There’s a new tomato on the shelves at Tesco.
- Moruno
Bred for its health giving properties and referred to as a ‘super tomato’. What makes it super is having double the amount of the antioxidant lycopene compared to a conventional tomato. And higher vitamin C; gram per gram as much as an orange. Its flesh is described as thick and juicy and its taste sweet.
Another amazing statistic is that is the result of cross breeding that involved trials of 2,000 varieties.
Last year Tesco also introduced Sugardrop, extra sweet and the result of trials involving 3,000 varieties.
And the non-leaky tomato which required a mere 100 different varieties to find the solution to soggy sandwiches.
Today also brought news that scientists in India have genetically engineered a tomato to stay fresh for 45 days.
To achieve this they have “turned off” the production of ripening enzymes. Given the average tomato in the shops at the moment couldn’t be any less ‘ripe’ I’m not sure this is a cause for celebration.
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Hello.
I wonder if you would please help us?
We have been eating Moruno tomatoes since we first spotted them in Tescos. Is it possible to buy seed anywhere? If we saved seed from any we were able to resist eating, would the plant ‘come true’?
Many thanks
Fiona
Hello
Thank you for getting in touch. I am guessing my way to finding an answer to your question – but I think you have already got there ! From all I’ve read on Moruno it seems it was a tomato bred for Tesco – or if not speficially for Tesco for commercial production for retail – as opposed to being a plant seed for the home grower . And so I’m sure you’re right – it won’t be avaliable as seed for the home grower.
As for the seed coming true – again as you say F1 seeds can’t be relied on to come true – and I am sure this would be the case here…. but then I’ve also heard of people successfully growing tomatoes on from their supermarket seed. I’d love to know if you do save a few seeds and sow them, what happens !
What ever happened to the availability of the wonderful Tumbler tomato? It grew so well in the greenhouse as well as outside and suddenly it was no longer available. I was able to freeze them whole and have no need ever to buy tinned toms. The season was from early July to end October.
Hello
Thank you for getting in touch . I too think Tumbler is wonderful. I grew it last year and it was tasty and productive. As well as living up to its name and was very happy just making its own way down the side of the pot.
I was distressed to think it might not be avaliable – it seemed a really reliable variety.
So I looked it up and found it here. I don’t know where you are but if in the UK it’s avaliable by post. There is some reference to the breeder not discontinuing the seed – so there’s clearly a story there ! but it seems the seeds are avalible.
http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/veg5b.htm#VEG074
Thanks for your reply.
Lots of the seeds from a couple of Tesco’s Moruno tomatoes have germinated! Now on the enclosed porch window sill until big enough to pot on.
Will keep you posted.
Fiona
That’s a great result. Although when you said you’d managed to germinate a Kiwi fruit I was so impressed I was sure you would soon be harvesting home grown Morunos . Thank you for updating me on their progess !
I currently have a few of the Moruno seeds, bought two punnets, removed 80% of seed from both lots, dried and stored in light sealed refrigeration. Also I have plants 10in tall and will be planted outdoor to test hardiness and begin annual rogueing and acclimatising, also running San Marzano and Red Alert, hardy phenotypes being the objective carry overs
Hello,
Thank you for stopping by. With the longer days and light evenings it feels like the right time to start planting out and yet the temperature and wind chill feel as if they belong to a much colder season – and there are rumours of ground frost still to come later this week.
Are you storing the Moruno seeds to sow next year ?
I now have 15 plants grown from the seeds collected from Moruno tomatoes, about a foot tall, in the greenhouse. We are keeping it heated at night to around 8C – 10 C, mainly for the benefit of other vegetable and flower seedlings. Nine of the plants are growing in very large old plastic boxes, filled with our own garden compost, probably a slightly greater volume of compost than a grow bag holds. Six are in 20cm pots, filled with a mixture of our garden compost and B&Q multi purpose compost, enriched with a small sprinkle of ‘Growmore’. These are promised to members of the family to grow outdoors when the frosts have finished and I have hardened them off. A few plants I didn’t pot on are still sitting in the porch. My husband says he will shove them into a corner of the allotment when the frosts are over! Not until the end of May around here.
I haven’t stored any seed.
The leaf shapes of the plants are slightly variable, so maybe there will be variation in any tomatoes produced.
I am so pleased that they look nice and healthy – so far!
Fiona
Hello, It’s lovely to hear of your success in raising such healthy plants from saved seed. A foot tall and nice and healthy sounds very encouraging. I’m sure you’re right that there will be variations – but that will be part of the enjoyment – it will be interesting to see what’s in store ! Thank you for the update and I can’t wait for the big reveal come fruit time !
I collected seed from the Moruno tomato last year- dried them and wrapped them in tin foil until planting in Feb/Mar this year. They have developed into a very prolific vine and run true to the original,with masses of fruit.
regards Eric Davey
Hello
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience.
That’s encouraging news to all of us who want to be able to grow a favourite variety for which no commercial seed is avaliable. Its great to know that experimentation and trying things can work out. Enjoy your Moruno – and working out the price comparision at price per kg between shop and home grown !
Hello
I should have kept you up to date, many apologies. My Moruno vines are exactly as Eric Davey describes, though my seeds were fresh, not stored. In fact while we were on holiday and no pinching out happened, they went completely wild, over one and a half metres tall in the green house and climbing. The ones outdoors are more sedate and are just over a metre tall. Both are producing sweet and delicious tomatoes, most with that characteristic little point at the end and the dark red colour. I have fed them regularly with liquid tomato feed, as per instructions on the bottle. No sign of blight so far, but it has been severely dry and warm here in Surrey.
The ones outdoors are watered via tin cans buried in the ground, but it has been impossible to prevent water and mud splashes when pouring water into the cans, not sure that that idea works. I pour the liquid feed directly onto the soil as well anyway, as I heard that tomatoes also have shallow roots which require feed. Am I right?
I cannot compare cost of home grown versus shop bought, as I have eaten them straight off the vine or rapidly after picking. But I must be in profit! I will weigh them from now on. The only cost was for some of a bag of B&Q compost, I used mostly our own garden compost, a handful of Growmore and some tomato feed, plus a little heat early on, which I would have used anyway. The gentle exercise required in caring for them saved me from the cost of joining a gym!
A family member, growing some of my experimental seedlings, report that pinched out sections left lying on the ground have rooted by themselves. So, even more plants.
I really liked the look of the recipe for ramekins filled with feta and Big tomatoes. If I can’t wait for the larger varieties my husband is growing on the allotment, I will try the recipe with little Morunos.
Best wishes,
Fiona
Hello again, grown side by side next to Red alert (Kings seeds) and San Mazarno they have been the later to flower and are well over a metre tall…or should that be long hehe, they werent staked (originally to see what they did left to there own devices kind of thing) and they have grown horizontally and the main stem has started to sprout roots (rather like a Strawberry would…) further along the plant (never seen this before).
The weather up here in Cheshire hasn’t been the best, what with all these continued arial spraying excersises going on (weather modification trails/cloud seeding) gave my Red Alert blight going from really dry to really soggy soil in too short a time frame…which incidentaly hasn’t touched the Moruno or the San Marzano’s, will update again with fruit size, weight (yield) per plant etc and try and try to get some pics of them, growing outside in the garden.
Most definately worth growing next season!, the seed, if stored correctly will carry good longevity provided the moisture content is very low initially before refrigeration.
Keep saving your seeds, if you can folks (inc all your fruit and veg rareties).
regards
Wesley
Hello, lovely to hear that your experiment has worked so well. Lots of tomatoes and true to type ! And clearly a very vigourous variety both in the way its grown into an exuberant vine and the fact that side-shoots have self rooted into the ground ! Wonderful. So the answer seems to be that if there is a variety which you like, that’s avaliable commercially as a fruit but not seed – then just to give it a go !
On the roots – that’s my understanding too. That the feeder roots are the ones near the soil surface and the deeper ones go off in search off water ( I don’t know what they get up to in pots – bored by the lack of adventure I guess!) I used plastic bottles sunk into the compost which worked well as they had a more funnel like effect – and then some shallower small flower pots to direct the water which didn’t work as well – for the reasons you say.
The feta ramekins are so simple and the great thing about them is they reminded me that whilst mozzarella, tomato and basil are a great combination oregano is another great tomato ‘buddy’.
Long may Moruno Magic continue !
Hello – More really encouraging news on the seed saving front ( though sorry to hear that you have been hit by blight – is aerial spraying the kind that produced rain/cloud or whatever it was required in China for the Olympics ?).
Your experience of the main stem producing roots so readily is consistent with Fiona’s experience of having the pinched out side shoot self root ! We are clearly dealing with a plant that wants to survive and grow! It sounds like a good variety to grow – not only for the fruit – but for its robust nature.
Re the San Marzano – I don’t know if you followed the comments on the blossom end rot posts – but that’s the variety we all seem to have had a problem with from the perspective of that disorder – have you found yours to be OK ?
Hello again Sally, I will keep a keen eye out for this blossom end rot, not noticed any problems with the (Tesco) San Marzano’s, I may have beginers luck working alongside me on that one, small green fruit are maturing, also reminisent of the miniture stretched plum shape, so look true to type, all that needs to help them along is warm sunny days, which both August and September have shown occasionaly, fingers crossed eh . Yes, the trails Ive been watching above my head are still the subject of great public denial of inquiry and it seems left to theorists to make sense of there origin or comand, I believe China to have this technology and also a form of it was admited to of been carried out on an ignorant public as early as the 50s in England as part of a military defence op, I know its happening on a daily basis just by watching the sky, people think you are mad when mentioning it, anyway, more Tomato fun next time, will be sampling a friends Harbinger tomatos soon, Ive never tried them before and they look absolutely delicious and a desent size and colour too! These could be the replacement of the Red Alert that simgly didnt have the resistance I was looking for, regards, Wesley
People think I’m mad for writing a blog about tomatoes – so I most definetly can’t add sky trail watching to my list of ‘hobbies’ !.
Yes – I’ve read good things about Harbinger as well. Good flavour, thin skinned and especially relevant – now that summer’s taken a cooler turn – bred with an English summer in mind – i.e will ripen well even in cooler temperatures.
That’s got to be a bonus – at the moment it seems like most other varieties are in suspended animation when it comes to ripening – they are a mature size but just not making the shift from green to red.
We have grown Moruno tomatoes, from seeds that we collected from tomatoes bought last February in Tesco’s while staying in Londen. They have grown marvellously, and look really great. Just like you described: sweet, nice dark colour, lots of firm flesh.
We will certainly grow them next year again!
I forgot to write that we live in Belgium, and now and then go to Londen for a holiday. While we are there, we buy lots of seed packets in a garden centre in Camden.
Hilda
Hello
Thank you for stopping by and getting in touch.
It is lovely to hear more ‘pioneering’ success stories of saving seeds and then growing your own – it demonstrates that it is always worth trying it out !
And lovely to hear that some of your seeds come from London. I always enjoy having somewhere that I visit that’s associated with buying something particular. It gives an extra ‘purpose’ to a trip as well as the pleasure of it . And there is something very ‘moreish’ and fun about buying seeds – the packets, the sound they make as you give them a shake…. I can’t think of anyone I know who doesn’t always end up with a good few more than they need !
Hello Fiona,
We let all our tomato plants grow very big, they are in a greenhouse, and reach to the roof, so are more than two meters tall. This way, we get a lot of tomatoes on the vines. Can I add photos to this site? Otherwise I would do so, to show you all.
Success with the Moruno tomato seeds, that you’ll have to collect yourselves from the punnets at Tesco’s.
Hilda (from Belgium)
You could also see my photos via Hildadorissen and Growsonyou.
Hi Sally,
Exactly like you say, we love to collect seeds from other countries. I always pack lots of empty ice cream containers etc., to fill them with seeds and shoots from ‘here and there’
And my husband always buys too many seed packets, every year! We had to plant our chillis, tomatoes, squashes, cape gooseberries and peppers amongst our flower beds.
Hilda
Hello
I found you on Growsonyou and have enjoyed looking through your photos.
Only my stomach was rumbling before I started and after looking at all the beautiful home cooking and baking – now I am starving !
I am with you on Sungold – such a good variety. I didn’t give it enough prominence this year and I’ve hardly had any. Not a mistake I’ll make again !
Cherry tomatoes are great for roasting – that’s my plan for the Balconi Blessing !!
I’ve put a link to your photos here
( I also like the colourful chillis – they don’t seem to have done any the worse for being grown in the flower beds !)
Sorry – that’s worked but it seems to have made the text re the chillis the link – so wrong clicking off sentence but it goes to the right place !!
I would love to try to grow Morunos next year, is there anyone who would be willing to send some seeds to me in the US? I will gladly pay for all costs and then some.
Thanks in advance!
I have some Moruno seeds left which you can have with pleasure. I sowed 10 seeds in April from ones saved June 2010 and all germinated and have produced fruit which as yet are not ready but shape wise they look the part.
Let me have your address and I will post them to you
Wow thank you SO much John, that is very kind of you. If it’s not too much (more) to ask, please email me at: nybodyboarding@Gmail.com so I can send you my shipping info.
Thanks again for the kind gesture, please let me know if I can return the favor!
cheers
Hi everyone,
Here some news from Belgium (Flanders).
We are growing Moruno tomatoes for the second time. Last year they were a great success: lovely, very firm, dark coloured ‘tapaz’ tomatoes. This year they are growing good too, but their skin is a bit harder, thougher than last year. But I still lóve them! We are already harvesting for about two weeks now.
We also collect seeds from tomatoes bought while being in London. We let them dry until it’s time to sow them.
I wonder whether we should try Sugardrop next year.
This year we have Sungold, Sweet Million, Jaune Flammée (‘flamed’ yellow), Ailsa Craig, Elite, Glacier (excellent for outside), Black Russian and Moruno. They are growing in our greenhouse as well as outside.
We also grow other things in the greenhouse, peppers, chillies, … and two cucumber plants who got infested with spider mites, and none of the five chemicasprays was effective in killing them all. Now we spray the plants with water several times a day , and we seem to get on top of the problem at last!
Success with all your vegetables!
Hilda
Hi everyone,
Here some news from Belgium (Flanders).
We are growing Moruno tomatoes for the second time. Last year they were a great success: lovely, very firm, dark coloured ‘tapaz’ tomatoes. This year they are growing good too, but their skin is a bit harder, thougher than last year. But I still lóve them! We are already harvesting for about two weeks now.
We also collect seeds from tomatoes bought while being in London. We let them dry until it’s time to sow them.
I wonder whether we should try Sugardrop next year. Are they tiny, firm, sweet? Lots of produce?
This year we have Sungold (very sweet), Sweet Million, Jaune Flammée (‘flamed’ yellow, Fiery orange), Ailsa Craig, Elite, Glacier (excellent for outside), Black Russian (big, dark mahogany-brown) and Moruno. They are growing in our greenhouse as well as outside.
We also grow other things in the greenhouse, peppers, chillies, basil,… and two cucumber plants who got infested with spider mites, and none of the five chemical sprays were effective in killing them all. We had to get rid of one of the plants. Now we spray the last surviving cucumber plant with water several times a day, to keep the humidity high, and we seem to get on top of the problem at last!
Success with all your vegetables!
Hilda
Hello,
Lovely to have a progess report. And a great list of tomatoes – the one that’s new to me as a name is Elite. Of the others I have grown Sungold but have heard of the other. Is Sugardrop a new variety that you have bought as a fruit? It sounds lovely – I am guessing it might be a small size, nice shape and good sweet flavour.
I envy you being two weeks into harvest – and glad you got those spider mites sorted – it sounds now as if you have all the right ingredients for some beautifully fresh and flavoursome home grown salad bowls.
Wishing you every success as well!
Hi Sally,
We have not grown sugardrop tomatoes yet, I did not even know them until now. But we will definitely try and collect seeds from them, while staying in London next month (our youngest daughter is doing a house swap with a family from London, and we are going with them (with 3 small grandchildren).
I found this on the internet:
A revolutionary new tomato that tastes as sweet as a peach hits the shelves of Tesco supermarket today in a push to encourage children eat more healthily.
The Sugardrop is the sweetest tomato ever created and is a natural hybrid of two different varieties of the fruit. And because of its unusual taste it is expected to appeal to people who find the normal versions too sharp. And because of the highly competitive nature of the food world, the creators are not even revealing which two varieties were crossed to create the fruit.
They fear that because of the potential of the Sugardrop other rival growers will try and copy it to muscle in on to the £520million UK market. They wanted to find varieties that they could cross pollinate to find a tomato with higher than normal sugar levels. The result is the Sugardrop, which is the sweetest tomato there has ever been and now this week UK shoppers will be the first to try it.’
The Sugardrop growers have managed to achieve sugar levels – or the technical term of brix levels – of nine to 13 brix. A standard peach has a nine brix level so each of the new tomatoes are guaranteed to be at least as sweet as the fruit. They are being sold as part of Tesco’s Finest food range and will cost £1.50 for a 280g punnet.
Staying with tomatoes, a little know secret is how to harvest tomato seeds. Tomato seeds are enclosed in a gel sac; to remove the sac and to help destroy seed-borne diseases, put them through a fermentation process:
1. Wash the fruit, then cut it in half across the middle (not the stem end). Gently squeeze seeds and juice into a labeled glass or plastic container. Fill containers about half full, then set them out of direct sun in an area where you won’t be bothered by the ripening odor or fruit flies.
2. Allow the seed mixture to sit until the surface is partially covered with whitish mold (in three to five days). In warm climates, you may need to add a little water midway through the process to keep the seeds afloat. Scrape off the white mold with a spoon, being careful not to remove seeds.
3. Fill the container with water, then stir; the good seeds will sink to the bottom.
4. Pour off and discard floating seeds and pulp. Repeat until the good seeds are clean. Pour the cleaned seeds into a fine strainer; rinse and drain.
5. Sprinkle seeds onto a plate and allow them to dry for one to three days, depending on the weather. Keep them out of direct sun. To make sure they dry thoroughly and don’t stick together, stir twice a day. Store dried seeds in a cool, dry, dark place in individually labeled airtight containers such as glass canning or baby food jars until planting time next spring.
Bye for now,
Hilda
Hello
Thank you for all that lovely information. I don’t know who might find normal versions of tomatoes too sharp! And I am not sure I would like mine as sweet as a peach. But I’d will definitely taste them to find out. And I do like the name Sugardrop – my guess is they will be a big success. Something I can imagine being perfect for lunchboxes.
And thank you for the steps to saving seeds. I’ve not saved them before – but now I have a set of clear instructions to follow – I will do just that!
Enjoy your houseswap in London. Luckily it’s not been too hot recently so the capital is still looking nice and green. I was walking through Covent Garden today – and everyone had come out to enjoy the sunshine!
Hi Sally,
Thanks for the update about the weather in London.
And success with your seed collecting
Do you live in London too then? I could bring you some plants, for indoors, just like I did in February, for someone from Grows on You, for a lady who lives in London too. She wrote a blog about it, I can send it to you if you like, with pictures of the plants that were thriving at her home now. Back then we had to bring them by Eurostar, this time we’ll be travelling by car, which is much easier. We also brought lots of small plants to Edinburgh, to another member of Grows on You, whom we met there. They both wrote a blog about it. So my ‘Belgian’ plants are spreading over the UK.
Bye for now,
Hilda
Hello,
I live in Surrey but go into central London for work. I love the idea of being part of the British outpost of the growing community of “Belgian” tomatoes but as I am also going to be away for some of August I don’t think I will be here to look after indoor plants. So I am going to thank you for your kind offer but may be another time when I can make sure I too can be sure that when they are handed over into my care that they will thrive!
Kind Regards
Sally
Moruno tomatoes – our bumper crop! I’m pleased to report that we are enjoying our scrumptious Moruno tomatoes grown from seeds that we saved from Moruno tomatoes bought from you-know-where supermarket in the spring of 2011. Greenhouse germination and 10 plants producing lots of ripe fruit both here at home and in our Mum’s greenhouse. Sadly,those plants outside on the allotment succumbed to blight whilst I was on holiday 2 weeks ago. Green Moruno in my chutney?? What a waste. Best tasting tomato yet! I won’t be growing Ailsa Craig again. Best wishes to all greenfingers everywhere, Richard.
Hi Richard,
Nice to read about your success with the Moruno tomatoes. Ours haven’t been very successful this year, we didn’t have a great amount, and they were rather small. But now that we hear about your success, we’ll definitely grow them again next year (my husband wanted to stop growing them, but they are a great favourite of mine).
We also love the Sungold tomatoes, but they don’t stay firm for a long time. I don’t know of any tomato that is that firm as Moruno. Did your Moruno’s have a hard peel too?
We still have Sungold tomatoes and a few Sweet Million, Moruno and Jaune Flammée in our greenhouse at the moment.
Enjoy gardening, all of you!
Hilda
PS. I made a delicious tomato chutney some time ago. I can always write down the recipe
Sorry,
You won’t find me with that ‘website’. But you do whenever you type my name in one word, so hildadorissen and then the gardening community Grows on You.
Hilda
Hilda, could you help me get a few sugardrop seeds and moruno seeds? I live in Texas and would certainly pay for the cost. Also if John walker or newbie sees this I would appreciate the help with finding these seeds as well. Anyone who can help please email proofgardens@gmail.com
Thank you
John
you can buy moruno tomato seeds on e-bay not sure if they are f1 variety ? i doubt it so grow them and save the seeds for next year
Hi John from texas
We’ve have sent you some seeds from Sungold, Black Russian, Sugardrop and Moruno Tomatoes and Cape Gooseberry (Physalis) in the post today.
I hope you’ll reveive them soon. Isn’t there a problem sending seeds into the USA? I hope not!
Bye for now,
Hilda
There’s a ‘have’ too many in my sentence above
.
Hilda, Thank you and Philip for these seeds you are sending. I’m super excited to try these varieties. I will keep you and all the tomato lovers updated on their progress. Have a great one!
John,
receive…
You’re welcome. (And there is a v instead of a c in my first entry
Good luck with the seeds. Please do keep us posted indeed
Hilda and Pip
Are Moruno Genetically Modified?
Hilda, The seeds arrived!! I thank you and appreciate it very much. I planted them probably no more then 15 minutes from checking my mailbox. So they are in the ground! I will keep you updated…
Danny D, that is an interesting question you bring up and i think a good one. You can read some articles online about them. Hilda has posted some information on these and other varieites as well. From what i’ve read, morunos are created (genetically modified) by being exposed to several other varieties of higher lycopene varieties. I’m not knowledeable in the area enough to know the difference of exposing these different types of vegetables together or what that means. Different types of vegetables come from different types of vegetables. Interesting topic though Danny D!
Hi John,
Now thàts’ quick. I didn’t know that pigeons were just as reliable as email and almost as quick…
Good luck with them. I’m sure you’ll keep us updated!
Hilda
My 83 yr old italian mum has been successfully growing tomatoes from fresh seeds from supermarket tomatoes for years since she retired. Even from tinned plum tomato seeds!
So I’m growing moruno and sugar drop this year. Mum must know what she’s doing. Oming from southern Italy! Even tho she pretended to not know the difference between a weed and crops as a teenager preferring to sew!