Kitchen Garden Forum

We had such a dry September, I thought my few outdoor tomatoes had escaped this year. However, it looks as though Sungold and the so-called Irish Gardeners Delight have finally succumbed. Latah, which starts to fruit very early and is normally finished well before now, appears to have escaped. Out of interest, does anyone know if Latah has some resistance to blight. (Have done my final harvesting of the year this morning, having decided it is getting too cool to expect my tomatoes to ripen on the vine.)

I had to pull up my three outside tomato plants (Sweet Baby) yesterday because of blight. Luckily, the ones in the mini greenhouse are still ok.

I've been saying for years that I won't plant any more tomatoes out in my garden because they nearly always get blight in September, if not sooner, but when it comes to potting up my seedlings each spring, I just can't bring myself to throw away any spares!!!

Mouse - have you considered growing a few bush tomatoes outdoors if you've got the space. I find they invariably ripen much earlier than cordon tomatoes and almost always manage to avoid being struck by blight. I always grow of few of these now as a belt and braces protection against losing my entire outdoor crop.

I'll keep that in mind, Primrose.

...and Latah, as mentioned above, is a bush variety which was bred for the very short summers in parts of the US. It puts all its energy into flowering and fruiting and therefore fruits very early. We generally get ripe fruit from Latah, grown outside, before the first ripe ones from the greenhouse.

Latah is not a variety I've ever heard of or come across and sounds a good bet for kur sometimes variable British summers. I might try growing a couple of plants next year.in addition to my Tumbling Tom option. Are the seeds readily available here?

I get mine from The Real Seed Catalogue...

P.S. I can now answer my own question! Latah isn't blight resistant, because some of the tomatoes I picked green are now showing blight symptoms. However, it is a good tomato in other respects...