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What seeds/types are best for flavoursome veg?
in Fruit & veg
Hi guys,
I was really dissapointed with my Money Maker tomatoes last year. Despite the seed packet saying they were 'flavourful', they were completely lacking in flavour!
What is your favourite tomatoe to grow? One that can compete with whats sold in the shops?
Same with runner beans and butternut squash?
Perhaps theres a seed company that sells better seeds than Mr Fothergills?
Thanks
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I only grow cherry or plum toms nowadays, as they suit us, and the amount of space I have. I like Sungold - I find them quite sharp, but that's the point - some people will find them sweet others won't. It's why it can be difficult to recommend anything. I expect growing conditions also affect flavour. The more warmth tomatoes have, the sweeter they tend to taste. I tried Tumbling Tom, and thought they were tasteless. I grew Piccolo last year and the previous year - seed saved from a punnet my younger daughter brought home. They were pretty good, and very good cropping.
I don't grow runner beans [yuk!] and squash for me is just a carrier of other flavours - spices mainly. I only use that kind of veg in soup, usually roasted.
I've always found Fothergills pretty reliable for seed, but I use others too. Simply Seed is one I've been using for a couple of years. They have a good range, and ofte in smaller quantities which is useful for certain types of veg.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The were developed for commercial use.
They're easy to grow, the size is good, they're nicely round, they look healthy and they can take a quite a bit of knocking around in transport without damage - hence the name. But they have zero flavour.
A similar-looking tomato is Shirley which has far better flavour.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
As others have said, taking recommendations is a bit pointless because we all have different tastes and preferences. However there is an objective ranking of sweetness called the Brix scale and anything with a score over 8 is deemed to be very sweet, if that is your preference. Sungold Cherry, for example, scores 8.5. It is easy to Google the score.
Another approach is to restrict yourself to seeds given the RHS’s Award of Garden Marit (AGM). Only plants that perform well on a range of criteria, including taste, get the accolade. In recent years I have grown three runner bean varieties with AGM status - White Lady, Celebration and Moonlight - and I would be happy to endorse them myself.
As for which seed company, I would make a shortlist of favourites and choose the company that stocks all your choices. That minimises post and packing. People will often say they favour company X over company Y but I would not be in the least surprised if both companies are supplied by the same wholesaler. X might do better than Y from the previous year but that is not because of the seeds but is due to different compost, different weather, different pest attacks, different watering and hazy memory.
This is my 4th year of growing. Ive now learnt the basics and Im comfortable with the usual tasks needed (sowing, cropping, dealing with pests etc). This year I want less abundance and more flavour. Perhaps theyre not mutually exclusive(?)
I do like the idea of buying M&S tomatoes and saving the seed! I dont know why, I thought this wasnt possible to do because they werent heirloom or something.
Eitherway, Ill certainly try it! And Ill also try the seed companies mentioned above.
Thanks!
It's always difficult to suggest particular veg/fruit, because people vary so much themselves in how they perceive flavour. All you can really do is experiment a bit.
We do have a seed swap thread as well, sp perhaps you could look on that, and people might send you a few different things. Postage is so expensive now, so that could be a good way of trying 2 or 3 things relatively cheaply. That's the tight Scot coming out in me now @tuffnelljohn !
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...