Whoops ! These will soon be coming off the shelves to be replaced by the bright shiny newness of February …..
I bought the January issues right back at the beginning of December but turned into a calendar coward and couldn’t bear to type January and 2010 before even the halls had been decked…..and then promptly forgot about them.
It’s probably no surprise that tomatoes, despite being as round and as red as Rudolph’s nose, don’t feature much at this time of year. So we’ll make do with a quick flick . Also right now, the quicker the better. Given UK temperatures – just think of a number and put a minus in front of it - I’m trying to keep myself permanently cocooned under my Lakeland heated throw. Which makes typing tricky.
No – not a Slanket - this is like an electric blanket except it goes over you. Switch it on, crank up the heat, settle down on the sofa and don’t move till Easter. Warmly (!) recommended .
Anyway enough about personal heated propagators – back to tomatoes.
Grow it !
Takes a look at the 2010 seed catalogues and highlights some new tomato choices .
From the Organic Gardening Catalogue, Koralik. A Russian heritage bush variety bearing small bright red fruit. It crops early and so avoids the main August blight period.
Another choice in the context of blight could be Premio . A disease resistant tomato from Marshalls.
Also featured are the 5 grafted tomato plant varieties avaliable from Suttons for March/April delivery.
- Elegance – a standard red
- Santorange – an orange plum
- Conchita – a red cherry
- Belriccio – a red beefsteak
- Dasher – a mini plum
Kitchen Garden
Also has a peek at the seed catalogues.
From Mr. Fothergill’s Cherry Falls – an early maturing outdoor tumbling variety - good for hanging baskets .
From Kings Seeds a purple tomatillo - described as extremely tasty and sweeter than green varieties.
From Plant World Seeds the new choices are :
- Red Dwarf (Romanian) – a heavy cropper of tiny pear shaped tomatoes
- Brown Berry – tomato or Maltesers !
- Greenwich – an amber shade of beefsteak with zingy lime green insides
Grow Your Own
In which the impatient, with enough light and warmth to offer, are given encouragement to sow early varieties such as Vanessa at the end of January. Kitchen Garden’s view was that little is lost by waiting until February. And I have to say that much as I pamper my tomatoes, if there’s light and heat to be had right now I’m keeping it all to myself !
