Natures Harvest and tomatoes

[grahamhobbs]

Today from the allotment I will pick our first autumn cauliflower, big and white, it appeared almost overnight. It is times like this that you feel how generous nature can be. This year has for us been very good, the weather has been good, not many pests, not many slugs (don't use pellets) and nearly everything has done well. Some onions were a 1lb in weight and a tomato almost 6" (15cm) in diameter - variety Big Boy, not that I try to grow big veg, we are more interested in taste. Grew Pink Brandywine tomato this year and has proved a big favourite in the flavour stakes.
Other tomatoes grown - Ailsa Craig, Gardener's delight, Golden Cherry and Golden Sunrise, Black Russian, Roma, San Mazano
Thinking of growing Black Cherry and Tigeralla next year, Black Cherry for flavour and Tigeralla because it is very early, can anyone comment? Or can anyone suggest any other varieties with exceptional flavour?

[Green Aura]

Sounds like a pretty good haul.

How have your San Marzano done?

Ours have got blossom end rot, almost without exception. But none of the other varieties we've grown have.

[grahamhobbs]

Green Aura, San Marzano have done fine. What we did get this year was brown leaf mold (although not on Roma or San Marzano), we pannicked and thought was blight at first - so they got an unnecessary spray but that's all. Never had problems with either Roma or San Marzano over the years, both seem very easy, undemanding types. Others, especially Black Russian, suffer from splitting but that's due to uneven/too much watering - difficult with an allotment you can't get to everyday.

[Peggy Sue]

I tried Tigerella last year, it was a bad year for toms overall and I had no real success with them. I hadn't realised they were so small, the OH like large toms so I wouldn't try them again.

[grahamhobbs]

Sorry about your lack of success with Tigerella, if you like big tomatoes you must grow Big Boy, but slightly smaller is Pink Brandywine which has a superior flavour and thin skin - voted tops in the flavour stakes this year.

[Peggy Sue]

I hear good things about Pink Brandywine, I may well give it a go. Big Boy may amuse the OH more I think Personally I'm a GD girl, grew about 30 plants this year...sort of by accident...but am happily munching daily

[red]

im still picking loads of GD too

[Martina]

SusieGee,

Those cherry toms look amazing.

I grew some grape tomatoes this year and had fairly good success with them also, despite an almost non-existant summer. Is that typical of these small varieties; that they grow no matter what?

I only grew mine as an experiment, but I will definitely get a small variety another go next year.

Martina

[Enormous Sage]

I grew black cherry toms last year and they do give a very good flavour, if a slightly disappointing harvest (though that may be down to the position they were in). Also the plants themselves grew like mad and ended up taking up a lot of space, requiring constant cutting back and side shooting.

I grew Red Alert toms this year and they've worked fabulously well : small bushes with lots of tasty fruit and didn't need much maintenance. Might do them again!

[Millymollymandy]

Well I managed to get a big tomato to grow without green collar , but not a single one that wasn't floury and mushy . Oh well it's again proof that I can't grow anything edible raw except cherry toms! I don't know why I bother really but next year I won't be spending much money buying tomato plants as I've learnt how to grow new plants from the side shoots - I've just picked a few ripe toms from the side shoot plant that started out in life back in early July (?ish) so I'm very pleased it has fruited and ripened in so short a time!

I'd also stopped out my Sungold cherry tom about late July/early August partly because they'd got beyond the top of the support but as it was so prolific I decided to allow it to grow a side shoot again, and I am now cropping the fruit off this too! So I've learnt not to be too hasty to stop them growing but if they become too tall let them grow out the side a bit instead.