We grew 15 new (to us) varieties this year in our seed trial gardens at GROW HUB and at four other garden locations. Here are the results! Thank you to Meg from Gainesville Giving Garden, Tim, Martha and Marian for contributing their time and garden space to these experimental varieties.

View the results of the 2024 Tomato Variety Trials in PDF format here.

Anarita

Grown for their unique “storage” quality, with the dream that we could have these sitting on our kitchen counters like the Italians do, long after the growing season is over. They were fairly productive with very low pest and disease pressure and draped on nice clusters. However, it was hard to harvest an entire cluster as they ripened in succession, not all at once. They lasted surprisingly longer than some other varieties in the field and we still have some fruits sitting on the counter about 3 weeks after harvest. The flavor is lacking the depth of a good tomato and is mealy and bland with thick skin and flesh. We will keep an eye on them to see how long they last, if the taste changes and if cooking them does anything to make them pop.

Final verdict:

Not tasty enough for all the trouble. If we want tomatoes after the season is over, we’ll make sauce or jam from better tasting varieties! We won’t grow them again. But now our curiosity has been satisfied.

Atkinson

This seemed like a good variety to try based on reviews and suitability to our climate so we were eager to see for ourselves. They got off to a slow start and seemed to remain small plants at both locations where they were grown. At one site they all died from Fusarium wilt, despite its supposed resistance to it. At another site, they were growing and still doing well into mid July. The flavor is average, nothing outstanding, and the fruits seem late to come on from what we observed at the one site where they survived.

Final verdict:

Not excited about the susceptibility to wilt, lateness, and average flavor. We won’t grow them again.

Barnes Mountain Orange

Recommended by a farmer friend and seed saver in Virginia, we were excited to try this, as we are always on the look out for large-sized open-pollinated varieties. They did have very large and beautiful fruits, but overall low productivity. Many of the flowers died, likely too hot for them to survive our hellishly hot spring. Vigor of plants steadily declined through the season. Flavor was good but that’s about it.

Final verdict:

We’re disappointed about the apparent susceptibility to our heat and inability to hold flowers, leading to low productivity. We won’t grow them again.

Black Cherry

We already knew this was a good one based on gardeners’ experiences shared with us over the years, but we had never given this one room in our gardens until this year. We had seeds passed along to us from Florida seed saver Gary Staley who died many years ago, and his seeds were given to us via Seed Savers Exchange. The plants were all vigorous and healthy with low pest and disease pressure. Super productive and consistently a favorite among the tasters with an average flavor rating of 8.8/10. Tasters described a range of qualities: robust, umami, citrusy… She’s a beautiful little tomato, too, with deep purplish-black markings on a deep red fruit that was fairly large-sized for a cherry.

Final verdict:

Yes, we love Black cherry! We will certainly grow this again to begin slowly improving this variety each season for local adaptation! This is officially on our list of local tomato variety recommendations. Five stars!

Dancing with Smurfs

Recommended by friends and fellow seed stewards in the Orlando area, Seed the Stars. They grew really well and were among the most healthy and vigorous plants of all we grew, with hardly any disease or pest pressure throughout the season. Beautiful stems and foliage were colored purple and the fruits themselves were stunning too, an average cherry-sized fruit. It took practice knowing when to pick them as their color was a bit unusual and many people in our garden picked at the wrong time. The only disappointing thing about Dancing with Smurfs, is a big one: nearly everyone who tasted this was not impressed, with an average flavor rating of 6.6/10. Some folks did appreciate them, but most of the comments reflected blandness, and we agree. When we pulled up all the plants at the end of the season, their root systems were consistently impressive- extensive, long, lots of root hairs and very little evidence of root knot nematodes.

Final verdict:

Ooof this is a tough one! We loved everything about the growth and appearance but nothing about the flavor. We saved some seeds, maybe this is a good breeding project one day. But we grow tomatoes for flavor, and with so many other choices, we will not grow this one again in the near future.

Another variety passed along to us from Florida seed saver Gary Staley who died many years ago, and his seeds were given to us via Seed Savers Exchange. This reminded us a lot of the familiar Everglades currant in all manners – appearance of the plant, fruit size and very similar flavor. Very productive and overall vigorous. The flavor was either highly ranked or very low, so hard to say what an average 5/10 actually means when some say, “little flavor grenades” and others say, “bitter and funky”. Perhaps some fruits were eaten too early or too late and gave poor impressions. They are tiny currant-sized fruits, not cherry-sized. Great for little hands that loved picking the tiny fruits in the garden.

Final verdict:

Ooof this is a tough one! We loved it’s vigor and actually thought the flavor was good ourselves (we had lots of chances to snack on them in the garden), but there was some disease pressure, and since it’s similar to our beloved Everglades, we might not continue this one. We did save seeds if anyone else wants to try them.

Khaki Flask

What a peculiar little tomato! We learned of this one through our tomato friend Tim Noyes, and it piqued everyone’s interest at our last tomato tasting event in 2023. The seeds are nearly impossible to source, but we got some from Tim and gave these a go. The plants are really small and would do well in small gardens or pots. Vigor was overall good but some plants were much better off than others; they had higher pest and disease pressure compared to other varieties. They weren’t very productive but that’s to be expected from smaller-sized plants. The small gourd-shaped fruits stay green when ripe, so knowing when to pick them took practice, which came with consequences because just touching the fruit clusters often made them fall off – ripe or not. Nearly all the tasters, even kids, enjoyed the appearance and flavor, it’s certainly unique!

Final verdict:

Ooof this is a tough one! Khaki Flask is certainly unique and worth preserving but has some serious downsides. We had one plant in particular that was vigorous that we saved seed from, and because there is enough curiosity about it, and the potential for it to be a patio or potted plant, we’ll grow Khaki Flask again and see if we can work on improving it.

Matt’s Hornet

A productive and vigorous plant bearing loads of really unique shaped and colored tomatoes that came on early in the season. Small plum-sized fruits with cute little tapered edges. Very little pest or disease damage was noted. The plants were very unwieldy, requiring regular trellising to keep them in check. Flavor rating was mixed with an average of 7.4/10, some really liking it and others finding them bland.

Final verdict:

We’re curious enough and intrigued by the shape, color, and productivity to try this again and possibly adopt Matt’s Hornet into our tomato variety recommendations. We’d like to grow Matt’s a couple more times to make more observations.

Mission Dyke

We’re always searching for open-pollinated large-sized tomatoes for our climate because they are so hard to find. We’d grown this one years ago, as it was a variety passed along to us from Florida seed saver Gary Staley who died many years ago, and his seeds were given to us via Seed Savers Exchange. Unfortunately, the disease was high and vigor on the low side, steadily declining as the season progressed. They took awhile to mature, which is always tricky for any tomato but especially larger heirloom shaped ones that can crack and then become ruined particularly later in the season when pest, disease, heat, and humidity pressure are high. Even when picked early, mild cracking and other slight deformities accelerate rotting and create waste when the weird-sized lobes and chunks have to be cut away. The flavor rating was a 7/10, with a few notable comments of its old timey classic and balanced flavor.

Final verdict:

We wanted this one to be a winner, but sadly it is not. We won’t grow this again and will pay our respects to the seeds passed along to us that just don’t make the cut, unfortunately.

We’re suckers for novelties and had to try this! This is not the same species as our regular garden varieties, and is considered cultivated wild material, originally from South America. This is not a domesticated type, but foraged and eaten as a wild fruit in its native habitat. Farmer Joseph Lofthouse in Utah has been working with this and slowly moving it more towards domestication. We grew one section wild and on the ground like we do with Everglades, and another trellised. The ones trellised did far better, the sprawling ones struggled and died early. Their flowers are definitely more open and therefore receptive to cross-pollination which is the reason Joseph grows them: for improved genetic diversity within the variety. The fruits were small and hard to know when to harvest. They hardly resemble a tomato flavor and can’t be thought of in that way. They were tasty, if we were able to harvest at the right time. Although there were decent clusters, many cracked and were ruined and we ate very few, not a crop for food security, but certainly unique and fun to grow. The pollinators really enjoyed the flowers, and we did too. This is a really pretty plant, almost ornamental.

Final verdict:

Not for us, and unlikely to grow again. We did save a few seeds in case in the future we wish to cross it with another variety and begin a breeding project. It was fun to grow and pretty when trellised but doesn’t win any awards with us.

Pink Ping Pong

Another variety passed along to us from Florida seed saver Gary Staley who died many years ago, and his seeds were given to us via Seed Savers Exchange. The vigor was high, being one of the healthiest looking varieties all season and up until the very end. Disease and pest pressure were low. The productivity was fair, and continued until late in the season when others had slowed down. Flavor was an average of 7/10. The fruits are sort of the size of a ping-pong ball, which is nice – bigger than a cherry but not a large slicer – unique as there aren’t a lot of in-between sizes like this.

Final verdict:

We’re intrigued by the late season production, the size of the fruit and the responsibility to possibly steward this variety further, improving it for adaptability here. We will grow this again and make more observations.

Sunrise Bumblebee

This little cutie caught our eye in the seed catalogs and we were excited to try it for ourselves. The little fruits are a lovely size and color, like gorgeous watercolor strokes of sunrise and sunset colors. The productivity seemed high and the plants had high vigor through the season with low pest and disease pressure. The flavor was quite good, noted for its sweetness and fruitiness. It’s a fun little size and shape for fresh eating.

Final verdict:

Yes! This one will definitely be grown again as we love the vigor of the plant and the fruit quality. Needs a bit more time under our watchful eye before we whole-heartedly recommend it, but we’re excited to try again.

TC Jones

Always on the search for a large-sized and open pollinated tomato, we were intrigued by this one and excited to try it. We were blown away by the overall vigor and health of this plant in both garden locations it was grown at. This plant was also very productive and while it has a somewhat ribbed shape to the fruit, they rarely cracked or had any cat-facing that is typical of larger heirloom tomatoes. They held up well after harvest too, lasting several days on the counter. They did take a little longer to ripen, as is normal for larger sized fruits, so a slightly earlier planting may be beneficial. Flavor was hard to summarize with an average of only 5.8/10 and varying perceptions including fruitiness, mildly sweet, and savory. No one disliked it, it just wasn’t a big wowza in the flavor department.

Final verdict:

We will definitely grow this one again, as a durable large fruit is always of interest to us. The productivity and appearance were impressive and if we continue to grow and adapt here, selecting for the best tasting fruits, we think we’ll have a winner.

Tommy Toe

We’ve had this little treasure for a while, thanks to a recommendation years ago by local gardener Chris Quire. We were long overdue to revisit this with a closer eye for detail and to save some fresh seed as our limited stock was getting old. There was a good amount of variation between plants and a couple with odd-sized fruits compared to the more typical small, red, round cherry. Not sure why this is; maybe years ago some were accidentally crossed with another type. We identified a couple of great plants with huge clusters of fruits and good vigor. They were really quite stunning and pronounced in appearance. The fruit continued on until the end of the season and probably would have kept on growing if we hadn’t taken them out. The flavor was consistently rated high, with an average of 9.7/10! We only provided the fruits from our favorite plants for tasting, not the odd-balls.

Final verdict:

Yes! We are really excited to clean up this variety a bit by selecting for the vigorous plants and large clusters, while continuing to hold onto the flavor. While we already have many red cherries on our list of recommended varieties, this one is certainly worthy of being added.

Umberto

This has been in our collection awhile and similar to Tommy Toe, was long overdue for another grow out with a closer eye for detail. This is a rare Italian heirloom supposedly named for the last king of Italy. Plant health and productivity were high early in the season, but the plants did get a bit unruly and needed continual staking and pruning. It was one of the first varieties to start dying off, but only after producing very abundantly. This is a paste-type tomato, so fresh eating is fine (we liked them, but maybe because they were among the first of the season when our taste buds were eager for tomatoes!), but not great. Umberto will be better appreciated as a cooking paste-type tomato. Average flavor rating was only 6/10 but that’s consistent with a more meaty, paste type. One of the growers loved it and was still reporting fruiting in mid July!

Final verdict:

Yes! We are excited to compare this to the hybrid Juliet we recommend as a paste tomato. It seems that in different growing conditions they can be extended later into the season. Their productivity will make it great for those who want to preserve tomatoes. We just need to accept that it’s not the best in flavor for fresh eating. Umberto’s highest and best use will be as a cooked tomato since he wins no awards for superb flavor or fresh eating texture. Future seed saving can focus on flavor development.