Tomato Growing Thread 2022

Jealous of everybody busy sowing toms. Being up here in the frozen north I have to refrain from sowing too early as end up with spindly affairs reaching skyward with a tinge of purple for good measure. I will sow the last week in March/ 1st in April but it is amazing how they catch up with earlier sowings. I usually have Sungold ripe enough by the end of June so not too bad.

 

@hailbopp , I'm guessing you make up for it with longer days.

 

Curly leaves, always a good sign.

 

Ordered two of my varieties this year (Druzba and Thessaloniki) not sure what to expect, but just fancied two new varieties.

Others not ordered/planted yet:

Matina (This was my workhorse salad tom last year, 40-60g fruits, tasted great and consistent)
Honey Moon (got good taste reviews on here)
Bloody Butcher (ununiform size last year but tasted good, juicy)
Stupice (seeds from last year, bit like Matina but not quite as uniform/tasty)
Steak Sandwich (good reliable beefsteak last year, may limit trusses this year to maximise summer yield.)

Is anyone up for a "Gardeners Delight 2005 strain seed swap"? I only grew one variety of Cherry tom last year (Sungold) but found they cracked too easily (thus attracting flies) and were only really good for nibbling in the greenhouse. I fancy GD2005 to replace it, I can send some of the above as a trade if so?

Cheers!

 

Have to put up my hand and admit to a little leg pulling! Couple of weeks ago I posted that I 'instructed' my bees to pollinate tomatoes in a particular way! Not true as they always just go their own wonderful merry way! Thus Tom's can cross pollinate if planted together. They seem to self fertilise (someone talked of 'tapping' the flowers, or spraying them with water,. Otherwise it is the usual emasculated of individual flowers and wrapping them up to prevent those pesky bees (!!) spreading the pollen!
Thus as someone else here so wisely said that if anyone's collection and growing of seed collected produced fruit that met all their criteria then they were doing it right!!
Regarding keeping bees in the garden, I did get some amazing crosses. OK some I had to be careful with. Potatoes with Close family links also produce tomato like fruit (poisonous mind you!) So I was able to save them, dry out the seeds and sow them. It took a couple of years but eventually produced potatoes of varying types. These were of course the parents that were crossed to produce the original variety I'd been growing for years!
Some folk have been grafting Tomato tops onto potato 'bottoms' to produce tomatoes with potatoes, or vice versa! Not sure I'd trust every tomato fruit from that plant! Deadly Nightshade is also in the same family! Never could understand why it's fruit was so poisonous yet tomatoes so enjoyable to most folk! Raw ones still make me nauseous.

 

If you get it round the wrong way it could be embarrassing.

 

Final sowings in! My 2022 list is:
Amy's Apricot
Bloody Butcher
Blush (no show)
Brandywine Cherry
C'mas Purple Grapes
Cherry Roma (no show)
Chickie Cherry
Der Kleine Doctor
Dwarf Velvet Night
Ester Hess Yellow
G. Delight JWK's (no show)
Grandpa's Minnesota
Grushovka
Haley's Winbox
Jaune Flamme
Lizzano F1 (no show)
Lufichoise
Maskotka
Pearly Pink
Piglet Willie's French Black
Pink Vernissage
Porter's Dark Cherry
Prima Bella
Red Robin
Rosella Cherry
Sakura F1
Santorini
Sci-Fi
Sinister Minister
Sweetie
Tigeretta Cherry Reds
Tonnelet
Zuchertraube

May re-try the no-shows depending on how many of the latest sowings germinate.

 

Yeah, wouldn't want to go short on tomatoes.

 

Heaven forfend!

Thank goodness I have seeds of another 90 varieties as back-up.

 

Cheers folks re my pollinating bees and tomato/potato grafting, appreciate that the resulting fruit are not likely to be poisonous. My worry was that a potato shoot could grow from the potato part of the graft and that might produce fruit!!!
I used to graft tomatoes years ago when it was 'fashionable' Yes its fiddly but fun. My reason for not continuing with the procedure was that it hardly made any difference! I was a Rural Studies teacher 50 years ago and it seemed like a good thing to do at the time! Those were the days! I actually bought some grafted plants a couple of years ago. They certainly were pretty fecund but only for interest frankly. The plants grew well but so did my 'normal' plants! Tom's are like that I think!? Thinking back to my early teaching days, the school was actually built on the fields of a Rose Grower, there before the war, so talking about grafting was important. There was a plan that I'd try growing roses but I think building a pigsty took over! Where has all that early energy gone to??!