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Updated 2/1/25: Oviedo, FL 32765, Zone 9B/10A – This post is just to share my taste reviews of the twelve tomato varieties I grew in Fall/Winter 2024.

9/15/24: I sow the tomato seeds using the 3.3-inch Bootstrap Farmer seedling tray watering system.

T1. Tutti Frutti Melon Tomato

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• Result: LOVE! It’s a keeper in my garden!
• Taste review: Sweet with BRIX of 10+
• Description: Tutti Frutti Melon, indeterminate, from Urban Farmer
• Fruit size is round and I would say big as a golfball size. I gotta be more patience next time to let the fruit ripen fully to get that true sweetness level. To be updated…

T2. Barry’s Crazy Tomato

• Result: DISLIKE
• Taste Review:Texture is very pulpy and mushy, kinda like soggy watermelon.
• Flavor is very plain and dull, nothing sweet about it.
• Description: Barry’s Crazy Cherry Tomato, indeterminate, from Baker Creek is truly a heavy producer with many clusters of flowers. Each cluster can hold at least 35 tomatoes. Fruit production is high with multiple clusters of at least 40+ fruits on each clusters. Fruit size is like green seedless grape size and shape. If you want a prolific tomato, go for this variety. But if you want sweet quality firm texture, it’s a big disappointment

T3. Brown Sugar Tomato

• Result: Dislike
• Taste Review: Brown Sugar tomato supposed to be “sweet like sugar”.
• Description: Brown Sugar tomato, indeterminate, from Baker Creek is a Russian heirloom tomato which has a poor fruit production for me. There are not as many flower clusters. Each cluster has six flowers. The plant has a leggy upright growth. I don’t care how good it taste, it’s not a keeper. My friend who grew this before said the fruit does not taste sweet like sugar at all. I aborted this plant to avoid wasting time growing it.

T4.Wooly Kate Yellow Tomato

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• Result: Aborted and dislike
• Taste Review: I did not have a chance to taste this tomato
• Description: Wooly Kate Yellow cherry tomato seems to have an upright leggy growth. No branching growth habit like the others. The stems and leaves are very dark like charcoal with thick hairy fuzz all over the stem and leaves. Fruit production is just too poor. I quit growing this variety and ran out of patience.

T5. Orange Icicle Tomato

• Result: Dislike / Detest
• Taste review: Thick flesh,
• Description: Orange Icycle, indeterminate, from Baker Creek – This Orange Icicle tomato is described as “one of Ukraine’s finesti tomato breed that has a sweet and rich flavor with a citrus tone”. (I can testify this is a big lie.) The ideal temperature for this variety is between 75F to 95F. The flesh is thick with a very mushy (bở) texture. Fruit size is oblong with about 3 inch diameter and it sure needs a taller trellis. The standard tomato cage isn’t big and strong enough to hold the stems up. I definitely will not be growing this variety ever again.

T6. Sweet Million Tomato

• Result: Dislike
• Taste Review: 2/1/25 – Bummer. I got to taste Sweet Million cherry tomato for the second time. Last week the first ripen fruit was not that sweet, so hopefully this time it would taste better. Yet, it is still a mediocre cherry tomatoes. The fruit flesh is meaty, does not have many seeds, fruit size is about nickel size, but the taste is just not that sweet. I am just not so thrilled about the taste and flavor and low sweetness level of the Sweet Million and will never grow it again.
• Fruit production: Average during the winter mo ths growths.

T7. Orange Peach Tomato

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T8. Brad’s Atomic Garden Tomato

• Result:
• Taste Review:

T9. Black Strawberry Tomato

T10. Sugar Rush F1

• Result: Like, but not love
• Taste: The Sugar Rush F1 from Urban Farmer is juicy, mild sweet. Compared to my favorite Tutti Frutti Melon cherry tomato, this Sugar Rush F1 is not sweet, but I rather eat these than the store bought tomatoes.
• Fruit production: mediocre, not as prolific as the Golden F1 Japanese cherry tomato or Sweetheart cherry tomato. Fruit size is medium large. I would say Sugar Rush F1 is worth growing at least once in a lifetime.

T11. Sweetheart Cherry Tomato

• Result: Dislike
• Taste: Sweetheart cherry tomato’s taste and flavor are not impressive. The fruit is not sweet at all. Don’t let the name fool you like it did me.
• Description: Prolific, survived the winter in Florida 10a with low temperatures down to low 40F’s. The fruit has a thick firm flesh with very few seeds. Fruit shape does resemble little hearts dangling in a tomato vine.

T12. Ponderosa Pink Beefsteak Tomato

Aborted – Growing 12 tomatoes at the same time is just too overwhelming for me. This Ponderosa Pink Beefsteak needed to be stacked up and was forgotten in a shady spot. I just decided to pull it out and try again in spring. I am not so motivated growing big tomato varieties.