From 54 to 28 to 7 Tomato Varieties 

I have got to say, your level of presentation, clarity and the sheer wealth of data in those graphs is amazing. And getting better by the video. I am preparing to start a market garden, and specific data like this is invaluable so I don't have to run as broad a variety trial. I'll pitch some in for your service when its all up and growing :)

Seems I've gone in the same direction; from 21 varieties of tomato to one! This year the garden is dedicated to heirloom varieties for seed saving - the state of the world being what it is. My one cultivar is Black Krim.

Wow! So much information and it is all so satisfying and easy to understand! One of my favourite video's ever! Thank you so much!

This was so in depth and yet clear at a glance!! Thank you!

I love the thoroughness of these videos, thankyou!

Take a shot each time he says 'context' 😂 (i love your videos seriously)

Brandywine and big rainbow are my favorite heirlooms for flavor. Big rainbow is one of the sweetest and very productive. Sungold are definitely very yummy.

You have put an INCREDIBLE amount of energy and efforts on your channel. Definitely my favorite one among with Charles. Thank you for everything you have shared with us.

We love the Belarusian Heart variety and it does extremely well here in Arizona with epic harvests. Thank you for another in depth analysis and thank you for sharing.

Yes I am starting 34 which is 5 times more than I ever had. Just last season found just how good they can be. Looking for favorites again

I have already viewed and shared this several times. Trying a couple of new varieties each year makes my heart happy, along with old favorites.

Oh how fun! I'm in short-season cool-summer northern BC and got tired of growing in the greenhouse, so I did a 55-variety tomato trial in my south-facing field this year. I was surprised at how well some of them did -- and how unrelated cool-weather performance was to days-to-maturity. Origin was more indicative (for instance, anything from Russia did well). I now have roughly 20 tomatoes to carry forward into field production next year for further tests, seems like a similar structure to your trial. My season is short enough that determinates win out in production, with the added bonus that that don't need staking or management. If you're looking for fun, tasty tomatoes that will work in relatively cool climates (?) I'd recommend Karen Olivier's Taiga and KARMA miracle. They have a lot of colour and flavour, and Taiga at least is indeterminate for you. They might get you some of that variety you're looking for.

Have you considered reducing your irrigation on the plants from aug onwards. If your having issues with splitting it might make a difference. I've grown Sakura every year for 15yrs+ and it performs well everytime no matter what. I'd really recommend it. Great video, thanks.

"Nepal" for slicing and "Supersweet 100" for cherry tomatoes is what I've landed on here in Montana. Huge yields, amazing flavor, very early yielding and deal with the variable weather here well. Sungold are amazing, but just like you I've had hugely variable yields. Not worth the climb for me when Supersweet 100 are so good

Great video, such a wealth of information. I especially appreciated the mention of Black Krim, which I will be growing for the first time this year. Thank you! Angela

Perhaps try some of the varieties of the Dwarf Tomato Project along the walls of the tunnel because they require less space. There’s over 100 varieties to select your preferred fruit colour and size!

Lol! Feo de Rio Gordo - Ugly from Fat River 😂 I was surprised reading that cultivar on your chart!

I recently visited a test garden in Prince Edward Island that was using marigolds as companion plants for their tomatoes. I would love to see your take on companion plants and soil nutrition.

What a massive effort on your part. Very helpful. Thanks - you offer something very different on your channel.

Outstanding video!! & Thank you for sharing your results!!

Here in Northern California people grow 'dry farmed tomatoes' planted in Spring and not watered through the growing season, our rain peters out in early April and resumes in October, ideally. These tomatoes are very intensely flavored akin to dehydrated tomatoes and are quite delicious. Last week I harvested some tomatoes from my garden and as the were somewhat muddy I put them in a bowl of water to clean them, and got distracted. When I got back to them hours later they had all split. I am entertaining the idea that tomatoes are especially sensitive to water and watering, and that impacts not only splitting, but also the intensity of flavor. I hope you incorporate this as a factor in your ongoing explorations. I love your videos and appreciate the upgrade in the graphics recently, they really help to communicate the information. Thanks.

I really like this video Your methods of recording data are very clear, presented both orally and visually with clear explanations of each tomato variety. With limited space, I have already selected the varieties (only 4) to grow this year, but am already looking to see which ones to try in 2023: There are so many to choose from!!

Wow! I really appreciate all your graphs with yield comparison weights and harvest times. Amazing documentation. I love seeing it all laid out in such a clear presentation. I know that was a LOT of work. Thanks for sharing.

This year I will be spraying a foliar feed of "Cal-Mag" - a hydroponic product made by General Hydroponics - for splitting problem. That and a gradual lessening of soil moisture toward the end of the season.

Fascinating trial, and on such a scale. It's odd you mentioned dehydrating, and I wondered how they did. It is such a good way to prevent food waste too. Some stunning tomatoes among those, and I took some notes for next year. I'm quite astounded about the failures too. So many people seemed to have problems with bought in seed the past couple of years. It was also interesting seeing the ones that split, I can't wait to see next years trial too. Thank you! Always look forward to what you are doing.

amazing data, thanks!

Spectacular video thank you for sharing

I really do appreciate videos like this, comparing yields of different varieties. This is a really good example of how different tomato species grow well in different areas. I live in TN in the US. Brandywine doesn't survive long enough to fruit because of the different leaf spots we have, but Paul Robeson is durable and keeps producing until the temperature drops in September. I grow tomatoes in raised beds in my backyard, too hot to put them in the greenhouse in the summer.

Another well thought out and delivered video

Wow. As always, yours is far and away the most useful gardening channel I'm subbed to. Just think of all the new gardeners trying out tomatoes for the very first time and all the frustration they'll be avoiding because they know what to expect from these varieties. Thanks!

I've only grown 5 varieties this year and they were late as my new polytunnel was delayed. My father grew 'Gardeners Delight' and they were always the most tasty. The same name now applies to a F1 as well as an open pollinated one. It has lost its RHS award as it is not considered a 'cherry' any more as they grow too big. I am certainly disappointed with its flavour these days. My 'Golden Cherry' tomatoes are very flavourful and don't seem to split like 'Sungold', not that I've grown them together. My 'San Marzarno' plum tomatoes are very slow and would have been better without the delay. Last year they grew well and the trusses all ripened together, ready for batching in sauce. My 'Costoluto Fiorentino' did better this year in the ground but I'm not sure that the flavour is as good as it is cracked up to be. It certainly benefits from stopping the trusses at 4 or so tomatoes. They do continue fruiting up the length of the vine and have done better with firm support. My final variety is 'Ailsa Craig' which has grown larger fruit than previously and I haven't reduced the trusses. It is supposed to be a standard type and fruits throughout the season. It was the best available for my Caprese salad, being tasty and a good size. It was also good in my Greek salads, but I had to substitute cucumber for the green peppers as the peppers were delayed too. It was my first year of growing cucumbers and they have romped away producing too many cucumbers for me. However a better balanced salad production next year I hope, and I've already bought some different tomato varieties, 'Atomic Rooster' and 'Black Russian'. The watering, when you grow so many different varieties together, fine tuning watering for 1 variety is not possible. The variety that splits, sticks out. Several 'Sungold' growers have stopped growing it due to the splitting problem. I'll have to watch this video again so I can study the graphics on a larger screen, I appreciate them and acknowledge the work that all that data gathering represents. Regards from Anglesey.

You are a scientist of note!

I lost all my Brandywine to blight. My main consideration for both indoor and outdoor tomatoes is resistance to blight now. I grow in a cool, damp valley bottom with many others and blight ravages us.

such efforts ! it was so informative thank you for your hard and precise work

I alway appreciate your content a lot, please keep it up!

Well… I had taken the “Gardeners Delight” off of my list of 16 tomato plants to grow this year. I may put it back on. I am going for production mostly… with added plants for flavor. Celebrity. Bella Rosa, and Red Snapper for production of wave after wave of tomatoes. Sungold, Supersweet 100, and now Gardeners Delight for a sea of small flavorful tomatoes for snack. Then several Chefs Choice Pink and Black Krim for extra flavor and color. I want to try and make a few messes of canned and frozen spaghetti sauce for my family. Awesome reviews!!!

Hell yeah, I've been waiting for this video to come out ever since we talked of its potentiality earlier in spring of this season! @RedGardens

Most informational and advanced tomato variety video on youtube! Thank you

Great content! Good job.

Good video!

Thanks for sharing your experience with tomatoes - you have given me some ideas for varieties to try along with my old favorites (mostly in your discard list!) this year. One variety that I would not be without that does not fit into any other category is Wild Argentinian (available from Brown Envelope Seeds). Tiny flavour bombs on a sprawling (or hanging) unfussy plant, with a long season. I sprinkled them onto salads and freeze for use on pizzas and other dishes over the winter. I hear you in terms of reducing the variety count, but there is always room for one more...

Paul Robson...no doubt a "Red" tomato.

I’m quite new to gardening. I don’t know why, but my tomatoes are growing TINY. Like the size of beans. They’re supposed to be about 1.5-2” diameter. I know my dirt isn’t very good, but I don’t know if could be that bad.

Hey man, I have been following your channel for a while now: keep the good job :) I was wondering if you would be interested in trying some varieties of tomatoes that were bred to be able to be stored during the winter? I don't know if they are grown elsewhere but in Mallorca and Catalonia we have "Tomàques de penjar" means literally "tomatoes for hanging-up" [in Catalan] that are grown with that purpose in mind. Probably they are similar varieties elsewhere also. Cheers!

Great video. The diagrams are always the best. I would just watch an hour of statistics. Top notch mate!

wow, what a dataset

Less variety means you can o more plants of each, then select the best from those to save seeds from. I'm trying to adapt some to my conditions this way. I have done it with some Heirlooms selecting for shape.

I struggled with sun gold this year, in the West Country uk. You’re right that nothing beats the flavour so I’ve always grown it. One thing I’ve always noticed with it is that it always is the first to fruit, so I wonder whether the cold spring this year affected it more than other varieties. Worth persevering with I’d say

I like to grow lots of varieties of tomatoes for the same reasons you gave. I usually give a tomato three years to convince me to continue growing it. I had heard so many glowing reports about Paul Robeson, I grew it for four year, trying to get it to produce a nice crop. It never did. So, I stopped. I know that everybody has different soil and different weather conditions. Because of those variables, what does well for one person, can be a waste of time for another. Several years ago, I grew 45 varieties. Over the years, I have whittled that list down. This year I grew 15 in raised beds and 7 in containers. I think I might still grow 15, but five of them will be new varieties.

yeay Bruce!

Is impressive how do you keep track of all that data while being so busy with so many diferent cultures and diferent gardens.

Growing here in western Washington, sungolds are my go to cherry tomato variety. I swap and try out other cherry tomato varieties each year, but I always make sure to have at least one sungold. I was shocked your sungolds did so poorly. I grow mine unprotected and let them grow much more wild, because I get more fruit out of them that way. Also, and this may be both variety and the bushy way I grow them, sungolds keep producing for me well into October. I can generally get one last harvest out of them on Halloween, which is fun to bring it something orange on halloween that isn't a pumpkin. This year, my sungolds hung on until the 5th of this month, with my last harvest on the 3rd. I love the flavor and they are actually really tasty as a fresh sauce with some herbs. Later in the season, most split from the huge amount of rain we get here, so I tend to make a lot of sauce. I also haven't found a cherry tomato variety that is more resistant to pests and disease than sungold.

I imagine you collect the data for your gardens in a spreadsheet then use that to create these graphs. Could you create a video or link to some resources for this data collection and presentation? That'd be fantastic! Love what you are doing.

I grow a lot of indoor tomatoes, and just want to second tte suggestions that the splitting can be managed with irrigation conrol. More frequent but much smaller amounts of water can pretty much eliminate it. A couple of suggestions, "Black Cherry", great taste, sells very well. "Principe Borghese", bred for drying but great salad tomato and makes fantastic fresh tomato sauce.

We have 29 feo de rio gordos in this year. They are still cropping, but we had a frost last night. We estimate that we will finish at around 5.2 to 5.4 kg/ plant. But they are in our small tunnel, 10 m x 4.3, that is only 8 ft at the ridge. Next year this will be repeated, but we will do another 30 in our big tunnel, using lower and lean, to see what they can really do when given the space to do so. We love the feo. Great robust plants, and a lovely tomato for sauce. Plant spacing was a double row, going up to a single wire, 45 cm between plants, 1 m between rows, under cropped with basil

Sungold cherry tomato is a hybrid and from all the garden videos I've watched.... You can not save the seed and have a good tasting tomato the next year. You have to purchase seed. Even the growers are struggling to maintain the quality. Last summer (2021) I focused on finding the best paste/sauce tomato. I grew 5 varieties and 6 plants each. I made the exact same recipe of tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce from each variety. There were so many factors that I had to take into consideration when making the final choice but San Marzano is the cooking tomato that I'll grow each year in my very small garden. Here is the list of tomatoes I'm growing in 2022.... Dwarf Marlinga, Dwarf BrandyFred, Dwarf Rosella Purple, Early Girl Bush, Orange Peach, Kellogg's Breakfast, Striped German, Pink Brandywine, Ananas Noire, Large Barred Boar, Berkley’s Tie-Dye Green, Black Krim, Black Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Carbon, San Marzano, Isis Candy Cherry, Black Cherry, Sweetheart Cherry, Sun Gold Cherry, Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato. I no longer purchase any "Zebra" or "Bumble Bee" because the peeling is way too tough however they are beautiful and would travel to market well. Each year I'll be culling out any indeterminate tomato that is hard to grow (which is most of them) there is one I can't bare to give up even though I'll be lucky to get a dozen edible fruit and that's Berkley's Tie Dye. I can not even describe the unusual and intriguing flavor. Some how it packs a different flavor in each of the 3 colors through out the fruit. There isn't another tomato that I've tasted so far to even compare with it. I can say it has a bit of tart in the mix of the complex flavors. My mouth waters just thinking about it. It would be fun if you had a taste test festival with your friends and gave the names of the top 3 at the end of it all. Thanks for all your hard work.

Your statistics are next level. I always try, but get lost half way. I have no advice to give. I can only share and I learn from you guys. I grow Roma tomatoes for sauces. Moneymaker and little wonder for House consumption. In South Africa where I live it gets crazy hot. Up to 35 Celsius. Sometimes hotter. I usually get split tomatoes when I change or alter my watering habits. My tomatoes want the same amount of watering through the start of fruit development. With my last batch of tomatoes I remove the tops and stop watering the plant. This I found helped getting the last green tomatoes to ripen. Thank you for sharing your experience with us, buddy. God bless and I hope you have a great season.

Each year I end up growing more and more hybrids. I do keep the classic black krim, cherokee purple, pink brandywine, etc, but in the USA, we just have so many wonderful choices of F1 Hybrids that have favorable characteristics, I can't help but move toward them. Like the classic san marzano/roma/amish paste gets beat by varieties like Burpee's Gladiator/Big Mama/Super Sauce (though I still grow san marzanos). I'm still producing Big Daddy, Big Beef and Better Boy into November so it's hard to say when my heirlooms are long gone (Minus my Kellogg's Breakfast). Sun Gold is great but I've moved to Sun Sugar due to the cracking issues. I keep trying to drop my trial numbers down but I seem to collect seeds at a pace that keeps me growing 40+ unique tomatoes per year. I love seeing your results because you break it down to production times, taste and weight per plant which I rarely have time to do.

I tried several varieties this year, including the Brandywines you grew. in my experience, their shape was often so irregular/involuted they seemed encourage insects and fungus, although they were very tasty. I was growing these exposed, out in the garden, so I'm wondering if they may be better suited to growing under cover or in a polytunnel/greenhouse. Thanks as always, Bruce, for your thorough exploration and sharing of experience. You've given me a few new varieties to try next year!

I grew Paul Robson last year too and although the tomato was delicious I got maybe 5 tomatoes off of each plant so just not worth the space in my small garden

My friend bred a sungold/yellow pear hybrid and it was fantastic! The very high productivity and soft texture of the yellow pear with the superior sungold sweet flavor.

sick data! that is how i start every spring and eventually just cannot spend the time on it.

The charts are perfect. Please consider growing popular north American varities as european varieties are hard to get (such as feo de rio gordo)

Very interesting tomato varieties, few of them available in Ontario. I might try Brandywine next year. I tend to stick with the same three varieties . Thanks for the info

Large tomatoes are almost never used for sauce here in Italy. We prefer small plum size tomatoes, like San Marzano and similar ones. Personally that’s all I grow, because they are good for sauce, for dehydration and for fresh salads as well

I would love to send you some seeds of tomatoes for next year if you are Interested. I grow outside, in a small greenhouse and hanging from the balcony. But mostly small in size. I decide by taste and durability in the short northern-german summer

Thank you soo much. I appreciate the effort and time you put into your work. I just liked and subscribed. I live in Ghana and I will like to have dorenia and Feo de rio gordo tomato seeds. I have been searching online but can't find any store that ships to Ghana. Please can you send me a few seeds. Thank you.

I've not seen that Milka variety before. Based on your review I'd love to try it next season. What was your seed source?

Hi. Sorry to make a remark, but tomato leaves are screaming at you about the deficiency of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium. The deficiency of all these elements simultaneously indicates a too acidic or alkaline reaction of the soil, in which all these elements pass into a form not assimilated by plants. Check the soil with litmus paper.

I love your graphs! What softwer did you use to colect the dsta and elaborate the graphs?

Sungold is a classic in my garden can't not grow them! Surprised by results though saying that quality is my goal quantity doesn't really worry me

Hi Bruce. Good content!! Thanks for doing the job. I grew Sungold F1 this year, 10 plants and they looked different than yours! The tressels were smaller with fewer fruit than the ones I saw on your video, and the fruits never became orange. Uniformly 70% of my Sungold split therfore I will not grow more than 2-3 next year. My favorite year in year out is the red cherry tomato "Annies Singapore", great taste and no splitting! + the vine is manageable. (my sungold f1 went bonkers and grew huge, impossible to manage) I could send you seeds of Annies Singapore if you like? Best regards Per from Norway.

Sungold is more productive thsn gardeners delight for me, but i dont have a greenhouse but we do have lots of sunhours each day. Ive noticed even tho my plants seem bigger this year than the last foilagewise and tallness, but seem to set less fruit. My conclusion is that sungold is not the most heatloving tomato.

I am not sure how tomatoes in a poly tunnel split. Normally, they do that after an abundant rain after a drought period, which I'm going to assume is not happening in a tunnel? So, maybe group the splitting tomatoes in an area getting less drip irrigation?

I am interested in the Milka but when I search I only find a red variety under that name. Are you sure it's called Milka?

Why not just dry the top 2 of that or any category instead of having Dorenia just for that when the taste of others is better?

How sunny was it this season over there? Wouldn't that be a factor in the difference from last year?

Do you save your own seed? If so, how much crossing do you end up with?

I swear I've heard your voice before. On CBC news Canada doing a journalist piece, perhaps?

Looks like your plants need more water.

Is there a good place to purchase these varieties in the US?

We put calcium chloride on our tomatoes to keep them from splitting

I had a huge amount of split fruit this year too, it's so disappointing when you don't have the time to cook or use them immediately and they go in the bird feeder. I only grew the usuals, Moneymaker, Alicante, Sungold, Gardeners Delight and another whose name escapes me. They were the 89c seedling pots from Lidl but grew and produced a huge amount all season and are still on the grow. There was 1 extremely windy night at the start of May I think, that blew my trellis off the wall because it wasn't attached good enough. About 2ft was cracked at the top of the stems so I ended up with N shaped plants where I restabilised them, not ideal but it worked. My final harvest was combined with a variety of chillis to make a hot ketchup, similar to Franks Hot Sauce except hotter, and the consistency of regular ketchup. Overall I'm happy with the results but definitely windproofing my grow area next year!

Hello, I'm also based in Ireland and wondering where you source your seeds? Any help would be great

I hate growing tomatoes...but i love their fruit. I *ALWAYS* get bites taken out of them by pests...especially tomato hornworm. I won't use pesticides, so I cut my yields easily in half or even less. I could cut off the bitten portions if the rest of the tomato was sound, but many rot on the vine. I think if i lived in an arid climate suitable to tomatoes, then i'd have a better yield etc. I feel the massive heat and humidity encourages slugs and snails and other pests.

Any blight or pest issues?

I posted a comment on root pressure, minimum evaporation needed to avoid deficiencies, and effect of too high humidity. Copy pasted the text a few times because of minor layout changes, then come back to the channel to see it has disappeared. I thought I was being helpful, and don't understand why it would have been deleted. Maybe it was marked as possible spam, up to be reviewed by by the channel owner?

The splitting is from too much water at once.

Seems strange you consider big tomatoes for making sauce. Professional growers use small sized (usually pear shaped) tomatoes bred specifically for sauce making. They are very fleshy with minimal seeds and not watery. I was forgetting that those are grown in open fields and are small sized plants so not the best for tunnel cultivation.

RED "context" Gardens

It's odd that you get such poor yield from Sun Gold. It's one of our best and earliest producers, in a similar climate.

To have that many split tomatoes in a poly tunnel, you really need to look at your watering program. My guess would be less water more often.

Paul Robeson is supposed to be really tasty.

Sir you are agriculture graduate

Can you please make different videos, for example what to look for when buying land / a house to grow food. What foods you should Not ever eat.