If you could save only ONE variant, which would it be?

[StineRosenbeck]

Hi all,

If you could save only ONE variant within each group, with would it be - and why? Do you prioritize taste over looks?

I realize we all categorize in our individual way My groups are:

Micro dwarfs (up to 60 cm/24 inches)
Cherry
Plum
"Regular" (between 100-200 grams/3,5-7 oz)
Paste / Sugo
Beefsteak
Stuffer
Multiflora

So far my own ONE in each group is - and I choose based on the taste - those I list here all have such a great harmony between sweetness and acidity but as we know, the taste palette is very individual :

Micro dwarfs (up to 60 cm/24 inches) = Aztec

Cherry = Chocolate Cherry

Plum = Artisan Pink Tiger

"Regular" (between 100-200 grams/3,5-7 oz) = A special Kumato variant that my stepdad took seeds from many moons ago which we LOVE on bread with salt - the taste of Danish summer for my family

Paste / Sugo = George Detsika’s Italian Red - but I am growing two new sumos next year which I have great expectations for wrt. pizzas

Beefsteak = Anawine

Stuffer = Pink Petticoat

Multiflora = Yellow Marble

I look forward to hearing which ONE variant in each or in some groups would be

Best,
Stine

[Acer Rubrum]

I'm adding "Hearts" to this list because I love that category.

Micro dwarfs (up to 60 cm/24 inches) - Garden Pearl
Cherry - Indigo Pear Drop
Plum - Golden Fang
"Regular" (between 100-200 grams/3,5-7 oz) - Damascus Steel
Paste / Sugo - Abbittista
Beefsteak - Pink Giant Ukrainian
Stuffer - I don't grow stuffers
Multiflora - Sister Keyes
Hearts - Orange Strawberry

[Seven Bends]

My choices would be based on a combination of flavor, productivity and plant health; I don't care much about looks.

Cherry - Sungold
Plum - Orange Banana
Paste/sauce - probably Amish Paste; maybe Cuore Antico di Acqui Terme. Or, if I wanted a concentrated fruit set for processing, Supremo.
Beefsteak - I'd want to pick one of each color:
--Pink: Bolgarskoe Chudo or Polish Elles (Rebel Yell for flavor only but it splits too much and doesn't keep well)
--Orange/Yellow: Summer Cider or Dr. Wyche's
--Bicolor: Oaxacan Jewel (Pineapple for flavor only but productivity has been poor)
--Red: Better Boy F1, which would be my overall choice if I absolutely had to choose just one tomato variety; for OP, Red Penna
--Black/Brown/Purple/Dark: Cherokee Carbon
"Regular" 100-200g - I think of this as the saladette category and haven't found any I like yet; I've only tried a few because I'm not crazy about this size
Hearts - haven't tried enough of these to have a favorite yet but haven't done well with this category so far
I haven't grown any micros, stuffers or multifloras.

[karstopography]

Cherry, haven’t grown a ton, not a huge fan of the genre, if I had to pick it would be Black Cherry. Good fresh, good dried, big enough.
Plum, is Japanese Black Trifele a plum or something else?
Paste, Amish Paste, that is probably a heart, but anyhow, good enough fresh and meaty.
Beefsteak, Pruden’s Purple, relatively early, relatively productive, relatively heat and disease resistant, certainly delicious.
“regular” MIssouri Pink Love Apple ended up around that 100-200 gram size for me, but was beefsteak like in structure and flavor.

I haven't grown any micros, stuffers or multifloras.

[StineRosenbeck]

Cherry, haven’t grown a ton, not a huge fan of the genre, if I had to pick it would be Black Cherry. Good fresh, good dried, big enough.
Plum, is Japanese Black Trifele a plum or something else?
Paste, Amish Paste, that is probably a heart, but anyhow, good enough fresh and meaty.
Beefsteak, Pruden’s Purple, relatively early, relatively productive, relatively heat and disease resistant, certainly delicious.
“regular” MIssouri Pink Love Apple ended up around that 100-200 gram size for me, but was beefsteak like in structure and flavor.

I haven't grown any micros, stuffers or multifloras.

I dont' know Japanese Black Trifele, but when I look it up, I would categorise as a Plum.

[StineRosenbeck]

My choices would be based on a combination of flavor, productivity and plant health; I don't care much about looks.

Cherry - Sungold
Plum - Orange Banana
Paste/sauce - probably Amish Paste; maybe Cuore Antico di Acqui Terme. Or, if I wanted a concentrated fruit set for processing, Supremo.
Beefsteak - I'd want to pick one of each color:
--Pink: Bolgarskoe Chudo or Polish Elles (Rebel Yell for flavor only but it splits too much and doesn't keep well)
--Orange/Yellow: Summer Cider or Dr. Wyche's
--Bicolor: Oaxacan Jewel (Pineapple for flavor only but productivity has been poor)
--Red: Better Boy F1, which would be my overall choice if I absolutely had to choose just one tomato variety; for OP, Red Penna
--Black/Brown/Purple/Dark: Cherokee Carbon
"Regular" 100-200g - I think of this as the saladette category and haven't found any I like yet; I've only tried a few because I'm not crazy about this size
Hearts - haven't tried enough of these to have a favorite yet but haven't done well with this category so far
I haven't grown any micros, stuffers or multifloras.

, I LOVE that you subdivide the beefsteaks into colours, because, let's face, it is just too darn hard to pick just ONE, right? Will have to find Red Penna seeds, I see

[MissS]

I'm happy to see that we could have a tomato from each group.

If I could only save one tomato from each group, I would choose a F1 hybrid from each. This would give me a diverse gene pool which was unstable so I could go about creating many more varieties to find some great ones.

Yes I know, this is a Carolyn type of answer.

[bower]

Oh come on @MissS ! I was expecting to see your personal list of really excellent favorites (Daniel Burson perchance?).
Every time I read about somebody's favorites I want to try them...

[wxcrawler]

I would also choose to save one from the different categories if I could, but the original post was for ONE variety.

It has to be Captain Lucky for me.

Lee

[Seven Bends]

I would also choose to save one from the different categories if I could, but the original post was for ONE variety.

It has to be Captain Lucky for me.

Lee

The original post asked for one variety in each of the listed categories, not one variety overall.

[Paulf]

I had a few minutes to spare so I will have a go. It has been many, many years since I have even attempted to answer this kind of question. Back in the late 1990's when I first "discovered real tomatoes" this was an easy task since other than the boys, girls, bests, biggers, etc, etc I had only grown a comparatively few tomato varieties that were not hardware store hybrids. In the ensuing twenty-some years nearly 500 varieties have hit the dirt in my gardens. Sorry MissS there will not be an F1Hybrid in the lot...that will be another "will not grow" answer. So here are my categories and replies:

Micro, Plum, Paste, Stuffer and Multiflora: I do not grow these, so no answer.
So I have whittled down what I do grow and agonized over the one variety for each (which of your children do you love the most)

Bi-Color: Virginia Sweets
Black: Black Brandywine was chosen out of the four semi-finalists
Pink: Marianna's Peace of the six I listed because she is the most consistent.
Red: Neve's Azorean Red, several others were near the top
Yellow/Orange: KBX/Kellogg's Breakfast for orange and Lillian's Yellow Heirloom for yellow.
Cherry: Black Cherry...I think it has been stabilized so not to be called a hybrid; if not it is still my choice.
Beefsteak: pick any of the above that fit the category and slide it in this spot.
Any who know me will realize the category for Heart-shaped does not have a listing because of my previous statements concerning the perhaps hundreds of hearts I have grown, "There is not a heart I don't love."

This list is subject to change...most likely if I did this exercise tomorrow the finalists and winners would be different. The longer I am in the tomato growing game the longer the list of favorites gets. Just imagine what Carolyn would really say about naming a single variety in the listed original post categories. Or any of the growers who have been around even longer than I have been. This actually helps me get into the planning mode for my fifty-sixth year of growing tomatoes and the twenty-seventh year with "real" tomatoes.

[MissS]

Oh come on @MissS ! I was expecting to see your personal list of really excellent favorites (Daniel Burson perchance?).
Every time I read about somebody's favorites I want to try them...

PM me you addy and I will gladly send some and many more too!

[habitat-gardener]

My list is skewed toward nematode-tolerant varieties and varieties that can withstand scorching-hot summers. I've tried a relatively short list of varieties here, and many of my old favorites have not performed well. I'm still working on timing (when to plant) and soil.

Beefsteak: Benevento F1 and Polaris. Both have top flavor but Benevento has always had great production, and Polaris, in a good year, edges it out on flavor. (Polaris was fantastic for 3 summers, then produced almost nothing this year. One-Trick Pony tasted great, too. I'm looking forward to trying more of Karen Olivier's larger varieties.)

Cherry: In my climate, cherries are so reliable that I'd do different colors.
dark: Rosella cherry, with Chocolate Sprinkles F1 a close contender
red: Tommy Toe
green: Green Bee F1'
yellow/orange: Sun Sugar F1 (but I need to try Galina's Yellow here)

Slicer/medium: Purple Boy F1

My list would be totally different if I still lived in a moderate summer (highs in the 70s-80s all summer) instead of the current inferno (daytime temps over 90F most of June to October, with heat waves 100F+).

[AKgardener]

I’ll chime in haha
Cherry Estrina
Semi slicer matina
Dwarf - Mongolian dwarf
Micro Vilma
So far those are my must haves

[green_go]

Dwarf/Container - Perla Ogrozu (aka Sadovaja Zhemchuzhina)
Cherry - Pera Naranja
Plum - Santa Maria
Regular - Bulgarian Triumph
Beefsteak - Rozoviy Myod (pink), Altai Orange (orange), Chocolate Cherokee (purple)

[worth1]

New Big Dwarf because I'm an idiot.

[JosephineRose]

Cherry - Sungold F1
"Regular" - Early Girl Bush F1
Paste / Sugo - Granadero F1
Beefsteak -
-- Pink: Pruden's Purple
-- Black: "Jen's Mystery" (a suspected unofficial descendant of Cherokee Purple)
-- Orange: Apricot Brandywine
-- Bicolor: Virginia Sweets
-- Green: Ananas Noire
-- Red: Pomodoro Sorrento Selection/Neves Azorean Red (growing out to choose a winner this year)
Multiflora - Liz Bert was multiflora for me last year and was terrific.
Hearts - Dotson's Lebanese Heart has been my favorite so far, but I am trying three new varieties this year.

[maxjohnson]

Pretty much my current favorites as of 2025. Year # is when I first started growing it and has been since. Not all choices are due to flavor.

Cherry: Pink Princess, 2024 (runner up: Black Cherry, 2015)
Slicer (medium): Siberian, 2024
Beefsteak: Mega Marv, 2019
Paste: Opalka, 2018
Oxheart: Curtis Cheek, 2017
Dwarf: Coastal Pride Orange, 2018
Micro: Fuzzy Wuzzy, 2023
Saladette: Anasazi, 2018

If I have to choose only one, probably Green Giant for the flavor alone.

[maxjohnson]

New Big Dwarf because I'm an idiot.

I like the flavor of this tomato very much, been growing it a few times since 2018, never gotten more than a few fruits before the plant died from diseased. I have a habit of neglecting dwarves with the assumption they need less care which is probably why I don't get as much success with them.

[Yak54]

New Big Dwarf because I'm an idiot.

NOT !!!