Kitchen Garden Forum

Is there a beefsteak tomato that is good to eat but also easy to manage?

The last few years I have grown 6 each of Beefmaster, Cherokee Purple and Cuor Di Bue and we like them all, particularly Cherokee Purple but I find them all difficult to train. The tops grow so it is difficult to decide which is the leader and what a side shoot and the trusses tend to have shoots on the end, I've even had growths like sideshoots coming out along leaf axis. So is there a good variety that grows like a conventional one with easily identified sideshoots?

Orange Queen is my wife's favourite to eat, easy to grow, I have grown Cour DI Bue, didn't have any real problems. Growing some new ones this year, I will report back on their growing later in the season.

I grew burlesque last year very impressed with them I lifted one out of the freezer yesterday it was 3 inches diameter and still sweet I have to grow blight resistant tomatoes because of the idiots who leave them rotting on the plant

For the love of me at this time I can't remember the name, but the best one I have had is from Seeds of Italy. It doesn't get too tall, but deffo tall'ish, & the stem seems to thicken up rather than throw off side shoots at every joint. There are still shoots but don't seem to affect the harvest & easy to notice as not too much foliage. It has pretty huge fruit, not watery or over seedy & sits well on the plant until needed. Not too sweet & makes great sauces. I will check the plant marker next time I go down; I looked on their site but they seem to delete when out of stock as only showing one variety currently!

It’s a long time since I grew beefsteak tomatoes but the last I grew were Black Russian’s. They were pretty easy to grow and I got a good crop from each plant. Can’t remember how they tasted exactly but I don’t remember them being horrible.