[soilman]

Yes, you can get Sweet Million from lots of suppliers, not just Territorial, and in the form of seeds.

 

[astro]

I've had a lot of success growing tomatoes grafted onto a vine...very tasty abnd prolific. A bit pointless saying what they were called because it's probably not relevent to your part of the world. But worth a try if you can find some.

 

[soilman]

Leave plenty of space for your indeterminate tomatoes.

Indeterminate varieties will spread out all over the place and keep producing as they spread. Determinate varieties are only worthwhile if you are machine-picking or machine planting or something.

I did not stake or Trellis my Sweet Millions. I simply put some straw under them to keep them off the ground, or let them rest right on the perrenial clover variety (I think it was Dutch White Clover) that I had growing around the tomato plants as a ground cover. There was very little loss of fruits to ground-contact-caused rot. Nor did I find pruning worth the effort. I found that the new vines produced about as well as the earliest vines, so I saw no need to prune. I could never figure out any of the pruning systems that I read about, any way. Yea, I pruned off dead stuff and stuff that I couldn't keep off the ground and started to rot, but that's it. When I first started growing tomatoes I followed all the recommendations about pruning and staking or trellising but I think it was a waste of time. You might want to allow MORE space per plant than package instructions say. 2.5 square feet per plant, not the 2 square feet that is usually recommended. This seems to produce a better yield pr square foot.

 

[bethann]

heirlooms! They are higher in acid content, packed with flavor, etc.

They are a bit trickier to grow, and you have to choose from among the dozens of varieties--I'd suggest starting with Burpees heirloom sampler plants, that's what I did last year.

 

[soilman]

I tried a few heirlooms. I got very poor results. Stupice for one. A few others. They are so tricky to grow that I don't know how to do it and get good results. They just produced small vines with few fruits and the fruits they produced lacked flavor. Right next to them I had wonderfully productive delicious Sweet Millions.

It is true that modern many modern varieties are curiously low in acid and seem to have been intentionally selected for lower acid. However I think you can still find a few modern hybrids that are fairly high-acid.

 

[Mskedi]

I like beefsteak, brandywine, heirloom, roma, cherry (the red ones and goleden ones)...

I think I'd have a hard time narrowing them down for you. I haven't even been able to decide for myself what I'll be putting in my garden this year.

What type did you use that you didn't like?

 

[nookle]

They were called 'scotia'. They were medium-small, and round with a bit of a teardrop shape.... kind of grainy, and very poor flavor.

Here

Maybe I should steer clear of plants that have no taste description?

 

[Vegan Joe]

If you can start your tomatoes in pots and them transplant them. You can bury the stemm all the way up to the top feww leaves. and the stemm once buried will put out roots. This way you can develope a good deep root base. I've grown tomatoes on the side of the house that grow 10 feet in height.

 

[Ludi]

Once again I've probably started way too many tomatoes.

Taxi

Principe Borghese

Sweet 100

Gardener's Delight

Subarctic Maxi

Glacier

Stupice

Rutgers

 

[DLS]

www.uppercanadaseeds.ca They have about 150 different varieties of tomatoes available. For a roma or paste try Amish paste. I love the Brandywine even though they are not heavy producers, they are tasty. I am going to try the Black Krim this year, they are supposed to have a smokey/salty flavour.

 

[substitutionpicks]

You can notice a difference between San Marzano and other tomato varieties if you're eating them raw. They're sweeter but what is noticeable is the fact that they have a delicate acidity. I always recommend them to people who are picky about eating tomatoes, I think they're wonderful fresh, unmistakable. I don't notice much difference if I'm making a sauce with tomatoes from a can and I add a bunch of other different ingredients. If I'm making a recipe with canned tomatoes, I use cheaper options because I don't see the point in spending money on the San Marzano. Unless I'm making a pizza sauce in a blender with just canned San Marzano and sea salt. Then, they're worth it and that's an exception. But I usually go for canned substitutes. Substitutes for San Marzano Tomatoes: Fresh & Canned Tomatoes