Tomato Growing Thread 2023

All my toms are finished and pulled. I couldn't resist potting up these self sown Fat Frog Micro seedlings, though, just to see how they do over winter. Now under a grow light upstairs.

 

I hoarded a bit more seeds. Reviews of buffalosun were good. Long keeper for tomatoes to keep for autumn months.

 

It's exactly why I try to have at least one hybrid variety each season now. If something goes wrong I still get some tomatoes.
This year I had Gourmandia F1. It did well, and tomatoes were large and tasty.

 

I got san mar 2 and indigo pear too for 2024, will have to compare science is better with collaboration!
Or perhaps Ill grow and tell you if its worthwhile

 

Many members grow multiple varieties, perhaps relatively easy to choose, but can we do the harder choice and choose a hypothetical 5 varieties!!
Reasons for choice can/will be for individual choices!!

 

Hello Glynne. Glad to start this off.

There are so many varieties that haven't grown, yet. But I will always try to make room for Azoychka, Cherokee Purple, (I make an exception about F1's with) Super Mama F1, Green Zebra and Piccolo.

 

According to opensourcebreeding the Sun series, sungold, sunsugar and so on probably has some wild tom species heritage inducing Exserted flowers, where the female bits are sticky out past the male bits, a trait that encourages crossing that has been bred out of domestic toms.
If you grow any of these again, do take notice if this was true for yours or any offspring you use. One person found Sunsugar was more likely to pass that trait on than sungold.

 

This is the first ever tomato cutting I've ever taken! When I was planting out the tomatoes in May I accidentally broke one of the plants off very near to soil level! With the hope it might still recover & grow I planted it in the growbag. The broken off piece I shortened, removing some lower leaves & put it in alongside the rootball. I wasn't expecting it to take but on the off chance it might I thought perhaps later, towards the end of summer I might get a truss or two. The same from the rootball portion. But the rootball part never did grow yet the cutting, though it took a very long time, did grow!

At the end of October I removed all the plants from the growbags except for this cutting. I put the bags under the table on the balcony & hardly took any notice of the tomato cutting; I was expecting it to die any day but, as you can see it hasn't! In fact it has survived 3 nights with temps of 3C below 0C with no protection. It has been in the same place without being moved for the last 2 months & now it even has a couple of flowers!
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Although this last photo isn't very good I took it so you could see where the cutting is & has been for the last couple of months. I didn't cover it with fleece or anything. I forgot about it more or less. The same with the 2 Clivias in pots on the shelving, they have all spent 3 frosty nights on the balcony with no protection at all!
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I will be growing some mini-tomatoes next year. But I still have a lot of 'Gardeners Delight' seeds. 2 years ago I got a packet of 60 seeds online! I don't know why I got so many as I can't grow more than about 10 plants on the balcony! So I will probably sow another ten to grow on the balcony next year as well. It's a tomato I very much like & have grown it many times over the the last 20+ years on the balcony. I've also grown it on an allotment as well as an unheated greenhouse on said allotment.
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I think old plants late in the season will survive frost free its just in the spring when the growth is tender that they die or stop growing.
Surviving and thriving are very different.