| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| James |
Real Seeds Centiflor tomatoIs anyone growing this variety?If so, are you treating them like a bush tomato, or are you pinching out the side branches and treating like a vine tomato? I've got the second truss forming on one of my "Millefleur" plants now. The first truss is starting to look very large: the flowers are still small and imature and bundled in a mass of hairs, but I'd say there's many tens of flowers just on this first truss. They're very, very vigorous plants and really swamping the greenhouse already. Massive leaves, looking very healthy. So far, I'm extremely impressed. They're many times bigger & more advanced than any of my other varieties (including some very early started "Shirley" and the benchmarking cherry "Gardeners Delight") Looking forward to tasting them. |
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| cab |
I'm growing them, and yours sound way ahead of mine so I'll follow this thread with interest. | ||
| joanne |
I'm growing them but to be honest they've been neglected until now as I've been a bit pre-occupied with other things so they only went in the grow bag on Saturday - I shall keep an eye on them | ||
| James |
I emailed real seeds to find out & here's their reply:
That makes sense becuase the side branches look to be a bit spindly while the central stem is quite strong & upright. The central stem has the trusses forming on it, not the side branches. |
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| James |
updateThis is the first truss on one of the plants ("millefleur", yellow cherry). It's almost impossible to figure out how many flowers there are, but it's in the hundreds. The truss is about 14 inches wide by 10 inches tall. Quite simply, I've never seen anything like it before.They're grown in a blend of clay-loam topsoil, B&Q peat free general purpose compost, rotted horse manure and John Innes #3 with lime and blood, fish & bone added during winter. They're fed with organic tomato feed occasionally & worm leachate occasionaly. They're very hungry for magnesium. I started seeing a little Mg deficiency a couple of weeks ago, during the strong growth spurt of this truss, so have had a top dressing of epson salts (neither "Shirley" or "Gardener's Delight" show any Mg problems, so it looks like this variety really is hungry.) 
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| judith |
Re: updateThat really is phenomenal. If it tastes as good as it looks, you are on to a winner there!
How does Mg deficiency manifest itself? My San Marzano toms are looking ever so slightly peaky compared to the other varieties in my greenhouse, and the general tomato feed doesn't seem to help that much. |
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| Tavascarow |
Re: update
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/tomatoes.htm |
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| James |
magnesium deficiency is evident by a yellowing inbetween the veins on the leaves (so the fleshy part of the leaf is yellow, but the vein remains green)
This differes from nitrogen dificiency, which is yellowing from the veins outwards (the fleshy part of the leaf is green, but the vein is yellow) Its mostly apparent on lower leaves. Here's a pic of a lower leaf from "millefleur" showing magnesium deficiency: 
...and here's a pic of a lower leaf from "Shirely F1" (grown in the same soil, at roughly the same point in their life-cycles, and watered/ fed the same) showing no Mg deficiency: 
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| judith |
Thanks for the excellent photos, James (and the scary link, TS  ). That does look very similar to the leaves on my SM toms.
Looks like epsom salts are on the shopping list for this weekend. |
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| sparrow |
I'm growing this variety too, though mine are weeks away from looking like yours, James. I've got about six on the go around the garden, though by the size of that truss I think I would've been alright with one 
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| James |
I've got 4: 2 in the greenhouse (as pictured above), and 2 in the allotment. The ones outdoors are not as far advanced, but are also showing signs of very large trusses. |
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| Marts |
I'm planning to grow these this year. How did they turn out for people who grew them? | ||
| Slim |
Re: update
San Marzano's never look all that happy to me, but they always fruit well... 
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| James |
Fantastic. I'm definately growing them again this year. The crop whent on for a long time and was HUGE. The flavour was quite good also (not the very best flavour, but perfectly good, and better than some). The yield was quite shocking- far greater than we could possibly ever use. There were litereally too many fruit to count. I could pick a bowl full every day (from two large plants). To use up some of the glut, I made ketchup from it (which is increadibly inefficient from cherry tomatos due to the lack of pulpy material in them), which was divine: really sweet and sharp and a strange orange-brown colour (I grew the yellow ones) Very vigorous growth, very hungry indeed. I applied epsom salts liberally after the magnesium difficiency I'd identified (above), this reduced the problems, but didnt fully get rid of it. I can only think that you need extremely rich soil plenty of Mg, and feed regularly. I had blight in the greenhouse in the late summer. These plants were hardly effected at all, but it killed "Shirly F1". My recommendations (what I'll be doing this year): 1) Very rich soil, feed them lots. 2) Only allow three trusses to form per plant- this is plenty! 3) Pinch out all side branches 4) Top the plant at about 6ft |
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| Marts |
Cheers for that James - sounds very encouraging.
So am I right in thinking that you treated them as a vine in the end and supported them? Did you have to support the trusses as well as the main stem? |
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| James |
Yes, I treated them as vines. Ben at Real Seeds recommended this, and it works.
I didnt support the trusses, though I did think about doing so. To be honest, I couldn't work out how to. Each truss ends up about 1.5 ft across, 1 ft deep and 1ft high, packed with hundreds of flowers (or fruit). There's no way you can support it. On each plant, the lowest truss ended up sagging on the floor, which meant I lost quite a few fruit (& will probably have a lot of self sprouting seedlings this spring). But a few lost fruit isnt an issue and the truss stem gets thick & tough to support the weight so I didnt have much problems. |
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| pricey |
Did you keep many seeds James? or are you buying new this year? | ||
| James |
I saved a load of seeds....then lost them all. I've probably put them somewhere safe never to see them again. 
But I kept the remains of the original pack in the freezer, so I had enough to go back to. They havent popped the surface yet though. |
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| Marts |
I'm a bit new to keeping seeds from season to season. Is freezing them the best way generally of making them last to the following year? Any do's or don'ts? |
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| James |
yep, freezing is the way forward. It'll greatly increase the life of your seeds. Many seeds need a cold snap to make them think they've been through winter, so freezing seeds often aids germination. A little sandwich box in the bottom of the freezer can quickly become your own seed bank. Very simple & very effective.
Do: - Label everything really well- its easy to get very confused very quickly (especially with similar looking seeds, like brassicas) - If you've saved you're own seeds, ensure they're really well dried out before putting them in the freezer. If they're even slightly moist, it wont work, you'll end up with lots of dead seeds . I collect seed and dry on a window sill, then give a last quick blast for a couple of days in the airing cupboard to ensure they're fully dry. - Allow some fresh air into your seeds once or twice a year. Dont -dont expect that germination of self-saved seeds to be as high as purchased seeds: collect a lot of seeds, use a lot of seeds. - dont use all your seeds. For a particular variety, always keep half of the seeds back for the future. This way, if something goes wrong, (or if you decide "this" variety is better than "that"), then you can go back and start again. |
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| NorthernMonkeyGirl |
Zombie thread time! 
Does anyone still grow / have any more experience with these kind of tomatoes? I'm eyeing up Realseeds... They would need to cope with benign neglect outdoors, alkaline soil, but in a south facing walled area. |
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| joanne |
I've grown the Centiflor's both the red and the yellow and they were good producers even with my wilful neglect! | ||
| Lorrainelovesplants |
God, for a few minutes I was really confused.....
growing tomatoes now? have just realised the date of the initial post....... Whilst it is mild here, i wouldnt even start thinking of toms till end Feb. |