Early outdoor tomatoes

[ken]

Yesterday (July 9)we picked our first outdoor tomato. I'm not claiming any kind of record, but there were still some remarkable things about it. This is a bush variety, Latah, bred in the US for areas with very short summers. I sowed it on 26 March, two weeks after I sowed our greenhouse varieties, Gardeners Delight and Olivade, and it has very nearly caught up with them - we picked the first GD on July 3.
Our other outdoor varieties have set fruit, but are nowhere near as advanced.
It was clear that Latah was going to fruit early. We were just concerned that the flavour would be disappointing. But actually, it has plenty of flavour. I would describe the flavour as being at thesavoury trather than the sweet end of the spectrum.
I would also say that, as the catalogue promised, Latah is a wierd looking plant - very skinny leaves, rather weak stems, but covered in flowers.
Is anybody else growing it, and what do you think?
There are two good things about early-maturing tomatoes - (a) they're a great treat, but (b) the more fruit you can get before blight strikes, the better.
I looked up Latah on the internet last night and came across an American article ('Growing Tomatoes on the Palouse' by Patricia Diaz)dating back to 2003 about trying to get tomatoes to mature early. She advocated using a red plastic mulch, which she claims promotes photosynethesis and also 'fools' the plants into believing they are overcrowded. Red plastic mulch is available in the US as Higher Yield Tomato Mulch. Can you get it here?
She was also suggesting the use of another gizmo available in the US, Walls o' Water. There's something similar called Kozy-Coats. Walls o' Water are apparently an arrangement of plastic tubles which you fill with water and put round your tomato plants. They create extra warmth and protection.
Again, does anyone know if anything similar is available in the UK?
Diaz claims the red mulch and Walls o' Water together bring the crop forward by two weeks and also increase the total yield.
Has anyone on the forum got experience of these things?

[peat]

Try 6ltr milk cartons for your walls of water. Maybe you could try red paper or plastic for the mulch.
Pete

[Carole B.]

I picked a 'Latah' before any of my greenhouse toms were ready,it was in a pot by my suntrap of a front house wall....my house is black clapboard so it probably had a lot of reflected night-time heat. I've never thought of red as a colour for bringing plants on...we might have another experiment coming on here!

[sandersj89]

Ken

I have just sent you a pm with contact email of a person who used the Wall O Water last year, she has contacts with a UK suppler.

HTH

Jerry

[Zena]

i picked our first tomato yesterday, too!
No idea what variety it was though......

[oldherbaceous]

Well my dear Zena thats one up on me, i haven't picked a tomato yet

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Never above you, never below you, but always beside you.

[Zena]

I think there's another one nearly ready, too...

obviously Northants Toms are more "forward" than the more refined and retiring Bedfordshire ones!