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.