Kitchen Garden Offer - Free tomato plant offer

[Primrose]

A couple of months ago there was a reader offer for 6 free tomato plants for anybody interested in participating in a trial to see how disease might affect the leaves of different varieties. (Haven't got that edition immediately to hand) but I decided to participate.

Can anybody in KG Admin advise when these plants might be despatched? I'm probably accumulating surplus home grown tomato plants which I could give away, but until these plants arrive I don't know which varieties they will be and I'd prefer not to duplicate planting out with varieties I've already got.

[KGAdmin]

Hi Primrose,

I've passed the message onto Steve "Now where did I put that fork" Ott - who I'm sure will be able to help you out.


KGAdmin

[KGAdmin]

I understand from the growers that plants are being sent out from the end of May once frosts are less likely, but unfortunately they can't be specific about varieties at this stage.

There we go

KGAdmin

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i think the ones you will be getting are, that rare variety Moneymaker.

[Primrose]

Well if that's the case I haven't sown any Moneymaker this year so at least I'll have another variety to add to my selection.

Thanks KG Admin for the update.

[Diane]

I've sent for some but they haven't arrived yet. Should be the end of the month. It didn't say what variety there were.

[Primrose]

I received my 6 free tomato plants for blight resistance testing this morning and was disconcerted to discover that they are red bush tomatoes rather than the upright varieties, two each of Red Alert, Koralik and Losetto.

I wish this had been mentioned when the offer was publicised as I'd only allocated space for upright varieties in my limited growig space. As I prefer to grow yellow tumbling bush varieties on my patio, all my containers are already allocated for them. Looks like I'm going to have to go out and buy some more containers and compost to accommodate them.

If anybody grows these varieties, can you tell me what you think of them please? And what size tomatoes do they produce? Cherry size or medium?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i grew Koralik last year. It is a very vigourous tomato plant, taking up a fair amount of room. The tomatoes themselves are about half the size of a grape, but hundreds of them. The skins also split very easily when picking, although they are a very tasty little Tomato.

It did show a slight tolerance to blight.

[Primrose]

OH - Thanks for that very useful feedback. Sounds like I'm going to have to give some thought as to where I put them and as if Koralik is rather like the Hundreds & Thousands bush variety. I grew one of these last year from seeds somebody gave me, and whilst they too were very prolific, they were the size of peas, fiddly to pick and I probably wouldn't grow them again.

Another more general question arises in my mind now for all tomato growers - if you really don't like a tomato variety because it doesn't fit your needs, would you grow it anyway simply because it was blight resistant?

[oldherbaceous]

A big No from me, especially regarding the taste.

[Primrose]

That's interesting OH. I'll start another thread regarding the other two varieties in case anybody else is familiar with the others. Space is a real issue for me so I'd rather grow things I'm going to enjoy although I will try to grow them if only because the people running the trial will be anxious to see the results.