Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Max4 on September 20, 2015, 17:06
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Looking for the benefit of experience here.
Need some recommendations for tomatoes for next year. Will be grown in the polytunnel and looking for cordon types for both cherry and a main crop. The main crop has to be about golf ball sized - grew money makers this year and my wife complained they were too big!
Very many thanks
Mark
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Sungold are an excellent Cherry type tom.
Shirley is similar to money maker but not quite as big
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Hi Mark,
I grew 16 different varieties this year (full review is on my blog) and of those my favourites are:
Cherry: Black Cherry, Ildi, Blush and Sweet Million F1
Salad size: Red Zebra
Crimson Crush F1 are also very good, and the blight resistance is coming in very handy as it's growing outside.
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All my toms are grown out side but the best cherry has to be Cherry Roma by a long way. For a standard plum San Marzano or Princip Borghese and if you want a good beef tom Coeur de Boeuf or Marmande. There are plenty of new toms but I think the older ones are less hassle and better flavour.
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For cherries, Black Cherry and Sungold. Everything else I usually grow is on the big side, bur FYI they are, Black Russian, Brandywine, and St. Pierre.
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I grew Tigerella and Alicante for the first time this year. I think the Tigerella are the better flavoured tom but the skins have been a bit thick but then, it's not been a great year for toms so I'm not sure if that's the cause. They're a good size though, not too large and not too small.
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I grew Gardener's Delight for the first time this year (from a 5 year old packet of seeds donated by a friend who got them free with a magazine!)
Still fruiting now in the greenhouse, very prolific, very red, and very tasty - long time since I held a golf ball in my hand and reflected on its diameter ::), but if you describe them as 'small tomatoes' rather than 'large cherries' they could possibly pass your wife's size test too. ;)
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Galina for the cherry tomato (if she's OK with a yellow one)
Grow at least some Stupice for the main crop tomato-they are very early and are not too bad in taste in my opinion and golf ball sized.
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Can I ask why you want to grow small tomatoes? (Other than instructions). I have always found that the Orange Beefsteak (Summer Cider and Marvel Stripes to name but two) have a much better flavour than small red tomatoes.
However, if you want to grow cherry/small standard tomatoes, then Green Grapes (providing you let them ripen fully), Brown Berry, Orange Berry, Rosella and Snow White would give you a range of other colours.
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I've grown Red Robin for the seed circle this year and they have been great, so far blight free in the greenhouse. going smaller 100s and 1000s are a great hit with my daughters.
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Can I ask why you want to grow small tomatoes? (Other than instructions).
If they are what his family want to eat, isn't that a good enough reason to grow them? :unsure:
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Can I ask why you want to grow small tomatoes? (Other than instructions).
If they are what his family want to eat, isn't that a good enough reason to grow them? :unsure:
and 100s &1000s are both extremely prolific and delicious too. Just the job whole in tomato chutney :D :D :D
(PS Thanks for the seeds Cadalot ;) )
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100s&1000s are lovely. A bit of a pain to pick, but lovely to eat. (again, thanks Cadders!)
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Sungold are a fabulous small tomato too :D
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Orange Paruche are my favourite cherry tomato. Larger than Sungold and a bit sweeter. :tongue2:
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100s&1000s are lovely. A bit of a pain to pick, but lovely to eat. (again, thanks Cadders!)
I can vouch for theses too,thanks Surbie as I had the seed from you & so I suppose thanks to Cadalot as it sounds that's where they originated from. Lovely sweet little toms,funny straggly plant,amazing how they produced so many fruits with so little leaves etc.
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We grow Sungold and Gardener's Delight for the titches, and Marmande, Black Krim and Gourmet for the bigger ones - both inside and outside!
This year, we're losing quite a lot to splitting, because of the rain, but this affects the small ones much more than the bigguns... (One Black Krim weighed 13 oz and for once, is a perfect shape - the rest are ugly brutes but taste marvellous)!
Next year, we'll go for Shirley, Sungold and perhaps Tigerella at home, with the other bigguns down on The Patch where they can frighten the badgers,,,
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Thanks guys - last year my little space saver greenhouse had two packs i.e. 14 plants of 100's & 1000's in it the other two went to my daughter Emma's nursery where she works as they are ideal for little children to grow harvest and then eat like little healthy sweets. What gets me is that if you didn't get the seed in the Wyevale 50p sale they charged £3.69 for 8 seeds that 46p a seed and just crazy.
Emma was quite upset that I only grew a couple of 100s & 1000's this year. I'm really impressed with the Red Robin's this year, they are still going strong in the greenhouse and I'm on my last batch of seed drying before filling the zippy bags ready for this years submission to the seed circle.
I'm not over fond of the Gartenperle that is my other submission for this year and will more than likely not be growing them again. It will be interesting to see what others make of Red Robin & Gartenperle next year.
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Thanks everyone, lots to think about. At least I have some time :)
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Gardeners Delight is my choice if i could only grow one variety, it has never failed me !
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100s&1000s are lovely. A bit of a pain to pick, but lovely to eat. (again, thanks Cadders!)
I can vouch for theses too,thanks Surbie as I had the seed from you & so I suppose thanks to Cadalot as it sounds that's where they originated from. Lovely sweet little toms,funny straggly plant,amazing how they produced so many fruits with so little leaves etc.
I've grown them for a few years Snowy and saved seed from them, so they would have come from that set. I think I sent you some of my last ones and I got new ones from Cadalot. Any spares from the circle went into the Pass the Parcel whenever that came my way.
I'm not over fond of the Gartenperle that is my other submission for this year and will more than likely not be growing them again. It will be interesting to see what others make of Red Robin & Gartenperle next year.
I know others like it, but I'm not a big fan of Gartenpearl either. When I grew them they were a bit flavourless, though possibly that was due to my treatment of them. Looking forward to Red Robin though.
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Another one for black cherry - its is a sweet tom (don't know what your taste preferences are). Fox cherry is a large cherry and great as a salad tom/ allrounder. Northern delight is another nice large cherry a touch on the acid side which is a good salad/ allrounder but it is a bush tom.
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I'm assuming that Gartenperle and Garden Pearl are in fact the same beast only one is German of Dutch in Origin ?
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I've always thought they were the same Cadalot - perhaps the English translation is to help those who struggle with German pronunciation! :unsure:
Grew them once, thought they were a bit 'woolly' and lacking in flavour, but it could have been unfavourable growing conditions that year, or just down to me (the 'billions of flies can't all be wrong' theory! ;))
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I agree Gartenperle (aka Garden Pearl :lol: ) isn't brilliant (but better than supermarket toms, I think) but it produces the earliest ripe tomatoes, for me, after a January sowing.
Once the other cherries start ripening, I ditch the GPs ;)
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True they were the first to ripen :nowink:
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Sungold get cracking pretty early as well, especially in the greenhouse!
By now, they're all splitting and only good for passata, but so what - we love passata!
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Garden Pearl and 100's & 1000's are both determinate varieties and we were asked for indeterminate suggestions.
The earliest indeterminate that I've grown over the oast few years has regularly been blooody butcher.
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Garden Pearl and 100's & 1000's are both determinate varieties and we were asked for indeterminate suggestions.
The earliest indeterminate that I've grown over the oast few years has regularly been blooody butcher.
Can you explain what a determinate variety and an indeterminate variety is please, I have seen this mentioned before on seed packets but have no idea what it means.
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Garden Pearl and 100's & 1000's are both determinate varieties and we were asked for indeterminate suggestions.
The earliest indeterminate that I've grown over the oast few years has regularly been blooody butcher.
The OP also asked for golfball sized fruits, so this one might be a little too big to suit their purposes.
Can you explain what a determinate variety and an indeterminate variety is please, I have seen this mentioned before on seed packets but have no idea what it means.
Its just another way of saying bush tomatoes or vine tomatoes Eblana. You let the determinate grow as they wish and don't pinch the side shoots out. Indeterminates are grown as a single stem vine up a cane, or twin stems up 2 canes if you like :)
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Orange Paruche are my favourite cherry tomato. Larger than Sungold and a bit sweeter. :tongue2:
I always seem to have problems with Sungold splitting very easily, do Orange Paruche tend to do this? If not, they seem like an ideal substitute.
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Its just another way of saying bush tomatoes or vine tomatoes Eblana. You let the determinate grow as they wish and don't pinch the side shoots out. Indeterminates are grown as a single stem vine up a cane, or twin stems up 2 canes if you like :)
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Thanks New Shoots
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Garden Pearl and 100's & 1000's are both determinate varieties and we were asked for indeterminate suggestions.
The earliest indeterminate that I've grown over the oast few years has regularly been blooody butcher.
Can you explain what a determinate variety and an indeterminate variety is please, I have seen this mentioned before on seed packets but have no idea what it means.
Whilst I agree that the terms Determinate and Indeterminate are used exchangeably with Bush and Cordon, they're not quite the same. An Indeterminate variety has trusses along the vine which ripen over a long season. In the UK we tend to grow them as a single vine as a Cordon because we don't have a hot season and need to get as much sunlight onto the fruit as you can. In other countries, they can be grown in cages with all the vines allowed to grow and fruit picked throughout the season.
Determinate varieties grow to a size and then fruit over a shorter period. Hence there is no reason to take off sideshoots and so we grow them as bushes.
Indeterminate varieties tend to be better for greenhouse growing because they can be trained upwards taking up little horizontal space, determinate varieties tend to be better for commercial canning and sauces because the fruit ripen all at once and so can be machine harvested.
I'm not sure, but I think that Indeterminate varieties are tender perennials and would grow forever in suitable conditions but Determinate varieties are annuals and die after fruiting. (We grow them all as annuals because they can't survive the UK winters).
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Both cordon and bush are perennial if kept in a warm place.
I've overwintered small bush tomatoes in the past, cutting them back after fruiting makes them grow new shoots ;)
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Both cordon and bush are perennial if kept in a warm place.
I've overwintered small bush tomatoes in the past, cutting them back after fruiting makes them grow new shoots ;)
Never been able to try that but its interesting. Kills my idea :)
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Both cordon and bush are perennial if kept in a warm place.
I've overwintered small bush tomatoes in the past, cutting them back after fruiting makes them grow new shoots ;)
Never been able to try that but its interesting. Kills my idea :)
Yes it is interesting, isn't it, HG!
Just for the hell of it, I'm going to see if I can keep some cuttings/sideshoots going this winter...
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We tried a new variety called "Sweet Aperitif" this year. Excellent crop and very tasty. Still going in the greenhouse along with good old "Ailsa Craig" fro the main crop. Our best year for toms so far. Fabulous flavour. Will do these again.
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Both cordon and bush are perennial if kept in a warm place.
I've overwintered small bush tomatoes in the past, cutting them back after fruiting makes them grow new shoots ;)
Never been able to try that but its interesting. Kills my idea :)
Yes it is interesting, isn't it, HG!
Just for the hell of it, I'm going to see if I can keep some cuttings/sideshoots going this winter...
I am going to try it with some Crimson Crush but the plants are already looking a bit yellow.
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Damn...I pulled up some green envy that had self-layered themselves. ::)
By the way, they are a really nice green cherry, sweet and sharp, all the neighbours want plants next year
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We tried a new variety called "Sweet Aperitif" this year. Excellent crop and very tasty. Still going in the greenhouse along with good old "Ailsa Craig" fro the main crop. Our best year for toms so far. Fabulous flavour. Will do these again.
I grew Sweet Aperitif last year and got loads of (small) toms that we ate like sweets. My Mrs and I were only discussing toms earlier today as our niece was demolishing most of our current supply and pondering on why I didn't grow any this year: they're definitely on the list for next year though.
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If anybody like toms that have quite an acidy twang (or is it just me :blush: ) I can recommend Peardrops basket tom, it's a shame it's an F1 but I'll only grow 1 or 2 plants a year - so the packet will last a while :lol:
I got mine from Nicky's
http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/garden-shop/seeds/tomatoes-by-type/pear/
but a few other places sell them including Sutton's
PS. It's not the same as Ildi or Yellow Pear - which are much less acid tasting IMO
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Had no trouble with Ailsa Craig cordon grown on my exposed allotment. I defoliated and laid the cordons down onto black fleece beneath a poly cloche 2 weeks ago and they are ripening nicely. However the two plants in the greenhouse did nothing this year.
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how high do u grow 100s and 1000s ?
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I picked up a packet of Orange Slice F1 from Fothergills at a local garden centre on a whim and have been very impressed with the results. Good size and close texture which grill well. They are also quite uniform without the big creases in of some other varieties. They were a bit late in ripening, but I think most beefsteaks are and this hasn't been a good year. I'll certainly grow again alongside sungold. They also grew well outside, but got blight just before they were ripe :(
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I grew quite a few varieties this year as a taste experiment. Favourites were the baby plum, cherry and grape tomatoes. I saved some seed from supermarket toms, the variety was Angelle. It is a red grape tomato, everyone went wild for it, absolutely delicious with a sweet and very firm, crunchy and juicy texture. Yum. Other very good ones were Ambrosia Gold, Floridity F1, Sungold F1 and Orange Paruche.