PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Celebrity'

It's hard for me to believe the negative comments about the Celebrity tomato. I have grown these for years. I usually grow 50 to 75 plants of this variety along with the Marion variety. I find that the Celebrity and Marion have similar taste and acidity. Some of the comments here have said it is bland. It certainly must have to do with the soil where it is grown. Also it could be due to the use of chemical fertilizers. I am totally organic and use a bit of composted chicken manure (Black Hen), and composted cow manure in our mostly clay soil. I have also begun to use rabbit manure which works great. I've heard some folks talk about the plants being 10 to 11 feet tall. Too much nitrogen! My plants are well contained in 5 foot cages and drop over the sides a couple feet. The taller the plant the less tomatoes. My neighbor planted from the same plants that I started and he used a popular liquid fertilizer. He had 11 foot tall plants with 8 or ten tomatoes, while mine had at least 50 tomatoes per plant. Again, I believe flavor and quantity depend largely upon the soil they are grown in, the type of nutrients given, and of course how they are watered. Never over water tomatoes. Mulching with a good mulch is essential also. I use shredded oak leaves over a layer of newspaper. This can be a tasty tomato when grown under the right conditions. Another great slicing and canning tomato!

I planted this tomato last year and the first fruits were kind of bland and were susceptable to BER but later in the season as the weather heated up the taste improved dramatically I have planted two more of them this year along with 4 other types

Good producer, bland taste. Better choices out there.

2011 was another horrible weather year for tomatoes in SE Iowa. Celebrity has always been my brother's 'go-to' tomato. It took the beating of unusually heavy spring rains, followed by a total drought scenario until fall. Of the twenty-some varieties we planted between us, it was one of the few that still produced heavy yields of usable fruit (70% of the others sadly went to the compost pile). Later than usual, but still good.

I had good luck with this plant and it produced good fruit. I only planted one in 2011, but I think I will plant two in 2012.

2012 update. The plant grew well even in the brutal growing conditions this year with high temps and no precipitation. I will grow them again.

Have never had good luck with this variety. Too many problems with disease and not very fruitful, small tomatoes. Since I grow at least 30 different varieties every year, this will not be one of them. Give me those good 'ol heirlooms!!

This is the most reliable salad tomato for the California Inland Empire area. My microclimate is harsh -- hot and dry-- and Celebrity along with Early Girl are bulletproof.

I planted two 11'' tall Celebrity tomato plants last September. I put one in a raised bed with MiracleGro Garden Soil and the other one in-ground(I dug a 1ft deep hole and filled it with EarthGro Humus and Manure). I grew them organically and fertilized them once with MicroLife fertilizer.

Height/Fruit Production: They both grew to almost 5ft tall. After Thanksgiving they started producing well until about December 14th(a Reemay row cover enabled them to survive that long) when a hard freeze wiped them out. The next day I went outside and picked all of the sizable tomatoes. I ended up with about 30 tomatoes window ripening that lasted until mid-January. I estimate my total harvest was 40-45 tomatoes. Not bad for a very short late fall/early winter growing season.

Insect Problems: I had flea beetle problems on the lower few sets of branches and then leaf footed bugs when the fruit started setting but damage to both the plant and fruit was minimal. Also a tomato hornworm on one of the plants(I accidentally touched it, GROSS) but again minimal damage.

Disease Problems: None that I noticed.

I have not grown Tomatos for over 20 years until this year. Planted two started plants in early June and got my first ripe Celebrity on August 19th. It was 6 oz, meaty, juicy, and delicious. There are about 25 green tomatos on each plant now and I am getting 4-5 ripe tomatos per week now, average about 6 oz in size and all as good at the first one. Just hoping they will all ripen before the first freezeup, in about two weeks. I am enjoying eating them raw with a little salt and also made salsa with them. I plan to cut way down on the watering to get them to finish ripening. I did have a couple that cracked on top due to too much watering during ripening, but they are still good to eat. Highly recommended but would plant a couple of weeks earlier next year or mix in some short season varieties. JUNE 25, 2011 UPDATE: I ended up getting about 50 great tomatos off each plant last year before freeze-up. Planted three this year on May 10th, somewhat risky but they did not freeze and got an early start. Also trying some Early Girl and Better Boy. So far the Celebrities have not grown as rapidly as the other varieties but have not hit their stride yet because of our cold wet spring. I expect they will be great producers again this year.

This was once a mainstay in my garden but it doesn't seem to have the disease tolerance it once had. The flavor is not usually too good and there are much better hybrids available with better taste and production.

Reliable, tasty, and prolific.

Positive so far. I stuck one of these in my raised bed this year with some other varieties about mid-April. First to bloom, first to fruit, and will most likely be the first harvested.

Several promising fruits on each stem that look very healthy despite not being 'babied' at all. Has climbed about 3-feet up a netted trellis and did a great job of self pollinating since it's the only one in the area and is loaded with flesh already.

Will have to let you know later about taste and texture, but will defiantly find a use for 'em one way or another.

Awful thick skin and horrible flavor. I've never had one that I've liked.

I could have played a game of baseball with these tomatoes. They were the hardest I have every eaten along with Hilltop. The variety produces lots of tomatoes but I experienced an unusual amount of BER with them. Lots of folks around here plant them but I will not anymore.

My heirloom sensibillities tell me to hate this tomato - and I almost do. It tastes bad and is prone to sunscald. Plus I dont like the name - nor do I like celebrities.

....But it does yield. It yields a heap of round, red, tomatoes that do have a nice texture. It is a nice alternative to the "mountain" series which are hard as nails.

This one really got the season started for us last year - we sold about 8-10 pounds off of each celebrity we had. That makes it a champ, monetarily speaking.

Grew two in an Earthbox and I was pleasantly surprised. Loaded with lots of nice size fruit. Very good tomatoey taste, not too sweet with just enough acid "bite" to wake up your taste buds. Lots of meat but stays very juicy, not mealy at all.. They got an early January start and made numerous trips back into the house as the cold fronts came through. Harvested over 70 already and the plants are still loaded. It has joined my "grow again" list.

Hi
I'm giving this a neutral right now as I haven't tasted the tomatoes yet. The plants look good and have green tomatoes on them. I bought this variety because I have wilt in my soil and lost my tomatoes last year. I will change the rating when I taste the fruits. I am impressed with their wilt resistance and that's a real consideration for me.
Pat

It is a good border plant but I did not enjoy the thick skin and sort of bland flavor. I won't grow this variety again.

Very nice, prolific tomato. I also lost some foliage and a very few tomatoes to disease, but all the rest make it worthwhile. This year I planted them in a brand new vegetable garden that's been established in poor, sandy soil - they rose to the challenge and then some. At the moment (Sept. 5, 2004) I'm getting 2 or 3 every day or so that are ready to eat, so we're not inundated - it's a perfect pace for family dining. They taste *delicious*. I will definitely grow Celebrity tomatoes again next year.

Just a C+ tomato.

It produces tons of blemish free fruits, but they lack the flavor of an old fashioned heirloom.They just don't cut it in my book.

I give it a passing grade because of the consistant production that market farmers need, but I'll never grow it again...I grow tomatoes for the burst in your mouth tomatoey essence that has been bred out of these in favor of uniform production.

I've been growing Celebrity for several years now and they always do great here in Nova Scotia. Flavour is above average and ripens good also. This is probably my favourite medium size tomato.

Celebrity is a durable performer and along with Better Boy the more popular cultivars for backyard gardeners in this area. The shorter more concentrated crop makes it easier to get adequate tomatoes for processing before the summer temps shut them down. Flavor is average. I abandoned them after trial.

I'm an organic gardener. I make my own "Earthboxes." Some up to 8 feet long. I make my own soil-less mixture. I compost. I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

I seed out in September. I normally only grow heirlooms. I tried this tomato twice on the recommendation of family that lives up North. Both times the fruits were a complete disappointment in the area of flavor. Perhaps I've been ruined in this area by heirlooms.

I will say it grew well. It had an acceptable amount of fruits. I had less trouble with it during our "winter" rains than the other tomato plants. Nevertheless, I will not give up space to this tomato again. For my person, the bottom line is in the eating!
Olds

Productive, resistant to most problems, great tasting and easy to grow.

I live in deep south Georgia and have Celebrity tomatoes growing now. I haven't had any trouble with mine. They are a good old timey tasting tomato. I once had some beautiful tomatoes in a bed. I planted some wilt resistant tomatoes and still lost them all to the wilt. The next time that I planted I put them in large pots and used Miracle Grow. I have moved now and my plants are producing good fruit.

Consistently performs well in Zone 3. Usually lose all foliage late in season to disease but tomatoes themselves are usually not affected. Excellent for canning and fresh use.....the standard for our community.

Good plant for warmer climates as it withstands high temperatures and dry conditions when other varieties give up.

Does NOT perform well during cool, wet summers. Let the fruit ripen fully on the vine for best flavor.

I have two garden beds. I used this tomato in the beds and planted six plants beside my house (eastern exposure, full sun). I live in the GA/Fla zones area. This tomatoe did not do well for me. I think we had an unusually hot summer that began early in June. I used Miracle Grow as recommended on the package, feeding around every two weeks. (My beds are composed of dirt I bought from the local cricket farm. It is very good dirt to grow stuff in.) I got lots and lots of tomatoes but they didn't finish ripening because as soon as it got above 80 degrees and above outside the plant began to wilt and droop by evening. By July all the tomato plants were dried up and wilted beyond hope. For a plant that is supposed to be wilt resistant, I don't feel it's a good choice for our area. The tomatoes have an excellent taste, they grew to be over five foot high with oodles and oodles of blossoms and fruit, but I had to pick a lot of them green due to the plants burning up. Excellent for fried green tomatoes. Since this was my first time with this tomatoe ,maybe there was something I did wrong, but it wasn't not watering properly.

My personal favorite. Always a good producer with the best flavor of any variety I plant. I plant 12 to 14 plants each spring and always have 3 or 4 Celebrity. Good size and fairly heat tolerant, but does shut down once the temp passes 95 on a regular basis.

This is my very favorite tomato - always dependable. Lovely, round, blemish-free fruit. Excellent for all types of uses. Red, no splits or cracks; juicy, sweet, and not too many seeds.

Whenver I take these tomatoes, everyone raves about their flavor and appearance.