I have been growing Better Boy hybrid tomatoes for over 30 years. They are reliable and always produce a good harvest. Last year I decided to add some heirloom plants to my tomato garden. I already knew that heirlooms don’t have the disease resistant qualities that hybrids do, but in my search for a sweeter tomato, I decided to give them a try anyway. I ordered the seed from a traditional seed company and started the plants in my own greenhouse. After the plants were a good size, I moved them into my garden.
I planted 7 Mr. Stripey, 7 Djena Lee’s Golden Girl, 7 Striped German, 6 Delicious, and 4 First Pick heirloom tomatoes. I also planted 10 Better Boy hybrids, for a total of 41 plants. I only grew indeterminate varieties that are supposed to keep producing until frost. This number of plants should have produced enough tomatoes for all the sauces he had planned to can. He didn’t even come close.
Although I did not grow Rutgers and Marglobe tomatoes last year, I have grown them many times before. If you are interested in growing family heirlooms, you may also find their results useful. The only reason I didn’t grow them last year was lack of space in the garden.
mr stripey It was kind of a disappointment for me. I had read good things about this tomato variety, so I had high hopes. The medium-sized fruits tasted very good, but production was poor. Each plant produced a handful of tomatoes, but after the first pick, they produced very little additional fruit.
The Golden Girl by Djena Lee he grew the best of all hybrids. The tomatoes were large and the plants produced the most tomatoes. The flavor was smooth and sweet, just like a yellow tomato should be. The walls were quite thick so the seed cavity was smaller than average, which is a plus. They also continued to put tomatoes longer than any of the other family heirlooms. I will grow Gold Girls by Djena Lee again.
scratched german Plants turned out to be a dud for me. I suspect that they sold me seed that was not true to the variety. May have been cross pollinated. The tomatoes were a medium yellow with no stripes at all.
They tasted good, but produced very poorly. He was very disappointed. I have had delicious striped German tomatoes grown by a friend in the past, but they were very large pink tomatoes with red stripes. Mine were nothing like them.
Delicious It produced nice, medium-sized red tomatoes, but once again, they did not continue to produce very well after the first shoot. The tomatoes were perfectly round with a good flavor.
first selection It was a waste of space in the garden. The plants were small and spindly. I didn’t expect to produce much then, as they are an early tomato variety, but I certainly expected more than I got. He may have picked a total of 8 tomatoes from the four plants combined. After the first harvest, they did not put any more tomatoes.
rutgers they have always grown well and produced good crops for me. They are a round red tomato of medium size and good flavor. They have also produced fairly good crops until frost.
Marglobe it has always done a pretty good job of producing good size crops. They are flat, red tomatoes with thicker-than-average walls, making them a good substitute for paste-type varieties. They taste good, but they’re not exactly a sliced tomato. They usually continue to produce until frost, although they have failed to do so once or twice.
Fortunately I had the good sense to plant some Better Boy hybrids, or I would have had hardly any tomatoes last year. They are always dependent and produce until frost. I will continue my search for the perfect family heirloom, but in the meantime, I will continue to grow Better Boys for a sure harvest. I will be growing Djena Lee’s Golden Girl, Rutgers and Marglobe hybrids again, but will only try a couple of new varieties next year. I may try growing Brandywines. I’ve heard good things about Brandywine’s heirloom tomato.