Sunday 16 December 2012

Tomatoes.2012 not a great year

From various sources this year I have tried to grow various tomatoes this year.
It probably wasn't the best year weather wise to try this.
Koralik
Early Tanana
Reisentraube
Slovenian Black
Alpatieva 905
Monkey's Ass
Latah
Losetto
Mortgage Lifter
Sungold
San Marzano
Principe Borghese
Shirley
Maskotka
Harbinger
Tasmanian Chocolate
Dwarf Mr Snow
Sungella
Sweet Million
Beijing Yellow
First In Field

The only one that didn't germinate was First In Field.Not really fussed as they were a freebie from Dolmio.
I got no ripe fruit from Tasmanian Chocolate,Dwarf Mr Snow,Sungella and San Marzano.
I don't have a problem with the San Marzano since they were part of a £1 shop purchase last year.Even last year they were very late and sparse.
The Tasmanian Chocolate and Dwarf Mr Snow were from a seed swap and part of the Dwarf Tomato project.I have read elsewhere that people were not enamoured with their results and I have to agree.To my mind these are not stable yet and the differing plant sizes and leave shapes need to be sorted out.Mine obviously didn't realise that they were supposed to be 4 foot compact plants.
I was surprised by the Sungella but still have seeds and will give them another try next year.
My allotment is a graveyard for tomatoes that succumb to blight every year.Thus I tried Losetto F1 which were supposed to be blight tolerant.I also had plants of Shirley,Harbinger and Maskotka hanging around so gave them a try.True to form the allotment showed early signs of blight and thus I didn;t expect much.Through judicious leaf removal I got a decent crop from all of my plants until some allotment creatures decided to take chunks out of my tomatoes.
For my early tomatoes I tried self saved Koralik which had very small fruits but quite tasty,Early Tanana which were early but pretty tasteless and will not be grown again,Latah which after a bit of sun were pretty tasty and will be grown again.Strangely Koralik were one of the last varieties that I got fruit off of.

For cherry tomatoes I tried Reisentraube,the taste was nothing spectacular and they took too long to redden up even though I had some in a greenhouse.I also had a couple of Sweet Millions which were fine and I will grow them again.



On the beefsteak front I grew Monkey's Ass and Mortgage Lifter  both of which had a good fleshy taste,the yield of the former was pretty poor though.

My yellow skinned tomato this year was Beijing Yellow obtained from a seed swap,good taste but not a great yield.

For the first time I tried a black tomato,Slovenian Black obtained from a seed swap.I didn't get masses of fruits but the taste was divine and this is a definate for next year.
The star of the show this year was Sungold purely for the taste,if anybody knows of a superior tomato to this I would love to know.

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