Tomatoes for small spaces

[veggiechicken]

I always grow some tomatoes on a shelf in the GH. This year I'm trialling 5 different varieties to see which ones are the most worthwhile.

On 29th December I sowed 3 seeds of Red Robin and Balconi Red.
On 7th February sowed 3 seeds of Tumbler, Tumbling Tom Red and Rambling Red Striped.

Balconi Red


Red Robin


Tumbler


Rambling Red Striped


Tumbling Tom Red and Red Robin



I'll put a progress report in the next post!

[damian1225]

I like tumbling toms!, I grow mine in a pot in the top of a fake chimnea and they spill over the side and supply me with loads of little sweet tomatoes look forward to your findings..

[veggiechicken]

The December sown seeds - Balconi Red and Red Robin are very neat, compact plants, perfect for small spaces. Balconi Red has set some tiny fruits - the first to do so.

Tumbler, Tumbling Tom and Rambling Red need more elbow room but only RR is tumbling so far. Tumbler is taller and has had to be kept away from the roof with wires - its the pink pot.



There are 10 plants in 5 planters on 7' of shelf.

Watch this space to find out how they do and which ones I'll grow again.

[rary]

I tried red robin last year and found them very nice the kids ate them like sweets, and the ones I managed to get tasted nice by

[bario1]

My money's on Tumbler!

[veggiechicken]

Red Robin is the only one I haven't grown before. Rambling Red's my favourite of the rest - but things might change

[bario1]

I'm growing Terenzo, Maskotka, Tumbling Tom Yellow and Peardrops.

[Snadger]

I once grew Gartenpearl which grew well and were very tasty. I grew them in a hanging basket.

How are you rating them VC, by taste,easyness to grow,weight of crop. pest/disease tolerance or all of the aforementioned?

[Penellype]

I like the balconi varieties which I grow in 3 litre pots on the spare room windowsill. These are my February sown plants this evening:

Balconi red:



Balconi yellow:



Sorry about the quality of the photos - didn't get the focussing quite right. There are far more yellow fruit on the right hand plant than you can see here. Balconi has very densely packed foliage, which can make seeing and picking the fruit a bit tricky. I usually pot up the plants into 12 litre self watering balconniere pots once the first flush of fruit has finished. They then go outside and produce a 2nd crop, and grow rather larger.

I've also grown Garden Pearl, which really needs a tall pot or hanging basket as it is definitely a tumbling variety. Attempts to grow it in a gro-bed and in the ground resulted in a lot of fruit and foliage on the floor, which then got slug damaged and rotted.

[veggiechicken]

I once grew Gartenpearl which grew well and were very tasty. I grew them in a hanging basket.

How are you rating them VC, by taste,easyness to grow,weight of crop. pest/disease tolerance or all of the aforementioned?

Yes!! Whatever works best in a limited space and grows a decent crop of tasty toms.

I have some Gartenperle too but they're not part of this as they're too big to fit on the shelf!

[veggiechicken]

Wow Penellype - your plants are amazing I was chuffed at seeing some tiddly little ones
I grew the Balconis (Red & yellow) last year but they were on the floor of the GH in the shadow of some cordons so didn't have a fair chance.
I have 3 Garden Pearls in buckets and they're much too spready for the shelf. Grew these last year too and was impressed by the length of time they cropped, considering they were squashed between other toms.

[Penellype]

The balconi last a long time too - last year they were sown on 3rd February, the first tomato was harvested on 23rd May and the plants were removed (still with some green fruit which ripened indoors) on 31st October.

I saw some balconi red and yellow in Wyevale last week - they were tiddly little things about 4 inches high. No idea how they kept them so small as all their other tomato plants were bigger than my larger varieties.

[Finley]

I've got some tiny tim for hanging baskets and am trialling a very small ramshackle homemade blowaway-ish kind of thing. Cane frame off shed, plastic holey cloche sheet attached, over trellis and pots on shed side and grow bags/string to grow up on the other. Max toms for minimum space, I hope! In that there will be sub arctic plenty, roma, marmande and the little Lidl ones (Sunstream?) I grew from harvesting seeds. Not exactly an adventurous mix but am still trying to find a decent method of growing!

[seasprout]

I'm currently trailing Tomato sweet n neat. It an ultra compact plant maturing at 30cm tall.

Unfortunately an F1 hybrid, but so far lots of flowers, so it won't be soon before I get fruits.
Tomato 'Sweet 'n' Neat Cherry Red' - Tomato Seeds - Thompson & Morgan

[Snoop Puss]

Out of interest, VC, but not quite on topic: how do you get seeds sown so early (in December) to germinate and keep going despite the short day length? Do you have grow lights?