I have always found that home grown tomatoes are much better than anything I could buy,
and they are even better if an excellent variety is grown really well.
There is definitely room to improve the methods that I use and the attention that I give these
plants, but I always felt that there were probably better varieties that I could grow.
So last year I grew 54 different varieties of tomatoes in the larger polytunnel,
which was definitely too many to really keep track of and evaluate, and I selected 23 of
these varieties to grow again this year, plus 3 that I wasn't able to fit into the trial and
another 2 varieties that a friend gave me. So after a second trial of 28 varieties this
year, with healthier plants growing in better conditions, I feel that I have a better sense of
which varieties I would definitely grow again, and which ones I would drop, to narrow down the field.
And I was also quite surprised by a few varieties and disappointed with the results of others,
and I also learned a fair amount about the different growth habits of the different varieties
and that some varieties may produce better if they were grown with different methods.
The trial this season was a lot more successful that last year,
and a lot more productive with an average about 3.4kg of tomatoes harvested from each plant,
more than twice what I was able to harvest last year.
Part of this is because I spaced the plants 50cm apart in the row, rather than the 33cm spacing
that I used last year, giving all the plants more space which would lead to less competition.
But even with fewer plants the overall yield this season was 8.3 kg/m2 compared to just
4.7kg/m2 last year in the same polytunnel, which is a significant difference in the
amount of tomatoes that we were able to harvest. A lot of this is because I dropped many of the
less productive varieties that I grew last year, focusing on growing the varieties that
produced more tomatoes in this context. I also avoided the competition that the
tomato plants suffered last year when they were intercropped beside late spring crops,
and this year the plants struggled less to get established after transplanting.
And it seemed to be a warmer growing season overall, and I think we were
more successful in caring for the plants, though there is always room for improvement.
I grew three plants of most of the varieties, but I think it easier to compare the average
harvest per plant, and there is still quite a range in productivity between the varieties.
And comparing the harvest from the same varieties grown last year, most of the varieties produced
significantly more this year which is what I would have expected, but I was surprised that
a number of them had quite similar harvests, with a few actually doing worse this year, despite the
extra space and better general growing conditions. So something else is going on here, and I am not
really sure what has cased this, but it does point to the general changes from season to season,
possible variations in soil fertility, and the limitations of growing only a few plants
of each variety, which is a definite issue with variety trials like this.
Last year only 2 of the 54 varieties produced more than 3kg per plant,
and this year 19 of the 28 varieties passed this threshold, which is a significant improvement.
But as with last year, I would be hesitant to dismiss some varieties,
or grow others simply on the basis of yield, as there are other factors to consider,
starting with the fact that we use tomatoes for different purposes, often based on their size.
Sorting the range tomatoes into 4 broad categories based on their general size and possible uses,
three of the varieties produced huge tomatoes,
seven produced large or beefsteak type of tomatoes,
another seven I would classify as medium size, and eleven produced small or cherry type of tomatoes.
I think I would want to grow at least one variety from each of these categories,
but there are reasons to grow others from each category, especially for the flavour.
Some varieties produced ripe tomatoes significantly earlier in the summer,
others produced continually over a longer growing season, and others produced a lot of tomatoes over
a relatively short season, all of which can be really useful depending on the context.
Some of the varieties grew very vigorously, which were usually varieties that produced
over a longer season, and they needed extra work to manage this continual growth of the plants
that easily exceeded the height of the polytunnel. Other varieties were quite a bit shorter,
and less vigorous, but in some cases really productive, with the plants seeming to naturally
prioritise the production of fruit rather than leaves, and other types were in between the two.
Mixing plants with significantly different growth habits caused some problems in the polytunnel,
and I would want to select different varieties based on the height of the growing space, or how I
planned to manage the plants, or at least to group varieties with similar growth habits together.
The time taken to manage these different plants is a factor,
but perhaps not nearly as important as the time it takes to harvest,
with the larger varieties obviously being much quicker to pick than the smaller varieties,
but even some of the small ones more time consuming to harvest than others.
And the tomatoes of some varieties seemed to split so easily, which definitely reduced
the usable yield, making the timing of harvesting much more important,
and in some cases were difficult to transport even short distances and needed to be eaten right away.
But the importance of this factor, as with all the others, really depended on the overall purpose or
context in which I am growing tomatoes, and it was the combination of all these factors
that I have tried to evaluate in determining whether to continue to grow a variety or not.
The three varieties that produced the largest fruit, also produced the largest yields,
and most of the tomatoes ripened in a relatively short period of time, and are
perhaps more suitable for cooking or preserving. The Ilsa variety was one of the plants I got from
a friend, and although it were planted later, this one plant produced a very big yield of
really large but quite watery fruit really early in the season and then stopped producing anything.
It did not seem to be a very robust plant and suffered from deficiencies later in the season,
but as there was only one of these plants it is difficult to really understand what was going on.
The Belarusian Heart is the one out of the three varieties that seemed to be bred specifically for
cooking, but all three plants developed significant deficiencies in the leaves.
The Feo de Rio Gordo was the largest yield overall of quite tasty fruit,
and it was a medium size plant that seemed to be quite healthy compared to the other two varieties.
If I wanted to only grow one out of the three I would probably pick the Feo de Rio Gordo,
but if the main aim was to produce a tomato sauce, it would be good to
cook a sample of each to see what kind of quality or quantity of sauce they produced.
But with all three varieties I think I would grow them for just the first main part of the harvest,
cutting off the main leader and later flower clusters to encourage all the plants to focus
on the existing tomatoes, and then to remove the plants in late August or early September
to open up the space in the polytunnel for other late season crops.
Of the 7 varieties that produced large beefsteak type tomatoes, deciding which
ones to grow again was a bit easier. The Milka variety was the other one that
I got one plant from a friend, and although it is not ideal to make a decision based on one plant,
we really liked the flavour of the yellow or light orange tomatoes, and it produced a lot of them.
The Brandywine is ofter referred to as one of the tastiest tomatoes, and I definitely
agree with that, and I was pleased that it was also really productive this year,
even if the fruit were not so uniform. I would definitely want to grow both of
these varieties again, but I would also be hesitant to drop most of the other
ones even if they didn't produce as much. I really liked the flavour of the St. Pierre
tomatoes, which were fairly short and robust plants that kept producing for most of the season.
The Black Krim tomatoes were an interesting darker colour,
and were very tasty especially when cooked,
and the Russian Emerald Apple variety produced very interesting and tasty green tomatoes.
But the plants of both of these varieties were not so robust and struggled with deficiencies,
but they did produce a lot of fruit early in the season.
I had accidentally cut off the tops of two of the Berne Rose plants early in the season,
and although the plants continued to grow from one of the side shoots,
this setback would partially explain the lower yield of these quite nice tomatoes.
It would be hard to select which of these 4 varieties to grow again
or which ones to drop, as they are all quite different and valuable to grow
simply for diversity, but I would probably drop the Paul Robeson variety.
Although these tomatoes were quite nice, the plants struggled, and two of them stopped the
development of the main growing tip half way through the season, something that happened to
only one other plant in the whole polytunnel. I am not sure why this variety struggled,
but I probably won't grow it again, especially as there are better options.
So I would pick 2 out of the set if I really needed to cut back varieties that I grew,
but if I had the space I would be tempted to grow the other four
for the sake of diversity, flavour and colour. And all of these plants are quite small, and
did not need really need to be dropped or rehung, so it would be easier to grow them side by side.
The seven varieties that produced medium size fruit also had a wide diversity of colour,
as well as a greater diversity in their growth habit, when the tomatoes ripened,
their flavour, and their possible uses.
The Lotos variety produced an abundance of very unusual coloured fruit over a long part of the
growing season, and the plants were quite vigorous and required more time and effort to manage them.
And the Jen's Tangerine variety was a similar type of plant, but a very different colour,
and the fruit had a tendency to split, making them less useful.
And even though the two varieties were very productive and beautiful
I was not so fond of the flavour of the tomatoes they produced, and didn't find them very useful.
The Old Flame tomatoes were possibly the tastiest out of the set, and a bit larger,
and still produced a fair amount to harvest over a fairly long part of the growing season,
even though the plants were not very robust or healthy.
The Bloody Butcher plants were also smaller plants that were not so robust or healthy,
but produced very tasty tomatoes earlier in the season than any of the other varieties,
which makes them definitely worth growing again. The Dorenia variety was a very vigorous variety,
producing large trusses of quite uniform fruit that seemed to keep reasonably well,
which makes them easier to harvest and transport and perhaps very useful for growing to sell.
Unfortunately they were not as good for eating fresh, but I did find that these less juicy
but uniform tomatoes were quite useful for dehydrating, and I would be interested in
growing this variety again mainly to produce dried or semi-dried tomatoes for storage.
The Gabacho Negro tomatoes were not very tasty, though they might make a good sauce,
and the Green Zebra tomatoes were better tasting and were an interesting novelty variety,
but as both of them were quite low yielding I probably won’t grow them again.
So, out of the 7 medium size varieties, I would grow two of them for flavour and one of them for
dehydrating, and interestingly I would probably not grow the two more vigorous and productive
varieties again, or the green variety unless I was really looking for diversity of colour and taste.
The small fruited varieties offered the most divers range of sizes, colours and shapes,
and also the widest range of yields. The Polen variety produced the biggest
harvest of small yellow tomatoes, that were produced in huge quantities on very large trusses.
But the large tangled trusses made harvesting a lot more difficult and time consuming,
and the skin of a lot of the tomatoes were damaged in the process,
which meant they needed to be eaten right away, so I am not sure I would grow it again.
The next two best producing varieties were really similar, with both of them produced similar yields
of traditional cherry tomato size and colour, on large trusses and vigorous plants that produced
for a long part of the growing season. I have grown the very common Gardeners
Delight variety for years, but the Ferad plants almost seem like the same variety,
but a few of us think it tastes a little bit better, so I might pick it over the other one.
The Christmas Grapes variety is slightly different, and the Chadwick Cherry
variety is a bit bigger, but they are both subtle variations of the small red tomato,
and they don't produce as much as the others so I don't think they are really worth growing again.
The Tomatoberry Garden was one of the three hybrid varieties that I grew,
and it did produce a reasonably yield of quite unusual shaped fruit
which could make them ideal for sale and would probably transport quite well.
But that is not really the context I am growing in, and the tomatoes were quite dry and not overly
tasty, and I think I would only grow them again if I was looking for diversity of shape and quality.
I would place another hybrid variety called Modus in the same category,
though it produced significantly less. The Brown Berry tomatoes were an
interesting darker colour but poor yielding. The Sweetie tomatoes were tiny and tasty but
most of them split before I could harvest them and the Dzintare Lasite variety had unusual
fruit that also split, and given that both had really poor yields I won't grow them again.
The Sungold hybrid variety was the most disappointing in the whole trial,
producing the lowest yield, significantly less than they did last year, which
indicates that something was wrong this year. Although the plants started out ok, the fruit
became very small later in the season, and I think I would want to try to grow this variety again,
especially as the tomatoes are possibly tastier than all the other small tomato varieties I grew.
So, if I really wanted to cut back on the number of varieties,
I would still probably grow 7 of them. I would grow the really big Feo de Rio
Gordo variety for making tomato sauce, and I would prune back the plants quite a bit
to focus on the first large batch of fruit then remove the plants to make space for other crops.
I would grow the Milka and Brandywine varieties for beefsteak tomatoes, the Bloody Butcher variety
for an early crop, and the Old Flame variety for a longer season general purpose tomato.
All four are really tasty and are relatively short plants that wouldn't need to be rehung
or dropped during the season, and would likely grow well together in the same bed.
I would grow the Dorenia variety specifically for dehydrating, though they can also be useful for
other purposes, and I would grow the Ferad variety for the very useful and tasty cherry tomatoes.
Both of these varieties are very vigorous plants that grow and produce over a long season,
so would need to be restrung or dropped regularly, and would probably be best grown
in a separate area than the other 5 varieties. But I am not so sure that I want to reduce the
number of varieties that much next year, and for various reasons I could easily expand
the list to 21 varieties, only dropping 7 of the varieties that I tried this year.
I really like the idea of growing a wide diversity of different tomatoes,
and I would love to explore growing more of the many other varieties that are out there.
But each additional variety that I add to the list takes more time and effort,
especially if I am going to continue to weigh and record what I harvest from each of the varieties,
and to keep track of everything. If I had only grown the 7 preferred
varieties the average yield this year could have been 4.4kg per plant, which is significantly more
that the average of 3.4kg that was produced. But as with many things, there is a balance
there somewhere, and I suspect that next year I will prioritise most of the polytunnel space
to growing the preferred varieties, but I'll probably also grow some of the other varieties,
and try a few new ones as well. Continuing the cycle of exploration,
even if I don't put in all the effort of do a full variety trial again.