One of our gardening mantras is “Varieties matter”, especially if it comes to tomatoes. If we accept that there are around 7500 varieties of tomatoes according to Wikipedia and that Gerhard Bohl, a German collector grew 3000 varieties, then the 30 plus varieties we grow in any normal year in our polytunnel are actually ‘peanuts’, if you allow that comparison.

Neantog Trials

For the last 6 years we always plan to reduce the amount of varieties and grow only a few tried and tested ones, but then the unexpected happens and our plans are thrown out the window. This happened last year when we ordered Tomatoberry from a seed company in Ukraine and not only got sent the requested variety, but 5 other varieties as gifts. So we did owe it to them ( a seed company in a country at war with an aggressor) to try them all.

And in February of this year Larry from Maine (US), who moved to Donegal visited for advise on polytunnels and in return gifted us varieties, he brought along. The best of his gifts was Crimson Crush Naturally we were excited to try some of them. After all “variety is the spice of life” and as our dear friend Mark Diacono writes in his fabulous book Abundance “…new varieties are important: they keep the doors open to new flavours, to the possibility of new favourites, and frankly it’s important to keep changing even the small things up.”

Tomato trial 2026

The discovery this year was Mango Lassi from Vital Seeds and Tibet Apple from the Irish Seed Savers
Taste results:
5 stars: Sungold, Black Cherry, Arielle, Tibet Apple (bush) and Mango Lassi
4 1/2 stars: Crimson Crush, Yellow Submarine, Modus
4 stars: Magda, Bolstar Sensatico, Alter Kommunist, Tomatoberry, Blue Betty
Santiam Sunrise, Brads Atomic, Datella, Santonio
3 ½ stars: Defiant, Primabella, Rosella
3 stars: Bolstar Baloe, Bolstar Granda, Baseler Roeteli
2 ½ stars: Havest Moon, Darkstar

Bolstar Baloe, Granda and Sensatico were very productive and mostly made into sauces, especially thickened pizza sauce. Tastewise Sensatico was the best of the three. Santiam Sunrise, praised as a heirloom replacement for Sungold was good, but not as good. and Primabella was a bit disappointing, but we will try again.

Tomatoes at Neantog 2025

There weren’t any new flavours really, but Modus (seeds from Quickcrop) really convinced us, it’s similar in shape and taste to Santonio (Quickcrop) and Datella (Bingenheimer Saatgut). These three “snack tomatoes”, in our view, have much more depth in flavour than the still popular and very sweet Sungold. Cherry black from the Ukraine was super productive with a great taste – just the right balance of sweet and acidic -, but was blighted by botrytis. Baselbieter Röteli (Wyss Samen und Pflanzen AG), an old heirloom variety (pro specie rara), which we picked up on a trip to, yes you guessed it, Switzerland, is still very productive, looks good and tastes good. Bolstar Granda (Bingenheimer Saatgut), is a very productive plum tomato, especially good for sauces. We wanted Pink Flamingo to be great, but the plants disappointed and the taste was rather bland.
From the big tomatoes, Magda, Betty Blue and Noire de Crèmee’ were very prolific and very big, some weighing 1kg, but the plants did not last that long. Unfortunately Striped German and Sunheart (we were gifted seeds by friends) were mealy and a bit disappointing.
Last not least one of our favourites for the last few years Arielle did not disappoint. Prolific, healthy, still very productive, thick skinned and sweet with a tang, we just love it. Only thing is they do not germinate easily and we had to do a second sowing.

Tomato Trial 2024

The year certainly was a challenge for our tomatoes and talking to many other polytunnel growers we are certainly not alone with our experience. The lower than average temperatures in Summer and the often very wet conditions slowed the ripening of tomatoes by probably 2 weeks. We also had quite a few problems with Botrytis (Grey Mould), encouraged by cool and damp conditions, despite having our doors open for maximum ventilation. We did spray preventatively with horsetail tea, probably should have tried spraying with milk water mix.
The yield generally is down. Taste wise Arielle, Santonio and Cherry Falls were the best. We tried Bolstar for the first time, it is a big plum type tomato, good for sauces, had a very good yield and no problems. A surprise in taste were Alter Kommunist, grown from seed given to us by Anja and Tony's Delight given to us by Dennis, the former with the ultimate tomato taste of sweet with a sharp kick, the latter very sweet.

Tomato Trial 2023

We grew 23 varieties of tomatoes. Due to the very warm weather in May and June many of them ripened earlier this year than in previous years. As one of our favourites Arielle, known for its slow and often erratic germination, didn't germinate from our first sowing on March 7th, we tried again on March 17th, and in the end there is hardly any difference between the varieties sown earlier: Tomato plants once in the ground will always catch up! At our trial tasting we came up with our 5 best tasting varieties: Arielle, Sungold, Santonio, Gardenberry and Rosella. Ana Coeur was the best beef tomato. Plum Polestar was much better than Quadro.

Tomato Trial 2022

Our top 5 this year are:
Cherry type:1. Arielle, 2. Gardenberry, 3. Santiono, 4. Sungold, 5. Umami
Big tomatoes:1. Blue Betty, 2. Shady Lady, 3. Kalavrita, 4. BSAG-TOT, 5. Magda
Blue Betty was the discovery of the year; thanks to Brendan, who sent us seeds (we have saved seeds ourselves now).
Arielle is very prolific, blight resistant, has a thick skin and the flavour improves if you let them dry on the vine like tomato raisins.
Gemma was disappointing, good yield, but mealy and bland.
Quadro was good for sauces as its very fleshy.
Reisetomate is a novelty as you can break off sections to eat on the go, taste is good but not outstanding.
Orange Banana has an interesting fruity flavour, but yield was a bit disappointing.

Tomato trial 2021

The following varieties we will grow again: Gardenberry, Arielle, Santonio, Iris, Sungold, Kalavrita, Iris and Shady Lady.

Tomato trial 2020

2020 was the year of the yellow tomatoes, with no fewer than 6 varieties in trial, but is still hard to see beyond Yellow Submarine. Besides the trusted Sungold and Santonio we also loved Tomatoberry. The revelation was Blush from Brown Envelope Seeds in Cork.