Weedwhacker said:One of my all-time favorite hybrids is Country Taste -- a big, meaty and juicy tomato, productive, great taste. For once the catalog description of it having "old-time flavor" didn't disappoint me.

All right Sandy. You have convinced me. I just ordered seeds of Country Taste at Seeds N Such. Also that Aunt Ruby's German Green that you are growing and I am so curious about.

Bonehead said:Sweet Mojo is a very good producer of red grape tomatoes. No cracking or disease problems. Firm fruit with a pretty mild (almost bland) flavor. Good for cooking, just split lengthwise, holds up well.

• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Sweet Mojo')
• Uploaded by Bonehead

The new to me grape type I will be trying is an orange grape I am getting at Parks called Nugget Hybrid. it should pair well with my Juliet Red Grape type tomatoes.

Oh I also got seeds so intend to be trying these next year-
Bush Champion
Bush Early Girl
Mega Bite Hybrid

Newyorkrita said:I found Country Taste on line here-

http://thetomatolady.com/tomat...

Here's another source for Country Taste

http://www.totallytomato.com/d...

I've ordered seeds from Totally Tomato in the past with good germination rates ... satisfied overall with them. I see Park Seeds also has this variety.

I'm joining this discussion kind of late ... I've finally come to terms with the fact that I probably can't grow OP or heirloom tomatoes here in FL ... too many pests and diseases. So I've been looking at hybrids. I've bought 4 (Celebrity, Early Girl, Big Boy and BHN 602) for my fall garden. Looking ahead to next year, I saw Mountain Magic ... that sounds promising too. Now another one to add to my wish list for next year ... Country Taste. I prefer to start my own seeds, but had the hybrid epiphany too late to start hybrids for this fall.

Some of these are hard to find as plants. Even as hybrids.

I usually have somewhat poor luck with heirlooms. I have been thinking that maybe I just don't give them enough room. Generally I do prefer hybrids. I like the production and the disease resistance.

On those two Bush varieties, Bush Champion and Bush Early Girl, I want to start them late. Doing my own seeds can have plants whenever I want. I would like to target some bush varieties to come on strong now at the beginning of September. It would fill in the lag time for me as by September the tomatoes have slowed down production. But if I times it right those bush ones should really crank out the fruit right about this time of year. That is the plan anyway. Now to get it right.

Will not be starting them in March with the ones I want to put out end of April. Want to put out later for a late start.

p1mkw said:

I've ordered seeds from Totally Tomato in the past with good germination rates ... satisfied overall with them. I see Park Seeds also has this variety.

I've ordered tomato and pepper seeds from Totally Tomatoes for many years and have also been very satisfied with them.

I'll be interested to hear about results with growing Mountain Magic... might have just been our unusually cool summer last year, but it didn't grow well for me at all. And, if I recall correctly, it is supposed to be very disease resistant but it was one of the first to succumb to the fungal wilt (or whatever it is that my plants inevitably get).

Weedwhacker said:

I've ordered tomato and pepper seeds from Totally Tomatoes for many years and have also been very satisfied with them.

I'll be interested to hear about results with growing Mountain Magic... might have just been our unusually cool summer last year, but it didn't grow well for me at all. And, if I recall correctly, it is supposed to be very disease resistant but it was one of the first to succumb to the fungal wilt (or whatever it is that my plants inevitably get).

I usually don't buy seeds so never ordered from Totally Tomatoes. Right now I am looking at Baker Creek and I know there are tomato varieties there that I will order but no rush.

Oh Oh about Mountain Magic, it just sounded like a really great saladette to me.

If Mountain Magic doesn't work out for you, you might want to give "4th of July" a try -- about the same size fruit, VERY productive, quite early (although I never had any by July 4th), and pretty tasty. They do have somewhat thicker skins than some varieties, but not unacceptably so. I think I've seen them showing up in a couple of other seed catalogs in the past couple of years, previously only Burpee's had them. I was actually hoping to replace them with "Bloody Butcher" (which is open pollinated), but that has not done nearly as well for me so I will probably do the 4th of July again next year. Really a nice tomato for eating fresh, roasting, canning -- pretty much anything except when you want a big slab on a sandwich!

Newyorkrita said:


I usually don't buy seeds so never ordered from Totally Tomatoes. Right now I am looking at Baker Creek and I know there are tomato varieties there that I will order but no rush.

Oh Oh about Mountain Magic, it just sounded like a really great saladette to me.

I've ordered from Baker Creek and , in my experience, are excellent to deal with. I don't believe they have any hybrid seeds, however. Which varieties are you looking at, Rita? I may have some seeds that I could send your way.

Weedwhacker said:

And, if I recall correctly, it is supposed to be very disease resistant but it was one of the first to succumb to the fungal wilt (or whatever it is that my plants inevitably get).

well, that's disappointing ... disease resistance was one of the things that attracted me to Mountain Magic ... if I recall correctly, it was late blight that it's supposed to be resistant to. But maybe I'm thinking of another tomato I was looking at.

No I don't think Baker Creek has Hybrids. I bought hybrids elsewhere.

I have actually bought seeds from Baker Creek before but just not tomato seeds. They are a great place to buy, top notch.

Not knowing what I am getting yet. Just so many there I liked so will be carefully studying to see which I really want.

Weedwhacker said:If Mountain Magic doesn't work out for you, you might want to give "4th of July" a try -- about the same size fruit, VERY productive, quite early (although I never had any by July 4th), and pretty tasty. They do have somewhat thicker skins than some varieties, but not unacceptably so. I think I've seen them showing up in a couple of other seed catalogs in the past couple of years, previously only Burpee's had them. I was actually hoping to replace them with "Bloody Butcher" (which is open pollinated), but that has not done nearly as well for me so I will probably do the 4th of July again next year. Really a nice tomato for eating fresh, roasting, canning -- pretty much anything except when you want a big slab on a sandwich!

I have had 4th of July before. But not lately. Honestly it underwhelmed me. Not very productive here and not that all fire early. So yup, different gardens and different results.

I might try it again but probably not. Maybe I can find something better that Mountain Magic but we will see. It was just one that interested me. Have not ordered seeds of it as yet.

Oh and for me, I don't care about being open pollinated or not. Don't save seeds. Maybe I will someday but not yet. I do love my hybrids as I can count on them. Hate when I get nothing much.

I do keep trying out heirlooms though but count on my hybrids.

Things such as nice fruit that does not crack are very important to me. I can't give away damaged fruit so cracking really bothers me.

"different gardens and different results"

Absolutely! So please don't be discouraged by my experience with the Mtn Magic... the problem may very well have just been our weather last summer, or who knows what? I'm really hoping you or someone does grow it and report on their results!!

Weedwhacker said:"different gardens and different results"

Absolutely! So please don't be discouraged by my experience with the Mtn Magic... the problem may very well have just been our weather last summer, or who knows what? I'm really hoping you or someone does grow it and report on their results!!

Now that I think on it one year I grew 4th of July in a pot. It was too big to grow in a pot, at least my pot was too small. It did better in ground another year.

Mountain Magic is best known for its resistance to both early and late blight, neither of which is a major problem for me. It is really an overgrown cherry at 2 0unces . Too small for my use. Does have a compact vine so should be useful for pots or other smaller containers. Mountain Merit is my favorite of Mountain series.
Tasti-Lee is the latest thing down the pike. Medium size, bred for taste, but has resistance only to F and V

Neither of those diseases are major issues here either so maybe I will just skip Mountain Magic. We will see. Thank you for your report. I find these things very helpful on making decisions on what to try out.

The hybrid that I most often plant is Fantastic or Super Fantastic.
They are productive and have a reasonable tomatoe flavor.
But the flavor is not as great as Old German which is about same size.
Both are all scarred from the hail.

I know each of us has their own criteria on perfect tomatoes but I do hate a tomato that cracks or splits. That Is why I do grow mostly Hybrids not heirlooms.

So anyway my point is that I was picking tomatoes today and while my early girls, Balls Beefsteaks, Jubille, Lemon Boys, Sunrays, Bush Beefsteaks and whatnot all have nice no cracking tomatoes my favorite to eat ones of Big Boys and Better Boys are splitting. Seems to happen each year late in the year like this. I have to pick them at first blush now and even then I don't get them all before a spit appears. Very annoying to me.

I'm new to this site and have enjoyed reading through this post. Most of the discussion centered around cherry tomatoes of which I am not a big fan. I did have a Juliet given to me this year and found it to be more to my taste than any other that I've planted. I plant a lot of tomatoes but stick to two that I've found really work for me. They are Bella Rosa and Amelia. Of the hybrids I've tried these are the best producing and best tasting. I like the Bella Rosa because it makes a good size tomato in the top, where others get smaller as they move up the stalk. This spring and summer were so wet that we didn't make a bottom crop of tomatoes. We had one full week of sunshine and these two tomatoes loaded up and produced like crazy.

I have been buying seed from Totally Tomatoes for several years. I've only had one mix up in that time. They sent me a green striped tomato instead of the Chocolate tomato I ordered. They have been so reliable that I didn't even notify them of the error.