THE TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2018

Gigantomo and tumblingtom for me. This will of course change as i dig out my big bag of seeds.

Only problem is my blowaway greenhouse thingy blewaway :fan:

 

We bought two solar powered hydroponic units for the polytunnel last year. They worked very very well but with one proviso which was the fruits were insipid, to say the least.

Now locally to us a farmer with a dairy herd is doing pretty much the same thing but heating his glass house with bio heat from the herd slurry. His fruits are full of flavour so it seems it's not the method but the variety that counts.

Anyone have some suggestions please for varieties they have grown this way only.

 

I have never had much taste in a tomato grown purely hydroponically. I have tried numerous methods and fertilisers both chemical and organic. I now use quadgrows in which the pots are suspended over a tank with a wick feed. I have used various methods to feed. The method suggested by the maker is to put the supplied feed into the water tank which leads to various problems, and you have to clean out the tanks and replenish with fresh water every two to three weeks.
I now grow with only water in the tank which is vigorously aerated and feed into the compost in the pots all organically. My compost make up this year is 70% peat 20% perlite and 10% worm compost for the microherd. I add to the compost 80 grms FBB, 60 grms seaweed meal , 50 grms calcified seaweed and 50 grms rock dust in each 11litre pot.
I feed with bio bizz grow and bloom supplement with seaweed extract and spray with cal/mag. The roots of toms are dusted with mycorrhizal fungus when potting up.
These roots grow down into the aerated water but this does not seen to dilute the taste.
Variety is the key to taste see below my take on variety, others will have different taste idea's

Varieties I will be growing this year

Sungold small cherry in conservatory
Sun cherry small cherry
Sun cherry premium small cherry
Crimson crush medium 200 grams
Emerald green cherry small cherry
Tigrella medium size 50grams
Juanne Flamme medium size 30 to 50grams
Steak sandwich large red 400 grams +

Varieties previously trailed

Sungold Excellent but splits easily
Steak Sandwich Excellent taste large tomato
Tigrella Excellent medium size tangy
Juanne Flamme Excellent medium size
Amish gold Excellent first year but subsequent seasons were very poor
Alacante so so
Juanne Flamme Very good
Orance parouche Good but not as good as sungold
Shirley OK good basket filler
Amish paste Not great will not grow again
Beefmaster Good first and second years not good after that
Ruth’s perfect Rubbish spitter
Mandarin orange Rubbish spitter
Ailsa craig fantastic crop but no taste
St Perrie Plants only produced two or three trusses taste mediocre
Sakura ok not as good as Sungold
Spudakee ok would not grow again
Gardeners delight Used to be good seems to have lost its way
Black cherry Spitter
Brown berry Spitter Do not care for any of the dark varieties
Matina ok
Orange Wellington poor taste
Caro Rich Poor crop no taste
Sweet 100 ok not as good as sungold
Carmello so so
Mortgage lifter so so
Moneymaker Rubbish water ball
Pork Chop poor no taste
Sweet Aperatief Poor very small
Flamingo Rubbish hard as rocks
Regards Sandy

 

We used the quadgro as you suggest but stuck with the makers instructions as it was the first year. Plants did very well and out cropped the earth grown and growbag plants we had for comparison but just disappointing in flavour.

 

Which varieties did you grow?

 

@sandymac, I am looking to try Orange Parouche instead of Sungold (fed up with splitting) but you say not as good. Do you mean flavour or crop quantity or both?

 

Hi Strongyloden I found the flavour was not as good as sungold but still a very nice tomato
regards sandy

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try if I can find some.

 

I got mine from fothergills seeds I still have ten seeds left if you want them they are from 2013 but may still germinate. pm me your address if you want them
Regards Sandy​

 

First tomatoes have germinated! But please note that these are Micro Toms (World's smallest tomato) that'll need to be grown on under lights until they go into the greenhouse in April. I last saved seeds in 2015 so wanted to save some fresh stock.

 

I only like Sungold eaten either straight from the plant or soon afterwards, as I find they rapidly turn insipid.

Are Orange Parouche better at retaining their flavour? (I got my Mr Fothergill's OP seeds when half price at Homebase last year).

 

Last few are ripening