Grow Your Own Magazine

How many tomato varieties do you grow?

I'm planning my greenhouse planting, and Mr OWG said I have too many kinds of tomato!

I fancy some little cherry ones for salads, some plum ones for making sauce with and a couple of kinds of beef tomato for sandwiches/other cooking/stuffing.

I think that's fine. We have a big greenhouse, and last year it had 30 Gardeners Delight plants in, so we've got the room.

How many is too many??

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"Its not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you" - Bruce Wayne

Sounds fine to me, I've only got quite a small greenhouse but still grow tumbling cherry ones in hanging baskets and split the cordon ones between plum and ordinary salad ones. Last year did a bit of swapping of plants with a friend and had 5 cordon plants, all different types plus some bush ones in the garden. I find it extends the fruiting season and if you have a problem with one type at least you have others that are hopefully OK. Can get a bit expensive if you have to buy loads of different types of seed but maybe you could set up a swap of either seeds or small plants.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

You can never have too many type of tomato

Well thats what i think anyway, Mr Pye is not convinced but I never tell him how many types I'm planting I just hope he doesn't notice the difference between types while we harvest

Seriously though this year i am growing:

a white
2 yellow
1 red cherry
1 brown cherry
4 types of hanging basket bushes
2 med red
3 plum
2 beefsteak
1 brown beefsteak
and finally a couple of werid and wonderfuls I've not tried yet but couldn't resist inthe cataglog

Actually looking at it all written down it probably is too many but what can i say I like variety!!

Having had plots north of Peterborough where tomatoes outdoors would have been a gamble, I went mad last year and tried several varieties of tomatoes both indoors and outside. One year wiser I realise I use three types: paste tomatoes for passata; a few beloved heritage tomatoes for taste; and cherries for that 'bomb' of flavour as you potter round the plot.

I was helped by a boxful of 12 'mystery' tomatoes which had lost their labels at the Whispering Trees nursery near Downham Market. For a fiver, I got to try (and then identify!) the ones we liked best.

These are the ones this year.

Tomato Ace 55 - freebie from Roguelands. I may offer this as a swap unless someone tells me why it might be good to grow?
Tomato Astro F1 - dwarf San Marzano for passata from Franchi
Tomato Big Beef - trial, seed swap
Tomato Black Cherry - beautiful dark red cherry tomato, prolific and packed with flavour, ideal for pickling green
Tomato Black Seaman - trial, seed swap
Tomato Cream Sausage/Banana - mystery tom, delicious and mild
Tomato Dr Wyche's Yellow - huge yellow beefsteak grown by my ma in her Northumbrian greenhouse
Tomato Halladay's Mortgage Lifter - all round salad tom
Tomato La Roma - bush Roma for passata
Tomato Orange Banana - mystery tom, delicious and mild
Tomato San Marzano Nano - dwarf San Marzano for passata from www.seedsofitaly.co.uk
Tomato Sungold F1 - only 3 seeds left, highly recommended by cyberchums
Tomato White Beauty - huge and peachy, mild and sweet

That's a lot fewer varieties than last year. I grew far too many crammed together in the greenhouse. Outdoor ones fared better and had loads more flavour, so I will only grow a couple of tomatoes in the greenhouse this year and have space for aubergines and chillis.

I do love these questions, fascinating to see what everyone chooses, and why!

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SSx
not every situation requires a big onion

I've just ordered some more seeds off ebay, but am still looking for more.

Wondered about a recommendation for a good (preferably outdoor) cherry type. (Not Gardeners Delight - which we already grow )

Has anyone tried Reisentraube?

As for swaps - good idea I'm only after a few more but might start a thread on the 'seed swops' thread.

OWG - wow! I've got greenhouse envy!

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Hmmm, I love the greenhouse, but its a huge wooden frame one on its last legs. It's slowly rotting, and Mr OWG has had to "fill" lots of wood with various types of filler etc.

It's fantastic for size etc, and houses a huge Black Hamburgh vine which gave us 15lbs of grapes this year.

I just wish we had the money to have it restored properly

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"Its not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you" - Bruce Wayne

I grew far too many plants last year of a number of different varieties and sadly just couldn't keep up with them.
So I am really going to be strict with myself this year and just grow a handful - well a handful of tumblers, a handful of plums ......... Seriously I think I did lose alot last year as they were too crammed in, so am really going to try differently this year (please remind me in May!)

Oh hell, I'm sooo guilty of doing this too. Last year I sowed 6 trays of toms - albeit with the idea of selling a few at the local village fete - and even giving some away I was still awash with tomatoes.

I grew Maya (fat red plum), Lescana (best tasting beefsteak EVER), Snow white (sweet yellow/white cherry), Golden Roma (yellow plum, excellent for passata), Pink Brandywine (giant beefsteak), Wapsipinicon Peach (round white slightly fuzzy salad tom) and Sub Arctic Plenty (early cherry).

This year, I'll be repeating Maya, Lescana (oh that soup...) and Sub Arctic Plenty. And I'm limiting myself to another 3 - although haven't decided which ones yet!

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Kris

I child-proofed my house, but they still manage to get in.

Muddy Musings - a blog

I set a packet of Marmand last year the seeds were free on a gardening magazine that had been tucked in my seed box years (dated BBF 2003!) they grew all long and leggy set in garden against pig wire watered twice and I had tomatoes coming out of my ears I picked 20lb one day from 25ish plants and all good size some the size of a tennis balls so you can guess what Im growing this year

I've given up growing tomatoes outside (I think, unless I end up with too many plants to fit into my little greenhouse) they always get blight at some stage, usually when they're looking really promising. As I said, I have a little greenhouse so I'm going to be really strict with myself this year (last year was like Day of the Triffids). Beefsteak toms (Mammoth) were really tasty, made wonderful sauce but very knobbly, so no good for salads. Gardeners Delight did well, but not many made it to the kitchen (one for me, one for the bowl syndrome), Golden grapes (smallish yellow plum-shaped) delicious flavour, cropped well. Gartenpearl were recommended by many people, but never did well for me. This year I'm trying black cherry just cos it's different - NO, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY TOMATOES!!! Just don't overcrowd them - I need a bigger greenhouse.

ugly gourd, you say you grew marmande, can you please tell me what they tasted like as I am planning to grow these outside this year but have been told they are quite bland yet the seed packet says they have a distnctive flavor?

My first try of growing tomatoes was last summer when I did Shirley and Moneymaker (to see if OH could tell the difference). I am allergic to tomatoes and can't eat them so I won't grow many. Love the smell of the plants though, they remind me of my childhood. This year I plan a couple of mini tomatoes (Robin F1) since they are fun for the children to grow (and I keep hoping they will get a taste for tomatoes). Also doing Golden Sunrise as the idea of yellow tomatoes appeals, Brandywine as I read they are delicious - will have to ask OH's opinion! and Sophie's Choice since they are supposedly quick maturing. As I don't eat them and OH won't grow them it will be an interesting experiment!!

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Shirl try 'garden pearl' (aka garten perle) very good 'tumbling' type for pots and hanging baskets - very prolific, good taste small pinkish toms.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

I only cooked them didnt have them raw as I grew britains breakfast for salads but cooked they were lovely I used them to make tomato and onion chutney and they were great for that aswell

Last year i grew Moneymaker from seed, 6 plants, gardeners delight, 1 plant that we got from a plant sale and 1 Shirley that OH got from a garden centre cos its was on its own and looking lonely. They grew in buckets in the garden and cropped prolifically, we harvested the last ones in November, but they kept well in the fridge for weeks afterwards.

This year I am trying:
Black Cherry
Tumbler
Beefsteak 'Supersteak' F1
Gardeners Delight.

What is a good plum type for sauce and soup? I am torn between Roma or San Marzano, would I do ok with either of these?
Planning on getting some Alicante seeds for medium sized toms.

Kirsty

San Marzano is a fine plum tomato but my single experience of growing it outdoors two summers ago suggests that it needs a long hot summer to crop well outdoors.

Like Superdoupersprout I use three types: paste tomatoes for passata; a few for taste and general use; and cherries to eat like sweeties.

This year I am growing the following.

GOLD STANDARD VARIETIES
These are varieties to which I trail all others against.

Tropical Ruby - a fabulous cherry plum variety, prolific and very tasty.
Sungold F1 - great taste and prolific, can split if left on the vine too long.
Gardeners Delight - very prolific, slightly bigger than cherry size with a good
Shirley - prolific easy to grow fruit with a good reliable flavour
Roma meaty passata tomato, ideal for drying or pulp
San Marzano - again a passata tomato, better grown outside for me.
Marmande - The sandwich tomato, big, juicy and oozing sunshine

TRIAL VARIETIES

Berry - a new berry shaped chery tomato
Temptation - a general use variety
Tumbling Tom - a hanging type cherry
Big boy - a large slicing tomato

Hopefully I will get enough dried and pulped for the winter as I generally have about 80 plants in the tunnel, some in the greenhouse at home and about 40 outside.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Goodness me PW - you obviously love tomatoes!!!

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Its amazing Shirl how many you get through if you process them. I make pasta sauce, passata, tomato relish, tomato soup, meat sauces such as bolognese, sundried tomatoes and then there are the ones you eat fresh. Suprisingly if I get to bottle and can everything that I want to this year, there wont be many spare, even though over a 140 plants sounds alot.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs