#163946
Postby sg31 » September 3rd, 2018, 3:33 pm
West Midlands
I've been growing tomatoes for 3 years. The first 2 in a tatty aluminium greenhouse inherited from the previous owners. It was 8x6 and had low head height. I stopped the plants at the 4th truss and 80% were ripe by the first frost.
This year I've replaced the greenhouse and now have a 10x8 I can stand up in. I've grown 24 plants of various types and let them go to the 7th truss to see what happened. With the very hot weather they have ripened well to the 4th truss mostly, Gardeners Delight, Shirley and Nimbus are lagging a bit. On the others I've got some tomatoes ripe on the 5th and 6th trusses. No sign of ripening on the 7th truss.
In case it is of any use to others I will add the following...
I grew 11 varieties to try and find something that tastes like a tomato should. I trawled an allotment website and picked the most recommended varieties. Bear in mind that this is an exceptional year weather wise therefore totally different results might happen next year. These are the varieties and my findings so far
Sungold, yellow cherry, not a heavy crop but superb flavour, outstanding.
Rosella, cherry but a bit bigger than Sungold, heavier crop, excellent flavour but not quite as good as Sungold but not much in it.
Tiger Red, slightly bigger cherry than the other 2, skin is a bit thick but very good flavour, heavy crop.
Sweet Million, Lots of small cherry tomatoes, very sweet but not much acidity, not much real tomato flavour.
Sweet aperitif as above but less flavour.
Nimbus standard size, moderate flavour, best of the standard sized tomatoes but not good enough, heavy crop.
Red Alert, OK but nothing special
Shirley, standard size tomato, some flavour but watery. Quite late to crop.
Gardeners Delight, It didn't. Cherry , late ripening, small crop, bland
Maskotka, Bush type, bland, early cropper. supposed to be a cherry but they turned out mid sized, watery lacking flavour.
Black Russian, a beef tomato, gross, watery, only fit for frying, I wouldn't grow it again. Shame because it was highly thought of, I expected much of this and it didn't deliver.
I will plant more of the first 3 next year but haven't found a good standard sized tomato yet. The search will continue next year
During the very hot weather I was watering 3 times per day and still had problems with blossom end rot. The greenhouse is unshaded. Last year I did put white stuff on the glass and found all the tomatoes bland. I was told that this was probably due to lack of sun so this year I left the greenhouse unshaded. At times temperatures were over 100 even with the doors and vents wide open.