Category Archives: tomatoes

tomatoes

leggy but still lovely tomatoes

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Just like the chillies, the tomato babies are growing slowly but surely. The first batch are somewhat leggy, and would most likely benefit from being potted up. This is a plan in the coming week at least. Shall be keeping an eye on them,and rotating as some have started to bend with the solar phillic tendency. Some of varieties have started to send out proper leaves, whereas others are somewhat delayed, I would rather that they did take their time at this stage, I don’t want them grow too quickly and then keel over should we have a cold snap. They are largely kept warm, but not too warm so as to be in heat all the time.

We have:

  • marmade
  • yellow stuffer
  • true blackbrandywine
  • cream sausage
  • money maker
  • cherokee purple.

Haven’t got around to sowing any additional varieties, and I’m not sure that I want to sow any more. There is finite space in the poly tunnel, which will have tomatoes sharing with chillies.

Soft fruit, tomatoes

Seedlings and soft fruit: cynical single day

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Today is the feast of saint valentines and as ever, I don’t have any plans. Have finally received the yellow autumn raspberries that I was expecting. These are a variety called fall good and will go with the yellow autumn bliss canes planted last summer. I am hoping that these actually taste of something. Have been rather looking forwards to them. These canes have been plugged in alongside the autumn bliss and hinnonmaki green goosberries.

Have also made paper pots today and potted up some wiry tomato babies. I now have two dozen babies so I doubt very I shall be sowing any more. Unless of course they all keel over.

tomatoes

Tomatos: Heritage and brandywines

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Sat here with the FA Cup on in the background, I am seed shuffling. Seed shuffling tomato seeds. I have now got 12 baby seedlings, sat nervously on the window sill. I am hoping to sow some more in the coming weeks, The plan, is to have tomatos and chilli peppers in the poly tunnel.

So far, I have sown a money maker, true black brandywine, purple cherokee, yellow stuffer, marmande, and cream sausage. A few of these are heritage varieties, and some of them the big beefsteak variety. They are also a diverse range in terms of their colour spectrum.

Last year, Marmande were lovely. Just a bit green. They have a lovely knobbly surface that you just don’t find in the supermarket. I also had purple cherokee. Again, this was a productive cropper. There were tomatoes, big ones too. Smudges of purple. rather than fully, failed to move much from green.  The tomatoes that we see in the supermarket, are those beautifully round, smooth, spherical creatures. Yet not all veg is smooth, uniform and standard. The vast majority of it, is actually wonky. Yet we don’t buy it, and it sadly goes to waste.

Having rooted around the seed stashers, I have located my tomato seeds. Once more, I am trying to select the varieties that I would like to sow.  Have already sown a few yellow tomatoes, but there is a yellow brandywine that I quite like the look of. There is already a pinkish one, that rules out the pink brandywine. There is something definitely more solid about a beefsteak tomato. The plants are different too, in terms of the leaf shape and they get quite tall.

I have quite a few tigerella seeds, freebies, I think. Might try these to see what kind of fruit they are, beyond their novelty stripes. It is a heritage variety, interestingly. Lastly, there is Roma VF. Meant to be good for sauces, so we shall see as to how productive it. Most likely going to be used just like a conventional red tomato.

chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, tomatoes

Potted up tomatoes and chillies

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The first of the tomatoes have germinated and come through. I think I have six surviving germinators, with one keeling over with the cold. These have been transplanted into yogurt pots from their modular compartments. I have to say, that the trick by Allotment Lena works. Where you use a spoon to transplant from one place to another. There appears to be less root disturbance. There are not many that have come through, yet money maker tomato seems at this stage to be the quickest out of the blocks. There were 24 sections in the modules, and so far seven have come through. I think I may have made the compost a little too damp. Going to see how many more come through, and then I will look at sowing some more. Was thinking about where to put these when they grow larger, and the poly tunnel seems to be the best place. I have always grown tomatoes outside, and never had them ripen. Putting them into the polytunnel is probably going to be more useful.

The chillies are starting to get a wriggle on, and these have also been transferred from modules to other pots. I did have a panic as some of them looked a little shrivelled. I had thought thought that I had lost most them. Much hand wringing ensued. However, covering them with a propogater lid, these were a little revived with the heat and light being trapped to warm them up again. The cayenne chillies were the quickest to come through, and with the Aji Limo chillies are the more robust looking. Pumpkin and raindrop chillies are by far the daintiest of the lot.  Debating, as to whether I sow some more. Unlike last year, I don’t plan to plant them directly into the ground in the poly. The plan is to plant into pots, based upon previous experience.

There are eight varieties in all, I am still waiting for orange and chocolate habaneros to germinate. In previous experience, these do take a while. I don’t particularly want to pop them into a heated prop, as they end up leggy and wiry.

tomatoes

Early-I know-Tomatoes 2015

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early tomato varieties
early tomato varieties

Since we are sowing seeds. Why leave the tomatoes out? I have sown them at time of the year before. Only to have wiry, gangly leggy creatures that I didn’t pot up quickly enough. I’m not very good at both potting on, or pricking out for that matter. I stood in Dad’s loft, it was cold up there, rooted in the seed stasher to pull out the seeds. I didn’t have as many as I had thought, but that didn’t make the selection of seeds any easier. Laying out the packets, it was a cross between laying out solitaire cards and X factor selection. You might think, that a tomato is a tomato. Not quite. Trust me, there are people out there who will have strong views on that matter. There are quite a few heritage/heirloom varieties in this particular experiment. Last year, I had a few that were shop brought plants. Wiry and tall to begin with, with slightly odd leaves. These did actually take sometime to get growing. The plants did grow large well, but were slower to produce the bigger, beefsteak fruit.

The varieties are:

  • Yellow stuffer-This made the lovely yellow chutney last year, so same again, please.
  • Marmande-big beefy beefsteak. Very productive last year, knobbly decent sized tomato.
  • Cream sausage-hilarious name, but actually yellow.
  • True black brandywine-another beefy beefsteak. But what looks likes like a Gothic fruit. Did have a shop brought Brandywine last year, the name escapes me.
  • Moneymaker-I have to have one bog standard red tomato, so mum doesn’t protest. It was toss up between this variety and Gardener’s delight.
  • Cherokee purple. I brought one of these last year as a plant, from a local greengrocer. Big plant, big fruit, but not bad.

I do have a sense of trepidation about sowing this early. Not least of all because they all might germinate like triffids and become leggy.Must keep an eye on them, make sure that they get potted up as soon as possible. Seeds were modularised, twenty four modules. But not a lot of seeds, at this stage. Plus, I have to consider window sill space. If they all do come off, then there is the small matter of them ripening.

In a bit of pickle, success, tomatoes

Last of the summer preserves: spicy green tom chutney

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I got a little bored of chopping tomatoes, so only half of that trough actually made it into chutney. Lots of green tomatoes, with a onion, garlic and ginger base.

Were added to cider vinegar, purée tomatoes, mustard, cumin, chillies, cayenne, paprika, turmeric, peppercorns , fennel and white mustard seeds. Cooked slowly until a large amount of the liquid has disappeared.

I did put a fair bit of tomato purée so that it didn’t look like a green mess. So far it tastes as though it has a kick.

tomatoes

Sunshine yellow: tomatoes and a cauliflower

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yellow toms

The sunshine has helped mature some of the tomatoes. As I await the vast majority to go red, there are a clutch that have gone a lovely bright yellow. Most of these are yellow stuffer. Whilst they are not the same size as yellow peppers, they are a similar shape. There is not a lot of tomato-y stuff inside, as they can be stuffed. These are a nice fleshy, firm fruit through. Not particularly delicate. I guess as they have a large cavity, they might not be full of tomato taste as one would normally expect.

cauliflowe

Ma has harvested a cauliflower, she tells me that was football sized. I say was, as it has been eaten.

tomatoes

Tomayto time

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The tomatoes are coming thick and fast. Just not very red, as you can see. There are also sorts here, my favourite by far are the knobbly marmande. I strongly recommend these as a a variety. Some smaller F1 rainbow mix are there; as well as a cascading sunstripe.

tomatoes

Bumpy,bountiful but still green

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With the flurry of yellow flowers on the tomato plants, there have been about a dozen bulbous fruit dangling. These have got to an appropriate enough size, but haven’t yet started to go grow green. Most of them are marmande with a couple of money maker. Placed onto the window sill, hopefully they will start to turn. If not they may find themselves in a green tomato chutney of some sort.

tomatoes

Tomato explosion

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The heat and light has caused something of an tomato explosion. There have been increasing number of yellow flowers. Some of they quite dainty, others such as the beefsteak are fuzzy little things. The citrina tomatoes are cute. Little lemon shaped things, compared to the beautifully ugly marmande ones.