Tomato Growing Thread 2022

Looks a bit like pieces of Aloe leaf.

 

Yes, stimulation in aloe juice. It's a lazy version though. Aloe leaf was supposed to be kept in the fridge for a week, for all good staff it contains to activate. I just put seeds into freshly cut leaf for 24 hours. Will transfer today into compost.

 

Aloe considered very useful from many aspects, including helping seed germination. I was inspired by an experience of the other tomato growers, but didn't go deep into science. It's year 2 I treated tomato seeds this way. Last year I had very strong plants (before I planted them out and messed up in the greenhouse). Difficult to compare to if I didn't treat seeds with aloe, as I grow just around 10 plants, and treat them all the same way. Will not use for any other seeds.

 

Tomato seed planted last Sunday.
Black Russian, Sungold, Black Opal, Ailsa Craig. Golden Sunrise, San Marazano and Montecarlo F1 from an Italian seed company some 8 years ago.

 

I have Indigo blue berries,Datio F1,Sakura,Indigo pear drops & Banana legs ..all cherry types but may add to the selection

 

Hello!

I've really fallen down the tomato seed rabbit hole since 2020. I used to be happy with three or four reliable favourites, but then I fell amongst tomato nerds on Facebook and now I have seed for over 100 varieties.

This year's sowing so far (in most cases, just one seed of each):

Bloody Butcher
Santorini
Brandywine Cherry
Tigeretta Cherry Reds
Haley's Winbox
Rosella Cherry
Maskotka
Red Robin
Pigletwillie's French Black
Sinister Minister
Dwarf Velvet Night
Cherry Roma
Zuchertraube
Jaune Flamme
Sakura F1
Lizzano F1
Blush
Grushovka
Sci-Fi (my own project)

Putting in a few more varieties in early March.

 

Planted a couple of trays a while back - mostly with seed collected from last year. There's a yellow one which I think is Sungold - tastes great and grows well. Maybe had the best blight resistance of any last year - not that it made much difference in the end: absolute catastrophe - and so sad. I'd put in infrastructure to grow them - well manured trenches, posts and wires to grow something like 40 or 50 cordon plants. Had first toms ripe by end of May - and blight showing by mid June. All around us in the fields the main crop potatoes were so blighted the farmers cut the leaves off and left the potatoes in the ground which feels like eco-vandalism to me, given that we are told to carefully remove and burn or bin every blighted leag... but whatever.

Anyway. Having last year given up tomatoes as a bad lot, I have of course planted a load more in the greenhouse. Nothing doing until I brought them in and now coming on well in a window sill. There's a smallish pink variety I've also had good success with historically, and kept the seed: they are coming on too. But they were blight central last year so...not too hopeful.

Anyway. Maybe this year we will do better on the blight front? I will be spacing my plants out around the garden in any event.

I wanted to ask: is there an issue with leggy plants? I see lots of people mention it...

 

OK - got it - thank you. I'm going to have a fair few in pots in the greenhouse this year. But having started so early, no doubt a bit leggy will be how mine grow.

 

I'm growing for two greenhouses (one is mine, one is a friend's), the South-facing front of my house, a few for family and neighbours and the remainder I'll foist off on the unsuspecting.

Who wouldn't grow a variety called Pigletwillie's? My gardening friend says it sounds like a sort of condom. I'm now struggling as to where I can fit Dancing with Smurfs into my growing plan.

EDIT. Yes, I have lights. And suspicious neighbours.

 

Hi,

Looking for a couple of new varieties to us, would welcome suggestions for a Beefsteak to grow in the greenhouse.
Never grown them before as some say they need a lot of heat/sunshine and as we have seen others locally ( north of England) they only seem to manage to get some fruits ripe by September ??

That little Bloody Butcher, already mentioned, sounds tasty, any problems with it ?

Also growing JWKs Gardener Delight and Shirley.

 

BB is a bit short of stature. It's one of those stocky, tough-as-old-boots Eastern Bloc potato leaved earlies. I grow most of my cordons as doubles, but BB (and the similar, slightly earlier Stupice) is allowed three or four stems in order to get a decent number of trusses. So if you want something to rocket up to the top of your greenhouse, you might want to look elsewhere. BB is also quite small, if you're looking for a big'un that won't do so well outside. Some of mine were bigger last year because of the number of fused flowers, which I believe is caused by lower temperatures. Some growers rate the flavour as good for an early, but quickly surpassed by the mid-season types. For me the taste was very good; we all have different tastes in tomatoes, of course.

Ripening is a challenge here up North for the big, beefy types. Most of my larger fruit were picked half ripe or green due to the blight, and ripened on a windowsill. Pictured are Moskvich, Bloody Butcher (fused fruit). Black Russian, Purple Ukraine, Orange Banana.

What sort of size (average, by weight) were you thinking of growing?