Tomato reviews likes & dislikes 2015 - 2020

[Thelma Sanders]

Roma is really only a cooking tomato, it's not really comparable with one meant to be eaten raw

[Penellype]

I see, thanks for that -I will try cooking it.

[Scarlet]

Did you grow any as a Bush Pen, or did you nip out he side shoots on all of them?

[Penellype]

I grew a total of 4 plants, 2 as bushes outside and 1 each as cordon and bush in my friend's greenhouse. The ones outside didn't need any nipping out as they are very small:



The apex of this frame is 2ft high and you can see that the plant on the right really isn't at all happy.

The cordon indoors soon vanished underneath the bush, so it probably also turned into a bush later, although I did try to train it up a string. I don't have any photos from my friend's garden.

Compare these with the health and vigour of my outdoor Shirley plants:



I just wish these would hurry up and turn red!

[alldigging]

Sun gold. I am glad I stuck one in the greenhouse though.

One of the rainbow blend baby plums has produced hundreds of tomatoes but not many ripe at all.

Everything has produced loads but ripening isn't happening enough and I've had pests eat tomatoes. (Caterpillars and slugs)

[Naelana]

My Tomatoes

This is my first year gardening veg, and therefore I don't have previous years to compare to. I'm not going to rate because I don't have comparisons!

I grew 3 types from Real Seeds. Amish Paste, Green Zebra and Galina. All outside, no protection.

I've had loads of tomatoes, drowning in them really, none of the varieties were a disaster and all produced fruit heavily (the Amish paste and Galina grew to 6ft). The Galina are sweet and have been mostly used in salads and "Sun-blushed" in the oven. Green Zebra were nice and firm for salads, but they ripened later in the season and I ended up with a lot of unripe Zebras. The Amish Paste mostly went in soups and salsas. I'm very happy with all of them, they were a nice mix of types. I just removed the last plants which were blighted, they should have come out a couple of weeks back but I've been struggling to deal with all of the tomatoes.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Though the toms were late this year it has turned out a very good year in the main. I posted a pic of my Tumbler 05/08 and they are still producing tons of toms, lets hope the frost holds of a few weeks.

[Valleyman]

Success this year was in the form of:

Garden Pearl - Now I know many people don't like this funny coloured basket tom. Mine were all a January sowing, and were my first toms of the year in June, and produced hundreds, if not thousands of tiny little tomatoes between grape and pea sized, per basket. They were super sweet in taste, and vigorous. A constant crop for over 4 months! What was weird was the baskets which got less stress produced normal sized toms for the variety, and were... well... a bit bland. I have no idea why but stressing this variety produces weird freakish small toms that are fantastic. 8/10

Sunbaby - A 99p shop special. Bright yellow, sweet, baby toms. I initially thought these were an utter failure, as the first truss on all 3 of my plants died. I probably got 10 toms by the end of July and they almost got ripped up to free up space. I suspect they are a little sensitive to greenhouse temperatures. But now, roll on a cool august and September and these things are going wild! Nice taste and seem pretty tolerant to my style of crappy watering. I'll try these outside next year. 7/10

Marmande - This is my standby, and my first love in home grown tomatoes. A bit of blight, a couple lost to blossom end rot... but my biggest problem this year was a couple of snapped stems due to the huge amount of fleshy delicious, and incredibly heavy beefsteak fruit. The lesson for next year is better canes and more ties. Also tried a couple in the greenhouse this year, despite the fact they apparently don't like too much heat. Maybe a fluke, but they loved our cold august, and the taste was even better in there. 9/10

Failure this year was in the form of:

Roma - I attempted a cooking tomato. Those in the greenhouse had a weird opaque skin, were intolerant of my dodgy watering practices and had poor yield. Those outside had blight, and other unknown ailments. For the yield and cooking quality i should have just grow more marmande. I officially do not get this tomato... Oh and they had a never ending thirst for magnesium (Epsom Salts) i couldn't explain. Weird year? Or just a shoddy tomato? 1/10

Chicco Rosso - A hybrid cherry tom I picked up from the Lidl seed rack. Now these are vigorous and tasty. And they seem happy in the greenhouse or outside. The outside ones still have two trusses about to turn. So why a failure? Well I reckon 70%+ of the fruit splits. These plants were always covered in flies and i just spent all the time feeling like I was throwing away fruit. Then half the fruit I do pick, splits in my hand, so I can't store at all. If you have the time to pick every day, water perfectly and sing to them, I see this tom being a good one. But for the price of a hybrid, I am not sold. 5/10

Gardeners Delight - Ah the old faithful standby. Vigorous, good taste, and can withstand punishment. Oh what went wrong this year? It wasn't particularly a bad year... but it just wasn't very good this year. For some reason the yields were low and the plants just seemed to be plodding along. There was none of the the "I'll take over the greenhouse" spirit i have grown to love. 5/10

[Penellype]

I don't get Roma either. I was expecting a luscious, fleshy, flavoursome Italian type tomato for cooking. I tried it raw and found it had very little flavour, so I tried cooking it. Marginally better, but a bit like instant coffee compared to the real thing when tasted alongside Shirley. I ripped out one of the 2 outdoor plants yesterday as it was clearly unwell, and harvested the remaining green fruit. Adding those to the ones I've already eaten that makes a total of 9 fruit from this plant - only slightly more than comparable sized fruit from one truss on a Shirley.

[Scarlet]

Kenilworth King George - vine/medium


This is a lovely, good all round tomato, medium red tomato with a lovely flavour. That's best eaten fresh. The trusses are quite large with an average of around 8 toms per truss. This one is still producing in the green house now where other plants look pretty spent. It's nothing exciting to look at but its dependable with good flavour to boot.
Flavour 8/10
Health and vigour - I'll give it a 9 as it still going strong.
Grow again - yes.

[nellie-m]

Ponderosa (Henderson's Pink Ponderosa)

Beefsteak. I wouldn't personally call it pink, but it's a pink-ish red - not the yellowish red of the average tomato. Typical large beefsteak size, not enormous as it's sometimes described, maybe because I grew it in a large pot.

VERY nice flavour.
Definitely worth growing again.

PS.
Maybe I should add that it's not as ribbed or misshapen as some beefsteaks - the fruit is very pretty.

[maverick451]

Another thumbs up for the gardeners world giveaway exp 2016

All my tomato plants are looking well past their best now except the above variety which still looks green and fresh.

On the pic below crimson crush (which is one of the healthier ones) is on the left and exp 2016 on the right

[Scoot]

Do money maker Toms go the shape of these 2 on the right? They're massive and aren't rounded as you can see.




They're all meant to be money maker just I thought they were perfectly round.

[Scarlet]

The two on the end don't look like money maker to me.

[Scoot]

The 2 on the right were the ones i was questioning. They are massive and shaped differently to the rest yet the seeds are all out the same packet.