The variety is Money Maker, though after cooking some more this morning I think I initially mistook acidity for saltiness. They're much more acidic than supermarket tomatoes, which I think (mine) are usually Alicante.
And they are quite watery eaten raw. I'm yet to try them chopped in a salad, but just eating one raw isn't as strong a flavour as supermarket tomatoes. Cooked, with some of the water boiled off, they're delicious. I left them on the vine until they turned a deeper red and softened.
There's a clue in the name - Money Maker. They're probably going to give a good yield in terms of weight (and thus money) but many other varieties will have better flavour. By this time of year, though, many varieties will have been lacking sun and may not be as sweet as those that cropped earlier. Try Sungold for sweetness and aromatic tomato flavour.
Another vote here for the flavour of Sungold - it was also the last of our several different varieties growing outside this year to succumb to the dreaded blight.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Tomsk - I grew Moneymaker again this year and they weren't as good as last year but I think that was down to conditions. I was late getting them sewn so they fruited a bit later and ripened more slowly because the weather changed dramatically at the point where they were just starting to turn. They vary quite a bit in size and bigger ones always seem a bit watery, but the smaller ones are usually fine.
I'm trying Sungold next year due to the recommendations on here and also because the cherry types do seem to fruit a bit quicker which is better for me.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Sungold is a wonderful variety. It consistently starts cropping earlier and finishes later than any other variety I have ever grown (indeed, my plants are still in flower!) It also seems to have excellent all-round disease resistance. Some folk do find it too sweet though and the fruit can be prone to splitting but the huge crops and fantastic taste easily make it my all-time number one. I usually grow about 10 varieties each year, roughly half of which are always types I've never tried before but Sungold will always have a place.
PS: After taking Italiophile's advice over the last few years and so ensuring excellent ventilation, I haven't had any significant disease problems even though I do grow plants far closer together than is recommended; I'm as certain as one can be that ventilation is the key for those suffering from tomato disease problems.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Fairygirl - I've never grown tomatoes before, but that sounds like my situation too. I planted seeds in tiny plastic pots in March, but didn't get them into soil until June, long after they were ready for it.
They seem to have been growing slowly and although I've had a couple of ripened crops so far, they seem rather small and the fruits on the vines are still very green.
We'll see what happens next year with more experience and earlier planting, assuming we get another good summer.
Today I plucked a few ripened tomatoes from my vines and a couple had black dots on them. I've seen blight on green tomatoes before, but this looks different, and there was absolutely no darkening or unusual textures to the truss or vine. Other tomatoes from the same truss have no black dots
Is it blight or something else, and are they safe to eat?
There were a couple of touches of blight elsewhere on the vine or adjacent vines, and some damaged vine that was rotting, but nothing looked wrong with the truss, vines or foliage around these tomatoes. Three tomatoes had black spots in total. The rest on the truss had no spots and are uniformly red all over.
This is a high resolution photo of the third tomato, which was larger and had less obvious spots:
There have been snails crawling over the vines, blackfly and caterpillars on a very nearby dahlia and probably other garden insects, including bees and wasps (because of the dahlias).
Oh, I've just cut the worst one open, and it seems perfect inside. I peeled back the skin a bit and the black spots don't even seem to be on the inside of the skin, just the surface of the fruit.
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Thanks for the replies,
The variety is Money Maker, though after cooking some more this morning I think I initially mistook acidity for saltiness. They're much more acidic than supermarket tomatoes, which I think (mine) are usually Alicante.
And they are quite watery eaten raw. I'm yet to try them chopped in a salad, but just eating one raw isn't as strong a flavour as supermarket tomatoes. Cooked, with some of the water boiled off, they're delicious. I left them on the vine until they turned a deeper red and softened.
There's a clue in the name - Money Maker. They're probably going to give a good yield in terms of weight (and thus money) but many other varieties will have better flavour. By this time of year, though, many varieties will have been lacking sun and may not be as sweet as those that cropped earlier. Try Sungold for sweetness and aromatic tomato flavour.
Another vote here for the flavour of Sungold - it was also the last of our several different varieties growing outside this year to succumb to the dreaded blight.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Tomsk - I grew Moneymaker again this year and they weren't as good as last year but I think that was down to conditions. I was late getting them sewn so they fruited a bit later and ripened more slowly because the weather changed dramatically at the point where they were just starting to turn. They vary quite a bit in size and bigger ones always seem a bit watery, but the smaller ones are usually fine.
I'm trying Sungold next year due to the recommendations on here and also because the cherry types do seem to fruit a bit quicker which is better for me.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Sungold is a wonderful variety. It consistently starts cropping earlier and finishes later than any other variety I have ever grown (indeed, my plants are still in flower!) It also seems to have excellent all-round disease resistance. Some folk do find it too sweet though and the fruit can be prone to splitting but the huge crops and fantastic taste easily make it my all-time number one. I usually grow about 10 varieties each year, roughly half of which are always types I've never tried before but Sungold will always have a place.
PS: After taking Italiophile's advice over the last few years and so ensuring excellent ventilation, I haven't had any significant disease problems even though I do grow plants far closer together than is recommended; I'm as certain as one can be that ventilation is the key for those suffering from tomato disease problems.
Fairygirl - I've never grown tomatoes before, but that sounds like my situation too. I planted seeds in tiny plastic pots in March, but didn't get them into soil until June, long after they were ready for it.
They seem to have been growing slowly and although I've had a couple of ripened crops so far, they seem rather small and the fruits on the vines are still very green.
We'll see what happens next year with more experience and earlier planting, assuming we get another good summer.
Today I plucked a few ripened tomatoes from my vines and a couple had black dots on them. I've seen blight on green tomatoes before, but this looks different, and there was absolutely no darkening or unusual textures to the truss or vine. Other tomatoes from the same truss have no black dots
Is it blight or something else, and are they safe to eat?
Looks like some sort of fungal infection to me, possibly one of the blights - what are they like inside and what was the vine and foliage like?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
There were a couple of touches of blight elsewhere on the vine or adjacent vines, and some damaged vine that was rotting, but nothing looked wrong with the truss, vines or foliage around these tomatoes. Three tomatoes had black spots in total. The rest on the truss had no spots and are uniformly red all over.
This is a high resolution photo of the third tomato, which was larger and had less obvious spots:
There have been snails crawling over the vines, blackfly and caterpillars on a very nearby dahlia and probably other garden insects, including bees and wasps (because of the dahlias).
Oh, I've just cut the worst one open, and it seems perfect inside. I peeled back the skin a bit and the black spots don't even seem to be on the inside of the skin, just the surface of the fruit.
Here's the sliced tomato with a bit of the skin peeled back: