This year I was unable to buy 2 tomato plants as usual. However I had the tail end of a tomato and sowed the seeds . The plants were slow to get going but once in the polytunnel they produced the best tomatoes we have ever had. All sizes of fruit and no idea what we had grown but worth growing.
Since we arrived here nearly 4 years ago I have been buying heritage tomato plants form a specialist at a local spring plant fair and trying lots of new, to us, varieties. Needless to say it was cancelled this year so I sowed a few seeds I found in my stash and bought some F1 plants from GCs as soon as they were allowed to open to sell plants for veg plots and smallholdings last April.
I have been singularly unimpressed with the flavour of Sungold, Crimean Black and a big beef tomato plus a few others so bland I can't even remember their names. Fortunately, our Yellow Pear from last year had babies all on its own and they are lovely just to munch or dried and then preserved in oil for bruschetta.
Fingers crossed the plant fair is on next year and chappy hasn't gone under in the meantime but I've ordered a few seeds online from Chiltern Seeds, just in case.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
@lyn how do you support your Roma tomatoes. I have grown them in previous years and they just sprawl all over the ground and get munched by slimy things. I tried making a sort of grid for them to grow through but that didn't work well.
I'm a bit disappointed with the flavour of Sungold too. It's sweet, but lacks that sharp tangy edge that really nice tomatoes have. Rosella, Gardeners Delight and Yellow Pear are all tasting good this year, although they are from the same packets of seed as last year's which were all a bit on the bland side. Weather makes a difference I think.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
That's strange. My Sungolds are quite sharp, and not as sweet as they were last year It's been difficult keeping steady temps though, and I put it down to that. Yesterday, it was mid thirties in the growhouse when I opened the roof. I doubt it'll be half of that today, and it's been like that since fruits were forming.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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I have been singularly unimpressed with the flavour of Sungold, Crimean Black and a big beef tomato plus a few others so bland I can't even remember their names. Fortunately, our Yellow Pear from last year had babies all on its own and they are lovely just to munch or dried and then preserved in oil for bruschetta.
Fingers crossed the plant fair is on next year and chappy hasn't gone under in the meantime but I've ordered a few seeds online from Chiltern Seeds, just in case.
It's been difficult keeping steady temps though, and I put it down to that.
Yesterday, it was mid thirties in the growhouse when I opened the roof. I doubt it'll be half of that today, and it's been like that since fruits were forming.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...