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Hello all
We are coming towards the end of our crop, having just eaten the last of our fabulous beefsteak tomatoes grown from saved seed. We have been looking for its name since being given it (indirectly) by an Italian man on our allotment site about 15 years ago who used to bring seed back from his holidays picking grapes on the family holding there. Friends that we have shared seedlings with rave about it too.

I have just found https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/tomat ... /gww0434TM which I think must be it. What astonishes me is what good value the seed is: £1.99 for 300 seeds, if you can believe that. All the more so as the variety doesn't actually produce many seeds!
I know seed was very good value when we looked at it on holiday in Italy, but this looks to be exceptional value.

I think next year we shall try Rose De Berne Big Pink Vine Salad Tomato from the Real Seed company as well.

Anyone else got recommendations, or tips for extending the season?
A

AE-NMidlands wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 1:17 pm Anyone else got recommendations, or tips for extending the season?
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A neighbour has tried LED grow lights this year. Not mega expensive ones, she bought them from somewhere like eBay I think. I wired them in for her, seemed to be well made and sealed up nicely, so OK in the damp of a greenhouse. She used them in the spring to get the seeds off to an early start, and reckons that they gave her about a month head start.

I installed a time switch for her, so the lights come on early in the morning and go off by around mid-morning. Not that cheap to run, though, I think that each panel of LEDs uses over 100W. She has PV, so that may offset some of the cost a bit, although her roof faces south, so if it's like ours it doesn't start generating much until mid-morning in early spring.

I'm in two minds as to fit some similar lights to our greenhouse. The conundrum is whether the energy used by the lights is outweighed by the greater crop.

Call me boring but I’ve grown gardener’s delight inside and out for 40 years. It’s a small fruit. The reasons are the fine flavour and lack of problems. I spend about one pound on under one hundred seeds at Wilko annually.

Stan wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 4:14 pm Call me boring but I’ve grown gardener’s delight inside and out for 40 years. It’s a small fruit. The reasons are the fine flavour and lack of problems. I spend about one pound on under one hundred seeds at Wilko annually.

Agreed, and not ‘boring’ at all. A far better variety for everything except, perhaps, size.

A long time ago, I used to grow varieties that friends suggested, but once Gardener’s Delight was grown, the rest have fallen by the wayside. That would be since the late 70s, I suppose. The children would not eat any other varieties grown.

I've tried quite a number of varieties over the past few years, growing outdoors. The only two which seem to work for me are Gardeners Delight and Moneymaker.

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 2:04 pm I'm in two minds as to fit some similar lights to our greenhouse. The conundrum is whether the energy used by the lights is outweighed by the greater crop.

I've been wondering if it might be better to build a polycarbonate twin wall structure with a soil warmer instead. The soil would be in an insulated box. Then I have lots of light and maybe a little heat.

I've struggled with grow lights and I wonder if it is the constant heat. There is no day/night variation which the plants probably need.

Andy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 8:31 pm

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 2:04 pm I'm in two minds as to fit some similar lights to our greenhouse. The conundrum is whether the energy used by the lights is outweighed by the greater crop.

I've been wondering if it might be better to build a polycarbonate twin wall structure with a soil warmer instead. The soil would be in an insulated box. Then I have lots of light and maybe a little heat.

I've struggled with grow lights and I wonder if it is the constant heat. There is no day/night variation which the plants probably need.

I'm no expert, but I believe that it's the light that matters as much as the heat. The idea is to fool the plants into thinking that it's later in the year than it really is, so they get a head start and are much further on by the time there's enough daylight to turn the lights off. The lights are on a time switch, so come on before dawn and turn off mid-morning.

Heat is important, but these LED panels don't really give of that much heat, so having some heat mats probably helps a great deal as well.

I like trying different varieties, although my go to cherry tomato is Sungold, which is orange, and much sweeter than Gardener's delight. The seeds are more expensive, but worth it imho.

I use heated mats in the greenhouse to get things growing earlier and avoid any chance of frost - I've not used grow lights, but I the mats I use don't use as much electricity, and when combined with a thermostat and clear polycarbonate lid, don't need to come on so often in order to maintain the 16-18 degrees which I believe they like, once germinated. For germination, they are also good at providing the 20-25 which tomatoes and chillis etc like.

Stan wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 4:14 pm Call me boring but I’ve grown gardener’s delight inside and out for 40 years. It’s a small fruit. The reasons are the fine flavour and lack of problems. I spend about one pound on under one hundred seeds at Wilko annually.

We also grow GD, plus Alicante and Outdoor Girl in addition to our saved Italian one. GD is the least favourite and SWMBO has just said we shall only be putting in a couple of plants next year. The beefheart one tastes incredible if you grill it in thick slices, also makes a good pulp for freezing. Anyone who wants to try a couple pm me and I'll post a few seeds. (or try that Thomson and Morgan/Italian seed one.)

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:25 pm

Andy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 8:31 pm

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 2:04 pm I'm in two minds as to fit some similar lights to our greenhouse. The conundrum is whether the energy used by the lights is outweighed by the greater crop.

I've been wondering if it might be better to build a polycarbonate twin wall structure with a soil warmer instead. The soil would be in an insulated box. Then I have lots of light and maybe a little heat.
I've struggled with grow lights and I wonder if it is the constant heat. There is no day/night variation which the plants probably need.

I'm no expert, but I believe that it's the light that matters as much as the heat. The idea is to fool the plants into thinking that it's later in the year than it really is, so they get a head start and are much further on by the time there's enough daylight to turn the lights off. The lights are on a time switch, so come on before dawn and turn off mid-morning.

Heat is important, but these LED panels don't really give of that much heat, so having some heat mats probably helps a great deal as well.

I agree, I shall have to investigate heat and light. Our plants are started later than most people's, so they are sturdy and robust. SWMBO swears they overtake the feeble spindly ones which others have sown too early [in the wrong conditions.]

One thing which this year has shown up is the effect of potting compost quality. Several friends complained that their plants didn't go at all well, whereas the ones we gave them behaved as they should have, the conclusion is that compost containing lots of recycled garden waste (visible as shredded leylandii remnants) doesn't work.

Interesting about the compost, as this year we had one batch of seedlings that were gifted to us in pots and they all grew into very spindly plants, needed little bent wire stays to stop them falling over when they got to about 6" high. The compost they were in seemed very light compared to the usual stuff we use.