THE TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2018

Now up to 80kg of tomatoes with still plenty to pick but everything’s slowing down now. Mainly the crops been from Crimson Crush but plenty of Black Russian and black krim too. Urbikany has been very disappointing - hardly any crop worth talking about!

Interestingly, the foliage on my Crimson Crush has yellowed and they all look ready to give up but all the other toms has stayed green. Also, the grafted Crimson Cherry plants still have lush foliage......still, I think I’ve had my money’s worth from both of the CCs. And no sign of blight at all this year thankfully

 

The new jumbo.


Here it was moments before.

 

I'm trying to get my paws on some Manx Marvel seeds. I've got various outdoor & glasshouse rarities to swap (non-bagged pollinated tho). Please get in touch if you can help me out....

 

Thinking of growing "Tumbling Tom" next season alongside 'Ailsa Craig' (my usual var.)
Has anyone grown this variety and can give me some details on its husbandry..Thanks in advance C...

 

I grew both Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow in a greenhouse this year. Both were pretty good but the yellow one had a slightly better flavour IMO. Easy to grow, no training or stopping of shoots. As the name suggests, they just grew and tumbled up and over the pots. They take up quite a lot of ground space so may not have been the best choice in a small greenhouse.

 

Question for everyone on this thread: if you could grow only one variety next year, that you grew this year, which one would it be and why?

 

I've tried a few over the years @Redwing but I'm settled with Ailsa Craig but as above I want to try TT purely and simply that you can let it go a little with no ss removal...I would even grow them in Hanging baskets in the greenhouse.

 

For me it would have to be Crimson Crush because of the blight resistance.

 

I would grow Juane Flamme

 

I've grown Tumbling Toms in hanging baskets in the greenhouse (unless you get a summer like this 1 not a lot of point trying to grow tomatoes outside in Scotland IMO)
They were slightly slower to ripen than my Garden Pearl (also grown in hanging baskets in the greenhouse) but the flavour is probably better. None of my tomatoes liked the extreme heat and stopped really doing much for a while but all got going again once the temperatures got back to normal. Tumbling Toms are quite sharp tasting (not nearly as sweet as Sungold) but good for baskets or big pots. No pinching out necessary. They grew down over the basket almost nearly 3 ft and fruited heavily. I fed mine on Chempak tom feed as I do all my toms. I tend to feed every watering once the 1st trusses are set.

Has to be Sungold for me like many others @Redwing . Gorgeous flavour, really sweet and huge crop, still going strong and have produced nearly as much as @JWK. I have 15 plants this year and even we can't cope with the huge crop so much as it goes against the grain I have used a fair few in sauces and the taste is lovely. 1 big draw back which has been even worse this year than normal is skins splitting. It is not due to irregular watering as mine I grow in soil and it never gets dried out. I can only presume it was something to do with the massively high temperatures we had. Annoying and affects their storage life but despite this I will definitely be growing them again next season.

 

Sungold always split no matter how you grow them

 

This afternoon I removed all my outdoor tomatoes and 90% of my polytunnel tomatoes and said goodbye to all of my tomato plants.

So much for the forecast 'Indian Summer'. I used to worry about the first frost around October half term holiday time when we'd be away, but 3 deg C on 24th September followed by 2 deg C on Tuesday morning means I've lost a month of growing.

 

Abandoned all my tomatoes and moved to the other side of the country

 

Think it's about 4 deg C warmer where you are now. Even tomatoes in Dorset might get frosted in the next couple of days, I'll be down that way on Wednesday when it gets a bit warmer.

If my outdoor Crimson Crush plants get knocked down by frost, I'll never know how blight resistant they are (were).

 

No blight in Dorset when I left, your crimson crush were really sweet