Early and late tom varieties?

**veggiechicken** · 15-09-2016, 09:22 AM

Can you stagger your sowings of the same variety? That's what I do with the cherry toms.

**Guest** · 15-09-2016, 09:26 AM

^^^How long do you stagger them by? I have only ever fussed with early and a later sowing to usually have them crop about the same time

**Elfeda** · 15-09-2016, 09:43 AM

As late as June! Despite pulling off all self sown Tom's.. Few in the end missed and now started fruit

**maverick451** · 15-09-2016, 10:00 AM

For early cherries I sow mid/late feb
For late cherries mid/late April

**Scarlet** · 15-09-2016, 12:38 PM

As a general rule of thumb though cordon/vine tomatoes will carry on fruiting until the first frost if looked after well. My black cherry plants, gardeners delight etc are still fruiting well as are aranyalma..these were all sown in the first week of March. It's usually bush tomatoes that stop producing fruit.

My Pantano tomato, black icicle and also the red buffalo still have fruit ripening.

**maverick451** · 15-09-2016, 01:53 PM

Just to add another way is to sow early in feb and then for the later crop take off the sideshoots and root them.

Ive found that if you leave the sideshoots untill they are largish (about 18- 24") they root so much more quicker than little 6" shoots

**MarkPelican** · 15-09-2016, 02:55 PM

The earliest Beefsteak I have grown (last year) was Azoychka (a yellow one) which started W/C 9th August.

The latest Cherry was Brown Berry which started in early August but was still giving reasonable numbers in mid October.

As Maverick says, one way I've extended the cropping season, rather than successional sowings is to take armpits and grow them as well.

Another way is to grow extra leaders from one plant. The secondary (and tertiary) stems seem to set trusses slightly later.

**Thelma Sanders** · 15-09-2016, 03:07 PM

From a late Jan sowing, I grow Garden Pearl in a big pot for early cherries, and once the cordon Black cherries start, I prune the GPs back and get another crop, just starting now.
The BC will carry on til Nov in a mild autumn as Scarlet says; when it reaches the eaves, I turn the stem and train it along a wire towards the other end of the greenhouse, and they carry on fruiting as they grow.

**Penellype** · 16-09-2016, 08:56 AM

I think you will struggle to find an early beefsteak variety unless you have a very warm spring. The tomatoes are so big that it simply takes longer for them to grow and ripen.

Cordon tomatoes should keep cropping until killed by the cold or disease. I was still harvesting the odd greenhouse tomato in December last year (admittedly a hugely warm December). I usually leave some growing points with flowers or buds on, letting them decide when to die back rather than nipping them off as is recommended. Often these are on sideshoots rather than the main stem.

One thing I discovered by accident this year is that early sown Balconi bush tomatoes will produce a 2nd crop. I sowed these in February and grew them on the spare room windowsill in 3 litre pots. These produced ripe fruit for about a month from late May to late June, by which time they had very few green fruit left, but some new flowers. I potted them up into 30cm square self watering balconniere pots and put them outside. By this time they were big enough to need some support. They have produced a 2nd crop of fruit and are still producing ripe fruit now - I've had about a punnet full per plant from this 2nd crop.

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