It is January and winter finally came to Sweden, yet I think of spring already. I have analysed qualities of the tomatoes sorts I planted last year and created my own ranking that can help me to take decision what I should plant this year. In general I prefer black tomatoes and they took the most place in my green house last year. They have intensive tomato taste and very delicate skin. Almost all black tomatoes taste great. Therefore most of my tomatoes were black. They are not literally black but dark red to brown (this year I found some sort that looks really black and I want to try it). I have read that they contain anthocyanins, an antioxidant believed to help fight cancer, diabetes and obesity which only assured me that they are the most valuable sort of tomatoes. I bought also some bi-colored ones and one red type. Two years ago I planted also some orange sorts and they did not taste good. They were just very boring in taste and had very little aroma. I must add that all tomatoes I grow are GMO free even though some of them look strange.
This is my ranking of tomatoes I planted last year. My criteria were:
1. When the first fruit ripened (the sooner the better).
2. If the plant was productive.
3. How the fruits tasted.
4. Some additional individual features of the tomato that I especially liked or disliked.
And the winner is:
1. Vintage Wine (bi-colored)
My Vintage Wine plants were productive. The fruits were middle size - average weight of a fruit was 161g. The biggest one weighted 441g. and it was the biggest tomato I got in my green house last year. It started to ripen quite early - in the second half of July. Its taste and aroma were just fantastic. It was my second year of growing Vintage Wine and I definitely will buy news seeds this year too.
2. Paul Robeson (black)
The plant was productive and started to ripen early. The average weight of a fruit was 100 g. It tasted great - it is the best tasting black tomato I have ever tried.
3. Black Sea
Man (black)
The plant was productive and started to ripen early (middle July). Fruits weighted between 310g. and 25g. Very good in taste.
4. Japanese Black Trifele (black)
The plant was very productive. It started to ripen quite late (first half of August). The fruits were middle to small size and very tasty. They had a pear shape.
5. Carbon (black)
It tasted very good but the plant was not very productive. Moreover one of my Carbon plants got sick without any visible reasons (surely there were some but I was not able to diagnose them). The average fruit weight was 212 g.
6. Reise Tomato (red)
This is the most bizarre tomato I have ever seen. It is a whole bunch of small tomatoes grown together creating fantastic shapes. It has a very good, intensive and classic tomato taste with a slight tendency to have a little sour taste. The plant was productive and the average weight of a fruit was 66 g. It started to ripen early. I put it only on the 6th position first of all because this tomato was very impractical - some parts of it got very ripened while the others were still green. I never knew if I should pick it already or wait. The other thing I did not like about this sort was its hard skin which was very difficult to peel off because of the fruit shape. It was not pleasant to chew it (especially the smallest parts).
7. Black Krim (black)
The plant was very unproductive. Fruits average weight was 92 g. It began to ripen early. Good in taste.
8. Pink
Berkeley Tie-Dye (bi-colored)
The plant was not very productive. It started getting ripened a little late (beginning of August). The average weight of a fruit was 154 g. It looked very interesting because of the colored skin but it was average in taste.
9. Russo
Sicilian (red)
The plant was very productive (one of the best in my green house regarding this criterion). The average weight of a fruit was 71 g. They started to get ripen at the beginning of August so not too late. I put it on such late position on my list because of its boring taste. I did not like it. Of course it tasted better that tomatoes available in super markets but in my opinion it is not worth growing it on your own.
