Quality seeds for kitchen, cottage and native gardeners
Vegetable Seeds Catalogue
Tomato
Sds/g: 300-400 Feed Requirements: Moderate Usual Seed Life: 4-6 years
Cultural Notes:
- In cooler areas start seedlings indoors 5 – 6 weeks before your last frost and plant out in week 8 to be on the safe side. Plant deeper than the roots as the stem will form extra feeding roots. Do not start seedlings too early as root bound, leggy plants are bound to disappoint and be poor croppers.
- Determinate tomatoes form bushes that do not need to be pruned and produce fruit earlier but over a shorter period than indeterminates. Indeterminate tomatoes need to be trellised, trained up a string or staked. Given the room indeterminate varieties are prolific growers and will easily outgrow your average tomato stake.
- For best results plant against a high north-facing fence.
- Plant into soil with good organic matter and do not provide high nitrogen fertiliser, otherwise you will end up with excess leaf growth and late flowering. It is possible to force flowering by stressing the plant a bit with infrequent watering, however, once flowers have started ensure the plant gets regular water. Plant indeterminate seedlings with 80-120 cm centres and determinate seedlings with at least 50-90 cm centres.
Problems:
- The best way to avoid problems with tomatoes is by supplying sufficient moisture applied at soil level and adequate calcium. As tomatoes respond very well to foliar feeds a good preventative is a seaweed foliar spray every 2 weeks.
Harvest:
- Your homegrown tomatoes will taste better than any from the supermarket.
- Cherry tomato varieties ripen earliest. Unripened tomatoes should be harvested before the first frost. Either pull the plant and hang in a shed with good ventilation to avoid moulds or harvest tomatoes and ripen them in the house.
Sowing periods
This heirloom drying or bottling variety of tomato is a strong climbing plant with large up to 10cm, oxheart shaped, tasty fruit. It is especially good for cooking with a creamy consistency and few seeds. Needs staking. 80 seeds
Considered by many to be the best sandwich tomato. This heirloom is large, meaty, holds together well (so your sanger does not get soggy!), thin skinned and most importantly has excellent flavour raw. A large, red tomato that averages 400 – 600 grams. Requires staking. 80 seeds.
A favourite heirloom as it has high yields, is easy to grow and most importantly it produces small round dark coloured tomatoes with a full, sweet flavour (and a touch ‘exotic’!). A vigorous producer that needs staking. 30 seeds.
A Russian heirloom with deep purple-brown skin with large sized, flat shaped, good tasting juicy fruit. Handles a range of conditions including cooler climates. Yields well and relatively early. A vigorous, tough variety that requires staking. 80 seeds.
This Russian heirloom medium sized, round tomato has dark red/chocolate coloured, sweet tasting fruit and requires staking. A vigorous, tough variety for poorer soils, where it produces good, flavoursome fruit. 80 seeds
An heirloom well known for its excellent flavour that is known as ‘well-balanced’ (a good mix of sweet with acid). A high yielding, indeterminate variety that requires staking and bares medium to medium-large, red fruit. 80 seeds.
An Australian Heirloom. This old ‘work horse’ tomato, introduced as a commercial variety in 1931, is renowned for its good, tangy flavour. An early, staking variety, it dependably crops medium-sized, thin-skinned, orange-red fruits, ideal for bottling and freezing or eating fresh. 80 seeds.
This small, round cocktail tomato produces gooseberry sized, deep golden yellow, scrumptious fruit over the early months of summer. Our favourite yellow tomato as it is early and prolific with a super fruity, sweet flavour and low acidity. Needs staking. Prepare the soil by digging in plenty of rotted organic matter and use lime if soil is acid. 40 seeds
An Australian heirloom variety that produces 8-10cm red oblate fruit (meaning slightly flattened at the top and bottom). Produces good yields of tasty, well balanced fruit. An indeterminate variety that needs staking as it grows to 1.5m. 80 seeds.
A heirloom variety from the Cherokee Indians taken up by settlers in the 1890s. A big ‘beefsteak’ tomato, ripening to a dusky purple-pink, with superb sweetness, dense juicy texture, large fruit & beautiful colour. An indeterminate variety that needs staking. 80 seeds.
An Australian Heirloom. Bred in the 1950s in New South Wales, this commercial variety tolerates heat well. Earlier to produce and more prolific than Grosse Lisse, it has solid, big red fruit and excellent flavour. An indeterminate variety that needs staking. 80 seeds.
An heirloom from Italy. This mid-season indeterminate variety produces large, ribbed, quince shaped tomatoes. This beautiful, creamy fruit is very flavoursome and used for slicing, sauces and pastes. Costoluto is a popular variety due to it full traditional flavour, which shines when slow roasted or cooked down into a rich sauce. 30 seeds