I have written a few items on Heirloom and Hybrid Tomatoes. Now I really want to talk about ‘Aussie Toms’, heritage Tomatoes bred here in Australia for Australian conditions. Sounds awful doesn’t it? Standard advertising rubbish, but in this case it’s the truth.
Third of the Tomato H’s. Heritage. These are varieties that have been grown commercially but the hybridizing is very basic and seed can be collected from these plants and grown again year after year. All of the varieties still grown have survived because they have terrific flavour and vigour.
The thing that interests me is that many (most?) of these varieties were bred from a limited number of classic varieties imported to Australia early in the 20th century. Yes, you know who they are: Grosse Lisse and Rouge de Marmande plus a few others. Grosse and Rouge were imported from Algeria, via France and provided the standard against which all commercial Tomatoes are judged. Apart from the growth in popularity of Cherry and Roma Tomatoes, Grosse Lisse remains the Tomato flavour that all except the most exotic Heirloom varieties are judged against. Origin is interesting, isn’t it? Unfortunately I can’t tell you a great deal more about these two classics, still amongst the most popular varieties on our list. Grosse has flavour, acidity and round fruit. Rouge provides flavour, cold tolerance and that classic lumpy, oblate fruit shape.
This season, as well as our favourite originators we are growing a selection of Aussie bred Heritage Classics, here is some information on a few.
Burnley Surecrop. Victorian Department of Agriculture breeding and ideal for growing in Victoria and southern parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Round, medium/large fruit maturing up to 2 weeks earlier than Grosse Lisse. The flavour is rich and a little acid. Sure Crop is vigorous and has good disease resistance.
Es-58. Another product of Victorian Dept. of Agriculture breeding, possibly also known as Heinz’s Es-58 (I just like the old breeders line numbers like KY1, I assume KY stood for Kyabram). A genuine ‘South Australian’ style with medium/large flat, ribbed fruit on bushy plants. Ideal for cool conditions
College Challenger. Released by the Hawksbury Agricultural College in 1960. Improves Grosse Lisse with earlier fruiting on stronger and more vigorous plants. Large, round, red flavoursome fruit.
Colonial. A simple cross of Break O Day and Rouge de Marmande offering great flavour, disease resistance and productivity across a broad climate range including Tasmania. Fruit is relatively small but the plants are very productive.
Now, just one last thing to remember, we have these plants ready for sale, but at this stage we have no labels. Labels will take another 2 weeks perhaps, so I’ll report in on where you can purchase Australian Heritage Tomatoes in your favourite garden centre. I the mean time check out the Tesselaar’s mail order catalogue for the first Tomatoes I have ever sold by mail order.

Spring is (almost) here!

Spring is almost upon us. Things start getting a little frantic around the nursery at this time as we finalize preparations for the busiest part of our year and just for good measure I have filled in as delivery driver for a week and a bit. If you have been frightened off the road by a battered old truck with Scotsburn Nurseries painted on the sides… sorry about that.

This week we started delivering Tomatoes, we sent out our first Petunias last week and we have some remarkably good looking Impatiens in our glass house due for dispatch next week perhaps. It really is a tricky time of year, some retail nurseries are crying out for Tomatoes, others treat us as if we have offended them by even offering sub tropical plants in the last month of winter. On the other hand, the general perception is that gardeners are ‘over’ spring flowering varieties and they are looking to make an early start on their summer vegies.

So if you want to make an early start, what should you be doing? The chief concerns are frost and cold winds, most annual plants will cope with Melbourne’s winter temperatures it’s just the extremes that create problems. Oh, and don’t forget hail!

Tomatoes and Marigolds are particularly sensitive to frost. The enthusiasts who want to make the early start with Tomatoes know that they will have to protect their plants. A small green house or poly house are ideal, heating is not essential that poly cover retains enough heat and provides enough protection to prevent frost settling. A perfectly good system is a cloche like Valda’s husband has built for her (see pic). If you’re really keen, get down to Banksia Nursery in Wantirna to see some very clever cloches used to protect their plants from both frost and hail. Once your plants have developed some size and no longer fit under their shelters we will probably be past the chance of serious frost so you will be safe to move the seedlings out or remove the protective cover. Another frost protection idea is to treat your Tomatoes with copper spray. Copper is a broad spectrum fungicide that has the added benefit of toughening up plant cells, which reminds me don’t fertilize too heavily this early in the season. Your Tomatoes love Nitrogen and Phosphorus but too much makes them very soft and vulnerable to physical damage. Bumps and scrapes are openings for infections so grow your plants tough, there is time to feed them up in October.

The other thing to look out for in spring is wind. It’s no big secret that spring is the wettest and windiest time of year. What often happens at nurseries is that when it is cold we forget that wind can be so drying. This is a problem that needs to be watched with all young plants especially when they have just been transplanted or they are in pots. Applying water is the simple answer, except if you have to use mains water so the best option is to protect your young plants from the wind. Again a cloche or poly covers work really well. Keep in mind that at this time of year we will often get a change and rain following a windy day so don’t hoard your tank water, look after your plants because it is more than likely that you will get a refill. And while I’m on the subject of tank water, what happens with your overflow? Make sure you run it onto garden beds where it is needed, it is easy and free.