Tomatoes for 2021

Having had a poor year with toms caused mainly by the cursed whitefly, at least indoors but even some outside! Also this year best results were outside and Bush (first go after 50 years of cordon)
I need to consider best varieties for next year under three headings:-
1. Bush outdoor
2. Cordon outdoor
3. Large beefsteak outdoor
Yes you've got the idea, my greenhouse to be filled with anything (probably my salvias!) other than tomatoes! I would be very grateful for your advice. I live in the Midlands- shropshire, and lot of shelter. Soil is clayey but usually well drained and pots etc filled with compost anyway.
Thanks in anticipation!

 

1) Outdoor bush:

A) Red Alert is early cropping and sometimes every single tomato has ripened before the season is over.

B) Tumbler, a small 'container' bush that I put in window boxes, tubs, pots, etc. wherever there's some spare space.

I now longer bother with cordons outdoors as I grow them in polytunnels, and they continue to crop after the early bush toms slow down/finish.

Never had any success with beefsteaks outdoors as they took so long to produce anything, something else I now only grow in tunnels.

 

I used to grow Marmande outside with reasonable results, but they are a fairly misshapen type of tomato.
Red Alert has been good for me, but dont expect a large crop.

Got an unknown one I grew from a seed out of a morrisons tom, its a cherry type but it was loa ded with fruit outside this summer, and the taste was really good.

I've taken a couple of cuttings, the hope is to overwinter them and then take some more cuttings next spring to grow on.

 

This year i grew sweet million cherry cordon outside, it's very tolerable to tomato blight, beefsteak ones take too long to ripen outside here.

 

Grew outdoors in Morrisons 10ltr pots during the wettest greyest season ive ever seen here.

Red tumbling tom was poor then killed by early blight.

Terenzo tumbling grew next to them, blight attacked but surprisingly they fought it off producing plenty sweet tomatos.
Deffinately growing them again.

Outdoor Glacier grew well until the weather and blight knackered them.
Will grow again as they are usually great.

Growing more sweet peppers next season in new to me greenhouse, Palermo.

 

Thanks very much for your contributions! I'm a curious tomato grower as I cannot stand the smell or taste of the fruit! I cook with them so there must be something in the fresh fuit- its genetic I think as one of my grandaughters has the same problem.
Back to varieties! It does look like I won't be able to do without some form of protection. This year I useda heated conservatory, cold greenhouse and one of these metal framed plastic upright cloche things (now called the tomato house) but as I've said the dreaded laughing fly got in all of them. Obviously told the gardener that she'd have to improve cleanliness!! Seriously the biological control should have worked three years ago but even spraying has little effect now. I can control Blight at least but I just hoped to find varieties which would stand up to the whitefly.
Otherwise I will be buying varieties which feature in this thread. Thanks again!

 

Must admit I've not seen white fly for over 10years now, not sure why they went away.
I think they over winter on certain kinds of plants.
Do you have any over wintering plants in your greenhouse.

I'm not sure there is a white fly resistant variety of tomato.
Have you tried shaking the plants and then sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner.

 

Not sure the plants would fit in the hose?

I remember maybe 10 years ago, I had lots of whitefly on my sprouts. If I shook the plants, literally clouds of them flew up. This year, I did have some whitefly, but not much. I’d have thought that as long as there isn’t a heavy infestation, tomatoes should be able to tolerate it?

 

Yes we've used the vacuum method for a long time along with insecticide (can't remember name just now - another of my problems!) Using chemicals are not something I do regularly but I've been desperate.
Got some ideas from you already, the sweet million I've enjoyed and Terenzo sounds interesting. Great discovery via the Morison one and collecting seed!
I don't think I'll find one that's immune to whitefly but perhaps a variety thats get cross with disease!!
I've never had any success with the beefsteak ones but for that reason want to succeed!

 

Btw some have success when planting marigolds amongst the toms especially in greenhouses. Tried it myself and never really had fly problems. Lucky or maybe those marigolds work ?

 

Tried Marigolds, of various varieties, over the years with little effect, both in their own pots and in same compost with tomatoes. Last year my marigolds were infested with whitefly!!!
Perhaps I should give the biological control another go but of course the conservatory is now also infected with the insecticide which would kill the wasps! Must find out how long insecticide remains infective inside building! When I was young this gardening was so much simpler!!

 

Personally and (professionally in the past) I have never found Marigolds or any Tagetes to have any effect on Whitefly control,. The only pest I have had is leaf hopper but they don't really do much damage.

 

When I first had whitefly I virtually ignored them - MISTAKE! - After a couple of years I had to use the vacuum cleaner! Small plants, not toms, could be washed off under a tap. The growing top bud can be removed, like you'd do with black fly on autumn planted Broad beans - good old aquadulce claudia! Thats why I'd like to find a tomato thats very good at fighting disease. I certainly can't nip out the apical bud early in its life. I'm going to try washing the whitefly away with something other than insecticide.
ANY IDEAS?.
There are some Bug Killers which are not 'dangerous to plants'. Have you ever tried any of them?

 

My thoughts for 2021 now been subverted by revelations (for me) on the taste test 2020. This is regarding the purity, essentially, of seed. Again, essentially, Gardeners Delight, for example, is no longer the same as it was a few years ago (presumably because seed has been extracted from hybrid fruit) to the extent, it seems, that the RHS have withdrawn its AGM from Gardeners Delight!
This is earth shattering to me ( cos I'd never considered it!) Thus all varieties of anything we grow from seed could be affected! At least when I grow plants from cuttings they are identical ( subject to mutations I suppose?) I used to strike tomato side shoots and grow them on, it must be said more from money saving/ease of growing than from keeping the breed pure!!
So I'll ask here what I've asked elsewhere, which seedsman/seedsperson should I buy?
I read a very interesting response regarding the cleaning up and packaging of commercially grown/prepared seeds from both this country and abroad which raised doubt regarding continuing purity.

 

I have stopped growing chilli and sweet peppers as i always get white fly infestations , peppers seem to be a magnet for them , i do not get the problem when i only have toms and cuc's in greenhouse. As mentioned in the other post i could not get rid of white fly by organic methods, seaweed or garlic based sprays on peppers, however it seems to work on tomatoes, i also have loads of little spiders which seem to deter them in the greenhouse and i have used ladybirds for greenfly (available from green gardener) in the past but are expensive and i find as previously posted growing onions and garlic among the tomatoes along with garlic sprays seems to do the job.
Rgds Sandy