I love tomatoes. Even now, at the height of glut season, when nearly every kitchen surface is littered with bowls of glowing, ripe fruit, and the greenhouse plants are still producing them at an alarming rate.
They’ve been sauced, souped and eaten in salads. I now harvest them by the gravel tray, rather than dainty little supermarket punnets. Given that my previous (and current) outdoor crops have been reduced or wiped out by blight by now, it’s a great problem to have.

The majority are open-pollinated varieties, not just because of my seed-collecting habit, but also because of their sheer variety. Tatiana’s tomato database lists nearly 5,000 different varieties from across the world – which I can’t hope to get through in my lifetime!

This year I grew 16 different varieties, some new, some old and some which are, quite frankly, bog-standard. All bar the tumbler were in the ground and they were nearly all cordons so I could get more plants in. In case you’re as bewildered by choice as I am, here are my reviews, with pictures. Some of the trusses are missing fruit. They either didn’t all pollinate, or I’ve eaten them.

Black Cherry (cordon)
This produces lovely dark cherry tomatoes with a really deep tomato flavour. Mine are intent on growing sideshoots and have split into 3 vines. Those have nearly all hit the roof of the greenhouse. Yield is pretty good, though better on one plant on the west of the greenhouse than the one on the east. The only thing is the colour –  Small Child thought they’d gone off and took a little convincing to eat them.
Health & Vigour 8/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes.

Black Russian (cordon)
Large dark tomatoes which have a deep smooth flavour, perfect for mozzarella and basil. There aren’t many per truss, and because they are so big the trusses can need supporting too. I missed one of the sideshoots on this plant and have a double cordon. The plant wasn’t the strongest growing, but it was next to a Katya which was an absolute beast.
Health & Vigour 7/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes.

Blush (cordon)
It’s not the strongest of growers, indoors or out. It’s on the spindly side. But the tomatoes are stunningly beautiful to look at and you get up to 20 per truss. Elongated yellow cherry plum, with streaks of red. They taste lovely – slightly acidy rather than overwhelmingly sweet. I got them from the A4A seed circle in 2014 and they are going straight back into the circle I am running!
Health & Vigour 7/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes.

Crimson Crush F1 (cordon)
These purport to be blight-proof. I got 2 free trial plants from Dobies through John Harrison’s newsletter offer.  They are both outside to give them a proper test against blight. One of the two is growing strongly, the other is completely rubbish. Both set trusses with few fruits and of variable size, which taste very good. The variety in size makes me wonder if it might not yet be stable as a cross – some are definitely beefsteak in girth & shape… As of September all my other outdoor tomatoes have blight and the CC plants are showing a few patches but growing through it.
Health & Vigour 4/10 and 7/10
Taste 8/10
Will I grow next year? Yes, if the sideshoots survive over winter.

Dancing with Smurfs (cordon)
I have one inside and one out. Both are very sturdy plants with dark curly leaves and trusses of 7-18 fruits. Tastes nice – the anthocyanin flavour (the natural pigment which colours the fruit) is fairly distinct. The tomatoes are blue-black where they are in direct sunlight. The ones I grew outside faced south so had very little skin that was not black. You had to be a bit of a contortionist to see if the shaded side was changing to red. Definitely fun to grow, especially for kids.
Health & Vigour 9/10
Taste 6/10
Will I grow next year? Maybe, just for the colour.

Gardener’s Delight (cordon)
I didn’t think I’d like this, but I do. My plants are now 7ft high in the greenhouse and showing no sign of stopping. They have large trusses, with large cherry fruit that has a proper deep tomato flavour – am saving seeds from this though probably I won’t grow them next year.
Health & Vigour 8/10
Taste 8/10
Will I grow next year? Maybe.

Ildi (cordon)
This produces massive trusses of sweet grape-sized tomatoes on a fairly sturdy plant – the one in the photo had been harvested a fair bit. I have plants inside and out. The tomatoes are ripening steadily in the greenhouse and are still green outdoors. The trusses don’t need supporting indoors though outside it is helpful. Am not sure the flavour is all that,  it gets a bit washed out unless watering is very careful, but you definitely get a lot of tomatoes from one plant. The greenhouse plant stopped at about 5ft tall, with 3 good trusses. I daftly planted it in the middle of a row, meaning I had to shimmy past to get through to the back. Won’t do that again.
Health & Vigour 8/10
Taste 7/10
Will I grow next year? Yes, but in a corner at the back where it has space for the trusses to grow.

Katya (semi-determinate cordon)
This produces early beefsteak pink tomatoes. There are about 4 to a truss, which can need support. The tomatoes are a nice big size, slice well and don’t have many seeds. The tomatoes are a bit bland when properly ripe and go a little mealy. I like more bite. The plants are also semi-determinate and keen on multiplying. I have a 2-stemmed cordon that has now hit the roof of the greenhouse. (seeds from A4A circle)
Health & Vigour 8/10
Taste 6-7/10
Will I grow next year? Probably not – I want to try Brandywine next year after reading rave reviews. But I am keeping seed for another year.

Orange Banana (cordon)
Another tall and spindly plant, with limp looking leaves. It doesn’t look as though it will be strong enough to support the large orange paste tomatoes. It does though. The fruit form on trusses of 8-12. They taste fabulous, both fresh or in sauce, though the sauce colour is obviously different.  (seeds came from the Pass the Parcel on http://chat.allotment-garden.org)
Health & Vigour 7/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes.

Purple Ukraine (cordon)
Of all the spindly plants, this is the spindliest – the plants look positively ill with limp long leaves. However the tomatoes are HUGE paste tomatoes, ready when they look brown-ish. They taste fantastic as long as they haven’t gone over, in which case they are mealy (doesn’t matter for sauce). There are huge yields on each plant and the 6-8 fruit trusses need supporting. (seeds from A4A circle and going back into another)
Health & Vigour 7/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes, definitely.

Rainbow Blend F1 (cordon)
Large plant with massive leaves. It’s slightly obsessed with developing sideshoots so needs regular attention to pinch them out. It grows sprawling long trusses of 12-18 baby plum fruits which are a pinkish red colour rather than pillar-box red. Nice strong sweet flavour
Health & Vigour 9/10
Taste 7/10
Will I grow next year? No – mainly because I save seed so try not to grow many F1s.

Red Zebra (cordon)
I LOVE these. The tomatoes are stunning, starting with green striped fruit that matures through a bright orange to a full red. I like them a little under-ripe just for the extra zing to them. There are about 8 tomatoes to a truss and they are a large salad size. (seeds came from the Forum seed circle)
Health & Vigour 8/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Hell yes!

Rosella F1 (cordon)
This was only grown outside, and it wasn’t really happy there. It was spindly, the tomatoes were really small cherries and they didn’t really wow me flavourwise. It’s supposed to have a dusky pink colour, but it didn’t for me – I’d describe it more as brown.
Health & Vigour 6/10
Taste 4/10
Will I grow next year? No

Sandpoint (dwarf bush)
This is an ultra early dwarf bush tomato that I stupidly thought was a cordon – so I have small plants with not many fruit. Doing well inside and out. It has small salad tomatoes and the whole plant ripens almost at once. The tomatoes aren’t good keepers but taste fine – they are a bit bland but I’ll forgive them that for their sheer earliness. Seeds from the A4A circle and are going back into a couple of others this year.
Health & Vigour 6/10 – though I treated it really badly, so perhaps that’s unfair
Taste 6-7/10
Will I grow next year? Maybe, just for early tomatoes.

Sweet Million F1 (cordon)
There are huge trusses on this, with large cherry tomatoes which are nicely balanced in flavour, both tart and sweet. When I grew these outside last year, they and the Black Cherry were the last to get blight, though then the tomatoes were a lot smaller from being grown in the great outdoors and confined to pots. The greenhouse plant is now up to the roof.
Health & Vigour 8/10
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes.

100s&1000s (tumbling tomato)
This is my only tumbler and I love the tiny, intense, sweet tomatoes, which are between the size of a 5p and a penny. I grow them in large pots, and the trusses usually tumble to about a foot below the base. The plant needs a bit of cossetting to grow massive and I haven’t managed to get that right this year, but it’s still chucking out lots of tomatoes. Seeds from the Forum seed circle.
Health & Vigour 6/10 – mostly due to my sporadic watering
Taste 9/10
Will I grow next year? Yes.