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In Brief
Tomato Lover. The online grow bag for all things tomato .
What’s growing here? Over 50 tomato plants,13 different varieties AND my tomato know-how!
Like to know a bit more ?
2010 is my umpteenth year of being a tomato lover, my 2nd as a tomato grower. So now, when not checking up on my plants I’m learning all I can on how to grow them.
I’ll also be poking my head round the garden gate of fellow tomato growers and asking them to share some of their secrets.
And some more after that ?
I hope anyone who loves to grow or eat tomatoes will enjoy reading what’s going on here at Tomato Lover.
If you are an experienced grower and through your hard earned knowledge can help, your advice would be truly welcomed.
If you are new to growing tomatoes and still finding your green fingers then do join in, compare notes and ask all those questions beginners need to know the answers to. Tomatoes aren’t the only ones that need supporting as they grow!
Hold that Comfrey Leaf cuppa but a ‘ how’s it going’ over the virtual garden fence would be very welcome !
So if you love tomatoes but find yourself in the supermarket, choosing which ones to buy for flavour (were the words ‘grown for flavour’ anything but an admission of something gone very awry?) and always wonder about growing your own but not quite sure where to start, Tomato Lover can help.
As Kitchen Garden magazine’s Edwin Oxlade wrote :
‘Growing your own successfully is not easy because it requires a huge amount of knowledge, both specific and trivial, and years of practical experience. Anyone starting from scratch is going to need a lot of learning and a lot of help’.
Perhaps these words borrowed from C.S. Lewis encapsulate what sharing on Tomato Lover is about:
‘Friendship is borne at that moment when one person says to another, “What ! You too? I thought I was the only one”.’
For my part I’ll be posting what happens with my tomatoes, from seed to plate. (Of course some won’t make it to the plate but will go straight from plant to mouth. Forget food miles, we’re talking food inches here.)
And a bit about me?
I live in Surrey, England. The urban, not the leafy part. And when I didn’t know any better I added to the urban bit by hard landscaping my back garden with stone and gravel. At one stage the greenest thing in my garden was the fence, a nice Cuprinol shade as used by Alan Titchmarsh on Groundforce. So my tomatoes will be grown outdoors in bags and pots. So don’t feel you have to have a walled garden and acres to join in ! I’m looking forward to turning my urban patch into a tomato jungle! I know it’s mixing metaphors but from little acorns……
So welcome to Tomato Lover and feel free to jump right in.
If you aren’t sure where to start then here ‘s a selection of my weekly updates to give you a taste of what ‘s been growing here so far. See the journey from seed to tomato jungle to ripe tomato !
Growing Tomatoes:
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not much of a tomato lover myself but they sure are fun to grow. (And my wife loves ‘em, so I grow ‘em!) Good luck with your sprouts — hope they’re all delicious!
Your photos are so lovely! Great work!
Hello, I found you blog the other day, it’s an interesting read. Whilst not obsessive about them, I love growing fresh toms and avoiding the Dreaded Blight. I wish you well, and may all your tomatoes be good ones.
Well, if you think growing tomatoes in a warm climate is easy let me disavow of that idea. I started sowing San Marzano plum toms in February in the greenhouse and almost every one germinated. They transplanted to the veg patch successfully but then came an unusually hot late May/early June and I think this set them back before they could get their “feet under the table”. Despite a regular feed programme with liquid Growmore and then Tomorite and daily watering, every single fruit has developed blossom end rot. The fruits reach about 1″ in length and then fall off. Very disappointing!On the other hand, all the cherry toms planted at the same time are doing well. Given the amount of tomatoes we eat in Greece, this does make me wonder how the commercial growers cope.
Ah,well, there’s always next year!
Dave van de Gevel, Zakynthos, Greece
I laughed ( not at your misfortune with the San Marzano – I feel for you on that) but at your expression – ‘well there’s always next year’ – when somethings not working out with the tomatoes that’s what I always end up saying to myself as way of consolation !
I’m very pleased to hear the Cherries are doing well though. It’s true – its easy to think sunny climes – all you would need to do is pop them in and before you know it – a never ending supply of wonderful tomatoes. But it just shows everywhere has its own considerations.
However the fact that we keep growing them and keeping the faith ( next year, next year….) just shows how unbeatable a home grown tomato is !
Thanks for your commiserations on the San Marzano front. However, a quick check this evening before watering showed the later fruit has no sign (yet!) of rot. Hope springs eternal!
Regards
Dave
Zakynthos
From Richmond, Virginia, across the pond, haha… Got our first Beefmaster of the season yesterday! It’s been a struggle for the poor plants this year. We’ve had record-breaking heat and they had a real challenge setting fruit. So it was an extra exciting first bite! Anyway, I wanted to say that a recipe you mentioned from The Cranks Recipe Book — the Cheese, Onion & Tomato Flan– is really wonderful. I was searching the web last year, trying to find a recipe which would duplicate what a former c0-worker from England had made for an office party many years ago (while she and her husband lived in the States). She didn’t really have a recipe for it, and before I had a chance to go to her house and watch her make it sometime, she and her husband moved back to England. I had tried a few recipes that were close, but never exactly “it”, until this one. By the way, I really like your blog and beautiful pics.
Hello,
Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments.
I’m so pleased you like the recipe. Cranks was a wonderful place. I’m not now – but was- veggie for a long time and their books and the couple of restaurants they ran had the most delicious vegetarian food at a time when all other restaurants offered was an omlette! Cranks also used to make a large flat wholemeal bap ( bread roll ) that was topped with cheese and deep filled with fresh cress that still counts as one of the most delicious sandwiches – ever !
I’m glad to hear you’ve got some homegrown tomatoes that have made it ! Warm summers are lovely – but too hot and as you say some plants start to stuggle. I guess its an inbuilt mechanism so that they don’t fruit when they think the climate is going to be too hostile in terms of lack of water or overall temperature.
It’s not a problem we have too often on this side of the pond ! although this year has had its hot moments !
Good luck with the rest of your crop and am so pleased you liked the flan !
Just stumbled across your site after an old tv prog mentioned green zebra. I have grown tomatoes for quite a few years and last year I grew Ferline F1 for the first time. I regard them as the best I have grown.
As usual I had more than I could cope with last year and I gave away a fair amount. Everyone remarked on the flavour and colour.
I bought small plants from Mr Fothergill last year and while I have ordered more this year I also bought some seed.
Have you come across any decent sized, well flavoured tomatoes?
Hello. Thank you for stopping by and getting in touch. That’s a great recommendation for Ferline. It’s also one of the varieties which is said to be resistant to blight – did you find that to be the case?
Re your question on decent sized tomatoes – I am guessing that you mean standard size – I have to say this is the one type of tomato that I think gets overlooked at the moment. I grew Elegance last year which was a Grafted Suttons Tomato – and this year for that type of tomato I am trying Dometica precisely because it’s a standard tomato with good feed back on flavour (this is the link to Medwyn seeds who sell it although the seed is more of a premium price). I think that at the moment innovations are in smaller sized fruit and heirloom types – but all things come full circle – so I am sure standard red tomatoes will have a revival as well!
I didn’t have any problems with blight, although I grow mine in a polytunnel. I grew some pink fir apple potatoes outside the tunnel a few years ago and had a bad attack of blight. But since then I grow my spuds in the polytunnel too!
Yes, I mean standard size. Something you can make a decent sandwich with.
I had a look at the Dometica seeds but I wouldn’t pay the price. The plants I ordered last year from Mr Fothergills were Ferline 5 for 5.95 I think. However when they arrived, 3 seeds had been sown to each module and they had all germinated. I separated them and grew all 15 plants, 3 per growbag.
I also started to grow chilli plants last year. Not only were they very productive, they looked well in pots. I saved some seed from each variety and sowed them a couple of weeks ago.
Germination has been fantastic and I have about 20 of each type.
I have a few photos of the tomatoes and the chillis from last year if there is somewhere I can upload them to.
Your thought about the decent sandwich tomato made me smile – it is for exactly that reason that the “round” tomato needs not to get lost in the chase of different shapes, sizes and colours (all of which I am guilty of !). I’m sure it’s the wrongful association with that standard shape, colour and size belonging to the flavourless, wooly textured supermarket pack of six. But not all round tomatoes should be “tarred with the same brush”.
You got great value from your Mr Fothergill order last year – that’s the sort of bargain that makes a gardener’s heart sing! And your experience of growing chillies successfully in terms of productivity and then being able to save and germinate from your own seed – shows chillies need not be as tricky as some of us might fear! I love the look of chilli plants but for proper quantities for cooking have had to rely on other more “red hot” fingered souls!
As for photos – I would love to see them – and more of other people’s plants and gardens – but as you have rightly identified there isn’t anywhere to upload to at present on my site.
Let me see if I can get round to remedying that – and I’ll come back to you.
help i am trying to find a supplier of the tomato seeds or plants of the cedrico variety can you help or suggest where i could obtain them
thanks
Hi Sally, just discovered your site and now have plenty of reading to do. I’m on the other side of the globe in Western Australia, despite my UK email address, so planting is just beginning here. I completely understand your obsession, there is nothing like a home grown tomato.
Hello
Lovely to hear from you. Enjoy everything there is to read – oh to be at the beginning of the season! Instead here in the UK we are just entering ‘Leaf Fall Season’ and the reason I know that is not because I have had the joy of kicking up large piles of beautiful autumnal tinted leaves but because the train companies are about to introduce their autumn leaf fall timetable that means that some trains out of some stations have to go a bit steady as they might be skidding about on slippy leaves otherwise. All very Thomas the Tank!!!
Still enjoy all your sun and warmth and all those lovely warm and scented tomatoes! If it happens for you – we can be sure our turn will follow!!
I lived in London during the early ninties for a while and remember the teflon effect. I think thats what they called it. Those dastardly leaves falling in Autumn just when you least expect it. Autumn is a lovely time in the UK though, maybe my favorite. While your waiting for spring I hope you follow my tomato exploits.
Hello
Have had a very nice browse around your site – looking at all that sunshine. Enjoy growing Tigerellas – I think they are a great variety. And Sweet Bite from last year looked like it had very nice long trusses.
Like the raised beds as well! Will follow you to keep faith that the sun is somewhere in the world making home tomato growers happy!
Hello Sally
Just wanted to say hi after trolling your site for a couple of weeks. It’s been very helpful to have someone document growth week by week, and nice to have a comparison to know how my plants are doing.
Your journal and tips have been very helpful, especially for a first time seed grower! You’ve inspired me to start my own grow journal, and now my boyfriend thinks I’m plant obsessed heehee.
I bought just regular seeds this year, since heirloom seeds are difficult to come by in Northern Ontario (Canada). I’ll definitely be looking for some heriloom seeds next year though!
Thanks for all the info, and happy growing!
Great site,
I hate tomatoes myself.
At least until I started growing them… now I’m obsessed like your good self.
I’d be fascinated to hear what your favourite varieties are, any cheeky tips?
For me, asides from the obvious gardener’s delight / sungold / tigerella… it’d have to be ildi and floridity.
C’mon fess up!
x
That’s an easy question – and a difficult one. The top three are easy – Sungold, Black Cherry and Tigerella.
Then it would have to be some kind of purple/dark heritage bruiser. A light yellow variety – and some kind of standard red – just to lend “classic” to the crop. If I was going for easy to grow – very producive – throws out lots of tomatoes for roasting – I might choose Balconi -yellow or red. Then a white/cream variety – maybe Cream Sausage – lovely shape fruit but messy foliage. And then lots more smaller reds – Gardeners Delight, Floridity, Rosada…. See that’s where it gets difficult!
Glad to hear you like the site – and tomatoes!!!
Sorry, not tomato,s but/giving up on carrots due to the fly,I emptied a last seed packet into a large 5 gallon container that I filled with soil and compost.Raised this up two feet and kept it watered,Yesterday my wife was out of carrots so I managed to free about eight for dinner, they were so good we are having more today. The packet said over a thousand seeds and though they are packed very tight,I do,nt think I will get a thousand carrots but what I have got are free of the dreaded fly. There is hope for the tomato blight somewhere, my rival is going to try fleece covering if any blight appears but I think polythene would be better if only the wind did,nt blow it away. I hesitate to use the bordeaux mixture my son sent from France but may try some on plants away from the main crop.Just hope the blight doe,snt pay a visit
Lots of people do now use fleece to keep the carrot fly off – only taking the fleece off to weed or pick and then putting it back on. Growing is not for the faint hearted – it’s vigilance all the way. The other thing that I know has troubled a lot of growers in recent years, that is a new comer to these shores but making its way up from the South is Leek Moth.
Treading carefully here – but I am afraid – I think your rival might be onto something with the fleece and tomato blight!! I have heard it recommended by a very respected garden lecturer for just that purpose! It’s fine enough to keep the spores off – but allows air to circulate better than the polythene which I think would be prone to building up condensation.
With the Bordeaux mix – if you do try it – try and protect any flowers – cover with a plastic cup or something when you spray – and same with the fruit.
And if it all washes off in the rain – you are back to square one again – as it works as a protective barrier and one that’s removed by rain. So perhaps not such a good solution for the non-stop rain we are experiencing at present.
If you bear to take a good idea from the competition !! – then I think it would be worth giving the fleece a try.
I am going to try and get organised to see if I can get some in place on mine this week.
Hello there, Now my cage is done with protecting my Mange toute from the flying rats [wood pigeons] I think I will use it as a frame for a fleece covering in case the dreaded blight pays a visit. Those in the greenhouse have always been OK , just heartbreaking burning the blight ridden plants in previous years. outside I have so many plants that/ if successful my dear wife will be rendering down and freezing toms for breakfast etc when I,m sowing next years seeds,Hooray
just hope the labels remain legible so I know what to repeat growing George
Sad Sad. I have only three blight free toms left outside, These are smothered with bordeaux mix , mainly as an experiment to see if it works The fleece cover did,nt work and I think made things worse as the three now standing were not covered at all, Cheers we have had two tigerellas ripened outside two tamina,s inside and signs of Brandywines and Legend ripening , I will award myself a gold medal for each one and possibly a sirship too, Don,t fancy joining that lot in the lord house. Hooray George
Oh no! That is sad news. It feels like victory has been snatched just before the finish line. Sorry, the fleece cover didn’t work. I hope the Bordeaux mix comes through instead.
Happy news I removed two Shirleys as they had black on the stems.I removed the toms and kept some branches hung well away from the greenhouse, these seem to be free from blight and I,m hoping I will save the spread. We have enjoyed a few Brandywine,s Legend Tamina and we are waiting for the Shirleys which are slow ripening. the greenhouse looks a mess as in my panic I reluctianly gave it a spray but it will wash off. Sad news on your part but one day Blight will be beaten. and it wo,nt stop your column. what do we talk about in the winter.AH talk about how much we have left of those we rendered down [We still have some left from last year
george
You still have tomato produce left from last year! That’s very good husbandry. I have a few chillies that I put in the freezer whole – which look just as good as new. I should get round to using them before I pick this years.
SHHHH someone has been eating the sungolds in the greenhouse.
I surely cannot have given in to temptation mind you the shirleys are late by about 5 weeks so if theres any sungold left when the shirleys are ripe there MAY be some left for others to enjoy
Hope you,ve managed to salvage most of your tom,s
George
I am sure it was just those that would have split before they made it into the house!! Grower’s spoils and all that!!
So now we all need to shout ” C’mon Shirley! – Don’t spare us your blushes!”
am scouring the net for the Jacobs Creek seeds or even plants in pots .
Tomorrow I,ll try Lindermans
G
Hi there, it seems to me that greenhouse growing is the way to keep the dreaded blight at bay.I am leaving my remaining plants, and so far they are slowly ripening and I will carry on till they ripen no more. So far the blight has kept away . A fluke or is the blight season over, We have had a good run in spite of losing all outside but next year I will not learn and will continue to temt fate outside. From your picts I have,nt seen your greenhouse,surely you do,nt grow outside all the time, Brave girl . I would give up.Looking forward to next years joy and tears George
I am so pleased to hear you’ve remained blight free and are on the slow road to ripening.
It is tempting fate to grow outside -and for the past few years – the dice only seems to roll one way!
I don’t have a greenhouse – but am thinking next year – while my garden won’t really accomodate a proper greenhouse – I will need to think of differnent sheltering ideas. More tomatoes = more joy – and there can never be a glut of that!