What are your recommended Beefsteak Toms?

[Garlic_Guy]

Now that you've started gathering some of this year's tomato harvest, would any of you care to recommend good Beefsteak Tomatoes?

Having tried a few that were ok, but nothing like as good as I've bought or eaten in Europe, can you pick out ones that had:
- Excellent flavour
- Reasonably good size
- Good fleshy texture

Any other factors would also be useful, like:
- Easy/hard to grow
- Only get 2 fruit per plant (etc)
- prone to bugs, other problems

I'm sure it's possible to do better than I've managed. I'm happy to try both greehouse & outside.

[Angi]

Hello Colin, you're probably already aware that our climate isn't always up to producing tomatoes as tasty as those on the continent. I have grown three beefsteak varieties this year: Marmande (from seed sent by my Mum from Spain), Dark Purple Beefsteak and White Princess (both from HDRA). All three have excellent flavour raw or roasted. The Marmande produces huge, plentiful toms in my greenhouse, the WP not so big and not very many. None of them seem prone to the usual tomato diseases, although the WP is showing early signs of blight.

[Garlic_Guy]

Hi Angi, sounds like the answer is to go over to your Mums and taste her local toms!

I only ever tried Marmande once, a few years ago and made a hash of it. Maybe it's time to try them again next summer?

Can you say whether yours did best in a greenhouse, or outside? So far, I have tried each variety in both locations. Whether I haven't fed the indoor ones enough (in growbags) I don't know, but the outdoor ones are much plumper.

[Angi]

I would have to say that the greenhouse ones have done better. They are bigger and more abundant and taste really nice. The outdoor ones are tiny in comparison, although they still taste lovely. They are next door to my Roma tomatoes which have tons and tons of huge fruit, my best yet, so nothing to do with lack of water or food, I think. I've already managed to oven ripen some of these.

[vivie veg]

I have grown Ferline F1 and Legends this year, both are suppost to be blight resistant...I have noticed a few blight spots on the one Legend plant which was rather crowded and hence a bit damp. Of the two I prefer the taste of the Ferline, it is sharper, unless left to go really red and soft. The legends have little taste in comparison.

I grew the legend in 50 litre bags filled with garden soil. Half the ferlines were grown in the same bags and soil, but half were grown in Aldi's compost (40 litre bags) there is no difference between the fruit on the two growing mediums. The 50 litre bags have 2 plant in and the 40 litre bags just 1 plant. All were grown in the polytunnel. The Legends are bush plants. They stopped growing upwards after the first or second truss and quickly became a thick bush (too crowded for the spacing I'd given them and are diffecult to spot the ripening one). Ferlines are cordons so easier to manage. As I am late getting my plants going the ferlines are now about five feet high with about 6 or 7 trusses on each plant. I have now stopped them (as with the height of the bag they are 6 feet and I can't reach any higher!) but I have allowed a second cordon to develope. Each truss gives 3 to 5 good size beefsteak toms (about tennis ball size) and maybe 1 or 2 smaller ones.

Judge for yourself weather this is good or not. I will say though that I'm not an expert and the Toms have to make do with the best I can give them...late start and cold greenhouse until they went into the polytunnel, which was late as I had diffeculty finding a suitable weekend to put the cover on! This is my first time with beefsteaks.

Next year I will only grow two or three Legends in the polytunnel, but I will certainly be growing the ferlines again. I will try the Legends outside, may be under cloch until the danger of frost has past and give them a LOT of space.

I did have 6 surplus Legends that I put outside and basically forgot about. They have not grown half as well and have not yet got any red fruit on. Having said that the seed was started off a month later than the polytunnel ones as a backup in case May frosts got the first ones and they weren't planted out until mid June and we have had a lot of hot dry weather until very recently so the poor plants did not have a good start.

[Garlic_Guy]

Thanks for the info Vivi.

Out of interest, I thought Ferline was a "middle-sized" tomato, rather than a beefsteak. Did many of yours grow over 3" wide?

Good news about the flavour of them though.

I bought my Pantano seeds in Italy (though the packet shows them as suitable for all Euorpean climate zones). The picture shows fruit that is a middling red/orange, with a few light green streaks on the top. These are the ones I buy from continental shops, never sure whether they're fully ripe, only to find they taste absolutely wonderful!.

As an example, see:
http://www.seedsofitaly.com/product/40

This is what the outside ones looked like a week ago:

[vivie veg]

I must admit that I have seen bigger beefsteak toms than ferline, but the fruit is more like the beefsteak...more flesh and less seeds...than a typical salad toms. I'd take a photo, but my camera is not working. As mentioned before 3 to 5 per truss are large with a few smaller ones (these develope later...maybe if I pinched these off then the main ones would grow bigger?)

[Geoff]

Anybody else tried Mortgage Lifter?
Well pleased with it so far, seems earlier than other large tomatoes we have tried, prolific, fleshy, good flavour. Only downside is a slightly strange pinky colour.

[sandersj89]

I second Ferline, this is my 3rd year with it and it is doing very well again.

The fruit can get large, 4 to 5 inches across but most are 3 to 4 inches. Good flavour and colour.

I also grow marmande but find it is prone to blight and greenback. Nice flavour though.

Jerry

[Tigger]

I've grown Marmande and Beefsteak F1 this year - both in the tunnels and outside. None of the outside ones have ripened yet but the inside ones have been excellent. I'll try both again next year, along with whatever else is recommended here!

[lizzie]

Personally, I like Black Russian toms. Good meaty look and texture, not too sweet and excellent to use for preserving, in sauces or just grilled with a little sugar.

Also like Fiorentino Constantulos. Not the prettiest looking but tasty and as easy to grow as the Black Russians.

[tricia]

Would someone like to do me a favour and save some Ferline seeds please? I would only need a few as my garden is very small and the GH a lot smaller .

[Garlic_Guy]

Thanks for all the extra suggestions.

I'm keen to try both Ferline (if the insides are good, I don't mind if they're not massive) and possibly Marmande. Any more you want to suggest?

In the meantime, I've found the secret of the Pantano's I've been growing. I let many of the greenhouse ones (which ripened first) go right through to a full red colour. By then, they were pappy and not that tasty. Then I remembered how some of the ones in Italy looked (eg. "unripe" by our standards) and tried some that still had green/yellow on them.

The difference was amazing. They have a slight sharpness (so much more fruity) and the texture was much better. The picture below tries to show this (you can see the greeny/yellow on the left hand one) and also compares them to some Alicante, which are about "normal" tomato size and colour:

[bigpepperplant]

I made tomato sauce out of two enormous Pink Brandy Wine tomatoes last night and it tasted lovely. It's a potato leaved plant (introduced by the Amish in the States in the 1880s apparently) so looks unusual, you get about 10 fruits per plant and they're pink and massive with very thin skins. Don't know what they'd taste like raw though.

[helen2]

Red brandywine are my absolute favourites. Huge - deep red throughout and exude a deep red juice. Wasn;t so lucky with the pink brandywine last year though. I always grow both of these in the greenhouse - anyone grown them outdoors with good results??