F1 Tomato Q?

Are Alicante, Fernline (or it could be crystal (sp?))  any kind of F1 or 'bred for...' variety?

Am asking because my Alicante and Fernline toms' are doing sooo badly, yet my potato leaf ones are romping away (and I mean romping away!  :blink: ).

The ali's and ferns' are easily only thigh high compared to my PL's. 

So next year, I'm sticking to 'heirloom' kind of stuff.

So stick your F1's next year if this keeps up! [insert rude rasp here  ]

F1s are bred for all sorts of reasons - bigger crops, more uniform crops, disease resistance ......

I grow mainly old tomato varieties but as Mum says, some really well known ones are not F1, they have just been around for ages because they are usually good producers and people like them.

As well as my older varieties I have a grafted double stem cherry tom in the greenhouse that I bought from work just to trial for myself.  Got asked loads about them this spring and had never grown one so couldn't really speak from experience.  It has gone mad as well - easily matching my potato leaved Black Sea Man plants, but then all mine inside are doing well, so not seeing the big differences you are.

It's worth noting that if you want to save seed for next year F1s don't come true  

Alicante is one of my old faithful varieties that I always grow because I know I'll always get a good crop from them, no matter how bad the weather. They did well for me last year when other varieties didn't, and they're doing better than my other varieties this year too.