Post by michaeljohnson on Sept 14, 2008 23:54:14 GMT -5
I was fortunate enough to come accross some seeds of a very old variety of English tomatoes at the beginning of the year- Called ( Cheetham's Potato Leaf) as far as I new it came from around the 1920 to 30's era, but I had little knowledge of the variety or info other than that.
The original seed came from (Heritage seed savers in the UK) so I thought I would grow it and see what it was like.
As the season went on- I just could not believe the massive production rate of this tomato- easy and free setting, it was absolutely hung from top to bottom in large trusses of tomatoes- some of them double trusses- so much so, that in the end I had to build a tripod of stakes to support each plant as the stem and the one stake was beginning to buckle under the weight of fruit- the tomatoes start off ripening with a lovely salmon pink colour and later darken to the same colour as red salmon, they are a largish salad size tomato and the taste is a rather nice mild tomatoey taste ,
But what a production- I have never before seen a tomato pump out tomatoes on this scale, and for the whole of the full length of five or six foot tall- it also seems to be fairly disease resistant too- and average family would want to grow only one or maybe two plants for the whole of their tomato season-even then I doubt if they would be able to eat all they produced.
I now have seeds available for this tomato within the next two weeks if anyone is interested in giving it a go- own saved seeds from this years crop.
The only other tomato that might compare with it for production is the (Hanky Red) variety -indeterminate, from one of the USA seed merchants, which is also said to be the most massive production ever in a plant- I am growing some of those next season for comparison purposes.
The original seed came from (Heritage seed savers in the UK) so I thought I would grow it and see what it was like.
As the season went on- I just could not believe the massive production rate of this tomato- easy and free setting, it was absolutely hung from top to bottom in large trusses of tomatoes- some of them double trusses- so much so, that in the end I had to build a tripod of stakes to support each plant as the stem and the one stake was beginning to buckle under the weight of fruit- the tomatoes start off ripening with a lovely salmon pink colour and later darken to the same colour as red salmon, they are a largish salad size tomato and the taste is a rather nice mild tomatoey taste ,
But what a production- I have never before seen a tomato pump out tomatoes on this scale, and for the whole of the full length of five or six foot tall- it also seems to be fairly disease resistant too- and average family would want to grow only one or maybe two plants for the whole of their tomato season-even then I doubt if they would be able to eat all they produced.
I now have seeds available for this tomato within the next two weeks if anyone is interested in giving it a go- own saved seeds from this years crop.
The only other tomato that might compare with it for production is the (Hanky Red) variety -indeterminate, from one of the USA seed merchants, which is also said to be the most massive production ever in a plant- I am growing some of those next season for comparison purposes.
