£3.50
Organically grown in Cornwall. These seeds produce distinctive, red, salad tomato with orange stripes. Easy to grow, high yielding and attractive but more importantly it is one of the best tomatoes for taste. Tall tomato type.
Plant seeds in trays or modules of good organic Seed & Cutting compost between January and March at a temperature of 18-21 degrees C. Seed can also be planted in March and April – putting the trays on a sunny windowsill – if you do not have a propagator for earlier sowings.
Pot up into 8cm pots using a good Multi-Purpose compost when the first few true leaves appear and the plants are approximately 8cm tall. Use a good quality richer organic compost with good nutrient levels and grow on at 10 degrees C. The plants grow rapidly and need the nitrogen particularly to stay green and healthy.
If you are growing in pots keep potting up the plants until you get to the largest size you have. Plant out in growbags, inside borders, or outside borders – depending on the variety, in April and May. Tomatoes are not frost hardy. Regularly feed with an organic liquid feed when the first trusses of Tomatoes form and keep feeding and watering as required.
Try to keep the watering consistent and try not to let the plants dry out. If planting into a Tomato Planter, do not flood the bag with water. The roots prefer moist, not wet compost. And the Tomatoes will be sweeter if they have to work hard for their water (just like grapes). Support tall growing varieties with strings or canes and pinch out the side shoots that grow from the base of the leaf joint, but not the flower stems!
Once the plants have set 3 or 4 trusses of fruit you can pinch out the growing tip of the plant. Remove older, yellowing leaves from the base of the plant and this will improve light and air flow to the lower trusses of fruit. Harvest your tomatoes when ripe from June until October.
