I think I have a new favorite tomato

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by SADE2020

Of course!!!! I don't grow them but they are actually a local/native (Mallorca, Barcelona, Valencia) species of tomatoes. It is use in a traditional toast bread recipe call "Pan Tumaca" (in Catalan Bread with Tomatos). The recipe can be done with any tomato but here they only use this kind for Pan Tumaca.

The "Tomate de Ramillete" (Tomato Bouquet) it sold tie as a bouquet of about one docen Tomatos, so people can have them hanging in the kitchen: grab, cut and spread on bred with salt and lots of olive Oil and optional with serrano ham

Now I am drooling all over my keyboard...

[kvet]

Yes, and from what I've read the ramallet tomatoes have a long shelf life, too, and I believe the plants themselves are fairly hardy. I'd love to try growing those some day
Mediterranean Long Shelf-Life Landraces: An Untapped Genetic Resource for Tomato Improvement

[estación seca]

It's very easy to send flat tomato seeds in an envelope to frieds in online discussion groups.

Getting tomato seeds from a tomato is somewhat more difficult than you might think. They should be fermented in the fruit to be most viable:
"The key to cleaning tomato seeds is removing the gel and placental tissue that clings to and protects the seeds. This gel has germination-inhibiting compounds that must be removed to prevent low germination rates. Physical rubbing and scrubbing and/or fermentation are the two ways to rid tomato seeds of this protective gel. Fermentation is recommended as it seems to be a more effective and less time consuming method."

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by estación seca

It's very easy to send flat tomato seeds in an envelope to frieds in online discussion groups.

Getting tomato seeds from a tomato is somewhat more difficult than you might think. They should be fermented in the fruit to be most viable:
"The key to cleaning tomato seeds is removing the gel and placental tissue that clings to and protects the seeds. This gel has germination-inhibiting compounds that must be removed to prevent low germination rates. Physical rubbing and scrubbing and/or fermentation are the two ways to rid tomato seeds of this protective gel. Fermentation is recommended as it seems to be a more effective and less time consuming method."

Chemical methods work well too, though they often involve hydrochloric acid... I cleaned seeds from a couple hundred tomatoes at work this way. I have another protocol which doesn't involve dangerous acids but can't remember the details off the top of my head.

[SADE2020]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

First, you do NOT have crappy English, so don't go there. Better than some folks I know who use it for their first language. And mucho better than my poor Spanish. After we get past ordering a beer, a hamburger, and finding the bathroom I'm using incomprehensible.

What a most clever use of yard space! Never seen anything like it. I need to read up more on your climate. I figured it was warm enough there to grow something year 'round.

Thank you WW you are a sweet hard. But sometimes I reed back and I don't even understand what I wrote.. hahahah

I could grow year round but not Tomatos, it goes from Artichoke, strawberry, potatos, and then lots of tree fruit and olive, so as you can see is less appealing, slower and not as easy as warm summer veggies and fruits: Tomatos 😅, pepper and zucchini and aubergines.

---------- Post added at 09:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 AM ----------

Originally Posted by camille1585

Chemical methods work well too, though they often involve hydrochloric acid... I cleaned seeds from a couple hundred tomatoes at work this way. I have another protocol which doesn't involve dangerous acids but can't remember the details off the top of my head.

What about using breaking soda? I hear is a way of drying ?

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by SADE2020

Thank you WW you are a sweet hard. But sometimes I reed back and I don't even understand what I wrote.. hahahah

I think that's called autocorrect...

---------- Post added at 07:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:28 AM ----------

Don't tell my tomato seeds... I just soak them overnight, pat dry the next day, and separate them out on a paper towel. Put them on back of countertop to dry. When totally dry (like a few days to make sure) I fold up the paper towel, stick it into an envelope or baggie, and throw into my seed drawer. Next spring, I flick them off the paper towel with my fingernail if they don't just fall off, soak overnight, then plant.

[kvet]

First tomatoes of the season.. black cherry. 60 days precisely from planting out. They were tart and thick skinned. Odd.

Sadly, most of the tomato plants in the parents' ground are dying, hit with disease Sad but kind of expected and confirms what I've been telling the folks all along, rotate the crops. They are mostly convinced, finally! Last weekend, we made emergency trip to nursery, bought a dozen tomato plants, bought stuff to make homemade soilless potting mix, and put them into double-bucket self watering containers, far away from the diseased area. Hopefully these work out. The dwarf tomato plants growing at my house in pots should hopefully have first tomatoes ready in about 2-3 weeks.

[WaterWitchin]

Nice! (The ripe tomatoes, not the diseased ones). I have chocolate cherry tomatoes that are doing something weird... I'll take a picture soon. Getting super dark on top, green on bottom, never getting ripe yet...just hanging there. Weather related, most likely.

For first year in memory, I won't have a ripe tomato by the 4th of July. (only full size tomatoes count for this one). Again, weather related. Such is life.

[camille1585]

Dang, sad to hear that the entire plot is diseased... I'm wondering if there wasn't something else going on first, nutrition related based on the photos, which left the plants weak and susceptible to illness.

I envy you all who get ripe tomatoes of any size at this time of year. The growing season is short here, so I get the first ones around early-mid august and harvest until frost or constant shitty weather (usually mid october).


My tomatoes are looking great this year since we didn't have the extended spring drought/heat like last year. I gave them a shot of Kelpak, and wow did they like that!
In my tomato greenhouse I have my usual Saint Pierre and Black Krim, and am testing some Chocolate Cherry and Cherokee Purple. The latter are already lagging behind in growth (or are a naturally compact variety?) Outside the greenhouse I'm testing a British variety called Outdoor Girl.

I've added some photos of my small vegetable patch. Potatoes are doing very well this year, the plants are about waist high. I also found some visitors on my carrots; some swallowtail caterpillars (Papilio machaon). I'll leave them on the carrots for now since they're still small, and later I'll move some to some feral fennel I have growing in a corner of the garden.


I have sunflowers a bit everywhere. They're one of my favorite flowers, they give some shade in the summer, and the birds love their seeds! This year I sowed a couple American Giant in a corner, just for kicks. I'll be curious to see how tall they get. The tallest I've grown so far with other varieties is approx 2,5m.

[SADE2020]

@camille I didn't understood you actually have a garden. Great...looking good. Obviously we have such of different weather.

This is my update: