Tomato time
Last year I grew too many tomatoes. Not just too many plants but too many types. I am always keen to grow big-fruited tomatoes but the fact is that they crop late in the season and, because I don’t spray my edibles (or much else) the few, large fruits on beefsteaks and big plum toms are too often chewed by caterpillars or ripen late as the weather is getting cool and damp and too many are lost to rot. Late September is always a mad rush to make soup and sauces and I don’t want to do that this year. Perhaps I am being more organised because I did use an early cucumber glut to make cucumber relish and I did make blackcurrant jam this year.
So this year I allowed myself to go a bit crazy with other plants (adding many mints, brugmansias and even patchouli to my list of needy residents) and tried to keep the tomato growing under control. So I only grew seven varieties and, apart from one, they were small-fruited and not ‘heritage’ kinds that always excite, and then disappoint, me.
There are still about 40 plants, 15 in pots in the greenhouse and the rest in beds in the polytunnel. Those in pots were fed with a controlled-release fertiliser topped up with some fish, blood and bone and regular tomato fertiliser and those in the polytunnel panted in beds prepared with manure and fish, blood and bone. I ought to use the masses of comfrey in the garden to make some fertiliser but I have not bothered yet. It was the plan when I planted it. There is time.
Most of the tomatoes are small, cherry types. We like sweet tomatoes and as we sell some at the gate and people come to buy our sweet tomatoes that influenced my decision. The four cherries are all from the ‘Sungold’ family.
From left:
‘Sunpeach’ is a fruit machine. The plants are strong and producing large trusses. The unripe fruits are pale green and ripen to a deep pink. They are firm with thin skins and have a sweet taste. Even when ripe they are slightly green at the stalk end when cut. The taste is less sweet and with a more complex flavour than ‘Sungold’. Would I grow it again? Yes.
‘Sungold’ is our favourite tomato. This was, as always, the first plant to ripen fruits, by about a week. Oddly for an F1 hybrid, one plant ‘missed’ the first truss. Fruit size has also been a bit irregular wth a lots of small fruits. All these plant in pots in the greenhouse were sown, transplanted and potted on the same days and fed in exactly the same way. If ‘Sungold’ has one bad quality it is that the fruits split when ripe. They also split when handled if fully ripe and you can pick perfect fruits and find some have split by the time they reach the kitchen. I always pick my tomatoes by lifting them so they snap at the ‘knuckle’ and the fruit is complete with the calyx to avoid damage to the fruit. ‘Sungold’ also splits when washed so do not wash them until just before eating. It seems to be a trait of others in the series too but then I always pick when they are absolutely ripe for the best flavour – picking earlier would prevent this. ‘Sungold’ is ridiculously sweet and tasty. It is the one tomato I grow every year. Summer would not be right without it.
‘Sunchocola’ is a brown version and has slightly larger fruit with an attractive brown colour. Brown tomatoes tend to have a complex, rich flavour and this does not disappoint. So far the trusses are smaller so the crop will be a bit lighter than ‘Sunpeach’ but it is not a bad crop at all. Would I grow it again? Possibly.
‘Orange Sun’ This is so like ‘Sungold’ that it is difficult to tell them apart when picked. The fruits seem slightly larger and they are possibly less prone to splitting. They might be slightly less sweet but the difference is negligible. Will this be a replacement for ‘Sungold’? Possibly.
‘Marzianino’ This is one of those popular baby plums. They are firmer than most cherry toms with fewer seeds and fess flesh in the centres. I hate cherry tomatoes with tough skins and ‘squirpy’ centres and I never buy cheap cherry toms because of this .Mini plums avoid this so, in winter I will buy mini-plums if I have to have fresh tomatoes – which is not that often. ‘Marzianino’ is a really good grower with long trusses of glossy red fruits. When you buy mini plums in the shops they are usually sold and picked without the calyx and when picking these they easily separate from the calyx. They are firm but with good flavour. Would I grow it again? Possibly.
And so we come to the more interesting varieties. ‘Pendolino’ is an F1 ‘Vesuvius’-type tomato, whatever that means. Catalogue descriptions should have warned me when they said the fruits are ‘firm’! This variety was a problem from the start. All my toms were sown at the same time, in the same way and seedlings usually appear within ten days. ‘Pendolino’ took ages and germination was poor. I actually sowed a second batch. But the plants the grew well after that. Plants ripened the first fruits early, at the beginning of July. We picked the first fruits and they were like bullets – firm? You could play snooker with them. And the skins were like plastic. I cooked the second batch with some garlic and courgettes. They were fine. I have a feeling these might be good for ‘dried tomatoes’ and they are certainly tasty when cooked.
This hot, dry summer has been both a blessing and a curse for the tomatoes. The warmth has certainly helped growth and ripening. But it has been too hot. In the greenhouse temperatures often topped 45c despite having the vents open, regular ‘damping down’ and most of the glass shaded. I can’t open the door for two reasons: birds will get in and then get ambushed by the cats and bees fly in and then get munched by the false-widow spiders that have set up home and persist despite my constant efforts to kill them. I have no issue with spiders in general but these are not native and I hate them eating bees.
The high temperatures meant that the plants could not move enough water to the tops of the plants and some foliage went brown at the tips. I had to do some pruning and train side shoots to replace the main stem. No great problem. But a lack of water also leads to another, common problem: Blossom-end rot. The tips of the fruit are the furthest part of the plant from the roots and if there is a lack of water it is the tip of the fruit that doesn’t get water, and, importantly, calcium which is needed for cell growth. So if water and calcium do not reach the tip of the fruit the cells die. If a tomato plant wilts, even for a few hours, some of the fruits, at a certain stage of development, will be affected. I worked hard to keep the potted tomatoes moist but one plant must have dried out and it was the one potted ‘Pendolino’ (the rest are in the polytunnel beds). As you can see below.
Would I grow ‘Pendolino’ again? No. It would be great if I was sending them in an envelope to someone in China – they would arrive undamaged, but they are not for me.
From the ridiculous to the sublime, I allowed myself one silly, heritage tom: ‘Canestrino di Lucca’, a variety that was popular in Tuscany in the 1960s but almost disappeared as F1 varieties took it’s place. It has now been saved, but only as long as people demand the seeds.
‘Canestrino’ means ‘little basket’ and the fruits, though variable, have ribbed sides and do look a bit like a handbag! Another characteristic is that the shoulders remain green and ‘hard’. This is what it should do. It has dry flesh and is commonly used to make sauces but the few ripe fruits we have eaten have been enjoyed raw and they would be perfect for a caprese salad. I am pleased to say that the plants, in the border in the polytunnel, have grown strongly and they have set a good crop. The fruits are meaty and soft with a rich taste. Unlike the little cherries the taste is distinctly savoury and, I suspect, ‘true tomato flavour. I like the strong growth, good crops, appearance of the fruits and the taste. Plus I am doing a little to maintain the variety. Should I save the seeds? Unlike the F1 hybrids, this will come true from seeds if I save them. But if I don’t buy the seeds then demand for them will fall and it may drop from cultivation! So maybe I should buy seeds again and support the seed producer.
Would I grow it again? Yes.
This year I planted the toms in the polytunnel through a red plastic ‘mulch’. It is suppose to boost growth, presumably because when the plants are young they benefit from the reflected red wavelengths. I do not like being forced to plant at predetermined spacings but I have to admit that it did make me be sensible. I knew how many plants I would need so I was ruthless with how many plants I transplanted, I had to give the plants space and I think the plants have benefited from the enforced discipline. The mulch has kept weeds down and also probably helped conserve soil moisture. I will use it again.
The Biking Gardener 
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