Peter Seabrook: Fi hybrid tomatoes will give you consistency, says Peter
F1 hybrids will give you consistency of harvest, says Peter
GARDENING takes time: sow some tomatoes, and it is four months before you begin to taste the fruits of your labours. Should you make a mistake in choice of cultivar, it is a year before you start again, and then things may well have changed.
This year, I have heard from several gardeners that their favourite tomato – ‘Gardener’s Delight’ – is not as good as it was. Some packets even yielded large beefsteak fruits instead of the cherry size they should be, the result of careless rogueing of mother stocks.
Where what we call ‘open seeded’ (as opposed to F1 hybrid) cultivars are grown in fields for seed, it is essential that the plants are regularly and rigorously checked, and that any not true to type destroyed. However, the more committed the seed grower to retain pure stocks, the less seed they will have in the end, and this reflects in the price.
F1 hybrids are made by crossing two very carefully maintained parent lines – this takes time, and explains why F1 seeds are higher priced, plus more reliably true to type. Seed quality is not the only factor: breeders are striving all the time to improve yield, flavour, plant habit, pest and disease resistance.
What to do, then, when selecting the cultivar to grow next year? When it comes to tomatoes, I use ‘Sungold’ (a golden cherry type) as my standard for measuring all newcomers, because of its sweet and excellent tomato flavour.
Taste is a personal thing, of course, and when tasting tests are undertaken the results can be very variable. Allowing for all these things, there will be several new arrivals in the 2021 seed catalogues worthy of attention, if my trials this summer are any guide…
“Any cultivars not true to type must be destroyed”