I'm planting tomatoes today and have limited space, room for 6-8. We only use them for sandwiches so that will be plenty. I've planted 2 Orange Wellingtons which I have grown before and like. My nursery is getting in Kellog's Breakfast tomorrow and I want to try it. They have one called Pineapple that gets positive reviews when I google it. Any opinion on it? Any suggestions of your favorite red tomatoes. I see some of the plants have non GMO on the tags, Can a long established cultivar such as Celebrity be Genetically Modified and still be Celebrity? I love to learn something new each day.

There are currently no GMO tomatoes available on the market right now, so any tomato you get will be non-GMO.

You'll love the Kellogg's Breakfast. Many people around here grow Celebrity but it's a hybrid (which means you can't save seed from it) so I generally avoid that one. But if you want a largish red tomato you'll do fine with Celebrity.

Thanks Dave.......At the nursery that I was at today a number of different cultivars had non GMO written on the tags. Probably a marketing ploy to satisfy the minds of some suspicious buyers. I'll take pictures of the tags. I've grown Celebrity before and liked it but prefer indeterminate tomatoes.

Celebrity is one of my favorite hybrid's I like that they don't ususally crack open, and they have a nice flavor too. (Picture from last summer.)

I suspect all these "non-GMO" tags are definitely just marketing. While the tag is technically correct, it implies that the other ones that aren't tagged like that are GMO and that's deceptive, in my opinion.

Just what I thought......

For red slicing tomatoes I like Parks Whopper. Or big beef. Both are hybrids.

Thanks Dave, Tom, and Judy......

The old standbys like Big Boy and Better Boy are still my favorites. For sauce or salsa I love Viva Italia. Much better than Romas!

I like the smokey flavored cherry tomatoes like Black Cherry or Black Peal. Also like SunSugar.

But for slicers I always grow Big Boy and Better Boy.

Thanks Rita.....it is fun to experiment but may make more sense planting what you liked in the past.

I always do try something new to me each year. That is how I find new favorites. But I have some of the tried and true always.

If you like big and sloppy pineapple should suit you fine. I haven't found too many really tasty with nice texture yellow tomatoes. Lemon boy was a nice tomato in my garden, though, last year. BUT it isn't an heirloom.

Big beef is a huge tomato in the early season. Goliath... is not goliath, but a nice sized earlier than most slicers tomato. Marglobe is an OLD variety that is very tangy/acidic if you like that type of tomato.

Have you tried any of the green when ripe tomatoes? "Summertime green" is a good one that is a "dwarf" tomato, staying under 5' tall. in the garden.

Welcome Carolyn.

I saw Lemon Boy at our local nursery but didn't buy it, maybe I should have!

Welcome Carolyn.

I am so sold on those SunSugar cherries that if I had to only have one plant it would be those!! They have such good flavor and are great frozen for the winter soups, etc.
Everyone who tastes them plants them the next year.

I agree....SunSugar is delicious and productive.

Paul2032 said:Thanks Dave.......At the nursery that I was at today a number of different cultivars had non GMO written on the tags. Probably a marketing ploy to satisfy the minds of some suspicious buyers.

I agree with Dave. It's like labeling a can of Crisco "salt-free" or labeling a carton of cigarettes "low in saturated fats".

While technically truish, Crisco never had salt and cigarettes have no fat of any kind.

Farmers have to sign many legal agreements now, before they CAN buy GMO seeds! Hobbyists CAN'T, yet.

I used to think selling seeds labelled "non-GMO" was a stupid trick but now I think they are smart to start doing that before there is any necessity. At least companies that might otherwise target the home market in a decade pr so will think:
"But we wouldn't be able to sell ANY through vendors that took the "Safe Seed Pledge".

(I wish local big-box stores would take a "non-invasive plant pledge"!

New GE techniques (CRISPR and to a lesser extent TALENS) have emerged that will make it MUCH easier and faster to move genes around withIN the same species. (The genetic results will be only those you COULD have gotten with conventional breeding, if you had 20-30 years and an unlimited budget.)

If the FDA rules that only transgenic modifications need to obey the extensive testing requirements, we MAY soon start to see flowers or hobbyist-available seeds with just a few minor genetic tweaks. Such as an "Heirloom" tomato with only 2-3 genes added from other tomato varieties - like disease resistance.

But that's for the future.

I grew Celebrity for the first time last year and was not at all impressed... a LOT of the green tomatoes just dropped off the plants for no apparent reason (that didn't happen with any of the other varieties that I was growing). And, I didn't think that had that much flavor when they did manage to stay on long enough to ripen.

My favorite hybrid, large, red tomato is Country Taste -- big juicy slabs of tomato for BLTs... yum! My favorite yellow tomato is Djena Lee's Golden Girl -- much better flavor and texture than Kellogg's, IMO (even though I REALLY wanted to like Kelloggs...).

Aunt Ruby's German Green and Mexico Midget were at the top of the taste trials at Seed Savers Exchange last year -- I'm trying both of those this year.

So, Paul, you've probably figured out by now that the tomato that you're going to like the best is very subjective! For me, if the flavor is described as "low acid" or "mild," I now steer away from it -- apparently I prefer more of an old-fashioned type. And I'm also pretty sure that the climate where any given variety is grown makes a difference as well. I hope you find some that you love!!

Thanks Everyone......Sandy....you are right-on. It is subjective. I limit myself by buying what is available locally. I see lots of Early Girl and Fourth of July which are only slightly better than nothing. One nursery caries a lot of cultivars that I'm not familiar with. Guess I should make a list and come home and get on the computer and see if there are reviews.

Wow, I've never had that happen to Celebrity here.

I've never had it happen to any variety that I've grown; and Celebrity seems to be quite a popular one to grow around here, plus years ago I grew (and liked) a related variety called "Carnival" (which doesn't seem to be available any longer), so I have no idea what was going on...