My favorite Grape Tomatoes - Juliet.

Seven quarts of Juliet Tomatoes I picked today. I wait a few days and pick them every few days. Each time I do I have been getting more than I did the time before. These things are tomato making machines!

Amen, Rita! My Juliet is going crazy, too. Huge plant, enormous yield.

Well hurray. At last, someone else that loves these tomatoes!

I love Juliet too.
I will plant it every year !

What do ya'll do with all those grape tomatoes?

I just love to eat them as snacks. I have put them in salads and they are really good that way but this time of year I have all sorts of tomatoes that can go in a salad. Also they are the best if you are doing kebobs. Just the right size and they hold together really well.

My neightbors two kids love these so I do give lots away.

Still picking lots and lots of Juliets. Picked a really nice large batch today again. These never quit!

I have planted 3 Juiet tomatoes every year for a long time. Their production is huge through the entire season whether it is cold, hot, rainy, or dry, and they can stay on the vine a long time without splitting. I admit it is not the tastiest tomato--neither acidic nor sweet, but it has a mild taste that is pleasant.
We keep a bowl of them on the counter and grab a few as we go by. My wife cuts them in half to include in "greens" salads and pasta salads--this works great since they are firm with not a lot of juice.

That is what truely, truely impressed me about those Juliets. Production is awesome. Heat, rain, cold, no matter. They just keep on going.

I've alway liked the Juliets. They grow well here in upstate NY and stay on the vine until the first fall frost. Many in the plantfile complain about the bland taste, but I think some are picking them off too soon. I actually think that the taste improves when they are ripened on the vine a bit longer. This seems to work because they aren't as subject to cracking like so many others. My Supersweets and Sweetmillions are long gone by now, the Juliets holding up just fine.

Al

You can let them ripen on the counter also. I pick mine and then let them sit on the counter until nice and ripe. They are bland until totally ripe and need the extra time for best taste.

If most of you are into growing hybrid grape tomatoes I can suggest that you try Smarty F1 which is THE best hybrid grape I've grown.

I tend to not grow many hybrids for various reasons. But will grow Mountain Magic F1, a large cherry, as well as Sungold F1 as well as three that were bred by Harris Seeds many years ago but have superb taste and performance compared to many new varieties and these are NOT cherries or grapes.

And those are:

Jet Star F1
Supersonic F1
Moreton Hybrid

and I think I should add Ramapo F1 now again available but when it went out of production I dehybridized Ramapo F1 to an OP and many folks grow that one too.

Carolyn

I have Sungold. Very nice tasting cherry tomatoes. But small compaired to Juliets and always crack. Although the Sungolds just keep right on producing, they can not keep up with the Juliets in production. That plus the fact that the Juliets are much larger and do not crack means Juliets win. But if you are judging on taste alone then Sungold definately wins. Never tried Smarty but not going to be giving up my Juliets.

I am thinking on trying Jet Star next year, but like you said they are not grape tomatoes so no competion for Juliets on my garden.

Did all of you Juliet F1 lovers know that it's the Known-You Seed Co in Taiwan who initially bred them and the first version they released almost everyone loved and then they released a second version, it had a different size and taste and that's the one that all of you are growing.

And I haven't found too many folks who praise this second version, but if you didn't know the first version you wouldn't be able to. As a matter of fact most say this newer version has fruits that are rock hard and darn near tasteless. ( smile)

To each his or her own, as is oft said.

But do try Smarty F1 if it's a great hybrid grape cherry you want to grow and Mountain Magic F1 for a great round cherry. Again, if it's hybrids that you want to grow. And at another message site there's a long thread on cherries and folks are asking the original poster the same question, and that is, why are you growing hybrids as in what are the disease pressures where you live, and in his case it was primarily foliage diseases so no reason at all to grow hybrids since they are no more tolerant of foliage diseases than are OP's, with few exceptions.

Carolyn

Well for me, I am growing what I like. Plus I need production. Can't get excited over any tomato variety that would give me few fruits like some heirlooms I have tried in the past. And I have always bought plants locally therefore although there is a fabulous selection locally, still one can't get everything.

I prefer grapes over cherries so the only cherry I plan to grow next year is Sungold. But would grow Sunsugar also if there where plants locally. I grew Sugery grape tomatoes this year and liked them so those should be back next year also. But one plant of each. I have four Juliets and plan to be planting four more next year in exactly the same spots.

We all grow what we like and should do that but we don't know what we like the BEST until we keep growing new varieties every year and hanging on to what we thought was best at one time.

The more varieties each of us grow the better we can assess those new ones based on what we've grown before.

Grape tomatoes are defined by shape and they are cherry size, so there's no difference,really between the taste, in geneneral, of grape and cherry tomatoes that can be linked to fruit shape.

Those of us who have been growing tomatoes for many decades knew of grape shaped ones, but it's only since Andrew Chu in FL introduced Santa F1 many years ago that almost everyone became aware of what grape shaped tomatoes were. And since it was a new concept and Santa F1 is a GREAT variety, commercial breeders went nuts trying to breed other grape tomatoes to get a cut of the money.

They did, and they have. LOL

Carolyn,just some perspective from a senior citizen who has been around a tomato patch or two for many many decades. ( wink)

I grow my old favorites from year to year because I know that I like them and that they do well for me. On top of that I try out new varieties. Some years I try many new to me ones, other years only a few. But I do like to try new ones because as you say, they might become new favorites to bring back year after year.

That is what happened with Juliet. I tried it this year for the first time and now I never plan to be without it.

Carolyn mentioned Mountain Magic F-1 as a tasty tomato and I agree. GREAT sweet taste, hugely productive (close to 90 tomatoes on one plant), holds well on the vine, and produced all summer. Mine averaged 1 3/4 oz, so were a little smaller than advertised--maybe because we had over 45 days of 90+ degrees with 15 of that over 100 degrees.

I liked it so much that I have already ordered and received my seeds for 2013.

I grow Juliet in the fall ever year. I have found that most varieties I grow in the spring do not do well in the fall (Cherokee Purple, Big Beef, ect). They produce fruit, but the taste is lacking compared to how they taste in the spring/summer. In my opinion they are not worth the effort. By the time they ripen we have a frost/freeze warning, and I lose my crop. Juliet on the other hand ripen very early. I have been picking tomato's for over three weeks. I eat a salad every night, and I just do not like store bought tomato's. If you let the Juliet tomato's turn bright red on the vine they are quite tasty sliced thin in a salad w/ my lettuce, and cuks. They are also very prolific producers. I grew Juliet;s this spring for the first time, and I did not like them at all, But in the fall they are great.... I am also trying Indian Stripe this fall. I have lot's of fruit almost ready to turn red. I also have an Amish Paste plant leftover from the spring that are starting to ripen, and they are even better tasting than the Juliet's.

Juliets do NEED to ripen to develop flavor. I am convinced that many people do not let them ripen enough therefore develop flavor. You can leave them on vine longer or do as I do which is let them finish ripening indoors on the counter after picking. The thicker skin does not bother me, I don't even notice it. Better thicker skin than excessive splitting. And of course they are increadably productive.

newyorkrita...........you can leave on the vine as long as you want to because they will not split. Also in the fall you don't have to worry as much about worms, birds, and insect problems. I say that, but every fall I have to deal with white flies......so far no white flies this year. They also are very easy to pick. They fall off the vine if you look at them wrong..It is a great fall tomato here in central Texas...

I know they pick easily. Fall off the vine if you apply little pressure. They are not prone to splitting but still we get lots and lots and lots of rain here so it is much better to pick and leave them to finish up on the kitchen counter. Besides, I find it much easier to just take all the ones I see that are ripe instead of trying to figgure out if they are ripe enough before taking them off the vine.

I just found this thread and wanted to add my two cents worth. I grew Juliet tomatoes the year before last and although they produced tons of tomatoes from spring through fall (with a slight hiatus during the hottest part of summer), I didn't care that much for the taste or their thick skins. But based on the reviews from various DGer's I'm trying them again this year. Maybe I missed something the first time around.

Let them ripen fully and they taste good. Eat them not so ripe and they have no flavor. I just pick them and leave them sitting on the counter inside to get them nice and ripe. I am definately planting Juliets again and will be putting them in the same spot I had them in this past summer.