Anyone growing Sungella or Ferline toms?

[busylizzie]

I was potting up some of my toms yesterday and noticed that all of the labels have had the writing washed off in the torrential rain.

I've got some sungella and some ferline but no idea which is which. Some of them have a distinctly purplish tinge on the underside of the leaves and others are plain green - if you are growing either of these varieties, what do yours look like?

[Cutecumber]

The purple tinge is the sign of cold temperatures and or a nutrient deficiency, it is not a variety-specific thing.

Ferline is a robust, strong-growing plant, but I am not sure how you will tell it from Sungella until the fruits start to set.

[Alison]

Am growing Ferline and it's definitely all green but if it's a nutriency defficiency then that probably doesn't help.

[bramble]

Don't think you will be able to tell until they start to fruit. As others have said, the purple tinge is probably the low temp. Tou could write the plant names on ice lolly sticks using pencil and it should'nt wash off. I bought one of the hand held label printer. The tape has a sticky backing and just stick these on to plant labels or lolly sticks. Hope this helps you as i have been through the same thing, loads of plants with the names washed off. Oh the joys of gardening.

[vicky]

I have a theory that bigger tomatoes(size of fruit) have bigger leaves, which would mean the ferline plants would look stockier than the sungella (I grew them both last year).
BUT!!!! Firstly I don't know if you would notice it yet in little plants, secondly, I grew ferline in the soil and sungella in tubs so the difference may be due to that.
Any supporters of this?

[gojiberry]

Am growing sungella but as it is chucking it with rain I can't give you any help. definitely worth investing in a hand held printing device. I got one from aldi for about £8, tape can be a bit expensive when you first start out and want to label every thing in sight.
Do you need to know which tom is which at this stage, you will definitely know when they start fruiting.

Ian

gojilottie updated 27 May 08

[busylizzie]

Ah, didn't know that about the cold/nutrient deficiency! Hope they recover a bit then.

I have a labeller, but whether I get to use it depends on whether my toddler has taken it and hidden it somewhere - she loves labelling things! I've used it on most things but the toms slipped through the net.

I don't really need to know at the moment as they are both indeterminate, so will just have to wait and see.
Thanks all!