Hello everyone,

Here are some photos from my garden this year, in Bristol, South-west UK. I'm growing ~41plants of ~39 varieties.
I grow in soil bags against a sunny wall in the yard of the workshop we rent around the corner from our house. There are two plants to a bag. In previous years I have pruned to a single stem (except cherries with 2-3), but this year I am experimenting with allowing more stems. This photo was taken on 17 July, can't believe how much they have grown in a month! It's a jungle out there.

I was a little worried at the start of the season- my seedlings were stunted through overwatering, I was late planting out, and the drip irrigation failed a couple of times. We also had some periods of unusually hot weather for the UK (e.g. 38 degrees c, 100f, - usually our summer temperatures struggle to get above 25c / 77f) but despite all that it's been good fun, the weather has been kind, with some beautiful tomatoes, many from the MMMM - thank you!

Latah - an old favourite that does well here. First ripe tomato on 13th July
Bloody butcher - first time growing - from MMMM - second earliest tomato- 27th July. A bit smaller than I imagined, but sweet.
Vladka- first time growing - from MMMM - was impressed with the early production - first ripe tomato 4th Aug. Would grow again.

Harvest on 12th August.

The "Black Krim ?" was planted as a Pink Berkley Tye Dye, but obviously looks nothing like it, so I might have mixed up the labels (although I am very careful) or it might be a cross or a stray seed....either way it is a happy and productive plant.


Elgin Pink - first time growing - From MMMM. Much darker than I expected, but very happy with this one

A beautiful cheerful harvest on 21st August. All new-to-me varieties received through the MMMM.

-Elgin Pink -beautiful
-Mac Pink -I grew two plants of this. They had different habits and fruit colours.
-Romovaya Baba- Loved this plant. Very beautiful. As of today's harvest it has raced into the lead of most productive plant. Also heaviest single tomato harvested this season at 422g (almost 15oz). Will grow next year.
- Vladka - pleasing shape, early, meaty
- Swoon PL - I grew two swoon plants, one potato leaf (which I believe is correct), one regular leaf (out of curiosity). The PL plant is absolutely delicious, and I've harvested over double the weight from the PL over the RL plant.

Another lovely selection:

- Black Russian - Early & tasty. Second year growing - feels like it should be more productive than I've recorded to date, but my mum grows this one, and I like it and grow it too.
- Green Zebra - I had real success with this tomato in 2020, so was growing again to replenish seed. It's not been very productive at all this year, although conditions have not been ideal. I love the life it brings to a mixed tomato basket, and look at that beautiful swirly calyx!
-Latah - A must grow for me. Early and tasty
-Mat-Su Express - New to me (MMMM) - Father in law (to whom I have passed on the tomato addiction) has grown some enormous ones this year, absolute specimens! I grew a Mat-Su-Express, a Pervaya Lyubov & a Bloody Butcher in the same grow-bag as a test. They all performed fairly similarly for me, I liked them all. They could have benefitted from more room / better conditions
- Ron's Carbon Copy New to me (MMMM) - I like the dark cherries, super tasty. This has done well considering it is sharing a ~5 gallon pot with the galina. I wanted to taste-test it against the Black Opal, but they both taste pretty good to me!
- Galina - Third time growing
- Black Sea Man - First time growing. Really like it. Delicious & pretty productive. Also a handsome looker.
- Solar Flare - Gave it a second go after a disappointing 2021. Think this one would rather be in California! Didn't do too well for me - not very productive & the ones I did get were pretty gnarly - I ended up cutting a lot of gnarly skin out. I will search for a new stripy kind for next year.

Well done on all of these! They look like a real tasty bunch.

Harvest 29 August 2022

- Paul Robeson - Second Year growing. Have been so pleased. Grew it in the same growbag as Carbon for comparison, and it has significantly outperformed Carbon to date in terms of harvest. Will update at end of season. To date it is the third most productive plant out of 39 varieties in my garden this year. Has already outperformed last year's Paul Robeson plant. A healthy happy plant with large tomatoes, will save lots of seed.

- Romovaya Baba (not labelled in this picture) - Very happy with this plant (see above). Will save lots of seed. The tomato in the pic below is my heaviest tomato this year ( 422g , almost 15oz). Most productive variety to date of the 39 in my garden.

- Black Sea Man - Very happy with this plant (see above). Included this pic because of the beauty of the skin- almost stripy.

- Black Beauty - Very happy with this plant. Has a semi-determinate habit. Currently third most productive tomato in the garden.

-Rosoviy Saraeva - New to me (MMMM) I don't grow many determinates, but wanted to give this one a whirl. I don't have too much of an opinion about it.... I thought it would be early. My Days to Maturity are a little unrepresentative this year (got the garden in late & plants a bit stunted), but I recorded it at 69 days. My 39 varieties can be sorted into 11 'First harvest' dates and this was the 8th latest out of 11 in my garden. It ripened at the same time as my first Paul Robeson. So .... I need to give the flavour another taste, but I might grow something different next year.

-Azoychka- New to me - 7th most productive variety to date of the 39 in my garden. It's good to have a yellow in the mix. Would grow again.

- Japanese Black Trifele - Second year growing. Latest tomato in my garden (along with Aunt Ginny's purple... although I don't think I have harvested anything from Stump of the World yet, which seems a bit odd). I like the unusual shape for variety.

Tomaquet de penjar - New-to-me. Seed from a friend of a friend's garden in the Pyrenees. For storage / hanging and used in the Catalan dish pa amb tomàquet (‘bread with tomato’) - Cut and rub toasted / stale bread with garlic and this tomato. Yum!! I love the speckled / mottled / blooming pink skin of these tomatoes. And the using of a specific variety of tomato for a specific culinary delicacy.

That setup against the brick wall is fantastic... I can only imagine it even helped with the heat as well as the cold.
You have a beautiful selection of tomatoes this year.

Your tomatoes are just beautiful as are your pictures. Elgin Pink looks to be maybe an off-type since it appears to be dark rather than pink. Most seeds from the MMMM are open pollinated and not bagged seed so it is quite possible that it was crossed. Plus if the seed came from me, then I am hearing that it is crossed seed and it is throwing out some blacks.

Lovely selection!

Mat-Su Express has been my highest yielding plant two years in a row now, in 2021 it gave me 6kg, this year 4.5kg so far (heat wave will likely reduce the overall yield). Taste was better last year but still very good this year too.

MissS wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:45 am Elgin Pink looks to be maybe an off-type since it appears to be dark rather than pink. Most seeds from the MMMM are open pollinated and not bagged seed so it is quite possible that it was crossed. Plus if the seed came from me, then I am hearing that it is crossed seed and it is throwing out some blacks.

That's interesting to hear thank you- yes it was much darker than I expected. I grew two plants with the same outcome. Not sure who the original seed source was- many of my MMMM were likely re-packed down to a very neat size for postage- the seed just said Elgin Pink 2021. But it sounds likely! I will mark my saved seeds as an off type, and won't share them unless anyone would specifically like any. Either way- it was a lovely surprise & I enjoyed having it in the garden

rossomendblot wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:08 am Mat-Su Express has been my highest yielding plant two years in a row now, in 2021 it gave me 6kg, this year 4.5kg so far (heat wave will likely reduce the overall yield). Taste was better last year but still very good this year too.

That's awesome to hear - well it will definitely be invited back next year then, and given more elbow room

Do you have any other varieties you particularly recommend?

KateL wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:41 am

rossomendblot wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:08 am Mat-Su Express has been my highest yielding plant two years in a row now, in 2021 it gave me 6kg, this year 4.5kg so far (heat wave will likely reduce the overall yield). Taste was better last year but still very good this year too.

That's awesome to hear - well it will definitely be invited back next year then, and given more elbow room

Do you have any other varieties you particularly recommend?

Girl Girl's Weird Thing, great taste and the second highest yielder for me this year at 4kg. Rosedale is excellent but quite late to ripen. I'm hoping to save seed from both, though the trusses I bagged coincided with the heat wave and they both only have one tomato on. If I get enough you are welcome to have some.

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at your photos and reading your descriptions. Beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing. I'm literally drooling now.

I sowed the following varieties during the second week of March. They spent a couple of nights in a warm cupboard on top of the hot water tank, to aid germination. Now they have taken over my one good windowsill. Here they will be potted up, grow enormous, take over my whole work-space, go outdoors in the day, inside at night until I can finally plant them out, mid May (phew!).

Returning (17)
Amish Paste
Ananas Noir
Black beauty
Black Krim
Black Opal
Bloody butcher (MMMM)
Dr Wyches Yellow
House
Latah
Mac Pink (MMMM)
Mat - Su Express (MMMM)
Pervaya Lyubov (MMMM)
Pink Berkeley Tye Dye
Streak Lightning
Sungold F1 (MMMM)
Sungold Select
Vladyka (MMMM)

New to me (19)
Blushing Bride
Brad's Black Heart (MMMM)
Daniel Burson (MMMM)
Darren's Stripey Pink Paste (MMMM)
Early wonder Pink (MMMM)
Elsa (MMMM)
Ernie's Plump (MMMM)
Feo de Rio Gordo
Fishlake Oxheart (MMMM)
German Red Strawberry
Girl Girl's Weird Thing (MMMM)
Kellogg's Breakfast
Maglia Rosa (MMMM)
Marzano Fire (MMMM)
Siletz (MMMM)
Skykomish
Sophie's Choice (MMMM)
Superbec (MMMM)
Zapotec x Black Cherry F5 (MMMM)

For father-in-law, some of the above, plus
Blue boar berries
Galina

Windowsill 8th April 2023: Enjoying a sunny day 25th April 2023: Germination fails -Although I do give away lots of spare plants, to avoid being over-faced this year, I purposefully only sowed 2-3 seeds for every one final plant I would like. So some germination fails were not unexpected. They are a mix of commercial, swap and my own saved seed. I re-sowed some of them that I was particularly looking forward to on March 17th, but otherwise I was happy to accept I will miss these this year, knowing that I already have too many varieties for the spaces available.

Would have been returning (5)
Black Sea Man
Cole
Paul Robeson
Romovaya Baba
Ron's carbon Copy

Would have been new-to-me (6)
Anna Russian
Green Agate
Matina
Opalka
Polaris
Malahitovaya Shkatulka

I will sow these 11 again next year.

Wishing you a great season, Kate!

good luck this year!!! happy gardening

End of 2023 season report
Not the best year for tomatoes. The weather was a bit weird, and many of the tomatoes had a long DTM, also a lot of fruit was lost to rot spots. Some of the plants I allowed 2 or 3 stems, in a hope of getting more tomatoes. However, I think for 2024 I will return to single stem for the large tomatoes, but will allow cherry / saladette tomatoes 2 or 3 stems.

I became a mum for the first time in early August, so life got a little busy, and no harvest records were kept past the end of July!

Notable plants:

Latah- Usually a favourite, but this year a puny plant- none of my latah seedlings were very good this year.
Maglia Rosa- Bushy- tons of foliage. Super tasty. Will be returning. Goddaughter ate hundreds of these.
Pervaya Lyubov- Best plant of 2023. Tasty, soft and sweet.
Bloody Butcher - Solid plant in a bad year
Elsa- Solid plant in a bad year, although some mouldy spots
Daniel Burson- Solid plant in a bad year- impressive fruit sets when the other plants aren’t doing much.
Vladka- Solid plant in a bad year- impressive fruit sets when the other plants aren’t doing much
Sungold F1 - Good plant.

Congratulations on being a mum! Hope the little one enjoys tomatoes.
A lot of us had a difficult year in 2023, but hopefully 2024 will be better... best wishes for your current season.

bower wrote: ↑Sun Jun 23, 2024 5:59 pm Congratulations on being a mum! Hope the little one enjoys tomatoes.
A lot of us had a difficult year in 2023, but hopefully 2024 will be better... best wishes for your current season.

Thank you- It turns out the little one LOVES tomatoes. He's definitely mine, hehehe!
So far he's had to put up with grocery store tomatoes, but the first few Bloody Butcher are starting to arrive now, so soooon it will be fresh garden tomatoes galore