published 7th April 2023
| The first batch of tomatoes is potted up and ready for those of you who have frost protection. A small garden greenhouse will not keep out much frost so, in an emergency, fleece or even a layer of newspaper may save the day. There is no hurry; they are still small and best left in their pots until the first flowers are showing yellow. This results in an early, low, first truss. When you do plant them out, start feeding when the first fruits are about the size of a marble. All change in the varieties again this year…Old favourites TUMBLER and GARDENER’S DELIGHT are back. Last season we grew SWEET MILLION to replace Gardener’s Delight and it was very successful, so we have it again this year. The very popular Sungold is not obtainable, so we are offering the new, even sweeter, orange-coloured HONEYCOMB – Brix 11. The plum tomato Olivia has gone and been replaced by NAGINA. This has high dry matter fruit, ie not much pulp and seed, so is ideal for cooking. With a Brix of 8 it will be good for salads as well. Any surplus can be puréed and frozen for the winter. So all in all a total of 13 varieties – spoilt for choice! Tomato Variety and Description – all come in 9cm pots Black Cherry Small sweet fruits, indoor or outdoor Brix7 Cordon Crimson Crush F1 Large fruit Brix 7. Blight resistant in or outdoors Which Cordon Floridity F1 Cherry Plum (replaces Rosada) Brix 9.5 Cordon Gardener’s Delight Classic variety, small fruit, in or outdoor. Brix 7 Cordon Honeycomb F1 Orange cherry fruit. Brix 11 Cordon Mascotka Small to medium fruit, early. Tub or basket. Determinate Moneymaker Classic variety, in or outdoor. Brix 4 Cordon Nagina F1 Plum for salads & especially good for cooking Brix 8 Shirley F1 Glasshouse, cold-tolerant, high quality Which AGM Cordon Sugargloss F1 Extra sweet cherry tomato Brix 12 Cordon Supersteak F1 Beefsteak variety Brix 5 Cordon Sweet Million F1 Blight resistant cherry variety Brix 7 Cordon Tumbler F1 Popular basket tomato, small fruit. Determinate We are very grateful to Ball Colegrave, our seed supplier, for permission to use these tomato photographs. |
