Since yesterday, more have grown. I sowed half a dozen home-saved seeds - and all nine have come up! I have a feeling I must decide I want six so I sow a few more for good luck. I could have sworn there were only 6 in there though.
Builders gone, got my garden back - off I go to sort and tidy.
9 comments:
are you sure you wouldn't like to come and sort and tidy mine . . . (she says hopefully), ha ha ha
Were there seeds all ready in the soil? and that is why there are nine growing and not the six you thought you had sewn? So now a conundrum! which are the ones you want?
No, it's fresh compost Granny. I approximate when I sow but I always think I've sown fewer than I really have.
Had a comment from Anonymous which seems to have disappeared in the moderating process. I've seen them in garden centres as tomato plants labelled Piccolo F1 so I'm assuming they aren't open pollinated. Voyage of discovery eh?
Bilbo dear, growing I do but sorting and tidying? You're on your own kid!
Whoops - see previous post for comment from Anonymous!
Senior moment!
It does seem confusing you can see them labelled as both F1 and not in different places. I suspect you're right and they are F1 but didn't realise that when I collected the seed, now have about 15 plants both outside and in on the Isle of Wight. Well see how they do.
Anonymous -David
Another link that suggests not F1http://www.allotments-uk.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5235
Who knows?
Hi David, I'd be interested to hear how your fruits turn out. For example, are they uniform or is there some variation. To be honest, if you are saving the seed it's a win-win situation. If they are open pollinated you'll get what you sowed. If they aren't, you'll get a nice bit of variation. Interesting either way, I think.
At the moment they are all fairly consistent both inside and out and all have a few small marble sized fruits on the first truss. The plants aren't so vigorous as my Sungolds but apart from that look pretty good and as far as fruiting goes they are the same stage as the sungolds. I live about 2 miles from Wight salads which grow a lot of tomatoes for the supermarket trade and have about 200 acres of glass houses here on the island, they had an open day last month and you could go round and get to see how they grow and taste about 40 different varieties. Piccolo is one of the main ones they grow, however on their plants they get many more trusses, one plant was laid out about 30 ft long with 21 trusses. Should have asked them about whether they were F1, I suspect they are. They trial about 40-50 new varieties every year and have weekly tasting panels. Quite interesting. The best tasting one to my view was yellow pear, although not sure I like the pure yellow colour in a tomato.
I'd love to live somewhere where you could taste new varieties. No matter what they say on the packet, taste is a very individual thing.
It sounds like yours are fairly consistent but not as vigorous as the Wight Salads ones. Could be due to hybrid vigour, or just their growing conditions. There is a view amongst people who like to try to produce open pollinated plants from F1 hybrids, that some of the so-called hybrids aren't! This cons you into thinking they won't breed true and to shelling out for new seed each time. It's an interesting thought! We shall see.
Incidentally, I rather like different coloures in my toms. I'm growing Golden Sunrise and Green Zebra. I haven't tried G Sunrise before but Green Zebra I grow a few of every year. It's just a suberb taste (to me!) especially grilled. Often grilled toms taste of nothing.
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