Figuring out what varieties of vegetables to grow in the gardens has always been a bit
of a strange process for me. I usually just end up looking at variety descriptions in
catalogues or online, but that's not the best process. I prefer to follow recommendations
from others, but many of the people that I've got recommendations from in the past don't
grow in the same climate that I do, though this is improving. I also don't know how much
work and explorations they would have put into their own variety selection process,
and their biases and preferences might be quite different to mine. Over the years I
have tended to grow the same varieties season after season, but I doubt that they are the
best ones to use, though occasionally I try different varieties, but typically when I'm
not really pleased which what I have been able to produce. But lately I've started
to do more systematic variety trials, to gather up a wide range of different varieties, and
to grow them side by side in order to be able to compare them. Last year I did an extensive
variety trial of tomatoes in my larger polytunnel, and I ended up growing 54 different varieties
of tomato plants, which was really interesting, and I learned a lot along the way.
One of the main things that I learned is that if I am going to do this kind of variety trial,
I need to take it seriously, and to it well, and this trial could have been a lot better.
54 varieties was probably too many to keep track of, to be able to properly evaluate
them all, especially in a year that was tough for many other reasons. And by trying to squeeze
in all of the varieties that I collected, and growing 2 plants of each variety, into
two long beds of the polytunnel, I ended up growing them too close together which I
think caused problems, and I wasn't as consistent with the care, harvesting and management as
I should have been. I also grew the tomatoes as part of a relay intercrop with early summer
crops, and this would have caused uneven competition between the different tomato plants, and I
didn't sow the seeds of all of the varieties at the same time. All of this means that
I can't place too much emphasis on the data and observations of this one compromised trial,
especially as I only grew 2 plants of each variety. I see this variety trial as an opportunity
to sample a wide variety of different tomatoes, and to determine which ones I might be interested
in growing in the future, or perhaps it's more of a process of narrowing down the number
of varieties, to determine which ones I'm not going to bother growing in the future.
In trying to choose which varieties to keep or not, the taste of the different varieties
is obviously an important factor, but different people have different taste preferences, and
as I'm growing food for more than just myself I need to be cautions of this. The taste
of the tomato can also be affected by the health and growing conditions of the plant,
and the observations that I made about the health and vigour of the different varieties
was not so useful given the compromised nature of the trial, but it’s still something to
take into consideration. The diverse range of types and sizes of tomatoes is another
thing to consider, as different sizes have different uses, and plants that produce earlier
are valuable in this climate, but factors such as the ability of the fruit to survive
packaging and transport is not so important in the context that I'm growing in. We did
put in the time consuming effort to weigh the harvest from the individual varieties,
and assuming that not too many mistakes were made along the way, this data provides one
key way in selecting varieties, and the only one that I could really measure. The easiest
way to start to evaluate the 54 different varieties would be to simply rank the overall
harvests from highest to lowest and select only the ones that produced the most. For
example, if I only selected the varieties that produced over 2.5kg per plant in this
stressed context, that would leave me with 7 varieties, and it might be perfectly acceptable
to just grow these varieties next year, and not worry about the rest. But if I separate
out the different varieties into broad categories based on size, then this shows that I would
have selected 2 varieties that produce larger fruit, 5 that produce medium sized fruit,
and none of the cherry types of tomatoes. This makes sense that smaller varieties would have
difficulty matching the yield of the larger varieties, but I really like some of the smaller
varieties. So it it would be better to select a range from each broad category, based partially
on the yield but also on other factors.
Looking at the set of cherry or smaller tomato varieties first, there was one variety that
was blue blue which ripened into other colours, which I didn't really like the taste of, and
it didn't produce very well, and it seems to be more of a novelty variety that I'm not
really interested in growing again. Three of the varieties produced cherry type tomatoes
that were brown or purple in colour, and the skin of the fruit of two of them seemed to
split quite often, and both plants seemed quite susceptible to blight. The splitting
fruit contributed to the lower yield from these plants, and this was likely due in part
to the difficulty that I had in figuring out when these were ripe enough to pick because
of their colour, but I would be content to grow the one variety that did better and drop
the other two because they were so similar. Another variety produced a fair amount of
fruit but almost all of it was split, more than any of the other varieties, so I didn't
end up harvesting or weighing much from these plants at all. Two varieties produced really
small tomatoes that seemed to drop off the plant quite easily so a lot of the crop was
wasted, as I obviously didn't pick them regularly enough. Despite the low yield I think it would
be worth growing one of these varieties again, as they produce lots of very tasty tiny tomatoes,
and I'd probably pick the one that seemed to do a little bit better. Two varieties seem
to be variations of the standard Gardeners Delight variety, that I have been growing
for years, which I didn't include in this side by side trial because of a lack of space,
but I got a great crop from these plants that I grew in my other polytunnel this season,
and I am not convinced that either of these two varieties is better, so probably won’t
grow either of them again. Another two varieties produce very large trusses of huge numbers
of small yellow fruit, and although the tomatoes are slightly different in size and shape,
they are so similar that it isn't worth growing both, and I'd probably pick the one that I
liked the flavour of a little bit more. One variety also produced yellow fruit that was
quite a bit larger and with a very different shape to the fruit, and produced enough to
make it worth growing. Three of the small fruit varieties that I grew were hybrid plants,
and each of them produce quite unique tomatoes. One I've grown before and I think it may be the
best tasting tomato of them all, something that this variety is famous for. The other
two are quite unique shapes and tastes which might be worth growing again for the sake
of diversity, especially one of them that was quite an interesting shape and produced
a slightly higher yield. The three remaining varieties of cherry tomatoes all produced
the highest yields of nice tasting fruit from quite strong and vigorous plants, which are
definitely worth growing again. So, out of the set of 18 cherry type varieties, I think
I would grow nine of them again, in addition to my old favourite Gardeners Delight, if
I had the space to grow them all, as they would produce a wide variety of shapes, colours
and tastes, even if this meant a slightly lower overall yield, compared to some of the
larger fruited plants.
23 of the varieties that I grew I would place in the category of producing medium sized
fruit, though it's hard to determine boundary between these categories, and they are generally
higher yielding than the cherry types, with perhaps even greater diversity of size and
colour and flavour. Looking at the yields of each variety, about half did quite well,
and the other half were mediocre or poor, and at first glance I would be tempted to
select the 12 that produced the most as they seem to offer good diversity, but it's worth
taking a closer look. Some varieties produced a very low yield for some reason, perhaps
they are just not suitable for the context, another two varieties had damage to one of
the plants which may have reduced their yield significantly. They may be worth trying again,
but there are other options and I wasn't overly impressed with their flavour. One variety
produced blue tomatoes, which faded when the fruit ripened, and definitely wouldn't bother
to grow again as I didn't like the taste. Another three varieties were interesting enough, and
it might be worth growing again if the yields had been better. Two varieties didn't have
a very big yield, but they produced ripe fruit significantly earlier in the season than any
of the other varieties, which makes them worth growing, and of the two of them I'd be tempted
to select one of them possibly because it had a more interesting name. And two varieties
which produced a moderate yield I found relatively quite tasteless and uninteresting. Of the
remaining larger yielding varieties, 3 typically had a slightly unripe part of the fruit which
I am not very fond of, and although they may produce a lot I am not impressed enough to
grow them again. Two of the varieties are more of a paste tomato, and it might be worth
growing but I don't think they really belong in this selection of more salad types of
tomatoes. One variety produced a big yield of nice tomatoes over a long part of the season,
and it might be the variety that I would select, If I could only grow one. But there are another
6 varieties that produced well, and taste nice, and have a different colour and flavour
than the others. Some were yellow or orange or quite dark or multicoloured, including
a green and yellow variety even when ripe, and one was really pale. If I was going for
visual diversity I would be sure to grow this set of six again, and if i included the two
typically red and or early producing varieties, I would be tempted to grow all 8 varieties
again, if I had the space.
With the selection of 13 larger tomato varieties there is quite a significant difference in
yield. With one variety I seemed to keep missing when the fruit was ripe, probably
because of the colour, and they tended to split and start to rot on the vine. Two varieties
just didn't seem to produce a lot of fruit clusters even though they were quite vigorous
vines, including a paste type of tomato, and I suspect they needed more heat or perhaps
more space. One hybrid variety produced a lot of larger fruit later in the season, but
very few of them ripened before the weather turned cold so that was not very useful. Another
variety was actually a mislabelled determinant or bush variety, and I wouldn't be growing
it again in this context at least. Of the 6 remaining moderately yielding varieties,
I would probably not grow 2 of them because I wasn't so fond of the taste. One variety
had quite interesting coloured fruit that tasted quite good, and another one with very
interesting and tasty green fruit that would probably have produced more if I hadn't accidentally
damaged one of the plants, and both of these varieties would be worth growing again even
just for more diversity of colour. I really liked the flavour of two of them, with one
of them possibly being my favourite tomato variety out of the whole selection, and I
wish it had produced a lot more, but perhaps they need more space and attention. The remaining
two varieties both produced lots of really big tomatoes, and had significantly higher
yields than any of the other varieties, and they both seemed to be more of a paste type
of tomato, but they also tasted quite good raw.
Of all of the different varieties of tomatoes I grew last year in this cramped space of
this larger polytunnel last year, I would like to grow 6 of the larger, 8 of the medium,
and 9 of the smaller or cherry type of varieties of tomatoes again. This gives me 23 out of
the 54 varieties that I would like to try again, in addition to the three varieties
that I didn't have room for, but grew in my other polytunnel last year. I am just about
to start to sow seeds for this season, and I think that these 26 varieties is more than
enough to grow for a second trial, though I might try to squeeze in a few other new
varieties this year. For the 31 varieties that didn't make the cut, some of these might
be really good in a different context, and perhaps I will try them again at some other
point in the future. But this season I want to grow fewer varieties, with more space between
the plants, and with the aim of being more focused with the trial, and to see how all
of the varieties compare with better growing conditions. I'm not really sure where it will
all go after that, I could continue with another few years of variety trials to try to refine
down the selection to a few key varieties that do really well in this context, and then
to focus on growing lots of those smaller selection of tomatoes into the future. But
I also quite like the idea of continuing to grow a really wide variety of tomatoes, and
there are so many other varieties out there to try. And I think that the world needs more
people maintaining a localised seed collection, that has that kind of diversity, and perhaps
this seed saving role is something that I could take on in the future, and possibly
even getting into breeding new and additional varieties. But with several different possible
options for the future, a lot depends on how well the variety trial goes this year.