Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a variety of normal and bush tom to grow. I am always confused by the catalogues, as all the varieties seem to be the best . I have for many years grown Gardeners Delight with great success, but am always disappointed with normal toms flavour. Arrrgh

Ah, there's a difficult question as I suspect we all have our favourites for different reasons, so I imagine every answer you get will be different.

Blight seems to be a major issue for tomato growers these days so amongst my plants will always be some Ferline (blight resistant ). They're a large(ish) salad tomato but not in the beefsteak size and with an excellent yield.

For the low bush varieties I grow Tumbling Red & Tumbling Yellow and find them prolific, with a good flavour. (I've found these tend to be slightly more blight resistant than tall varieties for some reason).

Last year, for a different flavour I grew Black Russian. It has an unusual slightly smokey flavour when cooked, but has a low crop yield & I wouldn't bother with it again for that reason.

This year a star performer for flavour & yield was a new one I've tried called Golden Sweet, which is one of the larger mini-plum varieties with a yellow skin.

I'll always have a few Gardener's Delight though for flavour. I haven't yet found a medium/large salad tomato, suitable for slicing, which equals the flavour of GD. I'd be interested to see what are other peoples' favourites.

Hello FW33
I grow a few of the tumbler/tumbling type tomatoes in 12" pots in a warm spot near the house. They always do well enough to give us a good supply and quite honestly I can't tell the difference as far as taste goes between the different varieties. I just buy a few plants of whatever the local nursery has. I also grow bush tom 'Red Alert' (from seed started indoors) in a cold frame. This is an excellent cropper with smaller than average size fruits but excellent taste.

John

I would agree with John with Red Alert for a bush variety. This is one of the earliest tomatoes to fruit and and for me has always missed any blight. Prolific larger cherry type and of good flavour. Just needs strawing to keep the fruits clean. Needs no pinching out or supporting. Apart from slugs almost trouble free.

Beryl.

I've grown Roma this year, which is a bush plum tomato. The flavour has been superb, more intense than San Marzano.

For the greenhouse many people recommend Shirley and I am kicking myself for getting some of my labelling mixed up and thus growing aLL my Marmande beef toms outdoors instead of having a couple under glass. They've all split and as a result we are getting very few good baking tomatoes this year.

Mike - your comment about Roma is interesting because last year I grew it and was very disappointed, so this year I swapped to San Marzano and got a more satisfactory crop. Nature can be so inconsistent!

Hi FW33

I remember you saying you lived in the very far north. I would be inclined to say that if you have been satisfied with Gardener's Delight, then stick to it. A good early alternative is definitely Sungold. Some of others' suggestions might prove rather late for your location.

If you go to "User Control Panel" (top left of this page) you can add your location to your profile and all your posts. It will help people advising you when they realise how far away from central and southern England you are gardening

Alan

I think I've already listed my favourites for flavour somewhere else, but another one I've tried this year is Hardy Tom.

It is a large cherry/small salad type and has a good flavour. I've grown some as cordons and left a few as bush ones. They are extremely productive and have been smothered in fruits for months. They also started fruiting early. They aren't f1s, so if you want a few seeds I can send you some if you let me know your address. I've grown mine in the greenhouse, but a few spares I put outside seem to be OK and living up to their name.

Hi everyone

Ta very much for the advice. I shall look out for your suggestions .

Thanks Alan for telling me where to post my location, I had been wondering how to do it .

Funny thing about Caithness is that we can grow ok toms here (as long as inside). The long light in spring/summer allows the porch to heat, sometimes to tropical It also alows us to start growing in Feb. Most other things we have to delay for a month to allow the outside to heat.

And you don't live all that far from me, Primrose,. but if you are anywhere up in the Chilterns you will probably be on chalkier soil. I grew up in Amersham and I don't recollect it being anything like as heavy clay as around here.

Perhaps when I have more time I'll grow both varieties of plum and see if I can spot any difference in performance. I suspect it's all down to the weather.

Hi Mike,
It was always said of Bedford "It's good for Bricks and Brussel's Spouts and bugger-all else!"
I sincerely hope that you prove the saying wrong!
JB.

Dear Johnboy, i'm a product of Bedfordshire, oh, i see what you mean.