Topic: Which tomato varieties will you growing in 2010 and why.

[small]

I'm hoping to try some of these varieties-I've-never-heard-of next year if Saddad's early sale comes off, but for my main staple I shall grow Ailsa Craig again - they have been wonderfully tasty this year. I gather from other posts that they are rather despised?

[amphibian]

None of you have mentioned Principe Borghese  ... has this one fallen from grace ??

Silly old me, I'll be growing it, quite forgot.

[amphibian]

`Smiling Cat Herbs`.

??  ??? ??

[kt.]

I am looking to change my varieties but I will keep Shirley as they always do well.

New ones I would be trying are:

Berry F1  :  http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/891/1.html

Ferline F1  :  http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/899/1.html

Vanessa F1  :  http://www.kingsseeds.com/kolist/1/0/14849.htm

I've read good reports about Ferline and Vanessa on this site, but am yet to meet anybody who has grown Berry.... they do look yummy.

[Vinlander]

Hi,

This is my maiden post/reply so sorry if you've heard it all before...

No 1 by a long chalk - Green Tiger - only available by buying tubs of tomatoes from M&S in high season - seed comes true, strong tom flavour, sweet even when hardly ripe and splitting (like now), fairly early too (unlike Green Zebra but may be a child of it) and very meaty. Maybe too meaty for some but worth the effort - just make sure those falsies are firmly in before biting...

Gardener's Delight and Sungold (for cherry tom flavour) - I don't sow these - I buy a plant or two as soon as they appear in the garden centres and take cuttings - gives a head start of a month or more. I also plant any axil sprouts that get too big to waste - right up until July. They always root if you bury everything 5cm deep except the last 10cm or so, especially if you put a tile over the buried part to maintain moisture.

Blight note: bordeaux mixture does work if you mix it fresh from separate solutions - CuSO4 solution and lime solution - that way you get a colloidal precipitate (nanoparticles in current buzzspeak) which is much more effective. It's probably as effective or nearly as effective as dithane/mancozeb and doesn't leave that appalling smell.

a) Copper is very bitter but is also very visible and polishes off tomato skin very easily leaving NO residual taste
b) The CuSO4 I bought was intended for use in animal feed - it keeps them healthy - it is an essential trace element in our diet too - as long as you keep it in these kind of trace quantities.
c) Copper has been used against blight since the potato famine in the 1840s - it is slightly poisonous in large amounts but more importantly it is a 'simple' poison - if you took enough to make you ill and it doesn't kill you, then you'll be fine a day or a week later (you'd have to be dead already to get that much past your tongue). New chemicals are relatively untried and may have long term effects - remember Benlate (www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/benlate-fungicide-causes-birth-defects-504667.html).
d) All the other ions in bordeaux or burgundy mix are as harmless as anything can be (that dihydrogen monoxide stuff www.dhmo.org can kill you).

Burgundy mix is easier in some ways because you use washing soda instead of lime and the solution keeps better - it is a bit harsher on foliage than bordeaux but it's worth it for the convenience. Green Tiger's stems are the only ones that I've found get scorched by burgundy so I reduce the concentration when the panic days are past.

Cheers.

PS. I don't think any remedy would have worked in 2008 except prevention (shelter and ventilation) - it was so bad.

PPS. In case we get another 2008 - does anyone have any lychee tomato seeds? I can swap for Green Tiger.

[tonybloke]

welcome to A4A, Vinlander!! a very well informed and presented first post, thanks for sharing!! ;)

[reddyreddy]

Flighty these same type people made personal attack and insults against me on other threads.
so if they want talk offtopic that is what shed if for. Off topic and other unrelated posts is what pretty much killed bbc garden boards.

who's getting a real tree vs an artificial tree this year?  ;)

[GrannieAnnie]

Hi,


Blight note: bordeaux mixture does work if you mix it fresh from separate solutions - CuSO4 solution and lime solution - that way you get a colloidal precipitate (nanoparticles in current buzzspeak) which is much more effective. It's probably as effective or nearly as effective as dithane/mancozeb and doesn't leave that appalling smell.

  What proportion of lime to water is it, please?  I just used copper sulfate this yr.

[manicscousers]

Hiya, vinlander, welcome to the mad house  ;D

[GrannieAnnie]

Hiya, vinlander, welcome to the mad house  ;D

Attn. Vinlander- Only some are mad- Manicx being one. ;D

[amphibian]

Welcome Vinlander.

The Green Tiger, from M&S interested quite a lot of us. Not seen any this year though. Would you be interested in trading some seeds?

[Vinlander]

Copper sulphate solution is very acid on its own - the lime both neutralises and precipitates it so it is much less likely to wash off.

I converted Lawrence D. Hills bordeaux recipe to suit 4 Litre containers (gallons are getting hard to find these days).

2 and 5/8ths ounce of CuSO4 in 4L warm water and leave overnight to dissolve.

3 and 1/2 ounce slaked lime in 4L cold water. 

When you mix the solutions 1:1 you get an instant colloidal precipitate which must be sprayed before it settles. I decant both solutions into 500ml water bottles and carry it to the plants before mixing in my sprayer. This makes a litre of spray which will do about 10-15 plants.

The CuSO4 solution should last indefinitely - it's too weak to crystallise. Keep the lime solution well capped - contact with CO2 will make it precipitate out as useless chalk dust.

I use burgundy mixture because washing soda is easier to dissolve and stays dissolved - the quantities are identical. It can scorch some leaves so I use it 2/3 strength unless it is the 1st spray of a bad attack.

I bought 1kg of CuSO4 by mail order (Mole Valley Farms) - less than £10 and should last years. The washing soda is easy to find - mine came from Wilko.

I've got nearly all my seeds for next year but I'm happy to swap 10-20 Green Tiger seeds at a time - and open to suggestions eg: (for starters various things that seem very hard to buy)

A few seeds from pumpkins that make lots of big fat seeds - measuring more than 25mm long - ideally more than 30mm.

Lychee-Tomato, Skirret, Rampion,

Very mild chillis with lots of flavour (habanero trinidad, aji dulce, numex suave, tobago seasoning, trinidad perfume etc.etc.)

The promise of cuttings in spring of pepino (solanum muricatum).

etc. etc. - should I start a new thread on who's got what exotica?? I have some really weird stuff like hardy custard bananas, nearly hardy strawberry guavas, compact fruiting cacti (better than dragon fruit) etc.

Cheers.

[GrannieAnnie]

vinlander, thank you for the copper/lime recipe!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Tescos do washing soda. I hadn't heard of this mix, but it sounds worth trying. When I was a kid I killed all the bindweed in the garden by repeatedly painting copper sulphate (nicked from the chemistry lab at school) onto the leaves.

[plainleaf2]

vinegar would been choice for weeds due to lower toxicity.

[Jeannine]

Just found one new to me which sounds interesting First Light.. ( Johnny's seeds in the |US) Think this one might tempt me to do just one more. Smashing new bean on there too. XX Jeannine