The List, with notes, of the tomato varieties I will never grow again. Tomatoes are quite climate-dependent. Therefore, use a critical eye on my list as what doesn’t work for me may work perfectly for you. Not to mention differences in wind, soil type and microbes, dewpoint, amendments et al. My notes will hopefully help determining if my critiques apply to you.
All seeds grown in the high wind prairie, Midwest, in macro-climate zone 5(ish). Average dewpoint in summer is around 60. Soil is a loamy clay. Although my preference is organic, I have used commercial fertilizers from time to time. Growing days are approximately 135.
- Isis Candy. I feel confident this is a personal preference issue and not a growing conditions issue. The plant was of average production. The fruit are indeed very pretty, golden and orange with a star on the one end. I had to spit this tomato out. It was terrible. An odd sour sweet. I grew it specifically as it was so well recommended. Mark at Mark’s Garden Life on youtube, who has great recommendations otherwise, loves this tomato. You couldn’t pay me to eat it. Yet, The Sps thought it tasted wonderful. *shrug*
2. Yellow Pear. The nice thing about yellow pear is that the plants are prolific and they provided for us early in the growing season. Unfortunately, they split easily, have no signature taste, or much flavor at all, honestly. I initially grew yellow pear tomatoes for sentimental reasons, they were my treasured Grandmother’s favorite tomato. I’m hopeful the red pear will do better. I grew red pear last year, yet I have no recollection of eating any, so am trying again. One more time for red. But yellow pear is no more.
3. Green Zebra. This tomato is gorgeous. The flavor isn’t bad. It has a nice acid for a green tomato but I did not find the flavor remarkable. The plant was of average production. My issue was the skin, the skin is unpleasantly tough. This tomato is rare to split, to be sure, yet there are other tomatoes that do not split and do not have a thick skin, and taste better.
4. Lucid Gem. Lucid Gem has a similar issue to the Green Zebra, with a skin too tough for me to find palatable. It’s a gorgeous slicer, tops for looks. I also found the flavor distasteful. The Lucid Gem had a unique unpleasant flavor I haven’t tasted in another tomato, too smokey, like a juicy literal campfire. In a bad way. Also, the plant was not overly prolific for my garden.
5. Raspberry Lyanna. I wish I loved this tomato. But it’s bland SO BLAND. It’s a very early tomato. It’s snack size, maybe three to four bites. The plant is extraordinarily prolific, it will keep you in fruit from July to September. But this tomato has no flavor.
6. Maglia. I had high hopes for Maglia, as it’s a Fred Hempel tomato. I love all the others of his I have tried. Agi Red, Pink Tiger, Green Tiger, Blush, Lucky Tiger, Lucky Agi, Sunrise Bumblebee… I just did not like the flavor of this tomato. The flavor is very strong and unique, just not to my liking. This plant is prolific and will keep you in grape tomatoes throughout August until the typical seasonal bacterial spot gets it. It’s just not for me.
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