Allotments 4 All

some seed porn in action ;D
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I have a book with 400 varieties illustrated... it's in French, but the pictures are great...  :)

So are you going through that book and ticking the varieties off...'done that and that...' ;D
Tatiana's tomatobase is killer for me..one of these days I'll give up and make the order...so far I've managed to resist..don't know how ::)

Je ne comprende pas... well not much... but words for early and late (precoce? and tarde) turn up regularly..  ;D

I love your petri dishs goodlife! do you tear off the bit of paper when the seed germinates or are you doing viability checks?

sorry I am asking so many q's but I am fascinated by this thread.

As for Tatiana's tomato base- well what can you say! Unbelievable.  ;)

do you tear off the bit of paper when the seed germinates
No..as soon as seed is showing signs of germination I pick it up with my little 'picker up' tool..and put it in Jiffy plug.
I find it easier than pricking out seedlings..and there is less disturbance too..and less mess.. ::)
I was given quite a pile of out of date packets of different seeds and as I'm not sure how many will germinate I just emptied whole packet..now I can easily then take out the viable ones.
Normally I just sow 3-4 seeds per variety to get one or two to grow.. ;)
I just have to go and buy some more of those fancy chocolaty deserts to get more glass dishes.. :-X ;) I wouldn't eat those 'naughty', creamy, chocolaty and utterly delicious things otherwise.. ;D

goodlife- good news Sainsburys are doing bogof on those 'special' tomato germinating test pots.

Ohhh...good to know..does that involve having to "empty" them first?.. ;) ;D...or are they brand new, unused, empty, just glass type 'test pots'... :-\?

That picture doesn't speak truth about my diet btw... :-X Not all yogurt pot lids, desert pots, take away containers are all mine...honestly.. ::) ;) ;D ...just to make records straight... 8)

Quote from: goodlife on March 10, 2011, 15:39:34
some seed porn in action ;D
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Aaaarghhh  :o must not look, too young for such a vision, so you admit you have made your seeds porn stars now  ;) , you are very naughty goodlife  ;D  ;D  ;D

Sadly the pots are full of lemon cheesecake (the ones in my fridge  anyway) dirty work but someone has to do it!

Quote from: Deb P on March 08, 2011, 18:02:26
I am getting my tomato seeds sown tomorrow, I had thought
I was doing rather well in limiting myself this year, but then Jeannines' seed parcel came along and then the HSL seeds arrived, who wants to have a guestimate how many different varieties I will end up narrowing it down to tomorrow?! ;D

Answer: 46...... ::)

Oh, plus another 10 or so that I'm growing just for our plant sale.... ;D

Seeds arrived fromHeritage Seeds today 5 more to add to my list! ;D
Orange fleshed purple
Black Krim
Pink Brandywine
Black Prince
Black cherry


of course everything is still under control ;D
I think I may try goodlife's sowing method :)

Last year most things got blight as I was restricted to those rubbish tomato greenhouse things and growing outside so only a few for me this year as I still need to get some kind of greenhouse/polytunnel type thing sorted for them.

Black krim
Black Russian
Cherokee purple
Lemon tree
Yellow tumbling tom
San marzano
Principe Borghese
Ananas noire

No doubt I'll buy a gardeners delight or some other cherry variety when they pop up in the shops as young plants

Thanks to the posters in this thread -YOU know who YOU are ;) ;) ;)
I now am growing some of these fantastic varieties.

I am finding the black ones really tasty but just the skin is a bit tougher- is this normal.  I do not mind by the way, but OH will comment.

I carefully took the skin off a peice of Black Prince to give to OH today and he refused to eat it on account of the strange colour ??? oh dear more for me ;D

Black Prince to give to OH today and he refused to eat it on account of the strange colour
Mine too :o Oh said black tomatoes look like raw meat.. ::) Although he likes the taste..the look puts him off.. ::)
So now what I cannot eat I use for cooking..then the colour is not relevant ;)
I haven't noticed mine being that though..perharp it is to do with growing conditions ???

Ohh..and to add to that..little 'story'..
My lotty neighbour grew first time in her life something else than usual red and round tomato..
I gave her few heritage variety plants..she has never grown beeftomato..or didn't know other colours than red exist in toms.. :o..bless..
Anyway..I was told..' I've never ever tasted tomatoes like that'..O-ou.. :-X Thought she didn't approve.. ::)
But no..she meant it in positive way..she's grown tomatoes 40 years..and I had pleasure to introduce her into world of weird and wonderful heritage varieties.. ;D She is now converted to try even more new ones next year.. ;D

Well I made tomato soup last night with the colourful ones and just telephoned OH to ask if he had some for lunch- yes its very nice "tastes of tomatoes"!!!
Glad your plot neighbour likes them too! :D

My latest new favourite is Violet Jaspar for taste...thay look a bit odd, (purple and green stripes) but taste really lovely! ;D

I am just getting better and better with toms every year! It's so rewarding, and yes slightly pornographic  ;D ;D
First year I have ever got the beefsteak types to look like they should! I was very good pruning etc and feeding them this year. And I have a good smattering of varieties: Gardener's Delight for cocktail tomatoes, Some small Italian ones that I bought a plant of but which are highly prolific and early, some real "Coeur de Boeuf" that are delicious, Moneymaker and Tigerella for salads and Marmande and some Evergreen green tomatoes for slicing. And in my organic veg box I got some terrific Black Russians and some kind of orange beefsteak which was just delicious, so needless to say I am keeping all the seeds!!
To be honest, I think they are the real reason I do my plot! They are the highlight of my year.