2017 Tomato Growing

Can anyone recommend me some variety's please? I have a big heated conservatory and want to grow some small toms (bush?) for the kids/salads and some bigger vine toms for cooking. They will eventually go outside into pots.

 

Ive grown them before a few years ago, good call, thank you.

 

I like sungold, black cherry, and latah

 

I would not grow black ones for kids as they tend to be savoury/smokey in taste
I would go for sweet ones such as Sungold suggested by JWK or sweet aperatief for cherries.
By cookers do you mean paste toms if so Lots of good ones Amish paste, Roma
for bush Shirley's pixie, Red alert or Legend small tumblers are good for kids in conservatory red robin, sweet and neat.
Hope this helps alex

 

I have grown Red Alert bush tomatoes for around 30 years and they are one of my favourites, early to mature and the only outdoor tomato where some years every single tomato has ripened before the end of season.

This might show just how much I like them ...

 

I've just finalised my tomato seed list for 2017, and I'm going for far fewer varieties than previous years (only 8 rather than around 30):

OUTDOOR

Bush

Red Alert (early cropping, salad size fruits, sown in three successional batches, first for early toms started off in pots in polytunnel then put outside when conditions permit, second planted outdoors, third in pots and brought under cover when getting chilly outdoors )

Cordon

Ferline (blight resistant - sometimes - large fruits, but might be last year I bother with them because as I get more polytunnels I'd rather grow large Bulgarian toms under cover)


POLYTUNNEL

Cordon

Suncherry F1 (sweet cherry toms, tougher skins than Sungold so less susceptible to splitting, good for picking whole trusses of ripe fruits for 'tomatoes on the vine')

Floridity F1 (for village show)

Shirley F1 (rather bland, but only sufficient for the show)

'Bulgarian' (very large fruits and not multi-lobed so ideal for stuffing or slicing for use in giant sandwiches.

Giant (for heaviest tomato class)

Dan McCoy strain (World Record)

Fabrice Boudyo strain (UK Record)



That only leaves my 'Heinz' San Marzano plants, which might be some outdoors and some under cover. These will be the ones I'll dehydrate or pasteurise.

P.S. The seemingly glaringly obvious omission of Sungold is due to a desire to reduce toms with a very high sugar content, plus I was getting fed up with how quickly they lost flavour and kept splitting, both of which necessitated sometimes rapid consumption of a high sugar tomato.

 

@JWK Just noticed this from 2011:

Is it still a favourite?

 

I read about BER problems if growing in pots in saucers somewhere.

 

I'm starting off Tumbling Toms today.
They are the only seeds I have, so they will be the only ones I grow

 

That's a very swank setup you have there John!
Mine are at the mercy of an el cheapo windowsill (unheated) propagator

 

toms look a bit sorry john