Recently I was going through the websites of the seed suppliers I've patronized in the last few years to see if I could take some off the list (those shipping charges add up!) but the project quickly got out of hand. I ended up with a list of 1833 tomato varieties from 16 suppliers!

     Unfortunately many of my favorites were only handled by one or two sellers, so it didn't help me very much, but I thought that you might be interested in what tomato varieties were the most popular, i.e. offered by the most suppliers. I feel that my list is a reasonably fair sampling since it includes 5 suppliers offering over 200 varieties each, 7 handling from 50 to 200, and 4 smaller firms listing fewer than 50 types of tomatoes. Except for two companies less than two years old, all are on the recommended suppliers list of the gardening forums I subscribe to.

     So, on to the results:
1220 tomato varieties were offered by only one of these suppliers
312 were offered by two suppliers,
126 were offered by three,
76 by 4,
30 by 5,
24 by 6,
13 by seven suppliers,

     The winners, in third place with 8 or 9 suppliers, are:
Anna Russian, Arkansas Traveler, Brandywine (pink), Costoluto Genovese, German Johnson, Giant Belgium, Japanese Black Trifele, Kellogg's Breakfast, Paul Robeson, Red Pear, Riesentraube, Roma, Yellow Pear.

     The runners up, offered by 10 or 11 of the 16 suppliers:
Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black from Tuila, Hillbilly, Green Zebra, Mortgage Lifter, Pineapple, Prudens Purple and Stupice.

     And the winning varieties, offered by 13 or more of the suppliers:
Amish Paste, Black Cherry, Black Krim and Cherokee Purple.
Did your favorites win ribbons? Only eight of mine did.

     To add to the other useless information from this data mine, B and S were the most popular first letters of those 1833 varieties with about 10% of the total each. I hope that's not a hidden message.

Man, you have waaay too much time on your hands. Gardening season needs to get to Conn. and soon.

Besides that, I love stuff like this. From third place up to the winners, I have grown about 3/4 of those varieties over the past 12 years or so. This year only seven are on the list. Lots of B's and S's for sure.

Interesting. Although, from looking at all three lists I'm not convinced that the most popular means the best.

From the past ten years of growing heirloom tomatoes ~ Noteworthy from your list:
-Aunt Ruby's German Green is at the top of my most tasty & productive green tomato list, Green Zebra is second.
-Black Cherry is my favorite cherry tomato, so far.
-Yellow Pear, although very productive, has hardly no flavor. Makes a good choice for jam or chutney.
-German Johnson is on my worst tomato list. After two tries, the plants grew huge but no fruit the first time and few the second time. The few tomatoes came so late that the beetles ended up getting them before they matured. Never actually tried one for flavor but they aren't worth the space or effort to try growing again!

I see a few that I'm trying this year:
2nd try - Kellogg's Breakfast
1st try - Red Pear and Amish Paste

I only grow one kind, Cherokee Purple. Keep it simple, and heirloom variety seeds true to their name, never had to bother with buying tomato seeds anymore.

7 of my favorites made the list.

Your information is really interesting but I agree not sure what it really means.

But I am glad you posted and that I found this thread. It starts an interesting conversation.

I found that I had to order seed from far too many sources this year to get all the tomato varieties that I wanted. But I have some really truly unusual ones. Including seed from some of today's modern tomato hybridizers that are not well known.

I love trying new varieties of tomatoes. I'm hoping to one day grow only my favorites...

I try new ones and that is how I find new favorites!!

Same here Rita. There is room for 35 tomato plants in my garden. Most years for the past dozen I had grown out at least ten new to me varieties and the rest favorites. Every year there are several new favorites to put on that list. The favorite list is now so long they can't be grown every year and try new varieties as well. So, the favorites are on a rotating schedule and the new ones have become only those with great recommendations. So keep up the recommending.

The tomato garden here just keeps expanding. But it's not possible to make any more room now so I am stuck with what I have.

Some years lots of new ones to try for me, other years not too many. This year since I started my own tomato plants from seed I have just about everything new to me.

So it means this will be the best year ever or maybe a bust and I go back to my tried and true varieties. I will find out. But truly I am very excited about all these I will be growing this year. Just about none of them would have been possible to get if I wasn't growing from seed.

How exciting, Rita! I typically grow all of my garden from seed. I think it makes for a very rewarding adventure, watching everything grow and fruit. But, like you said, it can be disappointing if plants don't produce much, or any at all. Heirlooms are funny like that. Often they don't produce like the popular hybrids but they can really make up for it with flavor!

wildflowers said:How exciting, Rita! I typically grow all of my garden from seed. I think it makes for a very rewarding adventure, watching everything grow and fruit. But, like you said, it can be disappointing if plants don't produce much, or any at all. Heirlooms are funny like that. Often they don't produce like the popular hybrids but they can really make up for it with flavor!

I have never been impressed with the makes up for it with flavor argument. If it is extra stingy with the fruit it is a bust for me no matter how great those very few fruits taste. I need production from my tomato plants or they don't get to return to my garden.

Yes, for me too, extra stingy is not acceptable! I grow about twelve to sixteen tomato plants per year, so I want them to "earn their keep"!

But, I have grown very few larger tomato heirlooms that have come close to putting out fruit like Celebrity or Carnival. I'm not impressed with the flavor of Celebrity but Carnival is awesome, it has really good flavor!

wildflowers said:Yes, for me too, extra stingy is not acceptable! I grow about twelve to sixteen tomato plants per year, so I want them to "earn their keep"!

But, I have grown very few larger tomato heirlooms that have come close to putting out fruit like Celebrity or Carnival. I'm not impressed with the flavor of Celebrity but Carnival is awesome, it has really good flavor!

Good to know about the production. I have never grown either of those so can't comment on taste. Actually I Have never heard of one called Carnival. I will have to look it up and see.

Last year I noted the most popular tomato offerings from the catalogs of 16 seed or plant sellers, but this year the list grew to 32 companies. Individually they listed from 29 to over 750 varieties, totalling over 6000 mentions of 2577 different varieties. Most of the sellers were on the recommended suppliers lists published in respected reference books or on two popular gardening forums. (I think you can guess which ones.)

Without further ado, here are the most popular varieties for 2017 in increasing order.
Honorable mention, sold by 14-19 of the 32 suppliers:
Eva Purple Ball
Opalka
Arkansas Traveler
Brandywine Yellow
Costoluto Genovese
Delicious
Black From Tula
Jaune Flammée
Paul Robeson
San Marzano
German Johnson
Hillbilly
Japanese Black Trifele
Principe Borghese
Kellogg's Breakfast
Yellow Pear

Medalists, offered by 20-26 of the 32 suppliers:
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Pink Brandywine
Pineapple
Stupice
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Mortgage Lifter
Amish Paste
Green Zebra

And the Grand Prize Winner listed by 30 out of the 32 sellers:
Cherokee Purple !

P.S. While massaging databases is fun, I don't think I will do this again.

Don, thank you for sharing your research.

I also love the research. I am probably rather ashamed to say that several of those tomatoes on the most popular list were not on my "favorite" list. I love Paul Robeson and Black Cherry (and have grown both several times). I've also grown several of the others (especially the purple tomatoes, which I love), but they just didn't do well for me or perform well in my garden.

Thank goodness there are so many varieties for us to try!

thank you, DOn. this is fun to read.
Cherokee Purple, my personal best taster, but last year one of worst producers. Hoping for better this year and noting a few other favorites here before I shop for started plants.

Any list that doesn't have Cherokee Purple on it is a failure. It is the best tasting and mostly best producing and durable heirloom tomato. After that, you can have Brandywine, Prudens Purple, Pink Ponderosa, Aunt Gerties Gold and then a dozen others for various traits.

I tried Garden Gem and Garden Treasure hybrids last year. I'm growing one of each of them this year (for a 2nd try and hybrid backup), but neither match a good heirloom.

I also always plant a Big Beef. I used to plant a Celebrity, but Big Beef is better. I tasted a friend's best Big Boy last year and said "your kidding, right?".

When he tasted a Cherokee Purple he nearly fell on the floor in happiness.

I grew Cherokee Purple one year. Only one year. It did well and was somewhat productive. It was tasty but ones I grew last season were better tasting in my opinion. Still it is a very popular heirloom.