I am getting ready to start tomatoes from seed. Last year we had wonderful luck with Black Krim, San Marzano, and Valentine F1, so I'll definitely be starting those again.
I've been on the lookout for a good yellow tomato, and I'm always curious to try "interesting" looking varieties. Happy to hear of any recommendations of what's worked for you!
What tomato varieties do you plan to plant this year?
HEB Sugarloss and Sweet 100 transplants. Last year I went pretty crazy with like a dozen different types and these were the winners. Three ~8ft tall plants produced weekly bowls of cherry tomatoes and they stayed disease + pest free all the way through last week when i finally cut them down. I've decided that most other species just aren't worth the extra work & frustration and cherries have the extra heat resistance. I really love Sungolds but the yield on each plant i've had has just been a huge disappointment.
Sweet 100 is my usual cherry variety.
Dang, I have had very little luck with Sweet 100s. But I've had similar experiences as you with Sungolds. I've given up on the popularly available commercial cherry varieties.
The short answer is “more than I need, as usual.”
Started a couple of Glaciers this evening actually. Never grown it before. It’s supposed to be unusually tolerant of cold, have good flavor, and have a ridiculously short time to fruit, 55 days or something. We’ll see! Fingers crossed for Valentine’s Day tomatoes.
Here in 2-3 weeks I’ll also be starting:
Cherokee Purple, my ride or die variety.
Arkansas Traveler, first time from seed but picked one up at Great Outdoors a couple years ago and it did well.
Stupice, first time growing.
Matt’s Wild Cherry, first time growing.
Independence Day, didn’t order this one but they sent it as a bonus seed packet, and what am I supposed to do, not grow it?
I'm considering Arkansas Traveller myself. Wondering if that would be a bit redundant though since I'm already planning to do Improved Porter's. 🤔 Hear good things about Matt's Wild Cherry!
My family's never had any luck with Cherokee Purple for some reason we cannot figure out. You'd think that if Black Krims do well for us, then surely the CPs would too, but nope. Always the first to die for us.
I’m going to try again with black cherry. Black Krim is my all-time favorite.
Sungolds were my biggest producers last year. Lemon boys were pretty good if you want yellow slicers.
Ah man, I heard nothing but hype about those and tried them this year, but my sungold was a big let down in my garden. I only got a handful from it.
Darn! Maybe different microclimates or soil. They benefited from almost no pruning if that makes a difference. Good luck!
My sungolds exploded last year. Definitely plan to grow them again. I have lemon boys planned as well.
Brought up in my other comment that the sungolds have severely underproduced for me as well. When you say 'biggest producers', what are we talkin' here? Just for reference, each of my cherry bushes gets weighted down with hundreds each for months on end and they all grow huge where i need a step ladder to harvest. Sungold yielded super low (and late), like maybe only a dozen cherries per week, stayed leggy, and the tomato clusters were small/sparse like only pairs or maybe 4-6 together but no big strands. I'm just trying to gauge if this is normal behavior for them or if i've done something seriously wrong, because their flavor almost makes the lower yield worth it.
Ditto on the sun golds. In fact, I’ve left em in the ground and while the vines look nearly dead, they’re STILL producing fruits. In the heat of summer, they still went strong, alongside the Sweet 100s. For reference they were in full sun with a rocky soil. Not high quality soil.
Still deciding, but early girls, sungolds, and Tasmanian chocolate are on the list of “usuals”. Hoping to do something new, too!
First time growing early girls this year. So. Many. TOMATOES. I think I got over 100 lbs off of 5 plants. They are very standard tomatoes imo and that makes them good for just about every purpose (soup, salsa, sauce, ketchup, etc.)
They are just so darn easy. And yes, just a good regular ol’ tomatoey tomato!
JD’s Special was the best performing and tasting tomato for us. Heatmaster was the only one producing in the summer heat so I think I might stick to those two in 2026.
Juliet (my favorite and usual best producer), Blueberries, Cream Sausage, and Indigo Rose are what I’ve started so far and I’ll probably do coyotes again too (it’s almost weed like and thrives on neglect while also reseeding itself). I’ve thought about trying Honey Bee too since it’s supposed to have great disease resistance but I know I’m probably too over-committed as it is right now.
Berkeley Tie-die was the best tasting tomato I grew by far so will absolutely planting those again.
Did you get a decent crop from it despite the heat?
I'm definitely doing juliets again, they were my biggest producer. Thinking Arkansas traveler and celebrity for slicing tomatoes, roma and maybe another variety for sauce. Had been toying with sungold and sweet 100 for cherries. San Marzano do well for you? I've not tried since I worried they'd not do as well in the heat.
Yes, got boat loads of SMs! I think they're recommended by TNG and CTG for our area. I gave my mother two plants in the spring and they produced pounds and pounds. They especially seemed to take off in the fall.
Thanks! Did you start from seed or are they hard to find in the nurseries?
I started mine from seed but I have seen them in nurseries as well.
For yellow tomatoes, Golden Jubilee did great this past year. Highly productive with sweet, sizable golden slicers. Will definitely be growing that again this year.
I tried Golden Jubilees this year, but I think maybe I received incorrect seeds or something, because none of my tomatoes were yellow. 🤔 Might try again, maybe there was a mix-up on my end.
I had a lot of luck this fall with Cherokee Purple and Sweet 100. The cherokee purple was a half-dead start from Lowe’s and I ordered the sweet 100 seeds online and direct sowed over the summer, which is crazy but it worked. I just tried to keep everyone alive over the summer so they could produce in the fall. Curious how they’ll do as a spring plant.
I ordered a couple Mexican native cherries this year as an experiment: Matt’s Wild Cherry and Coyote Cherry. The coyote is a yellow one. I’m curious if they’ll handle our heat any better than some others I’ve tried and they are both supposedly more resistant to late blight.