comparing tom varieties - quality, taste and yield

house_of_6

hi im very new to this we have over 30 toms on one plant do you think they will all ripen think they are money makers got over 60 on4 plants thanks

foreign_correspondent

house_of_6 wrote: »

hi im very new to this we have over 30 toms on one plant do you think they will all ripen think they are money makers got over 60 on4 plants thanks

yes, they will be fine - mine have far more on, and I leave them all to ripen. How far off ripe are they? Good luck!

RAS

house_of_6 wrote: »

hi im very new to this we have over 30 toms on one plant do you think they will all ripen think they are money makers got over 60 on4 plants thanks

probably and if they do not, either take them indoors, wrap in newspaper and they will ripen, or cut the whole plant just above the soil and hang it upside down in a frost free place and you could have toms until New Year.

Melonade

We've just eaten our very first home grown Gardeners Delight :T Only one so far and we had to cut it in half. It was lovely and sweet and juicy. I don't have anything to compare it to because I usually buy supermarket toms, it was a million times nicer than anything I've bought in the shops. It was worth the wait and I'm mega excited for the rest to start ripening!!

Not sure if anyone else does this but I waited for OH to eat his half first I always do it, just incase

Primrose

Melonade - there is nothing quite like the thrill of picking your own first tomatoes and I think Gardeners Delight are one of the best for flavour. I remember the proud time I grew a melon in one of our sunniest borders. It reached the size of a tangerine and we had a ceremonial picking and eating - a single mouthfull each!

house_of_6

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

yes, they will be fine - mine have far more on, and I leave them all to ripen. How far off ripe are they? Good luck!

they are still very green and some are still very small i still have some flowers on too thanks

frivolous_fay

Hm, curious... more of my so-called 'Alicante' are ripening, all while still very small.

Which is more likely - a problem that's stopping them getting to normal size, or that it's not Alicante at all? The plant is approx. 1m high. Do cherry toms come that tall?

Primrose

Fay - My Alicante this year have been very stunted for some reason, with very few tomatoes but in my experience the tomatoes are average size (just over an inch in diameter). Did you grow from seed or get from a garden centre where often plants can oven be mislabelled by customers fiddling with them and mixing the labels up. In my experience most cherry type tomato plants grow quite tall. Gardeners Delight (a slightly larger than average cherry tomato) often grows at least six feet high and in normal circumstance I would have expected your Alicante to be taller than 1 metre.

Melonade

Primrose wrote: »

Melonade - there is nothing quite like the thrill of picking your own first tomatoes and I think Gardeners Delight are one of the best for flavour. I remember the proud time I grew a melon in one of our sunniest borders. It reached the size of a tangerine and we had a ceremonial picking and eating - a single mouthfull each!

WOW a melon :j I think even if this is the only tomato that ripens it would still be worth it. It's inspired me to grow some different varieties next year (will grow GD again too)

My Alicante are just under 1 metre tall but not nearly as bushy as the GD. They almost look weak. All 3 plants have 2-3 lots of tomatoes that are a good size, but some are a little smaller than I expected On one plant the tomatoes have got small marks on the skin, but they seem ok otherwise. I've moved it further away from the other plants just incase.

cheerfulness4

My mini charm cherry tomato is well over a metre tall. Its to the top of my 6' fence. Its very legging but full of toms.

Had my first pink brandywine yesterday. :j The tomato fell off when the plant toppled over so I brought it in and risked a slice while it was still greeny/red expecting to gringe. It was delicious.
In all honesty I only wanted to grow it because I liked the name and heard it was big. Glad I did, tho.

Found a few black cherry toms on the floor ( toppled with winds) and saved them from the bin as mum thought they were blighted with their weird purplish colour (half ripe). Looking forward to those.