Grow Your Own Magazine

This year I will be carrying out taste trials on tomatoes. I intend to grow a large number of varieties. How I will fit them all in an 8x10 green house I will never know? My neighbour and his father, who also have greenhouses, will be joining in the trials. Between the three of us we may have enough space.
Next spring we will be sowing :

Ailsa Craig.
Alicante.
Black Prince.
Flavorino.
Gardener’s Delight.
Golden Cherry.
Golden Sunrise.
Livingston’s White Queen
Marglobe.
Marmande.
Moneymaker.
Millionaire.
Piccolo cherry.
Pink Brandywine.
Purple Calabash.
Red Cherry.
Spear’s Tennessee Green.
Sweet Blush.
Tigerella.
Tumbling Ton, Red.
White Wonder.
Yellow Plumb.

The number of seeds that came my way just grew. I had intended to do it with six varieties on my own. Some of these tomatoes I had never heard of before this year. I will be keeping records of my progress for future reference.
Jax

This year i will be growing:

Latah - an extra early variety...usually ready when the rest are just forming fruit

Alicante - my main tom crop

Big Zac - grown for very large toms (one per truss, heaviest so far 4lb 3oz)

Bambi - produces zillions of cherry toms
How do people grow their tomato plants? Would you like an explanation of different methods I have tried?

__________________
Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

This year 2005 I grew

Ferline
First In The Field
Brandywine
Inca

Next year 2006 I will be growing

Ferline
Fantascio
Gartenperle
Mortgage Lifter
San Marzano
Riesentraube

I always start my tomato seeds with one seed in a 4 inch pot in the greenhouse. But the tomato plants are grown outdoors.

__________________
[

On my small garden plot I will be growing:

Idli
Black Russian
Green Grape
Ferline

And will more than likely be doing...

St Pierre
Golden Sunrise
Gardenperle

And knowing me I will pick up some more seed from somewhere else.

Andrewo
PS Envious of 8 x 10 greenhouse...all mine will be in the open.

Have been trying to buy some seeds of Golden Cherry but can't find who stocks them. Grew them previously and found them really sweet, but can't remember where I got them from - can you help? Please!

Sug - hi and welcome!
2 stockists ....Edwin Tucker 01364 652233 TOM34....16 seeds for £1.90
Marshalls 01480 44 33 90 1020-2727 15 seeds for £2.25

We are growing these in the greenhouse again this year. Very impressed with them last year.

I'll be growing these ones:
Gardeners Delight
St. Pierre
White tomesol
Plum Fryer
Gigant Limon
Purple Calabash
Ararat Flamed
Pink Brandywine
Tigerella
Red Oxheart
Caspian Pink

plus three others I havent sown yet, namely Alaskan fancy, variegated and another the name of which I have forgotten.

__________________
http://www.downsizer.net

http://cabd.livejournal.com

Sunday on Gardeners Question Time they mentioned "Mirabelle"? tomatoes but I didn't hear all of it. Did anyone else please?

I'm impressed with all you Tomato buffs! I'm quite boring, I'm only growing

Gardeners Delight
White beauty (new one for me this year)
and Cedrico also new to me.

I have grown Garden perle before in a hanging basket with basil & Tagetes, they cropped like mad and were OK but I'm boring when it come to toms

Patsy - you can get back dates of radio programs repeated on the internet! have a fiddle with BBC site. If you have problems finding it, let me know and I will run you through it! this is of course only helpful if you have speakers attatched to your pc!

Thanks Nicos
Will be ordering Golden Cherry tomorrow.
Sug

Whilst were on the subject of toms, A friend of mine always grew Craigella (cross between Ailsa Craig & Tigrella I think). Has anyone seen them in the seed cataloguse as they seem to have disappeared, he's a bit stumped now as he liked them.

Cheers ntg

Jaxom,

What do you do with all your tomatoes? There's only so many salads and cheese & tom sarnies I could eat

I only intended to grow a few but the seeds seemed to keep coming my way.
I'm going to sow three or four seeds but only grow on one of most types. The spare plants I will be given away to a few people who want to join in the taste testing.
What Tomatoes I can't eat or give away I will put on the compost heap for the following year. I was also thinking about trying to grow a lot out of doors to see which does best.

Jaxom if you only keep one plant per variety that will be 22 plants. I normally grow about 40 so you will not be snowed under with tomatoes.

__________________
[

Lesley,

I think you may qualify for an EU subsidy!!! 40 plants!!! I grow 12 and always have loads to spare.

__________________
Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

Phew! That’s a relief. I had visions of a tomato mountain and starting to think that I had bitten off more than I could deal with.
Jax

I only grow 4 plants and are sick of them by November

Thanks Nicos. Found it eventually. It evidently is a marble-size yellow tomato which fruits prolifically with about 80! to a truss and fruits continually. It was a Pippa Greenwood "Plant of the day". Thanks again

I love tomatoes!! I also really enjoy growing them. I bag some up for the freezer so that I can make fresh tomato soup through the winter. No need to skin them just chuck them in the freezer and cook from frozen. Don't forget they don't all ripen at the same time.

Jaxom with the Pink Brandywine tomatoes grow more than one plant. You don't get many tomatoes per plant although they are huge. They are lovely fried.

__________________
[

As I have so many types of tomarto seed... If anyone sees a type they would like to try PM me.
Some types I have 20 seeds of for this year but next year I should have more if I save seed form my produce.
Some seed packets have more in than most, so this year I could still share with others.
Jax

Hi Jax,

Sorry I've spent all day at the university my daughter wants to go to, still in student mode

You may have trouble saving your own seed if you've got more than one variety together as the bees etc will cross pollinate won't they. I dig out the Sue Strickland book and check for you.

ntg

Thanks NTG, that would be wonderful!
Jax

This is for all the people looking for a 'new' way to grow toms. If nothing else it will provide a talking point.

We've been growing our tomatoes upside-down for the past three years and really have fun growing them this way! We also grow tomatoes in the ground, and, by comparison, the ones in the upside-down buckets seem to have a little better yield than the same varieties grown in the ground. I attribute it to the fact that the branches have less stress while growing, and have better air circulation. Of course, you have to grow smaller varieties or ones that are suited for container growing, or the yields will be less.
You can grow tomatoes in any large container that has a sturdy hanging system, but we've found the safest is to use five-gallon paint buckets that have a handle. Planting them in the buckets is much easier and safer for the plants when you have one or two other people helping you.

Start out by drilling a hole in the bottom of the bucket. Usually, there is already a circular indentation, which is approx. 2 ½" in diameter. If there isn't, drill the hole between 2 and 3 inches in diameter.
Set the bucket, right side up, on a structure such as two wooden horses, so that the bottom hole is exposed. Put whatever material you choose to use to secure the seedling, in the bottom, then take the seedling and gently thread the leaves and stems down through the hole so that it hangs out of the bottom of the bucket. Hold the plant up till no more than 2 inches of the stem is protruding out from the bottom.
While holding the plant in one hand, pack the material around the stem so that the plant is anchored and will not slip through the hole. There are several things that can be used to keep the seedling from 'slipping out' of the hole untill the root system has developed and it can hold it's own. You can use sphagnum moss, newspaper, coffee filters, etc.
Keep holding the plant in place, and add the soil into the bucket, making sure it's distributed evenly up to the root ball. Gently let go of the plant, letting it rest on the dirt, and add soil till the root ball is about 2 inches below the soil line. Add about 2 cups of compost, then fill the bucket with soil up to about an inch from the top.
Carry the bucket to the structure you are going to hang it from, being very careful to keep the tomato plant from hitting the ground as you walk. Hang the bucket by the handle, then water thoroughly. Water should start running out of the bottom hole within a few minutes.

Check the soil level of each bucket to be sure the soil didn't settle to more than 2 inches from the top, adding more if it has. Water and add fertilizer, when needed, directly in the top of the bucket. You can also grow "living mulch" like parsley or other herbs, in the top portion of the dirt, but be sure you water the bucket sufficiently so that the water gets to the tomato plant's' roots. Some herbs, such as oregano or marjoram, become too thick to allow the water to penetrate quick enough into the soil.
Keeping a lid set on, but not tightly sealed, the tops of the buckets will help prevent moisture loss, but can be a problem since they have to be moved every time you water. Depending on what type of watering system you come up with, will depend on whether or not the lids are used. We've always set the lids on top of the structure, above the buckets (approx. a foot above the rim), and watered the buckets with a hose. The lids don't help much with the moisture retention, but it does help deflect rain in the extremely rainy season.
How much to water the buckets will depend on your climate.

One interesting thing that will happen when you grow your tomato plants this way is that they will grow upwards towards the sun until the plants get bigger and bushier and start producing fruit. You have to check them daily to be sure that the stem is growing out from under the bottom, not into it.
Every few weeks, check the soil level to be sure there has not been too much loss. Add soil or compost each time the level lowers.

Have fun!!

__________________
Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure