Tomato reviews likes & dislikes 2015 - 2020

[1Bee]

I'm growing Marmande, Brandywine, Sungold, Apero, Costoluto Fiorentino, sweet million and Mountain Magic. Four popping out of a growhouse, and the rest in bags or troughs in our suntrap backyard. We're in Cumbria, though, so Sungold looks like it'll be ripe in a day or two. The rest not changing colour yet, although the crop is looking good.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Sungold and Tumbler for me.

Sungold 5 weeks late this year but the glut has just arrived

[geepee]

Got to be Tumbler and Tumble Toms followed V closely by Red Alert (yet to ripen and V greenback) .... (But so are they all )...some photos ,hopefully to follow.

Note the date ...10th July in the last pic.

First harvest and still cropping everyday since.

I;m so pleased I decided against taking an Allotment 1 Km away and opted for my 'Back Garden' set up.
Its on my doorstep ,literally, and i can see it from the bedroom window.....Bliss.
Gp

[Philthy]

Only two plants for me this year. For a quiet life mainly , though I do enjoy them as well. I'm doing one each of Sweet Millions (trying for first the time) and bought for the promised yield, and Black Cherry, as it's my favourite cherry tomato.

I'm growing same as always in my GH, one plant to a 15L pot, with both pots stood in a deep sided aluminium gravel tray. I'm filling this with about 5L (half a watering can) of water every day while it's this hot, every other day otherwise. I added BFB to a mix of growbag compost and homemade compost when planting up about 9 weeks ago; On Sunday I added another dressing of BFB to each pot. I've been feeding weekly with Tomorite.

So far I'm getting excellent growth. I've topped each plant at around 6.5' more than once. The 4 things I've knowingly done different this year to previous are:
1) Although both varieties are cordons, I've also been allowing them to grow semi-bush i.e. pinching out roughly 2/3 of sideshoots rather than all. This is most beneficial to the Black Cherry as the trusses aren't nearly as bountiful as the Sweet Millions. Therefore each cane has an average of three stems tied into it than just one.
2) I always used to remove the bottom most leaves once plants achieved a certain height, mainly to make watering easier but also these leaves being the oldest tended to deteriorate first. I've left them for twice as long this time around and only removed a couple once loads of foliage present further up.
3) Spacing: the aluminium tray normally holds 3 potted tomato plants. This year it's 2, so they're wider apart / more airflow between them.
4) SUN. Lots and lots of SUN. No shade cloth / netting in place either. That alone marks this year out from most that have preceeded it.

For harvesting, I've had a handful of the Sweet Millions. First few were very bland, picked a few more today and they were much nicer. Lots more coming but still green. Black Cherry I had the first ripe one today; excellent as always. Neat with a little salt
Fruit quality is good, firm with no splits.

[SalfordWhite]

I will update properly when I have more time but had to share this beast. Weighing 1.5lbs. Costoluto Fiorentino.

[Bumblingbroccoli]

Outdoor tomatoes awesome. Defiant ginormous and prolific. Principe borghese , lemon drop and sungold all v sweet and productive. Golden sunrise came good this year after several disappointing years. Gardeners delight and tigerella least yields but that's compared to everything else. Red cherry and red pear also good.

[chillithyme]

I sowed and planted my tomatoes very late this year, luckily with the hot weather they've all caught up. Mostly green tomatoes at the moment, loads of trusses (mainly cherry types),only a bowlful ripened so far,but looks promising as lots of fruit on the plants starting to ripen.
My favourites
- yellow pear (saved seed for the last 10 years or so), flavourful with a thin skin,massive crop
- sungold
-indigo cherry drops

Still to taste but also doing well is Indigo Rose, but I can't tell when it's ready to eat so I might try one to see as I don't think it ripens to red and stays dark, new to me.

Also growing 'the worlds largest/biggest tomatoe' apparently, bought from garden centre, doesn't look that large to me yet, hopefully it proves me wrong

I normally grow tumbler types, but didn't get myself organised this year,I have missed them as I find they are normally the first to crop and do so heavily, next year I hope

[Jungle Jane]

This video helps show when indigo rose are ripe,check the back of the fruits red rather than green,they look really nice -

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqr6Vw50sTY

[Babru]

Got to be Tumbler and Tumble Toms followed V closely by Red Alert (yet to ripen and V greenback) .... (But so are they all )...some photos ,hopefully to follow.

Note the date ...10th July in the last pic.

First harvest and still cropping everyday since.

I;m so pleased I decided against taking an Allotment 1 Km away and opted for my 'Back Garden' set up.
Its on my doorstep ,literally, and i can see it from the bedroom window.....Bliss.
Gp

These look great. Lots of grapes recommending Tumbler, and I can see why. Do they not take an awful lot of watering (even in a normal summer)? Has anyone found an automatic or less intensive watering solution for toms in baskets?

[chillithyme]

This video helps show when indigo rose are ripe,check the back of the fruits red rather than green,they look really nice -

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqr6Vw50sTY

Thanks, il have to investigate my tomatoes, nom nom

Babru they do take a lot of water in baskets, I find the bigger the basket the better, I've used smaller basket before and they need watering a couple of times a day and dry out quickly, the larger baskets are better. These days I prefer to grow them in large pots, or buckets, definitely less watering than baskets, though I've not done any tumblers this year. I agree tumbler types are amazing and the last to get blight too

[Jungle Jane]

Ive got a couple of these wall baskets,they don’t need watering everyday they’ve got a reservoir at the bottom,it might be easy to make one with a bit of tube & flat bit of plastic to hold the compost up with an inch gap underneath for the water -

[burnie]

I'm just harvesting Red Cherry and Supersweet 100, also a couple of Sungold. Gardeners Delight and Red Plum are nearly ready.

[1Bee]

I will update properly when I have more time but had to share this beast. Weighing 1.5lbs. Costoluto Fiorentino.[ATTACH=CONFIG]82345[/ATTACH]

Did the plant support the weight of this itself, Salford, or did it need help? I'm growing the same variety and was wondering in order to be prepared....

[meanmoose]

I sowed and planted my tomatoes very late this year, luckily with the hot weather they've all caught up. Mostly green tomatoes at the moment, loads of trusses (mainly cherry types),only a bowlful ripened so far,but looks promising as lots of fruit on the plants starting to ripen.
My favourites
- yellow pear (saved seed for the last 10 years or so), flavourful with a thin skin,massive crop
- sungold
-indigo cherry drops

Still to taste but also doing well is Indigo Rose, but I can't tell when it's ready to eat so I might try one to see as I don't think it ripens to red and stays dark, new to me.

Also growing 'the worlds largest/biggest tomatoe' apparently, bought from garden centre, doesn't look that large to me yet, hopefully it proves me wrong

I normally grow tumbler types, but didn't get myself organised this year,I have missed them as I find they are normally the first to crop and do so heavily, next year I hope

I have 4 indigo roses this year and I can’t tell when they are getting ripe too. They are getting a little purple on top but seems to stop there (No change in last 3 weeks).

Any tips?

[Earthgirl Jen]

1st tomato glut this year and over a week earlier that last year thanks to the weather even though they weren't sowed until the 1st week in March

I harvested these over 3 days and in total they weigh 32lb! I'm really pleased.



On the left hand side is stupice (never grown this one before) the plants have had trouble supporting themselves on the stem, most have bent over but are still ripening although I think that was due to the heat and not the plant itself.

Top middle is Amish Paste, I grew these last year and I have 4 plants this year grown from my own saved seed which was a 1lb fruit.

Top right is beefsteak. Grown from realseeds 2011 seed, it's called 'Old Bulgarian Beefsteak No 4'. I managed to get 4 plants to germinate from the old seed and saved my own seed last year from a 1lb 8oz beast, sweet flavour a good mix of more flesh than seed and makes the most excellent sauce.Bonus I haven't supported the fruit on the plants at all...

Middle bottom is Urbikany, a bush tomato that produces 2-3" fruit which are very juicy and a little tart. (slightly bigger this year due to the weather)

Bottom right mostly Urbikany with the smaller toms being Latah, the first to ripen I was eating them mid June!

Far right bottom Chocolate Cherry gorgeous sweet purple/brown 1" balls of sweetness. You have to be careful picking these as if you leave them on the vine to long they will split.