2015 Tomato Growing

Gardeners Delight (never grown them before) ripening nicely, tried a few, good taste but not great, we shall see later in the season.
Sun Baby (always grow these, very reliable) ripening nicely too, taste top notch, one of my favourites.
Marmande, looks to be a good crop considering weather, but not ripening yet (IIRC these always ripen late for me).

All things considered with the foul weather, very low night temperatures, it may turn out to be not as bad as I feared.

GG

 

I grew Gardeners Delight for years GG but stopped last year as I found the flavour and sweetness had changed. They also seemed to be getting larger.

 

First Minke Marvel is ripe



It was delicious too

 

Agree with both of you @Sheal and @JWK. My little Garden Pearls didn't bat an eyelid when we had that very cold spell while Money Maker, Gardeners Delight and Sungold sulked for ages afterwards.The Garden Pearls are just giving up the ghost now and with precision timing (complete fluke!) the Sungold, are ready now. The Gardeners Delight and Money Maker have a few fruits ready. Both of the latter taste like cotton wool in comparison to the Garden Pearl and Sungold. Last time I grow either of them. Agree Gardeners Delight has appeared to now grow bigger fruits but the taste has been sacrificed. They and The Money Maker will get used in cooking as that's about all they are useful for. I'll definitely grow both Sungold and Garden Pearl again next season and will keep looking on here to see if anybody can suggest a bigger fruiting Tomato which can match the taste of Sungold.

 

Hi Sheal,
Two years ago, my crop was severely damaged by a moth called tuta absoluta (Great name for a beast!) I don't quite remember, but I had to give them a treatment with some surface active insecticide with a short quarantine period (about 4 days), so that we could pick and eat the fruit. Hope this helps.

And here is the latest supply. We haven't finished them yet, and the rest are ripening like an avalanche.

 

Bit of an update with pics for the record. Generally do tomatoes from seed but this year due to me being a way a lot, tomatoes were bought from a nursery, individually potted ones, 75p a pop, you know the sort, few inches tall. Purchased and put straight into a raised bed outdoors about 16 May. Fed only occasionally.

They have all started ripening, and had a taste of some of them but not enough for a proper assessment (I guess there will be a taste thread as usual at the end of the season). Agree with others that the Gardeners Delight, though seeeminly easy to grow, are fairly bland, don't think I'll be bothering in future, though I have a good recipe for bland ripe tomatoes.

Anyway, here is a pic of each sort I have in the garden taken 20 Aug.

Sun Baby




Marmande




Gardeners Delight




Sweet Million (bought by mistake, never grown before)




Not sure offhand how these compare to previous years when I've started them from seed indoors, will have to check back, but I'm thinking perhaps the difference in ripening start date is not vast.

Mustn't grumble I guess. Just hope they taste good!

GG

 

I thought I'd supported all of my trusses, oh well that's yet another 3lbs for fried green tomatoes

 

Ahh @Scrungee ive just realised today that a lot of the ones in the garden needed extra support. Think I've managed to save them - time will tell.

 

I notice you've stripped most of your leaves already @Gay Gardener, do you find it makes a difference? I don't usually strip mine before the end of August.

 

Winner of GC words of the week with....

 

I stripped mine just over a week ago for much the same reason as @fatcontroller, Manky leaves!!