What recommendations do you all have for paste tomatoes? There are so many out there!

I am trying one called Belmonte Pear. Anyone heard of that? It is from Adaptive Seeds.

There are a lot of great looking ones on Victory seeds that look good. I bummed that I forgot about that great company when ordering my seeds. I'll try them for fall this year.

Reid, my grow-it-every-year paste tomato has been Viva Italia for quite some time; if you aren't adverse to hybrids. It's always been very productive for me, and the tomatoes are good as salad tomatoes as well as for sauce and such.

Last year I tried San Marzano and San Marzano Redorta (I obtained both from the Piggy Swap on Cubits) and had good results with them, as well; the SM Redorta are HUGE and very solid. (both are OP)

If you want one more tomato site to take a look at, I ordered from TomatoFest last year for the first time and was very pleased with their service and the seeds I received.

Thanks Sandy!! Great recommendations!

I've grown Super Sauce (a Burpee hybrid) and they were amazingly large, meaty and good flavor. I've also grown Polish Linguisa--great flavor, but not as much yield (although that certainly could have been our growing season). Trying San Marzano Redorta this year.

Linda... that thing about "that certainly could have been our growing season" is definitely a factor; so hard to know if something that worked well will work again and again (or didn't and won't), until you try. If I grow a new variety that I have high hopes for and it doesn't do that well, I always try it again once more, just to "see." So many factors involved!

I agree, Sandy. Super Sauce did spectacularly for me one year; somewhat less the next. I'm growing Polish Linguisa again this year for a new take on it. I've also had several requests from our MG plant sale for Polish Linguisa (which we didn't offer last year). Apparently they do well in our zone, and I had on off year. I always give promising tomatoes a 2nd (or even 3rd) try.

I second the vote for San Marzano Redorta. I didn't grow any last year, and I really missed them. I'll have to fix that for this year. I did can a lot of them both in sauce and as whole tomatoes, and I'm still enjoying them.

Tom, interestingly, although I thought the earlier ones that I harvested were rather bland tasting, my later SM Redortas seemed both tastier and juicier. Have you ever noticed that? I wonder if it just had something to do with the weather

I hadn't noticed that, but I do know that in the fall when the daylight hours are shorter all tomatoes seem to go a bit flat, to me any way. Could be the early ones didn't get enough sun shine?

No, they're in full sun the whole growing season; maybe it was a watering issue or something. Or maybe just something to do with how cool our summer was. At any rate, I'm definitely growing them again!

Opalka is a pretty good one too. I didn't have any luck with the San Marzano Redortas last year but I will try again this year.

I've grown Oplaka as well. Again, just marginal for me, but so much can vary from year to year with growing conditions.

Beginning several years ago I switched from "paste" tomatoes to using OP heart shaped tomatoes as our paste and juice varieties. There are some very meaty hearts and they all have so much more flavor. It is true they need to be cooked down a little more, but the result is worth it.

Hi Everyone,

Last year I researched the favorite of paste tomatoes and went with Opalka. I was going to try making spaghetti sauce to see if liked making my own.

Long story short, it rained so much all my tomatoes went into making juice so I never got to try it. Oops, I take that back. I did get one sauce container in the freezer. I'll have to find it and try it :o)

I also had tomatoes in a shady spot and in the sun. We stake them but the leaves still blighted.

We do market gardening so we grow a lot of tomatoes. Whatever doesn't sell at market, I have to take care of so we make a lot of sauce some weeks. Always a mix of tomatoes as we grow about 20 varieties. Last year we put the tomatoes through the Squeezo Strainer to remove seeds and skin and then took the juice and put it in a pillowcase and hung it above the kitchen sink for about an hour. Fastest tomato sauce I ever made! Less cooking down and less chance of scorching. I think it was tvguy who told me about this.

Arlene,
We have a juicer attachment for a grinder. After the pulp comes out we run it thru again. Very thick, but there is still ''water.'' I would have to see how time consuming it would be to cook it down, and without scorch. Since there were less tomatoes to mess with last year, I just ran them thru the sieve.

I too mix varieties. 2012 was a very good year, lol!

Right now I'm drinking hot pepper tomato juice.

I agree about heart shaped tomatoes. Bull heart has been good for me.
Another one is Orange Russian 117. Not so much for sauce, but a fruity salsa.

Russian 117 is good too and a couple of years ago I won largest tomato by weight with on in a tomato contest. Well over two pounds.