Hybrid tomato

You can always sow the 8 seeds and take the armpits out when big enough and use those for starting off new plants. They fruit similar time to those that are started from seed.

I only save seed from very ripe tomatoes. I take them off the plant and stick hem
I'm a cup to ripen further.

I’ve never done the growing armpits thing, though I do use this technique with basil so know it is very successful.

I was so late getting started this year it was the end of March before I was ready to sow seeds. I put that down to two factors not wanting to get ahead of myself we had frost and snow in May the previous year but, the main reason for my tardiness was work pressures in Jan and Feb, then managing the logistics of Covid on business in March. I barely had an evening or weekend free.

The 4 weeks downtime from mid April until Mid May gave me time to address my priorities and to play catch up in the garden but, you can never truly play catch up with tomatoes if you start late you’ll have a late harvest.

Next year I’m going to stagger them but, on the whole start much early. Mid Feb indoors seems more sensible, and I’m going to experiment with a poly carbonate tomato house inside my large greenhouse so I can double insulate the plants, and bring them on earlier. I’ve got a load of polycarbonate coming off my verandah in the next few weeks so will have plenty of material to work with.

Also gonna make some cloches for the raised beds so I can start my carrots off in Jan like I used to. It’s gonna be a busy autumn.