Tomato Types.

[Emagggie]

Just been to local garden centre and found Black Cherry tomatos 99p for 25 seeds.Has anyone tried these? They seem to be all singing, all dancing according to the blurb. Also found Sweet Olive toms.Not seen these before, but then I've grown Santa for the last 3 years and last year's yield was abismal. I would be interested to have comments on either of these please.

[Emagggie]

[Biscombe]

Sorry, but got some black cherry seeds I´ll be sowing soon, looking forwrd to the posts...

[Deb P]

I grew Sweet Olive last year and was impressed with the yield (9 trusses )and earliness of the fruits, good for salads as small plum shape; not particularly tasty though.

I tried Black Cherry and Black Prince purple types too; won't be growing them again. Very late compared to other varieties, but loads split very easily, and were a funny greyish purple colour...put me off! Perhaps I expected too much... :(

[supersprout]

I grew too many varieties last year, so fewer, selected, this year. I will be growing Black Cherry again this year. They were sown and planted out late, but I still got sweet, dense and rich reddy black ones. Their main use as green tomatoes was for valmrg's superb recipe for pickled toms, which we're just digging into now :D Will plant a lot earlier to get more of the luscious ripe ones, but if you're left with green ones, they are perfect for whole pickled green toms!

Is anyone else finding that different seed sellers' toms - with the same name - turn out differently ??? are there 'strains' of the same named seeds?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Very definitely, yes. Shopping around for different strains can work; another thing is saving your own seed and building up your own strain. You have to grow a lot of some types of veg though, to prevent deterioration due to inbreeding setting in after a few generations. Others are self-pollinating (like toms) and a lot easier.

[saddad]

I grow loads and save my own seeds but some like red peach are more prone to outbreeding... they lost their furriness after about 7 years!
:'(

[Deb P]

I like Elberta Girl for its furriness too, but last year one of the three plants I grew from the same packet of seedshad 'ordinary' foliage, and non furry fruits, still great tasting though!

[Emagggie]

Well, I shall now look forward to giving these a try,sorry to hear yours weren't a success Deb. :(  I had a look at my seed list and realised I only had big toms so I spent a rainy afternoon in our local garden centre on Saturday choosing some smaller types.
Will be having a look at Valmrg's pickled toms recipe,SS, in eager anticipation. ;D Didn't know about Red Peach, Saddad, sounds interesting.Will hunt down seeds methinks.Just seen your post Deb, furry deffo sounds worth a shout. ;D
Thanks All.

[Deb P]

Just seen your post Deb, furry deffo sounds worth a shout. ;D
Thanks All.

Forgot to say, Elberta Girl is also stripey!
:)