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Posted by mick (U13912352) on Friday, 21st January 2011
Hi all
i would like to try growing tomatoes outside this year but i don't have a greenhouse , can anyone recommend varieties that will grow in a sunny spot outside
thnx mick
I won't mention varieties as such, as this is a matter of taste but I would suggest 'cherry' varieties as opposed to the larger varieties due to the ripening process.
Cherry varieties tend to ripen quicker than larger varieties, and it is this that is often the problem with outdoor growing i.e. you get the quantity but not always the quality, particularly in poor summers.
Red Alert - bush variety, cherry type. I grew one in a pot outdoors in a sheltered spot last year and it was earlier than other varieties. Very sprawling habit. Nice tasting
I've grown Brandywine - my favourite quite succesfully outdoors in a sun pocket. Cheers, Tony.
Hi mick,
I think any variety can be grown outdoors. I grow mine under the eaves on the south side of my house to keep water off the foliage and I make sure I don't splash the foliage when I water.
The bane of growing outdoor tomatoes is blight. Therefore It would be advisable to choose varieties with some resistance to it....I have found the most successful in this respect, is the variety 'Ferline', by Thompson & Morgan.
Any variety will grow outdoors. It really depends on (a) what you want to grow; and (b) the length of your growing season. Bear in mind that toms need to average 6-8 hours of sunlight daily to perform at their absolute best. If you don't have a long growing season it rules out the mid-late and late varieties.
If you're interested in a cherry variety that takes about 75 days from planting out to maturity, I wouldn't go past "Camp Joy" (aka "Chadwick's Cherry"). It's an heirloom variety, indeterminate, develops into a very big plant, but produces an enormous amount of delicious fruit.
Someone recommended Koralik, an outside bush tomato. I am going to give it a try this year. I thought I would just grow bush this apart from black cherry which i love.
Small cherry tomatoes work well - like tommy tumblers. You can grow these in hanging baskets if space is limited. Your local garden centre will have various varieties marked for hanging baskets. Good luck
Our driveway is south facing and I've grown Fantasio (Suttons) every year as it's blight tolerant - you get about 6 weeks more life after cherry tomatoes have succombed to the dreaded disease! The fruit are large and not quite as tasty as cherry tomatoes but definitely worth growing. Gardeners Delight, Red Cherry, Tommy Toe have all grown well. All have been grown 3 plants to a standard grow bag and as I pass them everyday remembering to water & feed is easy.
thnx for the replies guys i'm gonna choose a variety and cross my fingers and be selling chutney later on in the year ....... lol
mick
I have grown "fantasio" too, and find it very well flavoured. , but it is very large, almost a beefsteak size. I grow mine in grow bags against the south side of the house and last year grew "golden sunrise" and "tamina" as well. Some varieties had blight 3 seasons ago (not fantasio) and since then I have sprayed them with bordeaux mixture ( which I have seen some people say is acceptable to organic growers, though I don't see how it can be, being copper based) and have not been troubled with blight since, It usually says in the seed catalogue which varieties are suitable for outdoor growing. Good Luck!
Copper qualifies as organic in many quarters because it's "naturally occurring" rather than a created substance. Personally, I think there's at least one anti-blight spray - chlorothalonil - that's vastly less dangerous to insects and the environment than copper.
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