A Success Of Sorts

I didn't expect much from my tomatoes after the bad start they had this year, but some of the plants have come good in the end.

My final tomato plant list for this year looked like this:-

Greenhouse Plants
Costoluto Fiorentino
Gardeners Delight
Alicante (bought from the local plant sale)

Outdoor Plants
Costoluto Fiorentino
Gardeners Delight
Ailsa Craig X 2

Outdoor Bush Plants
Maskotka X 2 (bought from the local plant sale)
Gartenperle (bought from the local plant sale)
Ildi
Totem

There hasn't been much difference between the greenhouse grown plants and the outdoor plants this year, even though I've been trying the self watering containers I bought in the greenhouse, though this year probably isn't the best year to come to any conclusion over them because of the problems I encountered with the plants, so I shall watch closely again next year for any difference between the plants grown in them and the plants grown in ordinary grow bags.

There's been a huge difference in the plant varities this year though. The stars of the show were undoubtedly the two Maskotka plants which I bought from the local plant sale. I shall definitely grow these again next year but I'll have a go at growing them from seed this time. They got a thumbs up from my dad too, he's really been enjoying the ones I've taken for him.

Ildi has got to be the worst performer, not just because the plant didn't produce much fruit but also because I didn't like the taste of the tomatoes. They're the little orange ones in the photo above.

I didn't enjoy the Gartenperle tomatoes, they're the small, pinkish red tomatoes in the first photo. They had a very thick skin so I won't bother growing them again. I've already disposed of this plant.

Many of the Costoluto Fiorentino tomatoes split. I presume that was because we got so much rain after a dry spell, but they didn't go to waste, they can still be eaten.

Totem has been a star again. It's such a small plant and doesn't take up much space as it doesn't sprawl as some of the other bush varieties do, it gives a good yield and the tomatoes are larger than cherry tomatoes but slightly smaller than a salad tomato. It's got a good taste too. I grew this variety last year and was impressed with it then and it will be on my list of tomatoes to grow again next year.

The Gardener's Delight hasn't produced as large a crop as it usually does, but I'm putting that down to the problems I had with my plants at the start of the year. I'm not sure if it will be on my list again for next year now that I'll be growing Maskotka, which is another cherry variety.

Both the Alicante and Ailsa Craig have done ok in the end too.

I've had a large enough harvest to keep both our household and my mum and dad supplied throughout summer, as well as sending bags full back to York with Daniel when he's been home. He doesn't like tomatoes but his girlfriend does. There's still lots of fruit on the plants waiting to ripen too, so it hasn't turned out to be quite the disastrous tomato year that I thought it was going to be.

The tomatoes I've definitely decided on so far for next year are Maskotka and Totem. I think I need to do a bit of thinking about which others to add to the list.

I just want to mention my carrots. They don't warrant a post of their own as there wasn't many more than these few which I pulled a couple of weeks ago.

I never got round to sowing any in the ground, even though I did invest in some Enviromesh to keep the carrot root fly at bay, but some seed was sown in an old water tank which is on the plot, though germination wasn't very good. The carrots were very tasty though.

Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014 to do so. Just leave a comment on my Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden Journal post.