I have grown the first two on your list, Dwarf Tasmanian Chocolate and Siletz. NE Texas, growing outdoors in large (20-gallon) grow bags. Tasmanian Chocolate I like a whole lot for its rich flavor. Definitely savory. It was also a very productive variety. Grew 3 plants of it this year and 2 or 3 plants of it the year before.
Siletz main positive in my experience was that it bore fruit early, about 60 days, and was prolific. The negatives were that it set lots of fruit very close to the ground (it is a bushy, sprawling determinate) and that the fruit didn’t taste all that great. OK flavor and texture, but nothing more.
I’ve only grown Tasmanian Chocolate, Matt’s, roma, and the regular early girl.
Before I knew there were so many varieties of tomatoes, I only grew romas and our local cherry tomatoes… Oddly enough, I don’t know when was the last time I grew Romas, but it was my favorite to grow and still have yet to find something as productive as them.
If I were to vote, I’d say romas easily. Sure, other varieties taste better, but add a little salt and pepper and they taste great and they produce like crazy.
With that being said, Tasmanian chocolate is currently still on my growing list while Roma has fallen off. After this post, I might just grow one this season. I miss its productiveness.
SwiftResilient
A lot of people praise Kellogg’s breakfast, I’ve had great luck with sub arctic plenty though… I had a lot of favorites planted and somehow Sub arctic plenty outshined and delivered LOTS
janisthorn2
I’ve only grown a few of these, but I can’t say enough good things about Shadow Boxing (Shadow Boxing #4? That’s how mine was labeled). It has a great yield, they’re long keepers, there’s decent disease resistance, it grows well in containers, and the fruit is absolutely beautiful. It’s become a must-grow for me. It’s the only anthocyanin I feel that way about, too. In my garden it absolutely blew the more popular Black Beauty out of the water–outperformed it in every single category.
Eldogto
I grew Siletz this year, at first I wanted to hate them but then the hate turned into love. Not a single one of the plants had a hint of disease or BER. They produced a ton, early and well into the later months. The first tomatoes it produced were not great maybe marginally better than a supermarket tomato but as a the season progressed into the hotter months(zone 9b) the taste went from bland to amazing. If it wasn’t for the taste getting better, I was ready to forget them completely. Now, I’ll keep growing them.
6 Comments
I have grown the first two on your list, Dwarf Tasmanian Chocolate and Siletz. NE Texas, growing outdoors in large (20-gallon) grow bags. Tasmanian Chocolate I like a whole lot for its rich flavor. Definitely savory. It was also a very productive variety. Grew 3 plants of it this year and 2 or 3 plants of it the year before.
Siletz main positive in my experience was that it bore fruit early, about 60 days, and was prolific. The negatives were that it set lots of fruit very close to the ground (it is a bushy, sprawling determinate) and that the fruit didn’t taste all that great. OK flavor and texture, but nothing more.
Here are some pictures from a review earlier this year: [https://www.reddit.com/r/tomatoes/comments/1lgazqg/tasmanian_chocolate_dwarf_and_black_from_tula/](https://www.reddit.com/r/tomatoes/comments/1lgazqg/tasmanian_chocolate_dwarf_and_black_from_tula/)
I’ve only grown Tasmanian Chocolate, Matt’s, roma, and the regular early girl.
Before I knew there were so many varieties of tomatoes, I only grew romas and our local cherry tomatoes… Oddly enough, I don’t know when was the last time I grew Romas, but it was my favorite to grow and still have yet to find something as productive as them.
If I were to vote, I’d say romas easily. Sure, other varieties taste better, but add a little salt and pepper and they taste great and they produce like crazy.
With that being said, Tasmanian chocolate is currently still on my growing list while Roma has fallen off. After this post, I might just grow one this season. I miss its productiveness.
A lot of people praise Kellogg’s breakfast, I’ve had great luck with sub arctic plenty though… I had a lot of favorites planted and somehow Sub arctic plenty outshined and delivered LOTS
I’ve only grown a few of these, but I can’t say enough good things about Shadow Boxing (Shadow Boxing #4? That’s how mine was labeled). It has a great yield, they’re long keepers, there’s decent disease resistance, it grows well in containers, and the fruit is absolutely beautiful. It’s become a must-grow for me. It’s the only anthocyanin I feel that way about, too. In my garden it absolutely blew the more popular Black Beauty out of the water–outperformed it in every single category.
I grew Siletz this year, at first I wanted to hate them but then the hate turned into love. Not a single one of the plants had a hint of disease or BER. They produced a ton, early and well into the later months. The first tomatoes it produced were not great maybe marginally better than a supermarket tomato but as a the season progressed into the hotter months(zone 9b) the taste went from bland to amazing. If it wasn’t for the taste getting better, I was ready to forget them completely. Now, I’ll keep growing them.
Headband 🤣