Time To Choose New Seeds - My Favorite Tomatoes Ranking

It is January and winter finally came to Sweden, yet I think of spring already. I have analysed qualities of the tomatoes sorts I planted last year and created my own ranking that can help me to take decision what I should plant this year. In general I prefer black tomatoes and they took the most place in my green house last year. They have intensive tomato taste and very delicate skin. Almost all black tomatoes taste great. Therefore most of my tomatoes were black. They are not literally black but dark red to brown (this year I found some sort that looks really black and I want to try it). I have read  that they contain anthocyanins, an antioxidant believed to help fight cancer, diabetes and obesity which only assured me that they are the most valuable sort of tomatoes. I bought also some bi-colored ones and one red type. Two years ago I planted also some orange sorts and they did not taste good. They were just very boring in taste and had very little aroma. I must add that all tomatoes I grow are GMO free even though some of them look strange.

This is my ranking of tomatoes I planted last year. My criteria were: 

1. When the first fruit ripened (the sooner the better).

2. If the plant was productive.

3. How the fruits tasted.

4. Some additional individual features of the tomato that I especially liked or disliked.

And the winner is:

1. Vintage Wine (bi-colored)

My Vintage Wine plants were productive. The fruits were middle size - average weight of a fruit was 161g. The biggest one weighted 441g. and it was the biggest tomato I got in my green house last year. It started to ripen quite early - in the second half of July. Its taste and aroma were just fantastic. It was my second year of growing Vintage Wine and I definitely will buy news seeds this year too. 

2. Paul Robeson (black)

The plant was productive and started to ripen early. The average weight of a fruit was 100 g. It tasted great - it is the best tasting black tomato I have ever tried.

3. Black Sea Man (black)

The plant was productive and started to ripen early (middle July). Fruits weighted between 310g. and 25g. Very good in taste. 

4. Japanese Black Trifele (black)

The plant was very productive. It started to ripen quite late (first half of August). The fruits were middle to small size and very tasty. They had a pear shape.

5. Carbon (black)

It tasted very good but the plant was not very productive. Moreover one of my Carbon plants got sick without any visible reasons (surely there were some but I was not able to diagnose them). The average fruit weight was 212 g.

6. Reise Tomato (red)

This is the most bizarre tomato I have ever seen. It is a whole bunch of small tomatoes grown together creating fantastic shapes. It has a very good, intensive and classic tomato taste with a slight tendency to have a little sour taste. The plant was productive and the average weight of a fruit was 66 g. It started to ripen early. I put it only on the 6th position first of all because this tomato was very impractical - some parts of it got very ripened while the others were still green. I never knew if I should pick it already or wait. The other thing I did not like about this sort was its hard skin which was very difficult to peel off because of the fruit shape. It was not pleasant to chew it (especially the smallest parts). 

7. Black Krim  (black)

The plant was very unproductive. Fruits average weight was 92 g. It began to ripen early. Good in taste.

8. Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye  (bi-colored)

The plant was not very productive. It started getting ripened a little late (beginning of August). The average weight of a fruit was 154 g. It looked very interesting because of the colored skin but it was average in taste. 

9. Russo Sicilian (red)

The plant was very productive (one of the best in my green house regarding this criterion). The average weight of a fruit was 71 g. They started to get ripen at the beginning of August so not too late. I put it on such late position on my list because of its boring taste. I did not like it. Of course it tasted better that tomatoes available in super markets but in my opinion it is not worth growing it on your own. 

Late Summer In My Greenhouse

It´s been a long time since my last post. I was very busy not only with my tomatoes but also with other plants that I have in my garden. It is almost the end of summer but it is still very warm and sunny. Nights are cold though and tomatoes do not have perfect conditions to grow and ripen anymore but they still look good;) 

This summer was exceptionally warm and sunny and I needed to water my tomatoes quite often. The conditions were perfect for my plants but not everything turned out so perfect... I used a new fertilizer which was especially dedicated to feed tomatoes. Unfortunately, it was not as good as I expected. Actually much worse... After several weeks of dosing it my tomatoes started having symptoms of lack of various elements or overdosing some of them on their leaves. Luckily fruits did not seem to be affected. It is difficult to guess what is your plant problem. The best solution would be to analyse the soil and add what is missing but that was too complicated for me -after all I am not a professional gardener and I do not have ambition to be one;) I wanted to fix it in some simple way. First, I stopped using the new fertilizer. It helped. After some weeks on a "diet" I gave them the old fertilizer and it turned out to be a good decision because my tomatoes went back to norm and the new leaves looked good. Of course both - the old and the new fertilizer are ecologic. 

Now I just wait till the end of season. I pick ripened tomatoes and get rid of old plants.

I weight every fruit from every plant and keep a record of this information. I also note which ones are tasty. After picking the last tomato of this season I will compare them to see which sorts were most productive and tasted the best. This should help me to plan which sorts to pick for the next year. I will describe them in this blog before the next year.

And here are some pictures from this season:

mixed sorts of my tomatoes

A peculiar tomato sort called "reise tomato"

The greenhouse in July

My Tomatoes Are Starting To Fruit

My tomatoes had grown so high that I had to tie some of them to the construction of my greenhouse roof. One of them fell down and was laying on the pot because its fruits had become so heavy. Now it is back in a vertical position tied and hanging like the rest.

Fruits on one of my tomato plants started getting ready to be picked. I picked the biggest and the most soft one of them. It looks ripened but has green skin at the stalk area. I remember from the last year that black tomatoes look like this even when they are very ripened. Yet I will wait a little while before eating it to check if the green area disappears. I want to make sure that I do not eat a green tomato. Now it is laying on the kitchen windowsill teasing me;) 

Most of my tomatoes are still very green

The most ripened tomatoes - Black Sea Man

Black Sea Man - weight 310 g. 

Transplanting Tomatoes To Larger Pots

My little tomatoes did not feel comfortable in their tiny cubes. They developed long roots but their growth stopped. It was high time to transplant them to bigger pots. I remember that my last year´s plants  were bigger at the same age. I will rather use some sawing soil mix next time than propagation cubes. 

I transplanted my plants yesterday evening when it was only 2 °C degrees (35,6 F) so much too cold to keep my tomatoes outside. I did not want to conduct the whole procedure inside so first I prepared pots outside. I started with putting labels with number on the pots. The numbers correspond with the tomatoes sorts I planted. Before sawing my tomatoes I had prepared a numbered list of their sorts. When they get fruits I will know which is which. After putting the numbers labels on the pots I filled them with a special planting soil mix. It contained a natural fertilizer. I did not prepare the mix myself but bought it ready in my gardener´s store. When my pots were ready then I took the first tomato plant outside and planted it quickly before it got too cold. I had to be very careful because their roots were long I did not want to damage them too much as well as I had to make sure that the roots ends are in the right position and go down in the soil. Then I put the ready tomato pot back inside and placed it on a plastic tray. Every pot has a hole in the bottom to remove excess water from it. Therefore I needed the tray. I used it instead of many regular pot plates. I repeated this procedure with every tomato. Now I have 24 pots on 3 trays. After transplanting tomatoes to the new pots I carried them to the upstairs hall where they have very good conditions thanks to roof windows that let lots of the sunlight in. Tomatoes really need it. At the end I watered them with mild temperature water. They survived the whole process and went to sleep because it became dark:) Plants don´t like to be transplanted in a sunny hot weather because it makes them tired. They need some time to regenerate. I planted my tomatoes in the evening so the had the whole night to rest:) 

Today they look OK. I hope they feel good and will start growing fast. I plan to transplant them to very big pots around May, 15th.   

Plant ready to go to the new pot

My tomatoes today. Still alive;)

Sowing Tomatoes

I should have started writing this blog one month ago because my posts would be more up to date. Unfortunately, I got this idea only yesterday. Anyway better later than never. Tomatoes should be sowed in the beginning of March. I did it more than three weeks ago. In previous years I used to sow my tomatoes in a special soil mix for starting plants from seeds. My gardeners store sells big bags of this mix. This year I wanted to experiment a little and try something new and hopefully easier and less messy. It´s still very cold outside and I did not want to dig in frozen soil so I bought a propagation kit with 24 cubes on a plastic tray. 

The cubes are made of composted organic materials with micro nutrients. They have a spongy texture. They are supposed to help seeds to sprout fast and develop strong roots of the plant. There is a small hole in every cube which makes it easy to put seeds in it. I put 2 seeds in every hole according to the instruction. There are always seeds that do not sprout at all. Therefore it is better to sow 2 seeds in one cube/pot to have more chances to get at least one plant. 

Like I expected cubes were great and easy to use. I only needed to push the seeds a little with a help of a match. The other little problem was to "close" holes over the seeds. I was afraid that they might get dry. I cut  small pieces of the cubes corners and pressed them in the holes over the seeds. Maybe that was not needed but it felt more secure. My tomatoes started sprouting three days after sowing! In some cubes I got one and  in some two sprouts. Normally it takes around a week. When I had two in a cube I picked the smaller and weaker one.

Not everything is great though - my cubes need to be watered all the time. I use water in a spray bottle. The sponge cubes absorb easily small amounts of water but the rest just leaks out through wholes in the bottom of the tray. When I had my plants in regular soil pots I did not need to water them so often. Maybe once in three days. Now - at least three times a day. I work at home so I can do this but what will happen when we go away for a few days? I am going to try to put the tray with them to a bigger tray filled with water. I hope that they can suck the water through the bottom holes like a regular plants in pots do. I hope it works. I will test this today and will write about the results later. 

My tomatoes this morning

Why I Run This Blog

In my first post I want to present my experience with growing tomatoes. I don´t pretend to be a professional - it´s just my passion and try to do my best to get great tomatoes from seeds. Every year I learn something new about it and my blog is the place where I write what I do and what effects it gives.

I have always loved taste of real homegrown tomatoes. My grandma Helena used to have a greenhouse and had the best tomatoes in the world. It is almost impossible to find really tasty tomatoes in stores. Therefore, I decided to grow my own plants. My first cultivation took place 3 years ago. I decided to check if it was possible to grow tomatoes in Sweden. Poland and my region of Sweden (hardiness zone 6) have more less the same climate so it seems possible to succeed. Though, I was a little crazy planting my tomatoes in the ground outside instead of keeping them in a greenhouse. Summer in Sweden is unpredictable - the weather changes several times a day. It rains quite often. Tomatoes don't like to be wet. Luckily, it was not the worst summer so my plants grew well. Problems started when they were still green in September. I had to pick them in this stage and keep them on windowsills. Eventually, they became red but then I discovered that they tasted awful - I turned out that I had used too much fertilizer (natural) which affected their taste. All my tomatoes landed on the compost pile but I did not give up...

Thanks to this experience and many professional publications I have learnt a lot about tomatoes. I also  get advice from my mother in law who successfully grows tomatoes in the northern Sweden (Leksand). Last two years I succeeded with my plants and I keep growing them. I test and introduce new solutions for watering, fighting pests and other potential problems that I face. I also check different sorts of tomatoes every year. I have been running a paper tomatoes cultivation diary with information about every tomato sort I have had - if it was tasty, when fruits were ready to pick, how much it weighted and how many tomatoes I got from one plant. Now, I decided to run this blog instead of the paper diary.