[cadalot]

I've harvested most of my Crimson Crush and they are ripening in the Greenhouse, I have left a few on the plant to see how long they actually last, but the plant isn't looking particularly healthy, but is not full blighty, All the others got hit by blight about 3-4 weeks ago.

Happy to say my red robin's in the greenhouse are holding their own and still holding onto ripe fruit, they appear a quite hardy little bush tomato and I will defiantly grow them again   

[mumofstig]

I will defiantly grow them again   

Who's telling you not to?  

[Headgardener22]

I will admit that I am confused by my Crimson Crush.

The plants have largely died back but I don't think its blight, some of the stems look like they've got botrytis and the leaves have died back. The fruit still looks OK and it is continuing to ripen.



However, other plants that are next to the Crimson Crush are fine, no signs of blight, the leaves are beginning to suffer with the cold (going a bit purple) but nothing like the CC.

From my perspective, the jury is definitely still out. I've had blight outside every year for the last four years but none at all this year, the CC have produced reasonable (though not excessive) quantities of fruit and (in my opinion) taste no better than anything else.

I'll probably grow them again next year but only because I don't know what's happened. 

[Baldy]

I'm kind of tempted to break my general rule and buy some expensive tomato seeds for 2016 - Crimson Crush are a candidate.
According to http://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/vegetable/tomato-outdoor/variety-crimson-crush.php they will be priced at £3.99 for ten seeds (ouch).

From this thread most people seem reasonably happy with these toms - but would you pay almost 40pence a seed? (good luck with saving cuttings overwinter by the way, never thought to try that with a tom)

Pip pip,
Balders

[surbie100]

Personally no, I wouldn't pay that much for seeds, unless I was to split a packet with a friend. And I have a greenhouse now so am less bothered about plant survival outside. I am trying the sideshoot experiment though. One of my rooted shoots is showing 3 sideshoots of its own now. The plants outside are still very healthy, though I don't think the last tomatoes will turn.

[Lardman]

I don't actually think that's too bad for the seeds  - it's cheaper than the compost to grown them indoors in pots. I was expecting that £7-8. A packet could well last 2-3 seasons if you just grow a few and use them as donor plants. 

All of my sideshoots died before rooting but I have seed saved to try and plants still alive in the garden.

[jaydig]

Dobies are selling Crimson Crush seeds for £3.49 for 15 seeds.

I'm going to try them on the plot next year, as one of the plants that I had has done extremely well on the allotment.  I can't say if they're blight resistant because so far, we don't seem to have had any blight, but I have picked masses of tomatoes from just one plant, although most of them weren't fully ripe and had to be finished off at home.  I've picked just over two pounds more this morning, and there are still loads more good sized green ones left on the plant.

[Growster...]

One thing the Crimson Crush experiment has brought up, is that many gardeners are now seeing new ways to propagate, save seed, take cuttings etc, and that has certainly happened with me!

Normally, it's a regular sowing of new and saved seed in early March, and from then on in, I keep my fingers crossed that I'll get a reasonable crop before any fear of blight arrives! Now, I'm even thinking of keeping some cuttings going throughout the winter, and that has crossed swords with Mrs Growster as there isn't that much room...

Frankly, I grew far too many plants this year, (85+) but as I always maintain, I'd rather get 'em in the freezer - and us - before blight, if it happens, than fiddle around, getting the timing all awry and losing the lot!

I take a pride in growing toms properly, as they're almost a staple in summer, so it's worth taking the time and effort to get it all right..:0! (And I've been so wrong on so many occasions..:0)

[Snoop]

When take into account the price of ordinary seeds and what goes into growing tomato plants, only potentially to lose the lot to blight, if Crimson Crush are as good as some people suggest, then the price of the seeds doesn't seem that bad to me.

[cadalot]

Mine appear to be going bad and blighty after they have been picked and I'm waiting for them to go red. Saying that the plant on the allotment looks so bad but the fruit I left is still attached and looks OK, so I'm really puzzled about Crimson Crush. I will be planting some saved seeds just to see what I actually get as a result.   

[Growster...]

Mine appear to be going bad and blighty after they have been picked and I'm waiting for them to go red. Saying that the plant on the allotment looks so bad but the fruit I left is still attached and looks OK, so I'm really puzzled about Crimson Crush. I will be planting some saved seeds just to see what I actually get as a result.

That's our policy too, Cadders. I know there may be issues with the genes (see Mum's post passim), but hey, we're all gardeners aren't we? We do things our way, and get and give experience from, and to chums here, not as we're told by some 'power/grower-that-be'!

We've had some - not all - great results from 'Sungold' Reverts, i.e. seed from last year, and while we're going to go a different route next year, we don't regret for one moment, sowing all those new plants, which cropped pretty well, (I even had to dig one root out today, as it was solidly embedded...;0)

We'll sow some saved 'Crimson Crush' next year, because we have about 250 saved seeds...

Dunno where they'll go though...

[Headgardener22]

As I understand it, the saved seed from tomatoes inherit some of the characteristics of the parent varieties. Therefore if you save seed from Crimson Crush, there is a possibility (probably not large) that the resulting plant will inherit both of the blight resisting genes but you won't be able to tell without checking the gene string (unlikely for an amateur) or seeing whether the plants survive blight when (and if) it happens.

The point about your 'Sungold' tomatoes Growster wold seem to be that its fairly easy to decide whether the plants have inherited the feature you want (colour/taste) but it will be much more difficult to tell if they're blight resistant.

As regards the cost of the seeds, £3.49 for 15 seeds doesn't seem any worse than any other F1 hybrid. It will be interesting to see what happens to the price of plants in 2016, in 2015 I got three plants plus three peppers for £5.00 and I took some sideshoots which are still have green tomatoes ripening so I got six plants in all.

[surbie100]

£3.49 for 15 doesn't seem too bad. I am pretty grudging with my seed spend, I have to admit. I've got a lot of rooted sideshoots to baby through winter, and at the very least it will give me something to do when I am going nuts with boredom, not being crafty or otherwise easily occupied.

[syks grower]

The strange thing is that Suttons are charging £3.99 for 10 seeds so Dobbies is a far better deal.

Thompson and Morgan's Mountain Magic which they claim to be resistant to early and late blight are £3.99 for 5 seeds which is nearly 80 p per seed (ouch).
T+M had a 10 packets for £10 offer a couple of weeks ago and a I bought a packet in this deal .

It will be interesting to see how mountain magic compares against crimson crush.