Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Bernard on January 05, 2018, 11:49
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I am happy to see that the RHS has, after a recent trial, removed the Award of Merit from Gardener's delight tomatoes. I am disappointed that it has taken so long for this to happen. After growing them for many years, I reported my doubts about its apparently failing properties to RHS and to T&M about 3 years ago but nobody took any notice.
Unfortunately all seed merchants that I have viewed are still stating it to have excellent properties. Whilst I realise that their catalogues are already issued, they should have removed GD long ago. They are supposed to be the experts, not I. And they could easily alter the description on the web sites.
Be warned - do not buy Gardeners' Delight seed. Though formerly having an excellent flavour, they are now seriously unpalatable. They don't even make good soup.
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Where did you find that info Bernard? the last list of AGM varieties I could find, for 2017, still lists it..
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-fruit-and-vegetables.pdf
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Three summers go, three old timers on our allotments all went on holiday at the same time and they asked me to look after their greenhouses, which I did!.
They were all growing GD tomatoes plants with loads of fruit on them, but when I picked any from any of the GHs they tasted disgusting, totally unlike the beef and normal ones that I was growing at home in my GH.
I thought it was me and my taste buds but my wife said the same, but she said she would make soup from them, it also was tasteless and watery, she ended up dumping it.
I had picked two washing up bowls of fruit, normally with surplus crops I give to our other family members and also neighbours, these I dumped in the compost bin and picked no more as I didn't want to insult them.
The fruit started rotting on the plants after that, two weeks later when they had returned one old chap asked me why I had not picked the toms, when I told him they were tasteless, he told me I was mad and didn't know what I was talking about as they were the best,the other two said nothing
It never does to tell the truth about any produce that anyone else is growing as they take it as a personal insult, if you do not like it!
What they grow is the best and no one else has any idea, just like on show day what they staged should have had a red card, not the one what the judge gave it to LOL!
Ps I am still friends with all three! ;)
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How odd, I grew 2 GD plants last Summer and they were lovely. Not quite as nice as my Sweet Million but still decent.
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i grew GD last year and they were good, probably one of the better tasting ones i've grown. i also found them to be quite good for rotting, even towards the end of the season.
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I had no issues with mine last year and plan to grow them again this year.
It's no. 3 on this list:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/articles/graham-rice/10-cherry-tomatoes
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Not grown them for a long time, I have for many a year grown Shirley as my salad tom.
Must admit tho someone grew them last year and I wasnt impressed when he gave me some.
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I grew them last year again, like I normally do & was again pleased with taste,quantity,keeping quality & health of the plant. I also gave plants away as I normally do & had reports back on how lovely they were so I can only assume that maybe you’re 3 friends have got some rogue plants, do they or you save seeds? Maybe they have reverted to the parent plant perhaps?
Fine if you choose not to grow them again as there are lots of good alternatives but might be worth trying a fresh packet of seeds from a reputable seed supplier
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Question (to any and/or everyone)?, "so what, (in your opinion), is a good tasting salad tomato". Answers before planting time please, :lol:
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In common with Aidy, my staple is Shirley. I also like Scotland Yellow, they're really sweet. However, they're a heritage variety and you need to know someone with the seed. ;)
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I now grow Jaune Flamme a striking orange tomato, it is quite sweet but still also has a bit of acidity, which I prefer.
Alongside it I grow Black Cherry which needs to be picked just before you think it is ripe - because the colour is deceiving. If you leave it until it looks fully ripe the skin will split and it will be past its best taste-wise.
This makes me wonder if the people complaining about GDs are also leaving them on the vine too long? It really does make a lot of difference to taste and texture in the mouth.
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Alongside it I grow Black Cherry
Ah, yes. Those as well!
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Thank you DD and Mum, will now investigate purchase of same.
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Thank you DD and Mum, will now investigate purchase of same.
You'll have change from a quid!
Black Cherry Toms (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORGANIC-VEGETABLE-TOMATO-BLACK-CHERRY-60-FINEST-SEEDS-/370897840382?hash=item565b3be8fe)
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Tastes vary, particularly when it comes to the balance between acidity and sweetness, but for me GD have the almost perfect balance for a salad tomato, and I've grown them for several years now.
With it being so popular and cheap, I suppose it's possible that there is some seed being sold which has wandered slightly off course genetically - quite likely perhaps when you consider the thousands of varieties which have been created, all of which are botanically Solanum lycopersicum.
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Still enjoy GD good flavour, good keeper and easy to grow
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Thank you for the re-direct DD, but I'd already bought them before I read your post, :lol: (The Black Cherries from that site.). As you say, change from a quid, (+ p/p of 65p, but a bargain all the same), though "her indoors" is a bit dubious about black tomatoes, :ohmy:, but, as I said, "when they are eaten, they'll be the same colour as everything else". And I bought some Shirley seeds too.
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As you say, change from a quid, (+ p/p of 65p, but a bargain all the same),
Should be free postage!
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I grew GD last year from seed saved and they were OK - but nothing much more than that. Sungold, however, were brilliant but they are F1's so not possible to save seed. If you have a look at Real Seeds website, they seem to hint that there are very many varieties which go under the name of Gardeners Delight, but they cannot all be the original.
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Again you were quite right DD, it was the Shirley that had the P/P not the Black Cherry. (Wrong again, :ohmy: nothing new there then.)
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GD a few years ago became a staple here, but last year's crop was pathetic, and also pretty tasteless!
They're not going to be used here any more, as there are so many better varieties around. I usually grow a selection of up to about seven dozen plants in different areas ( to avoid late blight), and the GD were in all of these locations and failed miserably!
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Ive grown Gardeners Delight for many years.
Would not say they are the best tasting tomato out there, but they always grow reliably and produced great quantities of crop year after year with an enjoyable taste and no problems.
For about ten years Ive grown Mr Fothergills, a new seed packet each year.
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Where did you find that info Bernard? the last list of AGM varieties I could find, for 2017, still lists it..
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-fruit-and-vegetables.pdf
Hi mumofstig, sorry for my slow response.
My info came direct from RHS, via Debbie Roe, dated 8th December 2017. Among a list of various recommendations is this one:
The Vegetable Trials Assessment Forum recommended to RESCIND the Society's Award of Garden Merit from:
‘Gardener’s Delight’ AGM (H1c) 1993 (Trial Entry 15) Sent by Kings Seeds
All people relying to this post who have had good results should be aware that GD properties are definitely lost, which I think means that it is very variable - and this includes the possibility of some batches that perform ok.
I have had poor and variable results from T&M seed for 4 years. Prior to that, GD was THE BEST for many years. (and didn't cost much)
Here's another opinion:
http://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2015/09/26/news/the-casual-gardener-the-tomato-that-no-longer-delights-271680/ (http://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2015/09/26/news/the-casual-gardener-the-tomato-that-no-longer-delights-271680/)
This shows 2 interesting details - that by 2015, T&M knew there were problems but have continued to advertise its former properties (and in spite of claiming to have destroyed a batch, have certainly continued to distribute bad seed), also that supply from the original source was discontinued.
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Well, the RHS should let the general public know then, if that is what they think ::)
I guess even so, the people still enjoying their GD should just carry on as before. If people have been saving their own seed through the years, they may still have the original good variety.
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Very interesting, and as I feared - it would only take one inadvertent cross-pollination to occur to potentially change the characteristics of all subsequent batches of seed from that fruit (in theory, I suppose it's possible that any given packet could contain both 'genuine' and 'contaminated' GD seeds, but of course you would have no way of knowing which was which.)
I may be being a bit cynical but it's hard to believe that more rather than less care is being taken these days with producing a seed so popular and cheap.
I've been growing GD from saved seed from 2015 (packet dated 2014), so I may have been lucky and got a 'good' original batch - I intend to grow them again this year, but will certainly be deploying my most critical ever taste buds!
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It's all a matter of personal opinion I suppose. I tend to agree with the original comments and have stopped growing gardener's delight. Can't say I liked the Black cherry either last year, particularly their very strange texture, I even pulled them up mid season to make way for something else.
I have Floridity F1 cherries these days, nice and tart and go on for ever. As if to show opinions differ widely, I had to laugh at the comments on the top ten list posted here regarding Sungold. I like Sungold a lot and grow them every year but "unusually resistant to splitting" they are not. I've never known a tomato to split so much.