Friday, 3 April 2009

The Year of the Tomato

probably.

This year we'll be attempting to grow ten varieties of tomato. This is a lot more than we've aspired to for several seasons now; held back by the challenges of relocation and the weather, not to mention the insidious menace of blight which seems to attack more fiercely every year.

tomatoes
A few of the varieties in this picture are listed below, pop over to flickr for the names.

So far I've started Latah and Purple Ukraine from Realseeds. These seeds were bought this year and I have to say haven't shown particularly good germination. Latah is supposed to be very early and the Ukraine is a purple plum type which looks appealing in the picture.

The rest of this post is going to be rather dull - I have to list some stuff so I don't forget it. The other tomatoes planted today (I know, it seems late but they will be expected to manage outside if at all possible) are:-

Purple Calabash, home saved seed from 1995 (!). Frankly I don't think there's much hope here but there is plenty of seed so I may strike lucky.

Golden Sunrise, from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (HDRA). Packed 2005 sow by 2007.

Evergreen, Association Kokopelli. Packed 2003, viable 5 yrs.

Orange Banana, Heritage Seed library. No date, so before 2002.

Ruby F1 T&M. Packed 2002 sow by 2004. Yes, a bit of a departure for here but they are popular as giveaways and cost a lot, so I'm using them up.

Striped Stuffer it's in the picture, Royal Sluis. exp. Jan 2006. My daughter brought these back for me from a trip to Amsterdam.

Banana Legs, Association Kokopelli. Packed 2002, viable 5 yrs.

Salt Spring Sunrise, Heritage Seed Library. Kittens stole the packet but these aren't very old, probably a couple of years.

I also popped in some purple de milpa tomatillos from Unwins, exp. 2006.

As you can see, this is a whole lot of use it or lose it. I'm hoping that it will be possible to save some seed but will be happy just to get a crop.

1 comment:

Fuzzlewoof said...

Very best of luck with the crop, I only seem to be blight free in the green house. This year I'm trying a cherry plum I saved from a trip to Rome and some ms extra sweet cherry toms.