Or tomatoes to you and me...
I had a bit of a catastrophe with my tomato seedlings this year. Even though our neighbour had watered them when we were away, by the next morning they were shrivelled up and rather sad.
The seedlings were "Cyrill's Choice" a heritage variety saved from tomatoes grown last year. The seeds had germinated well and I was hoping for a similar crop to last year.
The tomatoes went on cropping for a long while, whereas these were about the only two sweetcorn worth eating. I'm not going to waste greenhouse space on them this year.
I managed to salvage three of the original tomato seedlings. I don't know how good the plants will be given the check in their growth.
So to Plan B. (There wasn't one until now) Off to our favourite local garden centre to pick up some other Tomato plants. And what a number of different varieties. So much choice!
Ambrosia - a hybrid mini plum variety
Black Russian - heritage medium sized mahogany brown fruits
Sun baby - Cherry sized yellow tomatoes
Super marmande - sweet beefsteak tomatoes
F1 Totem - dwarf stocky bush variety
F1 Tumbler- Cherry tomato bush variety
Super sweet 100 - Cordon cherry tomato
Eyeing that primula enviously, here.
ReplyDeleteIt came out for the photograph, Susan. It was forgotten about under the staging until then...
DeleteOh your tomatoes are lovely and look so sweet, but why is there nothing told about the corn. I feel like some pity on him for not being mentioned, haha! It looks fabulously sweet too! We have lots of them here in the tropics.
ReplyDeleteThe corn last year were not very good to say the least Andrea. So I'm not going to bother with them this year. Shame there is nothing better than fresh sweetcorn (except fresh asparagus in season and ready to eat now!)
DeleteGood for you for buying Black Russian. We sold it one year in the garden centre but it didn't sell. People didn't want brown/black tomatoes it seems. Well, people apart from you that is. Dave
ReplyDeleteI have to admit Dave that the Black Russian was P's choice. A mean of taste and discernment like yourself. I never got over the shock of trying Edzell Blue potatoes....
DeleteOh my typing... that should read "man" and he's anything but mean!
DeleteI am growing Black Russian as well this year - I sowed them a lot later than the others in the hope of extending the season - I've never grown them before so am excited to see how they do. The garden centres around us sell nowhere near as many varieties as yours do - always good to know that you can buy replacements if necessary as in the beginning stages toms can be a bit tricky if it is cold (which it has been this year) there's no chance of anything being planted out yet.
ReplyDeleteI have just discovered (courtesy of the gardening guru in the Glasgow Herald) that it's a waste of time trying to grow any kind of beefsteak tomato in Scotland as the season is too short... we shall see!
DeleteI seem to end up going to plan B a lot of years! I hope all your tomato plants do well. I'm looking forward to having some tomatoes from my garden year. Last year I ended up at Plan C - the farmers market! :O
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me , Holley.
DeleteI've grown 'totem' in the past and it's a great variety but no tomatoes for us. 3 years of blight here from damp summers and we've given up trying. Just too demoralising. Like HolleyGarden I use the farmers' market.
ReplyDeleteToms can be a bit tempremental! And unless it warms up soon I'll be joiningyou at the Farmers market. On our recent trip to OrkneyI was very impressed with Bob Nelson's greenhouses full of toms. He's so good at what he does....
DeleteLove how organised your greenhouse looks! Thats a lot of tomatos you bought! Looking forward to seeing how they all turn out.
ReplyDeleteThe greenhouse had a tidy-up just for the photograph, Christine.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the brown/black ones have extra rich and delicious tasting fruit (or so my favorite seed catalog says, but they might have a vested interest). I don't grow tomatoes because they always get curly top virus out here--the pollen dies in all the heat anyway...
ReplyDeleteO that we could all learn to keep a primula in reserve for its photographic merits.
Hello Janet!
ReplyDeleteI have cultivated the Supersweet 100 the last few years and I never had problems with this kind of tomato, although it was always planted outside the greenhouse.
Good luck!
kathrin
I always find tomatoes funny - they're such a difficult menace to cultivate and quite a pain in the derrier and yet we love them so. Great choices - I'm growing a Bob Neilson exclusive 'Lemata' a hybrid between Lemondrop and Rosata - baby cherry yellow tomatoes which look like lemons - I guess thats got to be one confused tomato plant!
ReplyDeleteVisted Bob's when we were up. Can't believe his array of toms and all these greenhouses. Ha said it's difficult to keep all the glass in one piece. He always has a great selection and the cake is pretty good too...
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