Tomato reviews likes & dislikes 2015 - 2020

[annie8]

Don't water them once they're ripe.

I think tomatoes split because the skins "set" then if you add more water, the fruit try to swell still more but the skin has no "give". Once fruit have started to ripen, I try to water them only enough to stop the plants wilting too much. I think it also enhances the flavour as they are less watery.

Hadn't realised that. Haven't been watering as often since the weather has turned colder - have been giving liquid feed though. Will ease off on watering and see if that helps. Harvested lots again tonight and there were quite a few cherries that had split as well.

[annie8]

Black icicle are one of my favourite toms - delicious!

Was thinking i might try black icicle and black russian for something different next year. Do you think they would grow ok in an unheated greenhouse in Edinburgh ?

[Scarlet]

Was thinking i might try black icicle and black russian for something different next year. Do you think they would grow ok in an unheated greenhouse in Edinburgh ?

I don’t know, maybe Bramble, Bario or even SP would be best to comment on this. Black Russian take a long time to ripen, so my view is that it wouldn’t be a good choice for you. Black icicle is plentiful and I think would be ok - even though they are a large tomato.

[Small pumpkin]

I grow Black Russian in a polytunnle. They do fine. One of my favourite. Never grown black icicle but I don't see why they wouldn't be ok. We may not have quite as longer season as down south but we do have much longer daylight hours at the hight of the growing season.

[annie8]

Well if you can grow them on Mull then I have a chance. Will maybe just do a couple. Was thinking I should try to get my tomatoes going a bit earlier this year. I don’t have a propagator though and no electricity supply to the greenhouse.

[farendwoman]

I’m not sure I entirely agree. The supposedly “blight resistant” varieties I have grown have (crimson crush, mountain magic) had zilch flavour and got blight when blight was about - a bit later than others but still before they ripened. The ones supposedly resistant to BER didn’t get BER, but then neither did most of the varieties I grew as a comparison (this year has been a bad year for BER but even so only 4 cultivars have had BER out of 35).
I’d much rather encourage people to grow Heritage varieties rather than being fooled by fancy packaging.

I agree with you MarkPelican...... Mountain Magic a complete waste of space. Standard supermarket tomato appearance and no taste at all.

[farendwoman]

I bought new, expensive F1 Sunchola to try as a comparison with my heirloom black cherry that I’ve been growing for about five years.These produced huge sprawling plants, but the fruits are very late to ripen. They have also been attacked by brown caterpillars that are almost the same colour as the ripening fruit, so are VERY difficult to spot and remove. The caterpillars are boring deep holes in the fruit, but not eating the leaves. Weirdly, the caterpillars are only eating Sunchola, not the Sungold or Black Cherry that are in the same grow bag. The fruits are similar in appearance to Black Cherry but a bit pinker. Flavour is nowhere near as good . Black Cherry is one of my absolute favourites and (if they are wanted) will be in the seed circle. I’ve picked loads of them, and still plenty to come.

[robbra]

Tried Essex Wonder, sometimes there's a reason why cultivars go out of favour, particularly the commercial varieties.

I said I will never have Tigerella again in my garden due to lack of flavour and others think they are full of taste, soil, weather and feed can have an effect. Some people grow Moneymaker year after year, to me another tasteless tomato. Horses for courses.
I shall suck it and see next year and update.
It's good to hear other reviews, I might even agree after tasting.
Rob

[Scarlet]

Well if you can grow them on Mull then I have a chance. Will maybe just do a couple. Was thinking I should try to get my tomatoes going a bit earlier this year. I don’t have a propagator though and no electricity supply to the greenhouse.

You don't really need a propagator for tomatoes ( nice to have, I admit ) though fresh tomato seed will pop up reasonably quickly indoors on a sunny windowsil with Jo trouble. You may get a staggered germination, or a few less pop up compared to a prop but if you are starting early anyway that doesn't matter.
I often don't have room in mine for tomatoes as its full of chillies!

[bramble]

I grow black Russian and while they do well in the greenhouse they are a bit slow to ripen.
Have never grown black icicle but I am keen to give it a try.

[robbra]

Ananas, best I've ever eaten, sweetish, full flavour, not too juicy and the taste is still there after 30 minutes. Much better than Cuor di Bue but not so prolific in my pots.
My new must have.

[Thelma Sanders]

I’d much rather encourage people to grow Heritage varieties rather than being fooled by fancy packaging.

Heritage or F1 - all toms are hybrids, it's just that heritage ones were crossed years ago, so I don't stress which type I'm growing.
I'm just trying to find the ones that I like the flavour of and that grow well in my conditions, whether that's a modern hybrid or a Heritage one. I'm narrowing my list down now, to include some Heritage toms but also some newer ones.
I seems, to me, too easy to get fixated on growing 'old varieties' when there are good new ones available, as well

[robbra]

Heritage or F1 - all toms are hybrids
I seems, to me, too easy to get fixated on growing 'old varieties' when there are good new ones available, as well

Yes Thelma, I agree that they are all hybrids, probably everything we grow and eat is.
I'm fixated, that is true, there are so many old varieties that I will try before I even think of an F1. Not just tomatoes either. Most if not all will grow down in Dorset and being a cynic about many things I think of "the Kings new clothes". Are they really better, tastier, disease resistant or is it the need to keep us parting with money to keep profits? Probably a bit of each, there will be great heritage and F1 and poor heritage and F1, just up to each of us to find what we like.
My twopennorth.
Rob

[MarkPelican]

Heritage or F1 - all toms are hybrids, it's just that heritage ones were crossed years ago, so I don't stress which type I'm growing.
I'm just trying to find the ones that I like the flavour of and that grow well in my conditions, whether that's a modern hybrid or a Heritage one. I'm narrowing my list down now, to include some Heritage toms but also some newer ones.

Whilst I agree that all tomatoes are hybrids, the "problem" with F1 (as sold by the commercial seed providers) is that they don't (in general) "run true" save the seed and you'll grow something else next year. Having looked in to how they breed F1 hybrids, their major problem is keeping the parent plants going, they're usually not very strong plants in themselves and tend to die out over time. So when you find an F1 you like, it probably won't remain available whereas the probability of an open pollinated variety growing true is much higher so once you've found one you like you can save the seed yourself and grow it again next year.

I've been saving seed for many years and only once has the seed produced a noticeably different plant in subsequent years (and that was a regular leafed variety with what I would have thought was a protected flower).

[Thelma Sanders]

Heritage varieties would have been a simple cross, obviously grown out by someone in the dim and distant past.

Many of us have grown plants from seeds of supermarket tom (all f1s) and had similar fruits, if I understand things correctly simple selection over years, does eventually produce a stable variety?
Isn't that what Gourmet Genetics are doing with their new breeding lines, producing modern open pollinated varieties?