2013 Tomato Growing

I picked a nice specimen from my Turkish tomato plant and put some of its seeds in water and put a lid on top. Proceeded to shake daily and drain off floating bits ,saving the seeds that sunk to the bottom. OK so far.
Went to look again after day 5 and found that most of them had little white bits appearing - I'm certain they had germinated and started to grow.
Thus, not fit to save.
?? Does this happen sometimes??
I'm new to thus seed saving and had no trouble with my Maskotkas or Bulgarians,
Jenny

 

@Jenny...did the lid have a little hole in the top...i understand they need it for a bit of air to circulate...random guess

 

@Jenny namaste

Only once (or perhaps twice?) in over 20 years of saving up to 20 varieties p.a. Rather than relying on them being OK/bothering with checking germination I threw them out and saved from other tomatoes.

Had the seeds gone darker than normal, as that's a sign of having been fermenting for longer than necessary?

Occasionally some seeds will have a dark spot on them and I discard those just in case it's a sign of some problem.

 

Thanks @Scrungee . There are 3 other toms almost ripe so I'll try with one of those. It's a very strong, deep red and quite a thick skin but tastes pretty good.
Jenny
@Loli, there was quite a gap between the water's surface and the lid and I did open it up most days to do a "filter/clean",
Jenny

 

I've previously slagged off Ferlines for poor yield, dropping fruits, slow to ripen, etc., but they are now cropping well and have become our firm favourite for frying, but especially for stuffing, both in respect of flavour and size

 

Is it just me that thinks of The Red Skull every time I look at the underside of a beefsteak tomato?

 

Last of the biggies - Super Steak:

--
Not a bad effort considering its had little attention all season.

Oh - wrong thread. Its still too early for me !

 

Hiya Scrunge.

I've always rated them. They seem to have pretty good blight resistance, imo. Of all my outdoor ones, these have probably performed the best, good sized and good flavour. A good all-rounder, I reckon. I only grew 3 plants, but I'll grow more next year and less of some of the others, like Cuore Di Bue which gave some very large fruits but had no flavour at all (both outdoors and in the greenhouse).

Cheers...Freddy

 

As I've grown over ninety Ferline plants this year I probably wont be growing a greater amount next year!

My bush outdoor tomatoes have all but finished, but my Ferlines (+ Sungolds) are now cropping well and are the only plants I'll bother covering up Wednesday night when the temps are forecast to fall very low.

Next year I might also try a few Ferlines in a poly tunnel for comparison with the outdoor ones, but I think I might have read somewhere that they grow better outside?

 

Picked a few tomatoes around midday and there's still Koralik, Red Alert & Brasero to pick after lunch, the latter 2 will be pulled up as they're now finished.

Sungold, Sungella and Sweet Million - see what I mean about the Sungella being yellow rather than golden?

More Sungolds

Ildl, Gardeners Delight and some other red ones

Ferline (biggest over 200g)

And an assortment picked yesterday

 

That's an incredible Autumn harvest Scrungee.
There isn't much anyone could teach you about growing Tomatoes.
magnificent,
Jenny

 

Well, after the Lord Mayor's show.
Almost my final gathering: a mix of Bulgarian, Canary Island and Turkish tomatoes - all lovely in their own right. An onion from Holland and a Garlic from CHINA! Yep, that's what it says on the label:


a dessertspoon of butter and 3 of olive oil . Sweat it all off for an hour and blitz.
Voila - One litre of International Tomato Soup. Divine....


Jenny

 

But so easy to GYO.

Big tomato roasting session early tomorrow morning before Economy 7 finishes (at 8:00am, one the advantages of BST). Slow cooker full of toms on overnight.