I found the first ripe one today; a single bright red Stupice buried in the foliage, way ahead of the rest. And there I was thinking Clear Pink Early would be first. Unfortunately I don't have a pic since my daughter had taken the camera for the last day of term.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on July 21, 2006, 20:49:26
I found the first ripe one today; a single bright red Stupice buried in the foliage, way ahead of the rest. And there I was thinking Clear Pink Early would be first. Unfortunately I don't have a pic since my daughter had taken the camera for the last day of term.
Mine are all waiting till I go on holiday, then they will all ripen at once.
Went through my tomato jungle today, tying in and cutting stray bits off. So many toms, hope they all ripen. Some of the beefsteaks are huge, but no sign of colour yet. Of course, as mine don't receive any water, they will probably take longer, but I hope, will be all the sweeter for it!
Sungold have been my first outdoor tom to ripen. Deep orange and so tasty. Just two so far, yesterday.
Most of mine now have decent-sized, obstinately green, fruit. Black Seaman is an exception as it's pretty slow, with little on it so far. Even there there's a single plant with several large toms, so that's the one I'll be saving seed off for next year. Maybe its offspring will be quicker.
One G's Delight; none of the others is displaying the slightest hint of a blush.
The only one of my outdoor toms to ripen so far is an odd little bush tomato. It's called Balconi Red, seed bought from Alan Romans. The plant is extremely compact and is only now, under the weight of ripening cherry toms, keeling over :). My three plants have masses of fruit and they are ripening fast. I'm picking a dozen a day :D
Tricia
Whilst i m delighted that my tomatoes are starting to ripen (ahead of last years performance), I am a little annoyed that the first ones ripening are outdoor fruits, whilst the indoor fruits (greenhouse) remain stubbornly green! Typical!
I think the problem in the greenhouse is too much foliage (in addition to the shading), not letting enough sunlight get tho the fruits. I have now been through the plants and removed all foliage below the first truss of fruit in the hope that this will encourage ripening.
My first varieties to ripen ( or start to ripen i should say) are sungold and the tumbler type 'garden pearl' (or Gartenperle). In some ways the sungold are a bit of a cheat on the ripening front since they arent a red variety and dont take so long to get to their ripe colour! I think I shall be getting my first taste of homegrown tomatoes within the next day or two. ;D ;) Mmmm, I can taste it already - cant wait!
Have had three "Tumbler" so far - they were way ahead of everything else (including the other toms on the same plant which are all still very green!)
Of all of them (G. delight, Alicante, Sungold, Ailsa Craig, Big Boy, Garden Pearl. Tigerella and Moneymaker):
1. Garden Pearl have the most flowers, if they all turn into toms we will have hundreds ;D
2. Tumbler is ripening fastest 8)
3. G Delight is tallest ;)
4. Tigerella is hopeless (spindly with only ONE fruit so far!) :'(
Yay, two of my latah have started ripening, I have three loaded plants of this variety so should have plenty of fruit soon.
I couldnt wait! I have eaten the two sungold that were virtualy ripe!
The first was fully ripe and gorgeous, the second perhaps wasnt so ripe and didnt taste quite so good. Its the first time i have grown sungold (many thanks to alishka maxwell who kindly sent me the seeds).
Nittynora: i find garden pearl flowers dont all set - some just wither away, however the plant sets so many fruits anyway that it hardly matters! I guess not seting all the flowers is the plant's way of avoiding over production.
My Tigerella are growing fine and seting a nice lot of fruits. Again these are ones i have grown for the first time this year (same source seeds as sungold) so am waiting to see what they turn out like.
GC, & anyone else - I reckon that you are likely to find at least one of three same variety toms does not appeal.
Makes comparative tests very difficult.
I found a ripe Nadja today. Lovely!
We now have some more red tumblers, and the sungolds are starting to turn orange.
Thanks Garden Cadet - that's good news 'cos if all the flowers = tomatoes we'll be eating them this time next year!
Poor old tigger is still behind the others, but he now has a few more fruits!
We have 2 hanging baskets of tumblers, which we have been eating the toatoes from for nearly a month already, over 50 fruit on each bush alast weekend, not all ripe, but getting there, however the Moneymaker and Gardeners delights, both in the garden and in the green house are yet to provide a single fruit!?! ???
I'm finding a few (fortunately it is a few, so far at any rate) with BER, and they seem to be ripening ahead of the others. They taste just as good, they just don't look so nice. The plants are beginning to wilt a bit, and if the weather doesn't change I'm going tohave to start watering them.
Hi all :)
I see a pattern emerging. My tumblers are ripening first too, ahead of Gardeners delight and Moneymaker. The Gardeners delight and Moneymaker are planted in the potting shed/greenhouse and in a sheltered spot outdoors. The tumblers are planted two plants per hanging basket and suffered terribly from the hot weather which dessicated them over and over again. They are hanging in my fruit cage.
Because the tumblers have been hard to manage water-wise I said I`d never grow them again but it seems that a bit of foreward planning could bring early results.
Col
Quote from: Columbus on July 27, 2006, 07:36:32
Hi all :)
I see a pattern emerging. My tumblers are ripening first too, ahead of Gardeners delight and Moneymaker. The Gardeners delight and Moneymaker are planted in the potting shed/greenhouse and in a sheltered spot outdoors. The tumblers are planted two plants per hanging basket and suffered terribly from the hot weather which dessicated them over and over again. They are hanging in my fruit cage.
Because the tumblers have been hard to manage water-wise I said I`d never grow them again but it seems that a bit of foreward planning could bring early results.
Col
It's the stress that makes them ripen quicker.
If you can get the plant to think its dying, without actually killing it, it will produce ripe fruit quicker.