Delicious Tomatoes: Varieties, Hybrids, Subtleties Of Agricultural Technology

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

I have a passion for tomatoes from my parents. In the summer, we did not transfer fresh tomatoes from July to November, and we ate the preparations from them until the new harvest. I no longer remember the names of those varieties that we grew then, they all seemed delicious to me.

But that all changed when the parents built a large glass greenhouse.

The Pink Giant variety was one of the first to "settle" there - an old gardener shared his seeds with us. After the appearance of this variety, my idea of the taste of tomatoes has changed dramatically: I will never forget the fleshy, in small grains on the break, unusually tasty pulp of pink fruits.

The harvest was enough for everyone, and the surplus was successfully sold on the market. Unfortunately, over time, the variety degenerated, the fruits began to shrink and set worse, the overall yield dropped. All attempts to acquire this variety have failed, they were all some kind of "other" Pink Giants.

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Time passed, I got my own family, the garden boom of the 80s and early 90s began to decline. An abundance of vegetables and fruits from all over the world appeared on the shelves at any time of the year. For several years I was far from gardening business, but as soon as the opportunity arose to plant my own garden and vegetable garden, I took up this closely. I was surprised by the abundance of seeds, there was no such thing before - it was just a "hybrid" avalanche - dozens of domestic and foreign varieties.

I bought several of the most popular varieties, sowed them for seedlings. In the first year, I decided not to build a greenhouse, made a film tunnel on arcs, planted seedlings, then went the usual chores - watering, weeding, feeding. My tomatoes began to pour, at the beginning of July we were already able to taste the first fruits.

The joy from the first harvest, of course, was great, after all, their vegetables, not purchased. But bad luck, I praised the harvest from my garden so much to the children that they expected it as something extraordinary. Who does not remember the joy of the first, fragrant, unusually tasty tomatoes and cucumbers ?! The children concluded - very tasty - "like from a store." Yes … I myself felt: something is wrong, these tomatoes are not like those that I ate as a child. The harvest turned out to be good, and they salted and marinated, and there was enough for lecho with ketchup.

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First of all, I decided that the whole problem was due to hybrids, and in the absence of a greenhouse. The greenhouse did not work out the next year either, but I bought the seeds only without the letter F on the bags. I chose old varieties according to books. I planted it out, as before, the harvest was again good, but the taste of the tomatoes was no better, and in some varieties it turned out to be watery, too sour. Yes, and the large admixture of other varieties was depressing.

What varieties and hybrids I have not tried later - either the taste is not the same, then the harvest is not very good. Of course, their tomatoes in preparations and salads were much better than the cheap southern ones brought in in August, but the memory still had the memory of the unusually tasty, fleshy "children's" tomatoes.

By that time, gardening became more and more expensive - film, fertilizers, seeds have risen significantly. Yes, and various blanks on the shelves appeared a lot for every taste and wallet. I even began to think about ending my tomato career, because a good greenhouse was very expensive - how many vegetables on the market can you buy with this money?

And then one day I was given the address of the Moscow region breeder Lyubov Anatolyevna Myazina, we wrote off with her, she sent me several varieties and hybrids of tomatoes of her selection. I decided - I'll try it one last time. I remembered the Pink Giant, read about the benefits of pink-fruited tomatoes, and I was very glad that some of the varieties promised me fruits with a pink color. Only one thing upset me: several varieties were intended for growing in a greenhouse, but I did not have one. And yet I decided - I will plant them as usual, and I gave some of the seeds to my parents.

Growing seedlings, leaving - everything was as usual, the ripening period was the end of June - the beginning of July. I always have tomatoes in the open field earlier than my neighbors. And here's the first harvest! As a rule, early ripening varieties are inferior to later varieties in taste and overall yield. The fruits of the new varieties were fleshy, large, by all indications of medium ripening, but, to my amazement, they began to ripen at the same time, and some even earlier than my earlier varieties.

But most importantly, they had great taste. And this despite the fact that some of them were first generation hybrids. For all my skepticism about hybrids, the fruits of these plants were no worse. The taste, aroma and appearance were excellent.

From the early tomatoes, I really liked the Superprize hybrid. The first harvest began to ripen by June 20, moreover, the fruits were weighing 150 grams or more. Their first inflorescence is already laid above the 5th leaf, in one cluster there are 7 fruits. The bushes do not require a garter. My friend also grew this hybrid in the country, and, unlike me, she did not cover the plants and did not remove the stepsons. She got the harvest later, and the fruits were smaller, but she liked the result very much: with minimal care from one low-growing bush 50 cm high, she harvested 3 kilograms of magnificent tomatoes.

At about the same time, Katrina F1 and Important person F1 ripen, the bush of these plants is slightly higher, due to which, it seems to me, one more brush is formed, and, therefore, the yield as a whole is slightly higher.

And if the first two tomatoes have smooth fruits, then in the F1 Biggie they are very nicely divided into segments by veins. And for early ripening tomatoes, they have an unusually good taste.

After 7-10 days tall varieties began to bear fruit. I grew them in the open field, tied them to high pegs. Naturally, from the middle of June it was no longer possible to cover them with foil, because the arches were designed for a height of 70-80 cm. They began to bear fruit by July 10. It was then that I remembered the forgotten taste of "children's" tomatoes. The Extremal variety presented large, 200-250 grams of red, fleshy, dense fruits. Everyone was delighted. The taste was great. And this is on a tomato in the open field.

I would especially like to mention the pink-fruited Kudesnik variety. Its fruits ripen a little later, the bush is not very high, up to one meter. Fruits of uniform pink color, not very large, excellent taste with a high sugar content, they are also good for canning. The massive harvest falls on the harvesting period.

But to be honest, it's even a pity to pour vinegar on fruits with such a fresh taste. Both varieties did not have time to fully harvest until August, but the removed fruits are well ripened, stored for a long time. The next year, when grown in a greenhouse, both varieties showed an even better yield, but in the open field, 4-5 kg of tomatoes can be removed from each bush.

I tried several other new rosovarny varieties of Russian selection, I also liked Andromeda Rozovaya and Novichok Rozovaya - these are improved, more delicious versions of the varieties of the same name. Now I can say with confidence that in the North-West, even without a greenhouse, you can get fruits with great taste, no worse than the vaunted southern tomatoes. You cannot buy such tomatoes anywhere, they cannot be compared with imported ones in the markets or with those grown in industrial greenhouses.

And, finally, about agricultural technology.

I sow seeds for seedlings at the very end of March, soak them with plain water. Our windows face south, the seedlings grow well, I don't do any backlighting. I don't wait for the end of the frost, I plant the seedlings in open ground on May 10. Before that, two days before planting, I cover the arcs with a film, so I plant the seedlings in a heated soil. The first three days I do not remove the film, even on hot days, otherwise the plants will wither. I do not advise waiting for the tomatoes to bloom at home.

Yes, you will harvest the first crop earlier, but the next harvest will take a long time. Plants during transplantation experience severe stress and try to preserve only blooming ovaries in order to leave offspring, and therefore do not lay the next brushes for a long time. Frosts are not terrible for covered plants, and the harvest with early planting is faster and much larger. I feed tomatoes with liquid fertilizers 2-3 times per season. I don't treat them with anything from diseases, I think that there is no great benefit from this, and unnecessary chemicals in food are useless.

I want to share one more "secret": on clay soils, according to my observations, tomatoes are tastier, probably because of the greater amount of trace elements in the soil. Now, when planting, I put a lump of clay under each bush.