Friday 21 May 2010

21st May - Tomatoes Planting out plan

29th June Update:
Dug up the broad beans in bed 2 and planted:
1 Cherry? Sungold?
2 Dominato
3 Super Marmande
4 Radiator Charlie
5 Radiator Charlie
6 Cherokee Purple
7 Super Marmande

In Bed 3 planted:
2 Radiator Charlies at fence end of bed

3rd June Update:
Dominato F1 planted in bed three (Greenhouse end is bed one)
Red Cherry planted in bed five
Super Marmande planted in bed six, furthest from playground
Sungold F1 planted in bed seven
Can't remember what is planted in the smallest raised bed. Only time.....will tell.
More to come when space become available
Would all footballs/basketballs please avoid these plants. Thanks!
UPDATE: Will all foxes please find somewhere else to dig.
3rd June Update:
Two Dominato F1s planted in Honeywell Nursery veg garden

Saw fox trapped in cage. Photo to follow!
13rd June Update:
Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Bed six, middle of the bed.
'Mutant' Super Marmande: Bed six, nearest playground

Saturday 1 May 2010

THIS YEAR´S TOMATO VARIETIES

We´ve selected a wide range of tomatoes to grow at Belleville School this year. Seedlings are already six inches tall and will be ready for planting out in a week or two. We´ll be selling a range in the playground soon so whether you´re after a small cherry tomato plant to grow in a pot on your patio, or you´d like to try your hand at growing a monster variety like Radiator Charlie´s Mortgage Lifter, I think we have the plants for you!

SUNGOLD F1
Cordon (Indeterminate). An excellent new tomato for greenhouse or outdoors to provide lots of deliciously different fruit for salads etc. Sungold has an exceptional and very high sugar content (it definitely rivals 'Gardeners Delight') and these attractive golden orange, approx. 13 gram, fruit are irresistible with a sweet flavour all their own -almost a dessert fruit! Sungold crops well and has resistance to Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Fusarium to ensure healthy plants.

SUPER MARMANDE
Semi-Bush (Semi-Determinate). The favourite large-fruited tomato of Provence. Tomato Super Marmande is distinguished by its irregular cushion shape and touch of pink on the shoulders. Super Marmande is large, juicy, well flavoured fruit and a great improvement over an already excellent variety.


DOMINATO F1
Czech variety. Round red fruit weighing between 140 and 160 gram. Distinctive scalloping on the upper side. Tolerates cooler temperatures. Very good resistance to disease. A good basic tomato with excellent flavour. A favourite of our nanny´s granny!

RADIATOR CHARLIE´S MORTGAGE LIFTER
Sometime during the early 1940's, a Mr Marshall Cletis Byles of Logan, West Virginia, otherwise known as Radiator Charlie (a radiator repair man by trade, unsurprisingly) decided that he wanted to develop a very large tomato, so he set about trying to locate the largest tomatoes that he could find. He soon located four varieties of very large tomatoes: German Johnson Pink, Red Beefsteak, an unknown Italian variety and an unknown English variety. From these, he grew ten plants which he cultivated in a very unorthodox, unique fashion. He planted nine of the plants in a circle and then planted a German Johnson Pink in the centre of the circle. Byles then cross pollinated the German Johnson's flowers with pollen from each of the nine plants in the circle and saved seed from the resulting tomatoes. The next year, he planted the seeds and selected the best seedlings. The very best of these again went to the centre of a circle, while the remaining were planted in a circle around them. Again, the plants in the middle were hand pollinated with pollen from those in the circle. Byles repeated this process for the next six years until he had created a stable variety that met his needs. After that, he never had another type of tomato on his place. The resulting variety became known as the Radiator Charlie's Tomato and soon established themselves as being very desirable. Every spring, gardeners from as far away as 200 miles came to buy their tomato seedlings from Radiator Charlie, which he sold for one dollar each, which was a substantial amount of money for a tomato plant back then. Mr. Byles sold so many tomato plants of his new variety over the next five or six years that the profits of his tomato enterprise paid off the $6000 mortgage on his home! After that, the tomato variety became forever known as Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Tomato! In 1985, Mr. Byles shared some of his seed with the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, who formerly introduced it to the general public. Ever since then, it has been a very desireable tomato variety.

RED CHERRY (Cordon)
This is a standard large Red Cherry Tomato that produces small round, red and sweet tomatoes. Great for salads or using in stir-fry and other cooking. A great and prolific producer. Red Cherry was originally introduced way back in the 1880's and has been growing strong ever since. Just like the ones your grandmother used to raise! A popular, disease resistant variety that will produce a high yield. A compact habit means it is ideal for those with small gardens and for planting in pots.

MINIBEL
This is an ideal variety for people with a small garden, patio or balcony, preferably south facing as tomatoes like plenty of warmth. In a sunny spot it will reward you by producing tasty tomatoes that are ideal for salads, roasting or nibbling straight from the bush. Also suitable for a pot as it is low-growing (45-90 cm).

You can grow the TORNADO F1 variety without pruning and it will produce an abundance of normal sized round tasty tomatoes. Great if you have a sunny area of your garden or patio that you can set aside for tomato production!

CHEROKEE PURPLE
One of the few tomatoes to have its own dedicated website (http://www.cherokeepurple.com/) this is apparently an amazingly delicious beefsteak style tomato, great for slicing and serving in salads, rather than cooking. If you love tomatoes sliced with a little olive oil and black pepper, this could be the one for you!

After last year´s disaster when a young Dutton removed all the plant labels, the seedlings are in pots marked with dots or initials designating the variety:

Minibel - One dot
Dominato F1 - Two dots
Super Marmande - Three dots
Sungold F1 - Four dots
Red Cherry - Five dots
Radiator Charlie - RC
F1 Tornado - F1T
Cherokee Purple - CP

TOMATO PLANT CARE

Pruning Cordon (indeterminate) varieties : As soon as the flower trusses start to form the plant will begin to produce shoots in the joints between the stem and the leaf. By nature the tomato is a bushy plant, but allowing these shoots to grow will result in a mass of bushy foliage and small fruits. Remove sideshoots by "pinching out" using your thumb and forefinger. Repeat this every two days towards the end of the season. When the plant is bearing six or seven trusses of fruit break off the growing tip cleanly just above the second leaf above the top truss. The plant can then concentrate all of its resources into growing fruit.

De-leafing: Removing the lower leaves of the plant will encourage it to channel its resources into fruit production and improve ventilation close to the soil.
Feeding and Watering: Tomatoes need plenty of moisture but not a saturated soil. Twice daily watering is a must in hot weather. Greenhouse grown crops will benefit from a good misting by spraying the whole greenhouse including floor, staging etc.

Harvesting: The bottom trusses ripen first and you can if you like pick the tomatoes before they are quite ripe. Sever the stalk at the "knuckle" just above the calyx. They can complete their ripening on a windowsill within a few days. Removing the crop before it's ripe helps the plant to concentrate on the next lot of fruit.