comparing tom varieties - quality, taste and yield

foreign_correspondent

Girlfriend's Mother has all the above planted in the ground inside her greenhouse plus one called Sunshine...Sunburst...(?)

golden sunrise? sungold? sungella? there are several with similar sounding names!

I have never been a fan of moneymaker, shirley or alicante, but am interested to see if anyone else finds them tasty!

he also gave me an 'unusual tomato' which turned out to be an Augergine!

:rotfl:

Primrose

My Alicante last year didn't have much flavour but then, it was a poor year weatherwise. Like most tomatoes I find they do much better and develop more flavour in warm summers. Very disappointed with Tigrella which I grew from a free packet of seed which came with my Kitchen Garden magazine. (Incidentally this is a really good magazine for anybody interested in growing vegetables with lots of useful information for new growers). Few stripes and little flavour so not growing that one again. On the issue of blight, I'd really rather be organic but after two bad wet seasons where I lost most of my tomatoes, I swallowed my organic pride and sprayed with Dithane from early July when blight was ranging throughout the country. Although I had a little blight on a few leaves and stems I only lost about 5 tomatoes from 24 plants, so will definitely go this route again if we have wet weather and blight looks likely.

MRSMCAWBER

Right I have fsorted out which are determinate/indeterminate..
the ones in bold I have tried before, and all mine are grown outdoors


Determinate -bush

1. Principe Borghese -whole plant can be pulled up and hung up to dry
2. Maskotka
3. Minibel
4. TomatoBerry
5. Villma
6. Buissonante
7. Sub Arctic
8. Cream sausage
9. Red alert

Indeterminate



These are all growing using "ring culture" methods

1. Andine cornue -pointy pepper shaped, good for sauces
2. Harbinger -ripen well off the vine
3. Zuckertraube
4. DiplomF1 -ripen well off the vine
5. Pink brandywine
6. Yellow Brandywine
7. San Marzano
8. Purple cherokee -these had a slightly smokey taste and were gorgeous but not very heavy croppers, so Im hoping for more this year
9. Yellow pear -these were one of my faves for snacking, they produced lots and lots and were lovely and sweet
10. Nickos -these are from a salad my mum had when we were in Kefalonia -so named after the owner who grew them
11. Fleische -a german "meaty" one
12. eire -a german egg shaped one

Primrose

Talking of tomato flavours, wouldn't it be nice if there was a tomato festival somewhere where you could go and sample all the flavours to check which ones you liked before growing them, rather than trying 'pot luck', sowing seeds and waiting for several months to find out whether you like them or not. I believe there is an annual Chilli Festival at West Dene in Sussex around September time for chilli fans but have never heard of anything for tomatoes. Anybody know of one? And has anybody grown tomatillos? I would like to try them but am pretty short of growing space so don't know if tomatillo plants grow in the same kind of space as tomatoes. Do they taste similar to tomatoes or are they more like a fruit?

foreign_correspondent

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Right I have fsorted out which are determinate/indeterminate..
the ones in bold I have tried before, and all mine are grown outdoors




Determinate -bush

1. Principe Borghese -whole plant can be pulled up and hung up to dry
2. Maskotka
3. Minibel
4. TomatoBerry
5. Villma
6. Buissonante
7. Sub Arctic
8. Cream sausage
9. Red alert

Indeterminate





These are all growing using "ring culture" methods

1. Andine cornue -pointy pepper shaped, good for sauces
2. Harbinger -ripen well off the vine
3. Zuckertraube
4. DiplomF1 -ripen well off the vine
5. Pink brandywine
6. Yellow Brandywine
7. San Marzano
8. Purple cherokee -these had a slightly smokey taste and were gorgeous but not very heavy croppers, so Im hoping for more this year
9. Yellow pear -these were one of my faves for snacking, they produced lots and lots and were lovely and sweet
10. Nickos -these are from a salad my mum had when we were in Kefalonia -so named after the owner who grew them
11. Fleische -a german "meaty" one
12. eire -a german egg shaped one

Mrs M - when you say ring culture do you mean bottomless pots stood on something water retaining? Have never tried it myself, what are the advantages? is it just the indeterminates you are growing like this or all of them?

Principe Borghese sound intriguing!

Talking of tomato flavours, wouldn't it be nice if there was a tomato festival somewhere where you could go and sample all the flavours to check which ones you liked before growing them, rather than trying 'pot luck', sowing seeds and waiting for several months to find out whether you like them or not. I believe there is an annual Chilli Festival at West Dene in Sussex around September time for chilli fans but have never heard of anything for tomatoes. Anybody know of one?

Nope, maybe we should set one up!! Although I have a feeling it would just be half a dozen of us attending!

Very disappointed with Tigrella which I grew from a free packet of seed which came with my Kitchen Garden magazine. (Incidentally this is a really good magazine for anybody interested in growing vegetables with lots of useful information for new growers). Few stripes and little flavour so not growing that one again.

I was very pleased with Tigerella last year, but than again, I do think growing conditions etc. will impact a lot, and potentially different strains of seed are sold under the same name by different seed companies. Were yours under glass or outside?

Primrose

Regarding my earlier comment about a Tomato festival, I've done some checking and there is a Totally Tomato fest at West Dean Gardens, Sussex on 5 & 6th September if anybody is in the area then. Their Chilli Fest is 8/9th August. We went to a previous Chilli event there some years ago. It was amazing - literally hundreds of varieties available to see.

furndire

I planned on comparing a few this year - new again to growing toms. Unfortunately my labels all faded & packet they came in disappeared!!!!!, so now haven't a clue which is what. I bought a selection packet with 5 varieties in, so when I get down to garden centre, I shall have a look and see at least which varieties I have, and then hopefully work out the names when I get fruit.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there FC

Yep -ring culture is when you have say a pot with the bottom cut off sunk into a growbag, etc..My grandad used to make tubes of old lino to do his many moons ago but he would sit them onto trays of gravel not more compost





All tomatoes like it -apparently they have 2 lots of roots...

1. "water/drinking" roots -so I water into the bottom trough as it forces the roots to dig down and makes the plant stronger
2. "feeding" roots which lie just under the surface so I feed into the top pot...

-I have only done it with the tall tomatoes as it makes them more stable -the bush ones manage ok in buckets n pots. I also sink my tomatoes down into the compost so that the 1st true leaves are just above the compost as the stem that is underground grows loads more roots and gives sturdier plants -which is why mine seem shorter than a lot of folks... bit like me they are short n sturdy :rotfl:
Here are a couple of pictures of some of mine... as you can see I have my pots in troughs as they take up less space and are more stable than growbags... I have them like that down both sides of my patio.



This is the principe borghese
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/gww0469/1/
Im hoping they turn out to be a good one....
Im planning on trying different varieties next year too... so I will have spares that I will hopefully set up a swapping system on my blog with so I can try more and share mine out
Furndire..next time you lable things -try writing on plastic lables with pencil -it doesn't fade or wear off -but you can wash it off to use again

angelesque

I've three Garden Pearl plants (grown from free seeds, natch ) and I'm growing them indoors - on my living room windowsill! Despite them being a tumbling type, they're still managing to take up much of the window...

Between 20-30 tomatoes on each plant at the moment, from the size of a pea to a 50p ish. All green at the mo - have never grown tomatoes before, so really keen to hear any tips form anyone on how to make these little greenies turn into juicy red successes!

(also growing Lollo Rosso and chillies in the living room too... who needs a garden )

Melonade

This is a great thread :T

And good to read that Gardner's Delight are quite popular!! I've got 3 GD and 3 Alicante... which don't seem too popular, so that'll make it interesting

Next year I'm hoping to try some different varieties, mainly because I'm a bit gutted I only tried 2 this time and theres sooooo many to choose from.