Tomato Varieties

tringle

What do you grow, what has worked, what isn't worth it?

Last year I grew a Black Russian Vine tomato that I got from Seedsavers. Small tomatoes that never seemed to fully ripen but they tasted amazing and I made some great ketchup from it. I saved some seed and am trying them again and also some of them self seeded.
I bought some Farenheit, a blue black cherry tomato, they germinated well and seem nice and sturdy.
I also got some Amish paste, they seem a bit weak but are in the ground now.
My neighbour gave me some Marmande and they are growing well and also some St Pierre.

This is only my second year growing tomatoes so I have a lot to learn.

redser7

That's a nice mix.

This year I'm going for ...

Maskotka (amazing large cherry, very early. Have tons of fruit set already).
Rosada F1 - very prolific and great tasting cherry plum.
San marzano - first time. Growing these for sauces.
Amish Paste - first time. Growing these for sauces.

Maskotka are from my own saved seeds last year. I'll keep these in 10 lt pots. All the others will go in the ground.

redser7

Oh and a couple of plants of Dances with smurfs, a blue cherry tomato!

tringle

I have sort of assumed cherry tomatoes are normally bush types rather than vine, is this correct? I lost (threw out) the packet from Fahrenheit, a cherry tomato. I've looked them up and keep getting "growing habit indeterminate". I want to know if I need to train them up something?

vinnie13

i alwas use money makers they produce a good amount of golf ball sized fruit

Oldtree

always do cherry toms, Gardeners delight as the kids love them and Sweet Aperitif new for this year. Had bad luck with bigger tomatoes.

redser7

tringle wrote: »

I have sort of assumed cherry tomatoes are normally bush types rather than vine, is this correct? I lost (threw out) the packet from Fahrenheit, a cherry tomato. I've looked them up and keep getting "growing habit indeterminate". I want to know if I need to train them up something?

You can get all sorts of shapes and sizes on both bush and vine tomatoes.
Your Fahrenheit are indeterminate which means they are a vine type and should be trained up a string or cane. Indeterminate means their death is not determined over a time period. They will keep growing and growing and producing fruit until the frost gets to them and kills them. Having said that, this is Ireland so what people normally do it restrict the height of the plant to ensure that all the fruit produced ripens in our relatively short growing season. Otherwise you will end up with lots of green toms. 5 or 6 trusses is an average number to keep. At that point you would nip out the growing point and stop the plant growing any more. You should also nip out the sideshoots throughout its life, but you probably know that.
Bush types (determinate) have a determined end and pretty much set and ripen all their fruit within a small window of time and then die.
Having said all that you can find good varieties that break the rules a bit. Maskotka is a semi-bush type but will pump out tomatoes for weeks and weeks throughout the whole summer before dying. And Rosada will give you much more than the 5 or 6 trusses for a vine tomato. I just let mine grow last year and gave up counting after 10 trusses. And each truss could have 20-30 toms. Really long trusses. And most ripened before I pulled them up in November. I have toms still in the freezer which I'll probably have to dump soon

tringle

Thanks for that, Ill stake them so.

j@utis

I bought a couple "Totem" variety plants in Woodies last year. Plants were short and sturdy bush type - nice! but the fruit was absolutely tasteless "woody" balls. yuk!
"German Orange Strawberry" is absolutely delicious but the plants grow too tall for my greenhouse. I lost control of them last year and my greenhouse turned into jungle.
This year I have "Moneymaker", "Montecarlo", "Delicious" and "Azoychka" (all first time) and few cherry types that I've grown from seeds picked from store bought tomatoes not sure about the later ones but they're the first to flower, so I'm hopeful!

redser7: thanks for Maskotka - goes into my notebook - I'll try them next year. I love bigger type cherry tomatoes and looking for the best one to grow here in Ireland. I can't remember which one I grew last year but they were all leaves and very little of fruit.

redser7

j@utis wrote: »

I bought a couple "Totem" variety plants in Woodies last year. Plants were short and sturdy bush type - nice! but the fruit was absolutely tasteless "woody" balls. yuk!
"German Orange Strawberry" is absolutely delicious but the plants grow too tall for my greenhouse. I lost control of them last year and my greenhouse turned into jungle.
This year I have "Moneymaker", "Montecarlo", "Delicious" and "Azoychka" (all first time) and few cherry types that I've grown from seeds picked from store bought tomatoes not sure about the later ones but they're the first to flower, so I'm hopeful!

redser7: thanks for Maskotka - goes into my notebook - I'll try them next year. I love bigger type cherry tomatoes and looking for the best one to grow here in Ireland. I can't remember which one I grew last year but they were all leaves and very little of fruit.

If you remember to ask me I'll send you some saved Maskotka seed next autumn.
As for the plants growing too tall, you can always cut off the growing tip when it reaches the roof and that will stop it. Or you could even run a string back down to the ground or horizontal along the eaves, turn the top of the plant and train it down or sideways.

Technophobe

Afraid I go a bit mad every year and sow lots of varieties and keep trying new ones too:o

This year I have (well the ones I can remember here):

Amish Paste
Black Cherry
Black Icicle
Black Russian
Chocolate Cherry
Dancing with Smurfs
Kibits
Lucky Leprechaun
Marianna's Peace
Marmande
Maskotka
Mortgage Lifter
Orange Banana
Paul Robeson
Peacevine
RAF
Roughwood
Sungold Cherry
Sweet Millions
Tumbler

j@utis

redser7 wrote: »

If you remember to ask me I'll send you some saved Maskotka seed next autumn.

Alright, making a note to a note now.

Technophobe: you're not mad - you're lucky having that much room to fit so many varieties. I can only fit 34-36 plants into my one, and it's not only tomatoes that I want to grow.

Stressica

Last year, Totem (from woodies) not too bad, good number of tomatoes.

Tumblr, very prolific, tasty fruits.

'beef steak' I couldn't find what variety they were but they were good flavoured and cropped well (had 4 plants that ripened well outside too.)

1 Gardner's Delight, best flavoured and cropped well.

1 Shirley.

12 Red Robin. prolific, tasty little fruits

1 sunbeam, cherry

This year.

8 Black Krim
8 Tigerella
Tumblr again (2 plants this time)
15 Tiny Tim
Red Pear cherry
12 Gardener's Delight
1 sweetie.

yellowlabrador

I always grow 2 hanging baskets of tumbling tom. They are very prolific ,have a long season and children love to pick and eat them. I'd love to try some rarer varieties but I haven't put the new plastic on the polytunnel yet.

tringle

Sounds great Technophobe, where do you fit them all

Technophobe

tringle wrote: »

Sounds great Technophobe, where do you fit them all

Stuff them wherever I can:eek: Fit them all in between 2 greenhouses, outside against a sheltered south facing wall, couple of mini-greenhouses, a covered canopy and a few hanging baskets...
Bear in mind, I also have over 50 Chilli and Sweet pepper to fit in too, with some cucumbers also.....It's fun trying to squeeze them all in, I can say that:)

inocybe

Last year:
Gardeners delight - did really well
Russian black - delicious, but succumbed to botrytis in late summer
Cerise - not great
Golden sunrise - huge disappointment, big tasteless yellow fruit. Not worth it (and it has an RHS merit?)

This year:
Sungold - already starting to fruit
Red Pear
Rosada
Nectar
Floridity
Gardeners delight
Russian black - self seeded, ok as it's heritage.

j@utis

inocybe wrote: »

Last year:
<...>
Sungold - already starting to fruit
<...>

:eek: when did you sow the seeds?

Supercell

My sungolds are just starting to flower and I thought it was too early!!
Cant wait for the fruit, those and rosada were last years favourites by far.

Ditto on the golden sunrise, threw out the remaining seeds I had of those after last years experience.

evolving_doors

Technophobe wrote: »

Afraid I go a bit mad every year and sow lots of varieties and keep trying new ones too:o

This year I have (well the ones I can remember here):

Amish Paste
Black Cherry
Black Icicle
Black Russian
Chocolate Cherry
Dancing with Smurfs
Kibits
Lucky Leprechaun
Marianna's Peace
Marmande
Maskotka
Mortgage Lifter
Orange Banana
Paul Robeson
Peacevine
RAF
Roughwood
Sungold Cherry
Sweet Millions
Tumbler

Wow! Where do you get the seeds?

inocybe

j@utis wrote: »

:eek: when did you sow the seeds?

Early Feb indoors. Took a gamble and planted them out early April in tunnel, Nectar have also set fruit

Technophobe

Armelodie wrote: »

Wow! Where do you get the seeds?

Various places...Some from an American site that is very reasonable, others are swaps with people that save seed....others are saved myself etc....

redser7

It's a bit late now but we could put a seed circle together next year and share the wealth.

Technophobe

redser7 wrote: »

It's a bit late now but we could put a seed circle together next year and share the wealth.

Count me in....may not be too late for a simple one this year ? Everyone save one variety ??

yellowlabrador

How would you stop crosspollination? I have found that my seeds don't always come true. I would expect that with an f1 variety, but I presume ordinary varieties should come true if kept on their own. In a polytunnel, it would be harder to keep pollination true unless you remove the flowers of the other varieties?

redser7

I guess you have to hope you don't get unlucky. Even though cross-pollination 'might' become an issue, in general it's not. Most tomatoes don't need an insect to pollinate, they just get on with it and self-pollinate. Maybe growing some single flowered plants like calendula or poached egg would attract the pollinators in and keep them off the tomato plants.

tringle

Good plan