Tomato reviews likes & dislikes 2015 - 2020

[Jane0o0]

Is it still to early to put tomatoes into an unheated greenhouse in grow pots?

[Penellype]

Is it still to early to put tomatoes into an unheated greenhouse in grow pots?

Yes - nights for the next week or so are going to be cold. 2C forecast here tomorrow night. Tomatoes are happiest if the temperature stays above about 10C and you can expect an unheated greenhouse to be about 2 degrees warmer at night than outside.

[Jane0o0]

Thanks for that. Wish the weather would start heating up as I'm excited to get them in their final place and watch the progress.

First year of growing anything :-)

[Penellype]

Tomatoes are always a fine balancing act. Sow too early and you have huge plants in danger of getting nipped by frost because they are too big to bring in, sow too late and you get hit by blight or early autumn frost before you have had much fruit. This is even more true when you grow them outside rather than in a greenhouse.

[Tripmeup]

I did a inventory check yesterday on my tomatoes and have 74 plants across around 26 varieties..
Most are listed here


Ailsa Craig
Ananas Noir
Artisan Pink
Beefsteak
Black Cherry
Black Russian
Black Sea Man
Brandywine Pink
Brown Sugar
Buffalo Horn
La Carotina
Goldkrone
Green Grapes
Harbinger
Hillbilly
Japanese Black Trifele
King Humbert
Lima Korai
Moonglow
Rosella
Summer Cider
Sungold Cherry
Unknown Black
Vesennij Michurinskij
Yellow Perfection


Forgot to sow a few of my favourites but have plenty there so will do for this year

[Chris11]

Tomato harvest and reviews 2018

What are you growing, which ones are doing well? The old favourites, or the ones you are trying for the first time this year?

Are you growing in the ground, or large tubs? Feeding and watering?

Is the recent heatwave making up for the long cold winter, or bringing new problems with the drought?

Seed saving. Are you doing it, and what's your method?

What are the healthiest/strongest/most resistant plants, and which varieties have been your favourites for taste?

Pictures of your plants and fruits always welcome

[Thelma Sanders]

Can I reply in a few months time? Apart from 4 or 5 Gardenpearl toms, the seed for that plant sown in Jan, I have no ripe fruit yet

[robbra]

My usual Ailsa Craig doing well, Ildi ok, tigerella ok and the biggest surprise is Cuor di Bue, big and thriving although one plant in a pot that dries quickly has a couple with BER, thrown them but hope the rest on the plant survive, the other pots are fine. It's a definite for the future. Ananas very slow so far and black cherry has the branch but no flowers so far.
Nothing ripe to date.
I'm looking for an individual watering gadget to stop BER so started another thread.
Rob

[Penellype]

The only harvests I've had so far have been from plants in the house.



These are Shirley, mostly sown in January and February (one plant is from last year), in 3 litre pots on self watering trays (which need filling every day) on my west facing sitting room windowsill. They have been producing a steady stream of tomatoes since mid June. Reliable as always, these plants have also been used to produce plenty of sideshoots for my friend's greenhouse and my garden.



Balconi red, mid way through its first flush of fruit on the east facing spare room windowsill. Again in a 3 litre pot and on the same sort of self watering tray, this plant was sown in March. The tomatoes are suffering badly from greenback due to the heat.



The 2 plants in the green self watering balconniere pots are Balconi yellow. These have produced a decent crop on the spare room windowsill while in their 3 litre pots, and were then potted up into these (which hold about 10 litres). Both plants are producing plenty of new flowers. The plants behind are Ferline (3 on the left) and Shirley, one of the sideshoots from the sitting room plants. Ferline is one of my favourite tomatoes, but the fruits are too large and heavy to be grown in small pots indoors. It therefore gets pride of place near the radiator (hotbin). I don't expect to pick any fruit from April sown Ferline before mid to late August.



2 more of the Shirley sideshoots in 11 litre pots on self watering trays in the growhouse. Behind are the Sungold:



4 plants planted in the soil and allowed to grow as semi-bush plants - I find I get more fruit this way than by taking out the sideshoots. These will make a thicket of branches and should start producing my favourite tomatoes in about 2-3 weeks time.

I've grown all of these varieties for several years and find them pretty reliable, although Ferline can be a bit more fussy than the others.

[Penellype]

I also have:



Garden Pearl in 30 litre buckets. This is a last chance attempt to grow these, which are very nice tomatoes, but tend to form a mat of flopped over foliage which then goes mouldy from underneath. I'm tying the branches up with strings this year instead of trying to stake each one. I expect the first fruit in early August from April sown plants.



This is where I planted all the spare plants. The front row, left to right are Sungold, Ferline and Shirley, which were all smaller than the ones in the other photos. The 2 at the back are Crimson Crush. I may or may not get much from these as this area rapidly becomes very shady in autumn.

I also have Red Alert (first time I've grown this) Crimson Crush (blight resistant) and Oh Happy Day (new blight resistant variety) at the allotment, which are planted in the ground and are growing very strongly now. I have Shirley, Roma and Brandy Boy (new to me) in my friend's greenhouse, but nothing anywhere near ripe yet.



Red Alert at the allotment with branches supported with strings. The net is to stop birds from digging in the compost. The plants have plenty of flowers and a few green fruit.



Oh Happy Day (front) and Crimson Crush (rear) at the allotment. There are 2 plants of each - all 4 have forked and they are very sturdy plants with a few green tomatoes and plenty of flowers.

I feed all of the tomatoes with Tomorite when I remember, which isn't very often!

[Hillwalker]

Now that's dedication! And a HUGE watering can.

[Chris11]

My earliest to ripen this year are Red Cherry and Sunbaby, with Oranze looking like they will be next.

[Chippy Minton]

Nothing ripe for us yet.

2 x Shirley in the greenhouse in a watering system ("Easy 2 Grow Irrigation Kit" extended to 6 pots per tank, 2 x tanks) with Tomorite fortified water in the tanks doing really well.

Roma and Red Alert in a bed outside, Roma doing far better then RA.

Tumblers doing OK now we've boosted the compost with FB&B. Spare tumblers (the runty ones) shoved in a trough with old compost fortified with chicken poop pellets going berserk, massive plants and smothered in flowers and a few fruits.

Chocolate cherry very disappointing, probably due to poor compost. Put out in the courgette bed to take their chance. A single truss from each would be fine.

Looking forward to being sick of tomatoes!

[Ani]

What are you growing, which ones are doing well? The old favourites, or the ones you are trying for the first time this year?

This is my 1st year growing tomatoes seriously (last year I had only 4 plants in hanging baskets and one saved cordon tomato from B&Q discounted section, and year before that I had only one random plant).
I have two overwintered red robin plants on the kitchen windowsill, I've had fruit from them in April and May, they are almost over now.
Outside: Red robin (2 plants), Maskotka (2), Sungold (2), Black cherry (3), Tigerella (1), Craigella (1), Green Zebra (2), Ildi (3). All are first time for me. My plan was to have good varienty of shapes and colours and I've chosen mostly varieties known for good taste.

Are you growing in the ground, or large tubs? Feeding and watering?

Relatively small pots (approx. 10 litres or slightly less) for the cordon toms, red robins are in mixed 60cm throughs, maskotkas in a large wooden planter, also mixed with other plants. Self watering system (trays and capillary matting wicks).

Is the recent heatwave making up for the long cold winter, or bringing new problems with the drought?

My only problem is some damage (deformed fruit) to the first trusses from Hector.

Seed saving. Are you doing it, and what's your method?

No. Standard seed packets have more seeds than I can use in my life. I prefer to grow lot of varieties and trying new varieties each year. Sowing large amount of one variety would be too boring

What are the healthiest/strongest/most resistant plants, and which varieties have been your favourites for taste?

I've so far had one maskotka and two sungold, both are very good. I can now understand why everyone loves sungold I was afraid they are too sweet but they are not, they have nice complex flavour with a tang. Looking forward to black cherry, no signs of ripening yet.
All plants are doing quite well but my support system is insufficient and lot of plants forked which makes the problem worse. And we will be moving, probably in August, and I am not sure what to do with them.

Photos later, maybe

[4Shoes]

My Alicante tomatoes are just starting to ripen - all good.

today noticed that the middle of the vine trusses have Blossom End Rot. Picked them all off as there is nothing you can do with them. It has been hot in the tunnel - one of the causes, but I have also been giving them a monthly small feed of Epsom Salts - not the full 1tbs / ft - this is another possible cause. What in your experience is the most common cause.


Not gone out to get soil testing kit, so can't say if that is the cause. They are in 12l pots with MPC. water twice daily at the moment. Temp this last few days 45 to 50C - Min 9 to 13C. Feed Sunday - tomato feed. Epsom Salt monthly into the soil

Ideas?