comparing tom varieties - quality, taste and yield

Primrose

katiel - I've often used tomato seed which was several years old and had successful results as I hate to waste partly used packets but I store my seeds in an airtight boxes in a cool garage and wonder whether the temperature at which your seeds have been stored has something to do with the end result. Also I suspect that if the seeds are not in those foil packets and are not sealed up tightly again after use, that could have an impact.

katiel

Thanks Primrose. I sealed the seeds back into their paper packets with sellotape, and supposedly kept them in a tin in the shed over winter. However, I do have a tendency to get all my seed packets out at regular intervals just to count them, make lists and spreadsheets, and generally drool over things to come, and that's when they may have got overheated.

MissMoneypenny

My tomato update.

Black Krim - Beautiful, sweet tomato. They seem to average in at 225g a tomato. :eek:

Supersweet 100 - Prolific and very tasty.

Sungold - The best, sweetest, little tomaotes, ever. My first year of growing these and it won't be my last.

frivolous_fay

I think I'm a bit late to the game! So far we've only had two ripe cherry toms.

We have 2 plants the in-laws gave us:
Golden cherry (in-laws really rate this one - small and sweet)
Alicante (it's got to about a metre high and has 20 green toms on it at present, plus lots more flowers)

I'm growing some hanging basket cherries for the 2nd time - can't find the packet they're a fairly ordinary wilkos variety IIRC, designed for containers. (Might have 'pearl' in the name?) Last year I had a tomato feed overdose disaster and lost all but one plant... but the tomatoes were good. This time I haven't killed any yet (touch wood!) and they all look healthy, as do the other two plants. (All in pots / baskets on the patio btw)

foreign_correspondent

I will not be bothering with Green Sausage again - they taste rubbish, although they look interesting! Tried a Purple Russian the other day - not overly impressed, but maybe it could have been riper - however, one of my black toms tastes good - either Paul Robeson or Carbon, will have to check!

foreign_correspondent

frivolous_fay wrote: »

I think I'm a bit late to the game! So far we've only had two ripe cherry toms.

We have 2 plants the in-laws gave us:
Golden cherry (in-laws really rate this one - small and sweet)
Alicante (it's got to about a metre high and has 20 green toms on it at present, plus lots more flowers)

I'm growing some hanging basket cherries for the 2nd time - can't find the packet they're a fairly ordinary wilkos variety IIRC, designed for containers. (Might have 'pearl' in the name?)

could it be gartenperle / garden pearl?

frivolous_fay

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

could it be gartenperle / garden pearl?

Quite possibly - if mine ever look like that pic I'll let you know

Primrose

Have picked about a pound of Yellow Tumblers, grown from last years saved seeds Quite sweet but with a pleasant acidic aftertaste. As these tumbling plants seem to ripen much earlier than the tall varieties I'll definitely grow some next year to lengthen the season. Am especially looking forward to tasting the Black Russian and the (yellow) Ildi varieties which I'm growing for the first time this year.

foreign_correspondent

right, out of all the varieties I have grown this year:

Tigerella
Gardeners Delight
Marmande
White Queen
Golden Gem
Carbon
Paul Robeson
Purple Russian
Green Sausage

...the only ones I will be bothering with (out of these) in future will be Tigerella, Gardeners Delight and Golden Gem F1.

Out of the rest, the toms are either ugly, not impressive in flavour, or just very low yeilding.

I do also have some yellow toms, (which seem simalar to Golden Sunrise), which I did not buy, so presume the seeds were mis-labelled and should have been something else... shame, as I would like to know the variety!

For next year, so far, I have bought (in the Thompson and Morgan sale!):

Gardener's Delight (T&M's own brand, and posh Duchy Originals to see if there is any difference in quality - as Gardeners Delight are an old variety I have read that the name is used for a number of similar strains of cherry tomatoes)

T&M's Tigerella - I like tigerella, they seem to be as productive and reliable as commercial varieties, but stripy!

Tomato Berry F1, a strawberry shaped small tom

T&M's Falcorosso F1, a 'larger cherry sized plum tomato'

T&M's Black Cherry

T&M's Golden Cherry

T&M Balconi red and yellow

and 'Vita Sementi' Principe Borghese

... so sticking wirh some I have found and liked, and trying a few new ones too!

Has anyone a recommendation for any other unusual coloured toms, eg. green, purple or white, preferably on the smaller side, not beefsteaks?

HappyIdiotTalk

For the folk who are unimpressed with the flavour of some of these toms, would you say they are still better flavoured than the supermarket varieties? None of mine are ready yet and I'll be mortally disappointed if they dont at least beat the stuff you can buy in the supermarket considering the effort I've put into growing them... and its the toms I'm looking forward too most.