Wild tomatoes and blight

[veggiechicken]

Sweet Pea Currant may also be a pimpinella from what I've read.

There is another plan going on in the background - its not all about foraging for tiny toms. If I can grow some "wild" tomatoes that are blight and cold tolerant, my aim will be to establish a permanent tomato bed that self seeds and needs little maintenance.

[MarkPelican]

Sweet Pea Currant may also be a pimpinella from what I've read.

There is another plan going on in the background - its not all about foraging for tiny toms. If I can grow some "wild" tomatoes that are blight and cold tolerant, my aim will be to establish a permanent tomato bed that self seeds and needs little maintenance.

When I looked at Pimpinella, it doesn't look like the same thing, probably just a common name.

Interesting thought to have a self perpetuating tomato bed. Tomatofest have a "cool climate collection" but their definition of cool seems to be UK unheated greenhouse

[veggiechicken]

Its Pimpinellifolium but that's too long to type every time - so I call it Pimp.

[Scarlet]

I’ve grown various pea sized tomatoes and try to avoid them now, picking takes too long and they always seem to split as they’re taken off the vine.

I've never had problems with splitting but it's just like picking currants such a pain in the backside and you're there for hours! Much easier to pick 3 large ones and job done

That said I've grown them often just because they are a little different and I like the novelty.

[Scarlet]

I looked for this earlier.....a photo to show how small they are!



Chiapas Wild Tomato

[veggiechicken]

They're lovely - and dwti.
Could you pick a bunch/sprig (like grapes) and eat them like that?

[Scarlet]

As much as I can remember, the fruit trusses were big, so you would have to cut them to do that and then it's easier to just grab a handful as not all are ripe at the same time.
One of my boys always pops up the garden with the dog several times a day when things are growing - an excuse to forage without a long walk - he eats those and raspberries.

[veggiechicken]

I think my dogs will be foraging too - they always pick their own tomatoes - and raspberries.
Can I have some Broad Ripple Yellow Currant from the VSP please? I'll hop over there and make a formal request!!

[Scarlet]

Don't worry. I'l, go and dig them out.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

I grew some "Gold Rush Currant" last year that I was rather impressed with, think it was Mark who awarded them to the seed swop,

Nope! I'll stand corrected, it was Vixylix a few years back having just found the seed packet!

Seem to remember Mark asking if someone had spare seed which is why his name is sat giving me an earwig!

[Scarlet]

I'll have a look for them....but I remember MarkP May have grown some on and they had crossed I think....

[B Porcupine]

A bit late to the party but...there are a few geneics papers online that discuss looking into Solanum pimpinellifolium as it is resistent to late blight. I think there is some interest in using it in tomato breeding programs and maybe some GM companies want to see what gives it this resistence so they can "plug" it into their latest GM thing.

I saw some Pimps at a garden somewhere (sorry, cannot recall which) and they were tasty but very tiny, on messy/ freeform plants. Definitely a gardem foraging crop!

Let us know how you get on if you do grow them.

[hamamelis]

The blight that's the big problem here is late blight- it's totally unrelated to early blight. Early blight is a fungus, and it's unlikely to kill plants, it's really a minor nuisance that might give you a lower yield if your tomatoes get it.

Late blight is not a fungus (it's an oomycete, or 'water mould' if anyone cares), and will wipe out your tomatoes if they get it.

There's currently no really reliably resistant tomatoes to late blight- there are multiple different strains of late blight, and some tomatoes are resistant to some blight strains. That's why you might get one that's 'blight resistant' that's great one year, when all your neighbour's tomatoes got dedded, so you think you cracked it, but then the next year it seems to have no resistance at all and keels over- different blight strain.

Been doing an assignment about it at Uni...

[Demeter101]

Crimson Crush

I have an allotment and late blight is a real problem here. I prefer the taste of outdoor tomatoes so was pleased to be involved in a trial a few years ago for a blight free tomato from Dobies.

It was the only tomatoes I harvested that year. Decent size and wonderful flavour.
If blight strikes, these tomatoes just weather it and recover.

[MarkPelican]

I'll have a look for them....but I remember MarkP May have grown some on and they had crossed I think....

That's right, I grew them out in 2017 and they were red, not orange/yellow.