Roma VF Tomatoes

[sewer rat]

Hi folks
A friend left me some of his excess toms, labelled as Gardeners Delight, which I duly planted up in the polytunnel, along with my own toms. It now transpires that there were a couple of the above Roma VF variety mixed in and wrongly labelled. These are described as semi-determinate and bushy though may require support.
Has anyone grown these - do they require pinching out as per standard toms and just how bushy do they get ?

[shirlthegirl43]

I have a packet of Roma seeds from Seeds of Italy. They are an almost seedless plum tomato (which I am sure you already know) good for sundried toms or passata

It says they are semi determinate.

Hope that helps you some.

[Duronal]

If you grow them as cordons you'll get some fruit but not as much as if you let the side shoots come to bear.

[zazen999]

I just left mine last year and they produced well......just finished the last of the passata tonight as it happens. They get very straggly, and definitely need support - mine grew to about 3 1/2 ft tall.

[cupcake]

I got one plant last year and left it to it's own devices. I grew very big, but the fruit was beautiful!

[chrispy]

ooooh good tips, i'm growing Roma and was gonna pinch the sideshoots out, glad i saw this.

[HotStuff]

I grew very big, but the fruit was beautiful!

A warning to us all

[bobleponge]

I have 8 of these that I planted into the garden yesterday. I am worried about suffering the same fate as Cupcake now!!
Good thread though, I didnt know not to pinch out, and was going to be doing so.

[vicky]

I grew these and had some I grew as cordon and some I totally ignored and did nothing to....The ignored did BY FAR better and for a lot less work! I would stake in the future but other than that just leave them to do their straggly thing!

[SarzWix]

I've given up growing these now, because I had 2 years of them getting botrytis in the greenhouse. I think it's because they didn't have enough airflow, my greenhouse does get quite humid.
So maybe try and prune them a bit to keep the centre open Rat, I know botrytis would be a bad thing for you in the tunnel.

[Phreddy]

I know a commercial grower of these in BG. He just plants them in furroughs and apart from watering occasionally they are left to their own devices.

They are sold here as 'without support'.

Growing in UK, I would suggest that you reduce the flowers to the number that will ripen in time. No, I don't know how many that it but tome have a long growing period, from transplant, usually over 80 days. Call it 90, 3 months. If you get them in the ground in late May then you should be getting them in September.

Just my 2 penny's worth

[Creemteez]

Sorry, hijacking, and everything, but are these the same "Roma" plum-type tomatoes as were given away on the front of a back copy of GYO?
I've six little beauties starting to produce side shoots and I don't want to compromise my crop by unneccessary pinching out!

[Farmer_Gyles]

i grew roma vf last couple of years - they're the only variety of plum tomatoes i've found so far - didn't bother pinching out - they did ok, but toms not much bigger than normal round toms and not a massive crop
i always stake tomatoes so i'll stake them again this year

[Phreddy]

Sorry, hijacking, and everything, but are these the same "Roma" plum-type tomatoes as were given away on the front of a back copy of GYO?
I've six little beauties starting to produce side shoots and I don't want to compromise my crop by unneccessary pinching out!

Romais very popular world wide and also has a number of similar types such as Rio Fweago, this has an orange mottling giving a fire like look. One I found last year Rio Grandy, just normal plum type. A little larger but not so nice as R.

[sewer rat]

Growing in UK, I would suggest that you reduce the flowers to the number that will ripen in time. No, I don't know how many that it but tome have a long growing period, from transplant, usually over 80 days. Call it 90, 3 months. If you get them in the ground in late May then you should be getting them in September.

Just my 2 penny's worth

Cheers but I'm in Easter Ross and toms are a definite no no for outside so they are all in the tunnel and all staked - they've been in the ground for 3 weeks now and the first flowers should open this week.