What tomatoes were your biggest disappointment in 2024

[Homegrwoninillinois]

With so many seasoned growers here. I am wondering what tomato you wanted to love this year but ended as a disappointment?

What about it disappointed you and will you try to grow it again in the future?

I not only like to learn about new tomatoes but I like to hear the point of no return for others.

I didn’t grow this in 24, because I’ve tried it numerous times with different seed sources and still hate it.

Paul Robeson. I know, I know. Everyone loves it but I do not. I hate its texture and its flavor.

~Sam

[MissS]

I'm sorry that Paul Robeson did not stand well with you. I loved it's flavor the few times that I got to taste it. For me, the plant is a disease magnet and I did not get anymore fruit after my first grow out. I tried four more times without sucess, so I now pass on growing it.

This year, with it predicted to be hot, I went for some heat tolerant saladette sized tomatoes. They grew great and produced really well, but they did not pass the test on my taste buds. So perhaps we should trade plants next year. I will give you Atkinson and take your Paul Robeson.

[Seven Bends]

My 2024 disappointments:

Iva's Red Berry -- Mine produced a small, bright red cherry, maybe slightly larger than a typical currant-size tomato but significantly smaller than Sungold. Inside was primarily seeds and gel; flavor was bright/tangy but not much sweetness and nothing interesting about it to me. It was a very healthy plant and super-productive, but I stopped picking them after just a week or two of harvest and pulled the plant mid-season because it was taking over everything around it and I just didn't enjoy eating the tomatoes enough to bother harvesting them.

Black Hole Sun -- delicious and very pretty purple elongated cherry, but production was poor and almost all of them split. On a day when I'd pick 60-70 cherries off its neighbor Sunchocola, all of them uniform and perfect, I'd get 4 or 5 keepers from Black Hole Sun. I'll try it again some day because I really liked the ones I did get.

Joe's Portuguese -- This plant produced a large crop of huge, beautiful, light pink, ribbed (on top) beefsteaks; really pretty and impressive-looking tomatoes and a generous harvest. Unfortunately, I found the taste to be mild and unremarkable -- nothing objectionable about it, just not very interesting to me. Others have described the flavor as excellent or even outstanding, so maybe something was off about mine, but they seemed to match the variety description in appearance.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian -- I believe this is one of Carolyn Male's recommended tomatoes, and a lot of people have spoken positively about it on Tville, so I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it was just a moderate producer in my garden, and the plant was somewhat unhealthy. More importantly, I disliked the taste. They had a faint skunky/weird undertone, especially as they became more ripe. I've encountered this flavor in several different heirlooms of various colors and types; not sure what it is or how to describe it, but I recognize it now and have learned that some varieties definitely have it and others don't. Maybe it's something specific to my taste buds. On the plus side, the tomatoes were very pretty and texture was excellent.

Virginia Sweets and Gold Medal -- Big, beautiful tomatoes but production was moderate to poor (they didn't produce at all in mid-summer) and the flavor was very mild. I may give them both another chance, but I've had other bicolors I've liked much better.

Cherokee Purple -- Delicious, but plant was scrawny and unhealthy and I only got a few tomatoes, most of which were cat-faced and weirdly shaped. The plant was shaded and crowded by an older neighboring plant, and our weather was pretty harsh this year, so I'll give it another try some day.

[karstopography]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

I grew some of the best tomatoes I ever had in 2024.

I also grew some of the worst.

The worst:

Dr. Wyche’s Yellow. Color looked more or less correct. The tomatoes themselves overall weren’t nearly as large and impressive looking as Kellogg’s Breakfast, but they were still beefsteaks. The flavor was not good, it was bad. Sour flavors dominated. Sweetness was nonexistent. Level of relative ripeness, slightly underripe through slightly overripe, didn’t seem to matter. Not at all tasty in any way. A spitter. No chance of a return to the garden. Too many other good options in the Large Orange category.

Black From Tula. Not sure seed was correct, although, seed purchased from well known online vendor. What I got was a dark bland tomato that averaged about 100 grams. Might try this one again with a different source of seeds.

Sart Roloise. Pretty tomatoes, not terrible, but far too subtle and mild for my tastes.

[pepperhead212]

I had several that I definitely won't grow again, but one was the absolute worst, and one, like your Paul Robeson, that everyone else seems to like, but I did not get one useful tomato off of - Green Giant. Strange thing was that it seemed totally resistant to any diseases (at least for the leaves), an unusual thing for a PL variety, but the fruits would seem to start rotting before they would start ripening, and eventually, when I thought I would get one to ripen, it would start rotting overnight! And no other variety would have this happen, even next to these! Eventually I just pulled them out. Pruden's Purple died from some leaf blight, right next to it, even earlier, and though I got a few delicious tomatoes from them, I won't grow them again - similar thing happened around 30 years ago, so it's not meant for me.

Primary Colors Angora, which was one of those felt leaf, or whatever they call that, and my friend, who loved the appearance of it, thought the same thing I did, when she tasted it. She hadn't heard that term "spitter" before, but she thought it was appropriate. Not even something I would blend up with things I figured would cover the flavor - they were small, and not very productive, so why bother?

One variety - Atomic Fusion - had great flavor, but seemed to be prone to some fungal disease, and the fruits were prone to splitting, like many black varieties I've had in the past, and would rot, before ripening. Not very many useful tomatoes.

Another one that had a lot hype, which was a total failure, was Rosella, which developed a blight, very early on, before the tomatoes even ripened (while no other plants on either side were affected). I pulled it out, early on, had a few tomatoes ripen, but even those did not taste good, probably just didn't develop, given the blight.

There are others I probably won't grow again, but these were just the total failures.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

I'm sorry that Paul Robeson did not stand well with you. I loved it's flavor the few times that I got to taste it. For me, the plant is a disease magnet and I did not get anymore fruit after my first grow out. I tried four more times without sucess, so I now pass on growing it.

This year, with it predicted to be hot, I went for some heat tolerant saladette sized tomatoes. They grew great and produced really well, but they did not pass the test on my taste buds. So perhaps we should trade plants next year. I will give you Atkinson and take your Paul Robeson.

My least favorite sized fruit is saladette. Takes a lot of time to process for sauce, not big enough to not need 3 slices on a sandwich and usually too watery. I grow some every year anyway. What state are you in?

~Sam

[Homegrwoninillinois]

My 2024 disappointments:

Iva's Red Berry -- Mine produced a small, bright red cherry, maybe slightly larger than a typical currant-size tomato but significantly smaller than Sungold. Inside was primarily seeds and gel; flavor was bright/tangy but not much sweetness and nothing interesting about it to me. It was a very healthy plant and super-productive, but I stopped picking them after just a week or two of harvest and pulled the plant mid-season because it was taking over everything around it and I just didn't enjoy eating the tomatoes enough to bother harvesting them.

Black Hole Sun -- delicious and very pretty purple elongated cherry, but production was poor and almost all of them split. On a day when I'd pick 60-70 cherries off its neighbor Sunchocola, all of them uniform and perfect, I'd get 4 or 5 keepers from Black Hole Sun. I'll try it again some day because I really liked the ones I did get.

Joe's Portuguese -- This plant produced a large crop of huge, beautiful, light pink, ribbed (on top) beefsteaks; really pretty and impressive-looking tomatoes and a generous harvest. Unfortunately, I found the taste to be mild and unremarkable -- nothing objectionable about it, just not very interesting to me. Others have described the flavor as excellent or even outstanding, so maybe something was off about mine, but they seemed to match the variety description in appearance.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian -- I believe this is one of Carolyn Male's recommended tomatoes, and a lot of people have spoken positively about it on Tville, so I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it was just a moderate producer in my garden, and the plant was somewhat unhealthy. More importantly, I disliked the taste. They had a faint skunky/weird undertone, especially as they became more ripe. I've encountered this flavor in several different heirlooms of various colors and types; not sure what it is or how to describe it, but I recognize it now and have learned that some varieties definitely have it and others don't. Maybe it's something specific to my taste buds. On the plus side, the tomatoes were very pretty and texture was excellent.

Virginia Sweets and Gold Medal -- Big, beautiful tomatoes but production was moderate to poor (they didn't produce at all in mid-summer) and the flavor was very mild. I may give them both another chance, but I've had other bicolors I've liked much better.

Cherokee Purple -- Delicious, but plant was scrawny and unhealthy and I only got a few tomatoes, most of which were cat-faced and weirdly shaped. The plant was shaded and crowded by an older neighboring plant, and our weather was pretty harsh this year, so I'll give it another try some day.

Thanks for your reply! Hate to hear of so many disappointments in a single year. I have been hoping to grow black hole sun, I’m glad the flavor was great.

I have also grown Crnkovic and didn’t care for it either. I recently learned that some plants vary terpenes. Similar to cilantro, which I also have an aversion to as well as mango. (Cilantro tastes like soap and the other two taste like cat pee to me. )

[Homegrwoninillinois]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

I grew some of the best tomatoes I ever had in 2024.

I also grew some of the worst.

The worst:

Dr. Wyche’s Yellow. Color looked more or less correct. The tomatoes themselves overall weren’t nearly as large and impressive looking as Kellogg’s Breakfast, but they were still beefsteaks. The flavor was not good, it was bad. Sour flavors dominated. Sweetness was nonexistent. Level of relative ripeness, slightly underripe through slightly overripe, didn’t seem to matter. Not at all tasty in any way. A spitter. No chance of a return to the garden. Too many other good options in the Large Orange category.

Black From Tula. Not sure seed was correct, although, seed purchased from well known online vendor. What I got was a dark bland tomato that averaged about 100 grams. Might try this one again with a different source of seeds.

Sart Roloise. Pretty tomatoes, not terrible, but far too subtle and mild for my tastes.

I haven’t tried Dr. wyches yellow, just what I have known as regular Dr. Wyches and it was pretty good. That being said I have seen an incorrect type posted on other places that looked ribbed. If yours were ribbed maybe find another source? I agree on the other two, for me they were boring.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

I had several that I definitely won't grow again, but one was the absolute worst, and one, like your Paul Robeson, that everyone else seems to like, but I did not get one useful tomato off of - Green Giant. Strange thing was that it seemed totally resistant to any diseases (at least for the leaves), an unusual thing for a PL variety, but the fruits would seem to start rotting before they would start ripening, and eventually, when I thought I would get one to ripen, it would start rotting overnight! And no other variety would have this happen, even next to these! Eventually I just pulled them out. Pruden's Purple died from some leaf blight, right next to it, even earlier, and though I got a few delicious tomatoes from them, I won't grow them again - similar thing happened around 30 years ago, so it's not meant for me.

Primary Colors Angora, which was one of those felt leaf, or whatever they that, and my friend, who loved the appearance of it, thought the same thing I did, when she tasted it. She hadn't heard that term "spitter" before, but she thought it was appropriate. Not even something I would blend up with things I figured would cover the flavor - they were small, and not very productive, so why bother?

One variety - Atomic Fusion - had great flavor, but seemed to be prone to some fungal disease, and the fruits were prone to splitting, like many black varieties I've had in the past, and would rot, before ripening. Not very many useful tomatoes.

Another one that had a lot hype, which was a total failure, was Rosella, which developed a blight, very early on, before the tomatoes even ripened (while no other plants on either side were affected). I pulled it out, early on, had a few tomatoes ripen, but even those did not taste good, probably just didn't develop, given the blight.

There are others I probably won't grow again, but these were just the total failures.

I have heard that you either like angora or hate them. Part of what I love about gardening each year is the trial and error while discovering favorites.

[habitat-gardener]

No fault of its own, but Prairie Fire has been a disappointment because it has not done well in my garden. I bought a plant from a local sale 2-3 years ago that died before it could produce anything. This year, I got a plant from the local master gardener sale and although the plant looked ok, it didn't produce. I discovered evidence of root-knot nematodes when I dug up the roots. This variety has been a big seller at the MG sale, and people rave about the sweet taste. I'm still hoping to try it someday!

This is the second year I tried Damsel F1. I grew it because it's a big pink tomato that is nematode-resistant. Last year, it produced a few small tomatoes. Flavor was ok, but I wanted big tomatoes! This year, it produced even fewer, and smaller, tomatoes. It was next to a couple of my favorite varieties -- Benevento F1, which appears to resist nematodes (last year's plant had lots of nodules on the roots but it was a vigorous, productive plant until frost) and Purple Boy F1.

Big Beef F1 was the fourth variety in my n-resistant row. With 2-3 gallons of water every 10 days, it produced a few small unremarkable tomatoes (2 oz?) at the same time Benevento, its neighbor, was churning out many large tomatoes. Then at the end of August, I added a drip system, which delivered more water and more frequent water, and it started producing larger tomatoes with a mild sweet flavor. It's still not a variety I'd grow again.

Paste tomatoes have been disappointments. This year I tried Franchi's Red Pear (got 2 big tomatoes), Sheboygan (got 2 medium size tomatoes that rotted from the leaf-footed bug damage), Belmont Pear (none), Granny's Throwing (none). I've been hoping to find a solid tomato with few seeds. I haven't tried many hearts here because wispy foliage is not compatible with our intense heat waves -- over 100F for a week at a time between May and October, with temperatures above 90F every day in July and August.

Polaris was disappointing this year. It has been one of my tried-and-true varieties, producing some of the tastiest large tomatoes for the last several years. But this year, I got 3 tomatoes from 2 plants. I did grow a couple other varieties bred by Karen Olivier, which did better: One-Trick Pony and Cowboy (though my Cowboy tomatoes were prolific, they were much smaller than expected). So a diversified portfolio works!

[rxkeith]

matina, usually a robust plant that produces a large amount of small tomatoes
did not do well this year. grown several years here, i know what it can do.

karma apricot, good tasting, but late. only got a few ripe ones. one plant died
before producing any tomatoes.

jds special c-tex, a good tomato, just not this year poor yield, and something was happening
to the tomatoes before they ripened.


keith

[JRinPA]

Hmm.
Not a single one I can think of...I think I'm set pretty well on what grows very well here.
Cuostralee check.
Sweet Ozark Orange
Black from Tula
Rosovyi Krupnyi
THat is the red orange black pink slicers.
Big Beef. Reliable good.
Moskvich. Okay, that one stinks. Fourth time trying it? Never again, I say. Not early, and not worth the spot.

Costoluto Genovese was great with the dry weather.
Amish Paste, great, compact plants.
My fauxpice, good, makes good sauce and kept birds off the CG.
Mountaineer Delight...not great production, really, but good tasting well formed round very red tomatoes.
Estiva...disappoint taste compared to the others but good production.

Moskvich is the only real disappointment, but I gave it yet another try as an early. It is simply not an early tomato here at 40N in PA. Big Beef and Cuostralee are just as quick.

I still had lots of promising slicers on until they got hit by frost this past week or so, just sort of ruined the top of the tomato.

[rossomendblot]

The only tomatoes I enjoyed were Big Daddy and Orange Paruche. Everything else either underperformed or the taste was just blah. We had a cold early summer, and very wet late summer, so the growing conditions weren't great. Usually I get the best tasting tomatoes from the greenhouse, but the issues with the soil meant that I only got a good amount of tomatoes from two grafted plants - Big Daddy and Polaris. It's the second year I've grown Polaris and it's still not impressed me much with flavour, even though the tomatoes are beautiful. I might try it again next year for a final time.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

matina, usually a robust plant that produces a large amount of small tomatoes
did not do well this year. grown several years here, i know what it can do.

karma apricot, good tasting, but late. only got a few ripe ones. one plant died
before producing any tomatoes.

jds special c-tex, a good tomato, just not this year poor yield, and something was happening
to the tomatoes before they ripened.


keith

Not sure of your heat this year. We had a few weeks with really high heat that definitely impacted our yields.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Hmm.
Not a single one I can think of...I think I'm set pretty well on what grows very well here.
Cuostralee check.
Sweet Ozark Orange
Black from Tula
Rosovyi Krupnyi
THat is the red orange black pink slicers.
Big Beef. Reliable good.
Moskvich. Okay, that one stinks. Fourth time trying it? Never again, I say. Not early, and not worth the spot.

Costoluto Genovese was great with the dry weather.
Amish Paste, great, compact plants.
My fauxpice, good, makes good sauce and kept birds off the CG.
Mountaineer Delight...not great production, really, but good tasting well formed round very red tomatoes.
Estiva...disappoint taste compared to the others but good production.

Moskvich is the only real disappointment, but I gave it yet another try as an early. It is simply not an early tomato here at 40N in PA. Big Beef and Cuostralee are just as quick.

I still had lots of promising slicers on until they got hit by frost this past week or so, just sort of ruined the top of the tomato.

At least now after so many tries you can give the spot to something new to try in 2025

[JRinPA]

Any suggestions? I'm looking for an Early. I think it has to be an early for here though, not Russia.

[rossomendblot]

Mat-Su Express is pretty early for a beefsteak, and has a really nice taste. The three times I've grown it's been the first large tomato ripen, and I got the first ripe fruit in the 2nd or 3rd week of July (in a greenhouse).

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Any suggestions? I'm looking for an Early. I think it has to be an early for here though, not Russia.

Maybe Beaverlodge?

[bower]

Mini Rose. I guess I haven't grown a real cherry for many years, they were very, very small. Tasted like a tomato, the accursed epithet of uninteresting fruit.

[JayneR13]

San Marzano. It crowded out everything else and quite frankly, I wasn't really impressed by the taste. It was also prone to BER in true Roma fashion! Once I added gypsum to the soil the BER went away, and one plant took over the Universe! If I grow these again it'll be off in its own space. Like in China.