I’m growing four varieties of paste tomatoes this year. Top: Amish Paste, middle: San Marzano, bottom: Jersey Devil. (My Heinz 2653 plant doesn’t have any ripe fruit right now.) My favorite is Jersey Devil, big, meaty, and very productive. I’ll definitely grow this one again next year.
Last year I grew eight paste varieties (Cordova, San Marzano, San Marzano Gigante 3, Stump of the World, Opalka, Nova, Polish Linguisa, and Heinz 2653). My favorites were Polish Linguisa and Opalka. I wanted to grow these again this year, as well as blue Beech, which was recommended by a reader of this blog. Somehow I was too late in ordering seeds. I’ll order very early for next year.
I pick my tomatoes just as they start to turn red so I can increase the chance that I get to eat them and not the chipmunks. They’re eating about 10% of my tomatoes this year.