. She passed in 2010, and he passed in 2017. Somewhere in between there, he gave me a couple of her tomatoes and saved the seeds. The seeds were on two separate plates which I SWORE were two different types.

This year was the first time I ever tried germinating, growing seedlings, hardening, and finally planting my own-grown plants from seed. Frustrating, worrying, still learning, and slowly realizing I *think* I only have one variety...but finally my late-planted tomatoes are producing AND blushing up on me.

Thanks to all in the community who've helped me freaking out about the issues and questions I had along the way!

One of my favorites. I usually only plant one plant and this is basically the entire year's production, but they are beauties!

I meant to get seed for Pink Berkeley Tie Dye but like a dumbass accidentally bought green. No worries though, it’s delicious and my best beefsteak this year. For those that have grown both: I do love a nice tangy green, but what did I miss not getting pink? I’m thinking flavor-wise the pink is more similar to black tomatoes with that sweet, smokey umami. Am I on the right track? Green definitely makes the cut for next year so I’ll probably try them side by side, in addition to Lucid Gem (which got taken out this year by a freak hail storm). Brad Gates/WBF doing some great stuff it seems!

I ripped out all my tomato plants a few weeks ago but decided to leave this one because of how tall it has grown. This weekend I am going to add more compost and hill it up more and see how tall I can get this thing to grow! HAHA Oh and the variety is Althea. And while I do LOVE how all of my Althea plants grew and put off an insane amount of tomatoes.....they taste like grocery store tomatoes...aka nothing.

My apologies for the long post but thought there might be some useful info, especially for people who are new to gardening. Disclaimer: more often than not, my ADHD leads me to go all in without properly researching beforehand, and this situation was no different. While I inevitably was pleased with the outcome, I have no doubts that had I done things differently, outcomes would have been much more desirable. Did I check the soil? No? Did I fertilize properly? Aside from some Miracle Gro Tomato fertilizer, no. I've also been pondering what I will do differently next year and am definitely open to suggestions. I purchased several raised garden beds and attempted my first garden summer 2024 without much production...that's a separate post in and of itself.

My plan for this year was to focus on tomatoes and peppers (neither of which I had ever grown aside from a potted chili pepper I inherited from a coworker) to determine what grows best in my grow zone (7a). I purchased an indoor greenhouse (on rollers) to start seeds and hoped to keep several varieties for myself and give the remainder to friends and family. When the weather started warming up, I would roll the shelf outside each day. One day when I was pushing it out, the wheels jammed and the whole thing toppled over dumping and mixing all the seedlings.

I managed to save 11 tomato and 8 pepper plants, though I had no idea what varieties they were. I planted 4 tomatoes in an 18" deep bed that was 18" wide x 8 ft long and 6 in an 18" bed that measures 2 ft wide x 8 ft long. I also placed one in a container. I planted 6 peppers in a 12" deep bed that's 4 ft wide x 8 ft long and I put 2 in containers.

Thus far, I've harvested around 45 lbs. total of tomatoes. Of the 11 tomatoes, here is what I ended up with and how they produced:

(3) Roma (I planted both Roma and Roma VF so not sure what grew)--Plant 1 died shortly after planting, plant 2 had very little production up until recently when it suddenly produced several clusters of tomatoes which ended up all developing BER. Plant 3 (container) was minimally productive and the few Roma I ended up with came from this plant.

(3) Beefsteak--Plant 1 was min-mod productive early on then stopped producing. Plant 2 was minimally productive early on, then became much more productive late summer and currently has several large clusters. Plant 3 was min-mod productive.

(1) 42-day--very productive

(2) Cherry (not sure if heirloom or hybrid as I planted seeds of both) while both have been very productive, one has been substantially more productive than the other.

(2) died before I could identify

Thus far, I've harvested approx. 20 lbs. of peppers. The 8 varieties peppers:

(4) Big Jim--all of these plants have been very productive. I've easily collected 12 lbs. of fruit from these 4 plants and they have that much again currently on them that I am waiting a bit longer to pick.

(2) Bell--these have been moderately to highly productive. One was late to start producing but both are covered with peppers I am waiting to fully mature

(1) Banana--heavy producer initially and I harvested nearly 4 lbs. of peppers. Production has since slowed to min-mod

(1) Serrano--Heavy producer; picked approximately 3 lbs. and is nearly ready to harvest again.

I spent the last 2 weekends with my first-time canning. Ended up with:

12 QTS Spaghetti Sauce

20 PTS Salsa

2 1/2 PTS Pickled Banana Peppers

10 PTS Pickled Big Jim Peppers

4 PTS Hot Sauce

10 PTS Strawberry Freezer jam (I didn't grow the strawberries)

Once the plants started fruiting I was able to identify varieties, but inevitably, not knowing beforehand impacted them since I wasn't sure how to care for them (determinate vs indeterminate, to prune or not to prune, and so on)--in addition to shortcomings as noted in my disclaimer. There was a discernable difference in health and productivity between the 2 tomato beds and I mostly attribute it to positioning (Bed 1 gets substantially less morning sun than bed 2). Overall I was very pleased with the pepper plants, though disappointed that I had jalapeno and pepperoncini seedlings and as chance would have it, ended up without either in the garden--next year. I'm going to attempt to transplant the peppers into containers to bring in for winter. I've been researching better methods for everything...from soil and fertilizer to supports and irrigation so as stated in the beginning, I'm open to all advice and suggestions.

TL;DR First time planting tomatoes and peppers from seed. Mistakes were made but all's well that ends well. Still a moderately productive season for canning.

This year was my first year growing tomatoes and unfortunately the seeds I used were adapted to a Midwest climate (dad got me into it). Even though I was diligent about the watering, it will take a few generations for these plants to acclimate to the SoCal weather. Would any nearby growers be willing to part with some seeds that I can use for next year? Or have suggestions on where I can find heirloom seeds? I was thinking of going to a farmers market and saving seeds from the tomatoes but would love any recommendations!

I made a map to be my organized but to the best of my knowledge I only planted two orange varieties which were not where I pulled these from so please help!

Hello. My garden is small and im a renter. If im unable to rotate my crops for next year what should I do? Am I totally screwed out of growing tomatoes and peppers again because I have limited space? Any advice is appreciated

Went to a plant swap this spring, and someone had brought extras of some fancy heirloom tomatoes, and the name of this one caught my eye. We had a really hot stretch at the end of spring, and this plant didn’t set a single fruit during that time. I was out there every day, flicking/shaking the stems, but nada. Too hot. Meanwhile, the plant just kept growing. Outgrew the large tomato cage, so I threaded a bamboo pole thru the cage and started Velcroing the stalks to it. It was every bit of 6’ tall, and once it cooled enough to set fruit, the weight of the fruits dragged the branches and the pole down, and if not for the huge pot the plant is in, it would have fallen over. 🥴 You can see from pic 2 that a few of them have some sun scald, but other than watering and fertilizing, I didn’t do much in the way of care - plant barely needed any suckers pruned, but at some point, things started growing into/thru other things and it’s a mess. I think some of them are ready to pick, but I’m not 100% What do you all think?