tomtatos (tomato potato hybrids) and TOMATOES!

[Herbidacious]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/fruitandvegetables/10332908/TomTato-mutant-plant-that-grows-tomatoes-and-potatoes-unleashed.html

Hmm!

[Kitewatcher]

Typical T&M nonsense. Buy sacks of potatoes and loads of cherry tomatoes for the the same money.

[suffolk]

Hope it doesn't lead to the ignorant eating the fruit/seeds of potato plants I'm also a regular on a gardening forum, and every summer we get several enquiries about the 'tomatoes' that are growing on their potato plants and whether they are edible

[4dogsagain]

And I always understood that tomatoes and potatoes should not be grown together! No thanks, I'll keep mine separate.

[sueturnersmith]

It's not April the first, is it?

[Lokelani]

I got an email from T&M about that yesterday & immediately double checked that it wasn't April Fool's day!

Then I reasoned that they are the same family & like Suffolk, have also read the posts on the gardening forum about those & wondered. I've had tomato plants grow those seed fruit that look like tomatoes myself, of course did the research & found out they were poisonous.

I'm very skeptical that growing veg doesn't already cost me more than buying them, & that's using seed packets I've had for years, let alone buying a single plant for £14.99!

I guess it is a space saving way for someone to have a go at growing both those crops. More for the fun of it than to save money at this stage though. I guess like all new developments the price will eventually plummet.

[ianinfrance]

The question I'd want to ask is what the qualities of the respective produce are like. If it gave first class tomatoes as well as excellent spuds, then it might have some interest. Otherwise - no way.

[StokeySue]

The question I'd want to ask is what the qualities of the respective produce are like. If it gave first class tomatoes as well as excellent spuds, then it might have some interest. Otherwise - no way.

Exactly - I'm only ever likely to have a small garden, and a dual product would make it worth growing spuds IF both were good enough

They are both solanaceae after all - it's not necessarily a ridiculous chimaera

I'm very skeptical that growing veg doesn't already cost me more than buying them, & that's using seed packets I've had for years, let alone buying a single plant for £14.99!

I guess it is a space saving way for someone to have a go at growing both those crops. More for the fun of it than to save money at this stage though. I guess like all new developments the price will eventually plummet.
I got an email from T&M about that yesterday & immediately double checked that it wasn't April Fool's day!

Then I reasoned that they are the same family & like Suffolk, have also read the posts on the gardening forum about those & wondered. I've had tomato plants grow those seed fruit that look like tomatoes myself, of course did the research & found out they were poisonous.

I'm very skeptical that growing veg doesn't already cost me more than buying them, & that's using seed packets I've had for years, let alone buying a single plant for £14.99!

I guess it is a space saving way for someone to have a go at growing both those crops. More for the fun of it than to save money at this stage though. I guess like all new developments the price will eventually plummet.

Exactly

[suffolk]

I can think of better uses of a nurseryman/woman's grafting skills

[Herbidacious]

Quick question: how long do you keep feeding them for? Until the end?!

[Zosherooney]

Hi Herb. I put Westland in the soil when I potted them up and it has lasted all season. Slow release. Mr Z commented on how sweet our tommys were - he said almost too sweet ! Men, they are never happy !!

[suffolk]

I feed my toms once when the first truss has set and again when the second truss has set and maybe once again after than. Grow them hard and the flavour is much better.

[Herbidacious]

Right! Thanks! I ask because I am growing mine in/over a tank watering/feeding system and have been adding food every time I fill the tanks up. Asked OH to feed the (now leafless) fig at the weekend, and I can't find the tomato food now, and am going away.

They keep falling over, they are so bushy (although indeterminate ones), and being 10 inches off the ground doesn't help. Also the soil, being watered from below presumably isn't as 'heavy as it might otherwise be. I really probably ought to have pinched them out a bit.

Interesting re the Westland, Zosh. I shall experiment with that next year.

[Zosherooney]

Hurrah ! Finally I can see a glint of pink coming on my plum tomatoes - so excited ! It does not take much to make me happy !

Also I have managed to keep one of the peppers from the clutches of the slime balls that frequent my GH. Also... a giant cucumber that was not spotted about a week ago...

[suffolk]

Mmmmm my outdoor Sungolds are ripening nicely ... I foresee tomato salad at the weekend

[Suelle]

My tomatoes are rubbish this year - out of 6 plants two haven't produced any fruit. The other 4 are spindly and only have a few fruit.

[Zosherooney]

Strangely enough only the bottom trusses have produced, the upper ones (flowers) did not produce anything (so far) ?

[earthmaiden]

Gosh,I thought you'd all planted Tomtatoes after being so rude about them in 2013 but think you are just discussing this year's tomato crop on a strange thread

I didn't get round to planting tomatoes this year, it was raining when I usually plant so I didn't go outside and forgot. A relative did try Tomtatoes, I must ask her how she got on with them. In a small garden like mine they're a great idea if they work!

[liketocook]

My tomatoes are doing well but a number of weeks away I think from the first ripe ones. It tends to be towards the end of August before I get any crop so fingers crossed

[Zosherooney]

But are they in a GH LTC??? Or outside ???

EM, dont like to keep starting threads on the same subject..... but different years give different results ! Hope you are feeling better today?

[Bubbles]

We have had 3 tomatoes so far, and plenty more on the way. They are against a wall in a sunny position. I don't think there will be masses though but the tomatoes are different, larger and not a regular shape like they were last year. (The plants were given to me so not sure what they are). I have also had one courgette! Will take a photo later!

[Herbidacious]

I saw this thread revived and thought, "Good grief, did I really start a thread with a typo in it's title?" I didn't. I had forgotten about tomtatos

I guess so has everyone else!

So a new thread about tomatoes?!

edit looking back over the thread it is my fault for diverting it to tomatoes.

[icelesley]

My tomatoes are doing really well had quite a few to eat already and several about ready to pick too.

[Seatallan]

I think we're going to have a bumper crop too. Must be a good tomato year.

[liketocook]

Picked my first tomato earlier, a small very sweet Sungold. It never made it out of the greenhouse. There is a Stupice well on it's way too so it's beginning to happen. I'm hopeful of a decentish crop this year though I'm not sure I'll get much from the hanging basket ones that are under my covered deck.

[suffolk]

Sungold are the best flavoured tomato IMHO ... and DD is growing them too and all her friends and her Lovely Hub's work colleagues love them too. As one of them said, 'You'd pay a lot of money in Sainsbury's for tomatoes that taste like that, and you pick them our of your greenhouse for nothing' ........... she explained, that it wasn't quite 'for nothing'

[Herbidacious]

I'll have a go at Sungold next year. Not sure if I have grown them before. I do like Gardener's Delight.

[liketocook]

Sungold like Gardener's Delight are great to grow but absolute brutes of plants - they'll take over the world if left to it . Fab, sweet and proflic tomatoes though. If I could only grow one type of tomato it would probably be a Sungold - I can eat them (and do) like sweeties

[Herbidacious]

Got home from a week's holiday and some of my tomatoes plants look like they are dying! Leaves gone brown and dry. I wonder if I over fed them. I was a bit doolally before I went. There are a few ripe ones to pick. I ate one, a dusky red one (too dark to see what sort) and it was delicious.

[Herbidacious]

I think they have blight Never happened before.

[liketocook]

I think they have blight Never happened before.

Oh no - is the stems as well as the leaves?

[Herbidacious]

Yep. Will throw away affected plants tonight so disappointing. Chances are test will succumb though too.

[liketocook]

Oh that's a shame

[Herbidacious]

Feeling heart broken. I just spent an hour throwing away eight plants, and hard pruning the other eight which are clearly also somewhat infected. I am fairly certain the other eight will have to follow suit and be binned. Astonishing how they have gone from looking fairly healthy to dead and dying in 7 days. But I guess they weren't really healthy before I went on holiday.

Oddly I feel like a failure.

I have a deep suspicion that the plants were sold to me with this. They had tiny green spots on them.

I have since showered, stuck my clothes in the wash, washed my hair and I still smell like tomato

I will disinfect the pots at some point.

What a waste of time and money and effort.

In all almost all of my efforts have succumbed to fungi and mould. The only things that have not are my beans. They just got slugged.

[suffolk]

Herbi We had it happen a couple of years ago ....... wiped the lot out ......... with the exception of

http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vege ... 182440.htm

I grow some of these every year now ... they never fail

[Herbidacious]

Thanks, Suffs. I will definitely be getting some of those next year!

[scullion]

we had a year like that last year. lost just about everything except chard at home and the virtually all the contents of the poly tunnel - including four year old runner and french bean plants - it was soul destroying but this year is much better.
don't worry, next year will most likely be a good one.

[Herbidacious]

I hope so. I'll get over it. But a bit miffed with my cousin telling me it's a 'first world problem' which essentially means it's trivial. He is clearly not a gardener!

[suffolk]

How can a food crop failure be trivial ... in whichever world ... yes, we can go down to the supermarket and buy some tomatoes, but in the grand scheme of things it's still a reduction in resources, leaving less for others. Tell him he has a very superficial viewpoint.

[Herbidacious]

I did protest, but I don't know him that well or indeed at all other than via FB. He's a lot older than me and emigrated to Australia back in the 70s, so I have to tread carefully! He may be a bit touchy.

[scullion]

it seems to me that if he's that far away, you don't really know him and don't know if you have any common ground other than grandparents, you shouldn't worry if he's a bit touchy.
be yourself - he's not really part of your life so you don't need to pussy-foot around his sensibilities - he doesn't seem to care for yours.

[suffolk]

I've got one of those cousins ... he emigrated to Oz in the 70s too, and is the founder of a large dynasty of semi-self-sufficient surfing Welsh Aussies ... he'd be thoroughly teed off if his tomato crop failed ... shall I send him round to sort your coz out for you

[Seatallan]

Herbie, it's a pity you've chucked the rotten tomato plants. You could have bundled them up and sent them to him.

[Herbidacious]

He was just ribbing me I guess. He's actually a self-professed sensitive type. I should be pleased he thinks he can tease me. I don't have many relatives. I like to keep the ones I have on side

Now where can I buy some really nice tomatoes?! (Back to Italy for me?!)

[Zosherooney]

How about this for a tomato then........?

[Badger's mate]

Brandywine?

[PatsyMFagan]

It took me a while reading and catching up with this before I realised that the OP was talking about the tomato/potato grafted plants that were all the rage a couple of years ago...

Anyway, like some of you, I have had a lot of success growing 6 bush tomatoes (all Tumbling Tom) this year, in hanging baskets and escaping Blight I think it was Purps who suggested that hanging them up would mean they escape the spores that cause blight .. also I recall that tomatoes that are blight resistant tend to be a bit tasteless ... my little ones are delicious and I eat a few every time I pass the fruit bowl.

I have been meaning to ask if anyone else has tried growing (or even tasting) Heritage tomatoes and what they thought about them ? I have bought these twice now, first time from Waitrose and more recently from my farm shop where they were locally sourced. Both times I have been entirely disappointed with them being almost tasteless .... is it me ?

[Zosherooney]

Red Pear BM. And very tasty too. We have had nothing but sliced tommys, mozzarella and basil in oil on toast for lunch for the past three days, can't get enough !

[liketocook]

Lovely looking tomato Zosh, looks very like the Costoluto Genovese I grow most years. Is it an Italian variety?

[Zosherooney]

LTC I bought the seeds in Croatia a couple of years ago. They get two chances - survive or not....

Can you get tomato poisoning ????