Tomatoes - the hunt goes on!

[Colin Miles]

Can't help you with the big ones. Nowadays I always grow Tropical Ruby, a plum variety which is on a par with Gardeners Delight for flavour, is very productive and ripens well off the plant so later on in November I can still pick, ripen and eat them without too much loss of flavour.

[Primrose]

Can anybody recommend a Marmande size type salad tomato which crops prolifically and has a good taste ? I find the disadvantage of growing these type of tomatoes is that you get very few fruit per plant which is a disadvantage which space is at a premium.

[Beryl]

Colin, if you like Tropical Ruby try Tomato Berry next year it is even better. Cherry plumb variety shaped like a strawberry. Keeps well into till December.

As for a large tomato my Fandango this year are huge, For me far better than Marmande. Lovely flavour.

Beryl.

[ken]

Thanks for all your comments. Some interesting ideas there on varieties I haven't tried. I suspect, though, that's it's possibly the case that none of the heavyweight tomatoes have the intense flavour of some of the cherry type. What you grow the plants in is also a factor. And I'm sure I read that the flavour is more intense if you keep the plants a little on the dry side - which sounds like a risky strategy as it could invite blossom end rot... Meanwhile, what could have been a disaster yesterday. As I've posted earlier, with most of my (six) greenhouse tomatoes I've allowed one low sideshoot to develop, and tied it in to its own cane. Yesterday, the sideshoot on one of the Olivades crashed to the ground because of the weight of the fruit, pulling the cane over, too. Half a dozen large green tomatoes were left on the greenhouse floor, but they'll ripen indoors. There was still a huge weight of fruit on this sideshoot. I had to drive in a proper stake, and then firmly tied the sideshoot both to this and the stake supporting the main stem.

[Primrose]

I do think there is a big weight/broken stem risk if you try and grow extra fruit on sideshoots. Probably works better with cherry type tomatoes rather than the bigger sized varieties. I've got a couple of Ildi plants. The weight of the huge number of the fruits on the first trusses is such that they have dropped to the ground and I've had to prop them up to stop the slugs making a meal of the fruit. In the early stages, it looked like many of their flowers weren't setting but they did in the end and I now have LOADS of fruit.

[ken]

Mmmm, yes, it was a risk I was aware of. It was the wrong decision to use a cane to support the sideshoot, I should have hammered in a proper, solid stake from the start. It's not as if I haven't experienced collapsing canes once or twice before, and read about the risk. Next year....

[PLUMPUDDING]

Being greedy, I rarely stop my tomatoes but when they get top heavy and too high to tie to their canes, I fasten them to strings attached to the greenhouse roof. It stops the canes breaking or falling over too.

A new variety I tried this year from the heritage seed library was Wladeck.
This is a large slicing tomato and tasted very good in a cheese sandwich today. I still think the Double Rich has the best flavour for a large tomato.

[Beryl]

I think the badgers enjoyed mine last night.

Beryl.

[retropants]

the little blighters!.....our resident greenhouse vole has been climbing the tomato vines and helping himself the gardeners delight and yellow pear cherry toms.

[Primrose]

This may explain the hole dug under our back garden fence and the fact that several of my tomatoes are half eaten now lying on the ground.. I was blaming slugs!

[ken]

Yes, we've lost a few outdoor tomatoes at ground level or a little higher. I'd assumed slugs, and am not ruling them out, but voles are a possibility, too. Meanwhile, returning today from a short break, we called in at West Dean. Excellent kitchen garden, plus a big collection of tomatoes and chillies. Made me quite envious, walking through their very high greenhouses, and seeing tomato plants about 10ft high, wound round a taut string...

[Primrose]

I haven,t been to West Dean gardens for years. Last time we went there the chillies in the greenhouses were spectacular and it sounds as if they are still are. Probably a good time to visit at the height of the cropping season.

[Beryl]

I went to the Chilli Festival this year, not been for about 10 years now and couldn't believe how much the event had had grown. So many stalls and very commercialised now but we enjoyed the day. When the noise from the fun fair got too much we escaped to the walled garden. West Dean is worth a visit any time of the year.

Beryl.