Tomato – Jersey Devil

Red, long shaped, cooking tomato on Indeterminate Plants Description An excellent cooking tomato which crops heavily and cooks well (provided you let it get really ripe). We grew it for the first time in 2021 from the 2019 seed swap. We would grow it again for cooking (as a salad tomato it lacks flavour). From…… Continue reading Tomato – Jersey Devil

Tomato – Divinity

Compact Semi-Determinate F1 Hybrid tomato with Red Fruit. Description UK bred F1 Hybrid Semi-Determinate tomato, ideal for container growing with reasonable sized fruit. A relatively long harvest season (July to late October depending on the weather), it needs to be compared with cultivars such as Zefen Short and Sandpoint which sound very similar from the…… Continue reading Tomato – Divinity

Tomato – Sweet Million (F1)

Red Cherry fruits on Indeterminate F1 Hybrid Plants Description Red Cherry tomato similar to many of the Open Pollinated/Heritage varieties such as Red Berry, Christmas Grapes, etc.. We’ve been given a number of packets of seeds many of which are F1 Hybrid. We might have a go at comparing F1 hybrid varieties with equivalent non-hybrid…… Continue reading Tomato – Sweet Million (F1)

Tomato – Shirley

Early cropping Standard F1 Hybrid Red Tomato on Indeterminate plants. Description Shirley is a popular F1 Hybrid tomato which produces large trusses of fruit on strong, open plants. It has good resistance to a number of pests & diseases. We don’t in general grow it because its an F1 Hybrid. We’ll add pictures as they…… Continue reading Tomato – Shirley

Tomato – Summerlast

A red cherry on compact Determinate plants Description We don’t grow F1 hybrids in general but free seeds are always an exception to the rule. So this compact Determinate cultivar will get tried in 2022 (outside of course). It looks to be similar to Tiny Tim and Red Robin so it will have to be…… Continue reading Tomato – Summerlast

Tomato – ACE 55

A large , red, round tomato on Determinate Plants Description Whilst this seems to be a relatively common cultivar, we are growing it for the first time in 2022. It is described as a large, fleshy heritage variety developed at the University of California in the 1950’s with resistance to many common pests and diseases.…… Continue reading Tomato – ACE 55

Harvest – Mid October 2021

The days are drawing in, the evenings are darker and the weather is significantly cooler. However, there are still green tomatoes, some of which seem to be ripening others of which are succumbing to blight. Since the last harvest post we’ve picked another 9kg of tomatoes, four cucumbers, 2kg of carrots, half a kilo each…… Continue reading Harvest – Mid October 2021

Harvest- End of September 2021

The season is beginning to come to an end. We’re still getting tomatoes (another 9kg since our last post) but the plants are looking decidedly sickly with botrytis/grey mould killing off the ends of the plants, the leaves and (more frequently now) the fruit. It looks like the problem has affected even the fruit that…… Continue reading Harvest- End of September 2021

Tomato Problems – Botrytis

September is with us again and the warm/damp weather we’ve been having is encouraging disease in the greenhouses. Last year it was Bacterial Canker this year I seem to be having Botrytis (also known as Grey Mould). Its something I get every year but this year it seems even worse than usual. Its caused by…… Continue reading Tomato Problems – Botrytis

Harvest – Beginning of September 2021

So, two weeks ago when I made my last harvest post we had harvested 4kg of tomatoes. What a difference a fortnight makes. We’ve now picked 20kg of tomatoes, had a significant number of bowls of tomato soup, made tomato sauce and chopped up tomatoes for the freezer and given a reasonable quantity away. Looking…… Continue reading Harvest – Beginning of September 2021