[Flowertot]

I have grown cordon tomatoes at home against a wall for the past few years but this year I’d like to try growing them on the allotment because they’ll get more sun. I don’t have a greenhouse so I’ll sow the seeds at home as usual and then take the seedlings to the plot once hardened off and ready to go outside.  The thing is I don’t really want to grow tall cordons because it can get quite windy and they’ll be hard to support in open ground. What suggestions do you clever gardeners have for varieties I can grow as bush tomatoes outdoors? Ideally I’d like to grow some red and yellow cherry tomatoes and a couple of larger ones for sandwiches etc.

[mumofstig]

Red Alert is a small bush variety that crops well and early, so even in a bad year you will usually get a crop before blight strikes. You can also save seed from the fruit to sow again next year.

Crimson Crush has larger fruit and is blight resistant, the downside is that the seeds are quite expensive and being an F1hybrid you cannot save seeds.

I'm struggling to think of a yellow variety for outdoors though 

[New shoot]

The ones that do well outdoors tend to crop early, but that is good because they usually avoid any blight.

Latah are exceptionally early and give large cherry sized fruit, but they sprawl around a bit.  Best grown in the middle of 3-4 canes so you can run string round them and keep them contained.

Ildi is a cordon but does not grow tall and is easy to grow as a semi-bush tomato outside.  Just surround with canes as above and let it grown a few main stems.  The fruit are tiny little yellow tomatoes, but you get loads.

The Amateur is a bush variety with larger fruit and does well for me outside. 

If you want a later tomato, Ferline are blight resistant so will last longer.  Then there are the newer blight resistant  F1s like Crimson Crush as MoS says.

[Pescador]

I've grown Sungold outdoors for the last 4 years. Just planted out on the allotment and allowed to get on with it.
No staking or side-shooting. Yield is amazing, with 20 to 25 trusses per plant

[Plot 1 Problems]

I've found my Roma VF plum toms have been as happy outside as in and they naturally don't want to grow too tall as well as they're semi-bush.

[victoria park]

I'll go with the sungold too and doesn't mind the bush thing. I tend to pinch out for the first month and then let them do their thing. But blight is the issue outdoors, and more so on the allotment than at home where they usually catch it say a month later. The outdoor sungolds aren't quite as sweet as my greenhouse crop, but that's a good thing in my mind.
One more thing, the sungold seems to handle the first signs of blight better than some other varieties, and a little judicious leaf maintenance can give you another 3 or 4 weeks before the fruits themselves succumb. That's my experience.

[Dev]

I'm a real fan of Sungold, but grow others as well and find that the skins on the outdoor ones seem to be tougher than those from the greenhouse. I also seem to end up missing some side shoots and the end of the greenhouse ends up looking like a rainforest, and it's easy to miss some of the ripe fruit. Still - it's better to have too much rather than too little.

[oldgrunge]

My favourite outdoor tom is The Amateur, a bush variety, and good cropper, with that "real tomato" taste. Recently, have also grown Outdoor Girl, another bush, and Sungold does well too.

[AnneB]

Sungold is good outside, especially in a sunny warm spot, but is prone to splitting if left too long.  My Dad, always grew it in his Chelmsford garden outdoors successfully.  I am much further north and find a German variety called Aranyalma very good indeed.  It isn't commercially available, I got mine from the Heritage Seed Library.  If you send me a PM with contact details I can send you a handful of seed to get you started.   

[Growster...]

You could try growing normal cordon toms, and pinch out the tops after the first truss, allowing the side shoots to develop as a low plant. Because we have plenty of room on 'the allotment, we grow masses of plants, and of course, some of them don't get noticed as much and stay quite low, growing quite happily with a couple or three main stems and some productive side shoots as well! As long as there aren't more than four or five trusses, they're just fine

Greenhouse toms are for early crops, outside ones for the 'mains' here. A chum still had some 'Mountain Magic' going in November!

[Auntiemogs]

Orange Paruche is my favourite (larger than Sungold, super sweet and less prone to splitting).  As Growster says, you can just pinch the tops off when they're the required height and they will put out side shoots.  I sometimes use a low obelisk in my raised bed and tie them in to the uprights.

[Flowertot]

Thank you all very much for your suggestions. I am now inspired to try a couple of different things - the bush varieties you have mentioned plus perhaps some cordon types (I have some left over from last year) with their tips taken out. That way I can compare results.  I also have some sungold seeds left from growing them in cordons last year so I’ll definitely give them a go too.

[Growster...]

Orange Paruche is my favourite (larger than Sungold, super sweet and less prone to splitting).  As Growster says, you can just pinch the tops off when they're the required height and they will put out side shoots.  I sometimes use a low obelisk in my raised bed and tie them in to the uprights.

Good point Auntie!

A good thing about these side shoots, is that they come into flower much later, so if you're lucky, the season is extended well beyond what it might have been with a 'normal' set-up. We had Crimson Crush well into October, and on plants with stems going off in all directions...

Not a pretty sight, but hey, it's productivity not flashy identikit toms in immaculate rows! (And who says that they have to look pretty in the first place, anyway)!

[Headgardener22]

You might like to check for blight before you try growing tomatoes at the allotment. I've given up trying to grow anything except the "blight resistant" varieties (Mountain Magic) because blight kills off everything before they ripen.

Its localised (I don't get blight at home two miles away from the allotment) and it has got into the neighbouring plot greenhouses but other plots further away seem to be able to manage to grow tomatoes in greenhouses.

[mumofstig]

Unless you have roof windows open all the time, or the doors are facing the prevailing wind, so the spores get in easily - I believe you're unlikely to get actual Blight in your greenhouse. Not impossible I know, before I get told off   

A lot of people do confuse Botrytis with Blight, though, and it can be just as horrible if you don't catch it quickly enough, as I know to my cost