Tomato Growing Thread 2022

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by JWK, Jan 1, 2022.

  1. eatenbyweasels

    eatenbyweasels Messy Gardener

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    That's a good price. I managed to talk myself out of getting one. Three is enough for what I need. Although... shiny!
     
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      Last edited: Feb 27, 2022
    • JWK

      JWK Gardener Staff Member

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      Gardeners delight was bred and maintained in Germany so that might be its original name.

      I'll pm you about the swap.
       
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      • eatenbyweasels

        eatenbyweasels Messy Gardener

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        I heard something like that, too. I think it may go under "Gartenfreude" in Germany, but that Zuchertraube may be a related strain. I love the nerdy stuff.
         
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        • JWK

          JWK Gardener Staff Member

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          That rings a bell, I tracked down the breeder in 2018 but they really weren't interested in communicating to the likes of me, an amateur gardener. They still make money from it just because of its name but have lost interest in maintaining it.
           
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          • sandymac

            sandymac Super Gardener

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            Sown my first tom seeds 1st March, used to allways sow in January but found sowing now they soon catch up.
             
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            • JimmyB

              JimmyB Gardener

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              @JWK If that's an open offer, I've read a lot about this 2005 seed bank you've created and I would love to try them? Something I was wondering about is whether tomatoes cross hybridise easily if we grow different varities next to each other? By far my best variety is I think Sungold, where I am now in year 3 or 4 of collecting my own seed. They aren't bad with blight - took much longer to take hold last year than others; taste pretty darned good; are more tolerant of my somewhat dodgy watering than others; and they germinate and grow more easily than any other variety I grow.

              But are they still the same as the ones I bought a few years back???
               
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              • JimmyB

                JimmyB Gardener

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                I've been wondering about that...
                 
              • JWK

                JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                Tomatoes will cross with each other, the only safe way to collect seed is to exclude insects with a bag, I use fleece cut into shape and tied onto the truss before the flowers open, there mustn't be any holes in the bag. Give the bag a shake every morning or more often to transfer pollen and ensure the flowers self-fertilize. You take the bag off once you see fruit forming. Label the fruit you want to keep.

                You can only do this with open pollinated plants, anything that is labelled 'F1' is seed produced from two distinct parent lines. If you save seed from an F1 you will get a random selection of the parent's characteristics, good and bad. You won't end up with the same thing as a Sungold F1 bought from a breeder.

                Incidentally breeders can not use the fleece bag method to get F1 seed, they have to cut off the male parts of one parent's flowers prior to pollen forming, then cross fertilise from the other parent. This is obviously labour intensive and why F1 seed is much more expensive. That was a brief summary of the sex life of tomatoes :)
                 
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                  Last edited: Mar 2, 2022
                • Alisa

                  Alisa Super Gardener

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                  All sown on 21.02. showed up. Plus I put seeds from tasty shop bought tomato.
                  20220302_200939.jpg
                   
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                  • pete

                    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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                    I've recently gone over from Morrisons to Tesco for grocery deliveries.
                    They sent me some organic cherry toms as a substitute.
                    They went on the compost heap, absolutely disgusting, must be the worst toms I have ever tasted.
                     
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                    • JWK

                      JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                      I've cracked, sown a few Sungold today for an early crop. I'm going to wait a couple more weeks to the main sowing.
                       
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                      • pete

                        pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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                        I sowed a couple of the Tomande a couple of days ago.
                         
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                        • joolz68

                          joolz68 Total Gardener

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                          Ive sown mine today(Only cherry types) but i will have new 10ft potting shed hopefully delivered and erected after next week which really will help :yes:
                          Last yr i was having to drag 30ltr tubs from one side of house to other for light,im too old for that now :heehee::old:
                           
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                          • Glynne Williams

                            Glynne Williams Keen Gardener

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                            Regarding cross pollinated tomatoes. Obviously, unless you take cuttings you're not going to get exact genetic types, unless you do the emasculated of flowers etc. Years ago I kept bees in the garden. They were very useful and highly intelligent pollinators, and could be trained to do accurate 'crossing' for very little reward. Thus I never had 'poor' crosses of well known varieties. I just instructed my bees to do the 'correct' crosses and enjoyed the clever results.
                            Keep bees!!!
                             
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                            • pete

                              pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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                              Bearing in mind you can pollenate a tomato flower just by tapping it when the temperature is right, I would suggest that unless you go through the process that hybidizers do you are mostly going to get self pollinated flowers.
                              I think we have all come across poor pollination at some point due to growing conditions.
                               
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