2025 Tomato Grow List

So far:-
Small pot toms:-
Red Robin
Vilma
Minibel
Balconi Red

Bush:-
Aurora
Mountain Princess
Oregon Spring
Urbikany
Vine:-
*Belarussian Heart
Gardener's Ecstasy
*Graham's Tom Thumb
*Lulu's Best Ever
Primabella

Depending on germination. I’ll be growing
tomato black icicle
tomato blue bayou
tomato ananas noir
tomato pendulina

I’m also growing some ruby falls. These are for a friend. So this is my first back up if any of the above don’t play nicely.

My tomato seeding have come through   They’re out of the heated prop and on a south facing windowsill. 

Black cherry
Gardener's Delight
Mini Bell.

This afternoon I planning to prick out some of my tomato seedlings to then go under growlights. I might relent and bring some pots of compost indoors overnight to warm up, then prick out tomorrow, they'll not like having cold feet.

My selection this year:

2 x Green Zebra (yellow/green medium)
3 x Gardener's Delight (red cherry)
1 x Michael Pollan (yellow/green pear)
1 x Santiam Sunrise (orange cherry)
2 x Garnet (dark cherry)
2 x Auntie Madge's (red plum)
2 x Sgt Pepper's (red/purple heart)
2 x Tiny Tim (red cherry bush)

Sgt Pepper's is new to me. I'm trying to stick with reliable favourites instead of always trying something new and sometimes being disappointed.

It's getting towards that time of year again. What are you all planning on growing?

I have some seeds on the way from Russia, if they arrive safely my 8 greenhouse tomatoes will be (varieties with * are new for this year):

Cowboy - black beefsteak bred by Karen Olivier from Canada, named in memory of her father 
Daniel Burson - black beefsteak
Mat-Su Express - red beefsteak, early to ripen, love the flavour, didn't grow it last year and missed it
Pink Honeymoon F1 - pink beefsteak
Red Lithium* - red beefsteak with yellow stripes, a accidental cross of Lithium Sunset and an unknown variety, quite hard to find
Shake The Disease* - dark beefsteak with green, metallic stripes
Strangelove* - bicolour orange/red with anthocyanin shoulders
Suffer Well* -  dark beefsteak with green, metallic stripes

These will all be grafted onto Estamino F1 rootstock, since last year every tomato in the greenhouse soil did badly except the two grafted plants. This year I'm going to try side grafting, and I've ordered extra rootstock seeds to account for losses. 

If you're a fan of Depeche Mode you may have realised that the last three in the list are named after their songs. They were bred by Bill Yoder from Georgia, USA. He also has a family of tomatoes named after Prince songs. 

Not 100% sure what I'll be growing outside this year, except for 9 x Nagina F1 (Crimson Plum). Possibly Cherrola F1, Sakura F1 and Yellow Mimi F1 or Honey Delight F1 for vining cherries, and some blight resistant bushes e.g. Orangeto F1, Terenzo F1, Orangello F1, Romello F1.

Pink Honeymoon was a no show, unfortunately. I did sow some Bountiful and Rose Crush when I realised it wasn't going to germinate, but I think they're going to be too far behind the rootstocks to graft properly. So if I don't manage to get the graft to work, I'll grow an extra of one of the remaining seven varieties. 

I also didn't sow Cowboy, since three of the tomatoes are already dark ones, and replaced it with True Colours which was beautiful delicious a few years ago. Hopefully it will perform better on a grafted plant. 

All 24 of the Estamino rootstocks germinated, so I have plenty of plants too practice on! 

Bush cherries will be two each of Orangeto and Terenzo. Outdoor vines still undecided!

My list is

Red Robin
Sungold
Santiam Sunrise
Honeycomb
Garnet
Merrygold
Angelle
Ruthje
Shirley
Orange Queen
Craigella - not sure about these as they've come up potato leaved
Burlesque
Black Russian
Honeymoon- very poor germination
Orangeto
Primabella
Primavera
Oh Happy Day
Crimson Crush
Crimson Blush

And there I was quite pleased with myself that I was quite restrained in my tomato sowing..... I don't think so.

You apparently had the same issue with Craigella in 2021 - https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1059. You're famous: on the front page of Google if you search for Craigella!

You can get potato leaved versions of a variety coming up amongst regular leaf, I think it means the variety is unstable or has crossed with something else. Some potato leaf versions can actually be more productive and disease resistant e.g. Indian Stripe (a variant of Cherokee Purple).

Where did you get the Honeymoon seed from? Mine were from Pennnard Plants. I thought I'd bought them in 2022 but apparently I ordered again last year, so the seed shouldn't have been old.

You apparently had the same issue with Craigella in 2021 - https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1059. You're famous: on the front page of Google if you search for Craigella!

You can get potato leaved versions of a variety coming up amongst regular leaf, I think it means the variety is unstable or has crossed with something else. Some potato leaf versions can actually be more productive and disease resistant e.g. Indian Stripe (a variant of Cherokee Purple).

Where did you get the Honeymoon seed from? Mine were from Pennnard Plants. I thought I'd bought them in 2022 but apparently I ordered again last year, so the seed shouldn't have been old.

Well I never! Fame at last. I remember my Craigella experience now,  I do wonder why I bothered again.
My Honey Moon seeds came from King's Seeds via Ebay (nutsncones) in March 2024. I might pop them a line and tel them about the poor germination and see what happens. Nothing ventured, etc. Out of 6 seeds only 3 germinated.)

Update. I had a polite moan at Nutsncones and as a goodwill gesture they have agreed to refund the Honey Moon if I place a further order with them. I thought that really quite fair. A good excuse to buy some seeds

Did you find the seeds to be quite small and pale compared to normal? I assume all of the seeds come from the same seed producer, since it's not a massively popular variety like Sungold. My germination rate was 0 out of 4.