[whitehill1]

when to start seeds ideally..

[adri123]

I've seen reference to CC but what's so special about it as a variety?

TIA

Adri

[mumofstig]

It has been bred to have a high resistance to blight, it was only released last year.

[surbie100]

It has a very high resistance to the current strains of blight. I'm a fan - it shrugged off being grown near about 30 abandoned blighted tomato plants on our site last year and I liked the flavour.

I wouldn't sow seeds myself till mid-March - I don't have a heated greenhouse or the space to accommodate them if sown earlier.

[Growster...]

I'm still interested in Crimson Crush, as they may well be a future for tomato growing.

The free plants we grew last year weren't that fantastic, and although the fruit was acceptable,, perhaps like a Moneymaker or similar and we didn't have any blight anyway, we couldn't decide whether they were worth the cost, (free) or the extra experience!

I've saved some seed from a tom from last year, and we'll sow this as usual around early March, so will keep you posted! We may even buy some new seed if we see some...

[Headgardener22]

Personally, I didn't find them anything special. Whilst the plants didn't get blight, nor did any other plants at the allotment (which I grew as a control) and they seemed particularly prone to the cold (I put them out at the same time as others and the CC turned purple whereas the others grew away). The CC plants also seemed to get more slug damage than the control varieties.

In addition I'm not sure that the green tomatoes I picked didn't actually get blight before they ripened (I picked all the green tomatoes from the allotment (of which most were CC) and most of them when blighted before they'd ripened). - Not exact because I didn't separate the CC from the others.

I didn't bother to save seed because the only way you can tell if they've run true (a low probability) is if they don't get blight. I didn't want to grow tomatoes whose taste didn't impress me if they were just as likely to get blight as others.

Also I thought one of the problems with blight was that it changed quite quickly so whilst Crimson Crush might work against existing varieties of blight, new strains will still knock it back.

[sunshineband]

On our site blight was rife, and Crimson Crush stood unscathed. Huge juicy tomatoes which were great in salads and cooked too. Grew to about 1m tall and stopped at that height with about four or five trusses

I shall be growing some this year again, starting the seeds off late March as the plants will be growing outside (of course!)

[surbie100]

I had 2 plants, one of which was really feeble. The other performed as well as Sunny's, got to a metre tall and produced lovely tart toms.

Both of them sailed through being next to this (below) which was BlightSporeCentral and just 3m away on the next plot. The blighted toms were there for a month. All the other outside toms had to be binned.



This year I'm aiming for 6 plants outside. Hopefully all from the overwintering plant that I have at home.

[JimB]

.
I got  three grafted plants last season, total waste of space and time two died, the other gave a few miserable tasteless toms, they should be charged by the trades description act!

It is usually that other crowd, T&M that have worlds first and tastiest whatever!

As a gardener I love something new or different, that is why I usually get caught out by these snake oil sales people!

[whitehill1]

want to give cc a better start, as 10 seeds should last 2 yrs . will sow them in mid march then.

[jaydig]

.
I got  three grafted plants last season, total waste of space and time two died, the other gave a few miserable tasteless toms, they should be charged by the trades description act!

It is usually that other crowd, T&M that have worlds first and tastiest whatever!

As a gardener I love something new or different, that is why I usually get caught out by these snake oil sales people!

I wonder if it depends on what type of soil they are grown in, because I had three plants last year and the one in the greenhouse didn't do as well as the two grown outdoors, and the tomatoes weren't as tasty.  The one I grew outside at home in my light, sandy soil, didn't do anywhere near as well as the one on the allotment.  The allotment plant was in heavy soil and grew so large I had to prop it up with five broom handles and loads of thick twine. The crop was huge, and the tomatoes really tasty. 

This year I have bought seed to start my own plants in the greenhouse, and these will then be planted on the allotment. 

[Growster...]

I reckon, reading the comments here, that it is at least worth buying some new seed this year, and then arguing the toss next year!

Yeah, probably a few pounds sterling may be worth the experiment from growing from last year's seed, but we can't really decide until we have any results, can we!

I'm going to trial a few of last year's seed on the allotment (far away from the greenhouse and home), just to see what happens.

Last year, we tried some year-old seed from Sungold, and were not that impressed, although we got a huge crop, but which didn't seem to be quite the same as the 'new' seed crop - the skins were very fragile, and they just 'looked' different).

Interesting subject, this, and I wish everyone well in trying their arm on new sowings!

[mumofstig]

Also good luck to those of us using rooted cuttings

[Growster...]

Also good luck to those of us using rooted cuttings

Quite right, Mum!

I still have a rather frail cutting from last year, on a window sill, but it isn't very robust at the moment! I reckon a new pot with some compost might help it along...!

Trouble is, I lost the marker, so am not sure if it's a CC or not!

[Headgardener22]

Last year, we tried some year-old seed from Sungold, and were not that impressed, although we got a huge crop, but which didn't seem to be quite the same as the 'new' seed crop - the skins were very fragile, and they just 'looked' different).

Growster,

Sungold are an F1 hybrid so the chances are that you'll get something that looks more like one of the parents. As I understand it, the point about F1's is that the parent plants are heavily inbred and usually not very vigorous it is the cross breeding that creates the vigour.

The thing about Crimson Crush (as I understand it) is that each of the parents are resistant to a different form of blight and the cross breeding happens to inherit both forms of resistance. So saved seed probably only has one or other of the resistance genes, not both, so they probably won't be as resistant as Crimson Crush