The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Fleecewife on November 17, 2021, 10:47:27 pm
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If you absolutely love tomatoes and want to grow lots of different varieties have a look at:
www.plant-world-seeds.com
I only wanted their lettuce Waldmans dark green but found pages and pages of every kind of tomato you could ever want to grow!
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I do.
I did look at the site but got oddly irked by the random knife, fork or pair of scissors on the pictures.
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I do.
I did look at the site but got oddly irked by the random knife, fork or pair of scissors on the pictures.
:roflanim: I think they're supposed to give a sense of scale, but as there's nothing to say if they're big knives or tiny scissors it doesn't hit the spot. It's worth persevering if you want some different tomatoes. I shall just be growing Sakura and Cocktail Crush this year, both being resistant to blight and able to cope with our weird weather up here, whilst being delicious, but just thought I'd share the seed site.
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I may have a closer look at the blight resistant ones you mentioned.
Someone gave me a variety called bumble bee this year which I used for seed but they sprouted too soon.
Flavour wise my marmande were good this year and a pink pointy variety that I dont know the origin/name of.
What was your best flavour this year?
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That site doesn't have the ones I mentioned - too mainstream I suppose.
I grew 4 varieties this year: Sakura which I've grown for years. It does get leaf blight but the fruits go on producing in spite of that; Mountain Magic which gives full sized blight resistant fruit and is tasty; Cocktail Crush which was new for me - very similar to MM but a little tastier and cleaner; Follia which is a plum and again was new to me. The crop was huge and earlier than plum tomatoes usually are up here, but many of them had blossom end rot, which I've never had before anywhere, and was not on the other varieties. I shan't grow that again, although the unaffected fruits were excellent for cooking.
Sakura and Cocktail Crush were the tastiest, but I found skins a bit thick this time around, perhaps because of all that heat and drought. They are up there with the tasty varieties but perhaps not the tastiest available if you don't need blight resistant ones.
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I am somewhat concerned that with that huge variety of seeds they are simply a re-packaging warehouse... I have never heard of them or seen them recommended at any of the websites/facebook groups that I am on (though that is very few...)
I shall find out more... but I have so far always found all I need from the reliable (and definitely homegrown) companies like Realseeds, Tamar, etc.
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I used to buy all my seeds from the Organic Gardening Catalogue, before it was taken over, but then they started selling mostly seeds sourced from Europe (because they are organic), so I stopped buying, as conditions in much of Europe do not match the ones I have here. I too love all the small companies which grow their own seeds, such as Beans and Herbs, Real Seeds and Incredible vegetables. Over the years I have found certain varieties do better here than others so I have to source those where I can, which often means Mr Fothergills or DT Brown.
I found the World Seeds site when I was tracking down a particular lettuce which did well in my particular microclimate, but when I saw all those tomatoes I thought I would share in case it was just what someone else needed. It looks as if they source many of their seeds from N America.
I have not had success with saving my own seeds because of disease and poor growth - I would rather start the year with healthy seeds, tubers and plants. We are in a fairly extreme area for growing veg successfully; even down in the valley conditions are better, but I love living up here so I do the best I can in the situation I find.
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Real Seeds has just published this year's catalogue (online). If anyone is looking through their tomato lists - Urbikany is very prone to early blight and really doesn't like a slightly damp growing space. But I really like (and have grown) Stupice, Moskvich, Galina (yellow), Skykomish, their version of Gardener's Delight. I also really (and I mean really!) liked Trixi, which seems to have vanished this year. All of them are liable to blight, but if you keep up with taking off the leaves as soon as there is any sign, mine did all very well.
Of the sweet peppers Karkulka was disappointing, but Kaibi did well.
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My tomato seeds for next year have arrived from Lithuania ,Promyk intended for outdoor cultivation but I will grow them in the poly tunnel as I am further north and Oxheart , a plum type fruit, and some Amish seeds from this years harvest that have just finished fermentation and drying and are doing a germination test this week.
Just hope the winter is kind on the poly tunnel this year !!
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My tomato seeds for next year have arrived from Lithuania ,Promyk .......
Is that still permitted ??!
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I have grown German Strawberry Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes, and Abe Lincoln Tomatoes with great success in the Ohio River Valley. I got them from Baker Creek Heirlooms but they ship internationally.
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Real Seeds has just published this year's catalogue (online). If anyone is looking through their tomato lists - Urbikany is very prone to early blight and really doesn't like a slightly damp growing space. But I really like (and have grown) Stupice, Moskvich, Galina (yellow), Skykomish, their version of Gardener's Delight. I also really (and I mean really!) liked Trixi, which seems to have vanished this year. All of them are liable to blight, but if you keep up with taking off the leaves as soon as there is any sign, mine did all very well.
Of the sweet peppers Karkulka was disappointing, but Kaibi did well.
They are my favourite sellers too. Amish paste do well for me and the house tomato was fantastic. Their paprika peppers did well for me too
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How about best variety for growing outdoors - anyone?
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How about best variety for growing outdoors - anyone?
Mortgage Lifter
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The only tomato I've ever grown outdoors was Gardener's Delight but that was 900 feet lower than here and more than 1/4 of a century ago. They grew extremely well - I had kept the plants indoors for too long so had to dig a trench and lay the plants, stems overlapping, horizontally in the trench, tops poking up along the way. I ended up with a wall of tomatoes which were wonderfully productive, having sent up side shoots everywhere :tomato: :tomato: :tomato: :tomato: :tomato: Very tasty grown outdoors - better than indoor crops any day :yum:
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How about best variety for growing outdoors - anyone?
Mortgage Lifter
Ever so slightly concerned about growing a large beefsteak variety outdoors (thinking might need a bit more attention - tying in/thinning of fruits etc) - but I might give a ML variety a try. Thanks for the suggestion naturelovingfarmer.
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The only tomato I've ever grown outdoors was Gardener's Delight but that was 900 feet lower than here and more than 1/4 of a century ago. They grew extremely well - I had kept the plants indoors for too long so had to dig a trench and lay the plants, stems overlapping, horizontally in the trench, tops poking up along the way. I ended up with a wall of tomatoes which were wonderfully productive, having sent up side shoots everywhere :tomato: :tomato: :tomato: :tomato: :tomato: Very tasty grown outdoors - better than indoor crops any day :yum:
Interesting planting solution !
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How about best variety for growing outdoors - anyone?
Mortgage Lifter
Ever so slightly concerned about growing a large beefsteak variety outdoors (thinking might need a bit more attention - tying in/thinning of fruits etc) - but I might give a ML variety a try. Thanks for the suggestion naturelovingfarmer.
I grew them outdoors, average fruit weight was about 1 kilo. But big ones were 1.5 kilo.
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Are you in a sheltered spot [member=212379]naturelovingfarmer[/member] ?
I am not (although I'm extending my willow wind-breaks).
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Are you in a sheltered spot [member=212379]naturelovingfarmer[/member] ?
I am not (although I'm extending my willow wind-breaks).
NLF is in OHIO, USA
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yup, I'm in Ohio. But I've heard our weather is similar to Southern England.
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I looked up roughly where you are NLF, i think you are more akin to Spain, which makes some of us look more like the arctic 🤣🤣🤣
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I looked up roughly where you are NLF, i think you are more akin to Spain, which makes some of us look more like the arctic 🤣🤣🤣
Well shoot. There's snow outside. Does it snow in Spain? And we get over 80 inches of rain a year. I thought Spain was arid?
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Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year. A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them. Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?
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Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year. A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them. Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?
I'm not offended. I just have autism, so I'm very direct. And sometimes my humor doesn't come across. It's actually really hard to offend me. I been through some s**t and I view things through that lens. Like you could cuss me out and I'm likely to laugh at you. I only really get offended if someone calls me a liar, and in true American fashion I usually skip the chatter and go straight to punching them in the face. But nobody here is liable to do that. And there's an ocean in the way that I lack the capability to cross.
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Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year. A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them. Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?
I'm not offended. I just have autism, so I'm very direct. And sometimes my humor doesn't come across. It's actually really hard to offend me. I been through some s**t and I view things through that lens. Like you could cuss me out and I'm likely to laugh at you. I only really get offended if someone calls me a liar, and in true American fashion I usually skip the chatter and go straight to punching them in the face. But nobody here is liable to do that. And there's an ocean in the way that I lack the capability to cross.
Two nations, separated by language and a great big pond :roflanim:
So how about you tell us just what your weather and climate are like through the year, from a growing point of view and just what it allows you to grow? You could maybe pinpoint where your state is too - not only do I not know just where it is (somewhere in the south middle?) but I also don't know the names of all the US states, or even now I come to think of it, all the counties in the UK :o
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Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year. A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them. Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?
I'm not offended. I just have autism, so I'm very direct. And sometimes my humor doesn't come across. It's actually really hard to offend me. I been through some s**t and I view things through that lens. Like you could cuss me out and I'm likely to laugh at you. I only really get offended if someone calls me a liar, and in true American fashion I usually skip the chatter and go straight to punching them in the face. But nobody here is liable to do that. And there's an ocean in the way that I lack the capability to cross.
Got your sense of humour loud and clear :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
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Here you are, Juliet - Mr Google says this
Ohio is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated.
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Two nations, separated by language and a great big pond :roflanim:
So how about you tell us just what your weather and climate are like through the year, from a growing point of view and just what it allows you to grow? You could maybe pinpoint where your state is too - not only do I not know just where it is (somewhere in the south middle?) but I also don't know the names of all the US states, or even now I come to think of it, all the counties in the UK :o
Oh okay. So I'm in the Ohio River Valley, on the Ohio side of the river near the city of Portsmouth OH. I don't know Our temps in C. And I have a very good cold tolerance so my concept of cold is skewed. Like, I went out in just a sweatshirt in the snow on Saturday when it was 27 F. That's somewhat below 0 C, though how much I'm not sure. Everyone but me was cold. Ohio is in a weird spot climate wise. We get extreme weather. Like in the summer, 100 F is a normal August temp, and in February -16 F isn't unheard of. When there's a polar vortex, a type of storm, it can get as cold as -35 F. Our weather in the vicinity of the Ohio River is very wet. 80 inches of rain a year is normal and the ground is soggy all the time and there's moss on stuff. Spring and fall are very foggy times of the year. You can't really grow potatoes here, they all get blight. And corn gets corn smut, which is tasty and edible, but not why you planted the corn. Spring and fall have very mild agreeable weather but are prone to fairly insane thunderstorms that produce tornadoes.
We can grow anything that isn't strictly tropical or arctic and doesn't need dry weather. Because we just plain don't get dry weather. The surrounding area is a temperate rainforest. Our USDA Hardiness Zone is 6b and on the cusp of zone 7a. Japanese crops do well here since our weather is very similar to the central portion of the island of Honshu. Hot and moist in the summer and cold in the winter. We struggle to grow cucurbiticeae (cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins, gourds), potatoes, grains other than rice and sorghum, and lettuce. We excel at growing tomatoes, peppers, onions, roots, tubers other than potatoes, greens, sunflowers, beans, rice, sorghum, mushrooms, okra, blackberries, and tree fruit such as apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and pawpaws.
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Blimey, that is one long river, much longer than the UK south to North! (I like to look things up).
NLF, If my earlier post was offensive in any way I apologise, certainly wasn't meant to be, I'd looked up roughly where you were previously, curious about some of the things you grew, that i'd never heard of, so i knew you are a lot warmer than us, but 100F, gosh, that would kill me, i'm out for the count at about 25c, (77F), but you certainly have some extremes of temperatures, we get frozen for a while, but i think -20c is about the coldest I've ever known it.
Don't your tomatoes ever get blight? Or can you prevent it in some way.? Pawpaws? Never even seen one 🤣. Tomatoes etc have to be in a greenhouse here. Can get frosts up to June 1st.
I think we have a different hardiness zone to you as well, don't know why, it's very confusing at times, ours starts at H7, equivalent to your H5.
Where I live, at 1000ft, we are in UK-H7, your 5, while most of the country is H8, a few southern and western areas in UK-H9. We have the gulf stream running near our western coast, which helps keep the temperatures up.
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I like to look things up too :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: To remind myself of my Higher Maths! :innocent:
How to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit
The temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (°F) is equal to - the temperature in degrees Celsius (°C) times 9/5 plus 32:
So 10C equals 50F(10 times 9 divided by 5 plus 32)
Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion table
Celsius (°C) Fahrenheit (°F)
-50 °C -58.0 °F
-40 °C -40.0 °F
-30 °C -22.0 °F
-20 °C -4.0 °F
-10 °C 14.0 °F
-9 °C 15.8 °F
-8 °C 17.6 °F
-7 °C 19.4 °F
-6 °C 21.2 °F
-5 °C 23.0 °F
-4 °C 24.8 °F
-3 °C 26.6 °F
-2 °C 28.4 °F
-1 °C 30.2 °F
0 °C 32.0 °F
1 °C 33.8 °F
2 °C 35.6 °F
3 °C 37.4 °F
4 °C 39.2 °F
5 °C 41.0 °F
6 °C 42.8 °F
7 °C 44.6 °F
8 °C 46.4 °F
9 °C 48.2 °F
10 °C 50.0 °F
20 °C 68.0 °F
30 °C 86.0 °F
40 °C 104.0 °F
50 °C 122.0 °F
60 °C 140.0 °F
70 °C 158.0 °F
80 °C 176.0 °F
90 °C 194.0 °F
100 °C 212.0 °F
200 °C 392.0 °F
300 °C 572.0 °F
400 °C 752.0 °F
500 °C 932.0 °F
600 °C 1112.0 °F
700 °C 1292.0 °F
800 °C 1472.0 °F
900 °C 1652.0 °F
1000 °C 1832.0 °F
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Blimey, that is one long river, much longer than the UK south to North! (I like to look things up).
NLF, If my earlier post was offensive in any way I apologise, certainly wasn't meant to be, I'd looked up roughly where you were previously, curious about some of the things you grew, that i'd never heard of, so i knew you are a lot warmer than us, but 100F, gosh, that would kill me, i'm out for the count at about 25c, (77F), but you certainly have some extremes of temperatures, we get frozen for a while, but i think -20c is about the coldest I've ever known it.
Don't your tomatoes ever get blight? Or can you prevent it in some way.? Pawpaws? Never even seen one 🤣. Tomatoes etc have to be in a greenhouse here. Can get frosts up to June 1st.
I think we have a different hardiness zone to you as well, don't know why, it's very confusing at times, ours starts at H7, equivalent to your H5.
Where I live, at 1000ft, we are in UK-H7, your 5, while most of the country is H8, a few southern and western areas in UK-H9. We have the gulf stream running near our western coast, which helps keep the temperatures up.
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No, the tomatoes don't get blight. In fact I'd never even heard of the problem until I heard it from you guys. Pawpaw is the largest tree-fruit native to North America. It tastes halfway between pineapple and banana. It is hardy to zone 5 so you might be able to grow it. It requires shade though so you have to grow it in a damp area of an established woodland.
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They sell pawpaw in the UK. I was very tempted to buy some actually! (Ebay)
However you need male and female tree to cross pollinate and it is unlikely that neighbours will have one, as its very possible with apples or pears.
In the UK you can grow a lot of variety of plants. However simple growing is not the same as fruiting.
UK summers are just not long enough (even more sunny East and south of England), too cool, and not enough sunshine for many species of fruit trees to ripen.
You can grow beautiful varieties of pomegranate - but the flowers will almost never turn into fruit.
Thisnis the reason we mostly grow tomatoes in greenhouses/polytunnels. When grown outside, usually as soon as they start turning red, the weather turns too cold 🥶
In Sweden or Norway, further north than Shetland you can grow more variety of fruit and veg outside - more sunshine in the summer.
We don't get summer - we get super long spring and autumn with couple "heatwaves" between May and August.
I have seen 24C (around 74F?) in April and next week frost!
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As 'an older person' :D I carry in my head rough equivalents for decimal and imperial measurements, weights, Celsius and Fahrenheit temps, even Kelvin sometimes, distance and such like. This is because I grew up and went to school when we used the old system, so the new is like a second language, not quite fluent but good enough to get by. Middle aged folk grew up having to know both so it's only the young who look askance at acres, yards and degrees Fahrenheit. So don't worry NLF, we can cope with the conversions, even American gallons :)
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As 'an older person' :D I carry in my head rough equivalents for decimal and imperial measurements, weights, Celsius and Fahrenheit temps, even Kelvin sometimes, distance and such like. This is because I grew up and went to school when we used the old system, so the new is like a second language, not quite fluent but good enough to get by. Middle aged folk grew up having to know both so it's only the young who look askance at acres, yards and degrees Fahrenheit. So don't worry NLF, we can cope with the conversions, even American gallons :)
That post has made my day. I'm in my 40s and find Imperial measurements a totally foreign language.
Therefore, I must still be young ;D
Thanks fleecewife!
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As 'an older person' :D I carry in my head rough equivalents for decimal and imperial measurements, weights, Celsius and Fahrenheit temps, even Kelvin sometimes, distance and such like. This is because I grew up and went to school when we used the old system, so the new is like a second language, not quite fluent but good enough to get by. Middle aged folk grew up having to know both so it's only the young who look askance at acres, yards and degrees Fahrenheit. So don't worry NLF, we can cope with the conversions, even American gallons :)
That post has made my day. I'm in my 40s and find Imperial measurements a totally foreign language.
Therefore, I must still be young ;D
Thanks fleecewife!
Well you're younger than my kids, just a wee baby to me :D
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Just had a look at that website, already got loads of chilli seeds but my mouth is watering with the huge number of different varieties they have! I think next year I'll be ordering from them!! Thank you for sharing the website!