In December I started two tomato plants growing as seeds in Jiffy pots. After having them crop prolifically for many months, they were left to the elements and mealy bugs. They haven’t had any water, love or attention since March, and now being the end of July there are two distinct differences between them.
One is a heirloom tomato called Principe Borghese I got from Diggers Garden Club, the other is a Yates hybrid called “Small Fry”.
^ Principe Borghese
^ Yates “Small Fr”
This makes me wonder, not only do heirloom varieties taste better than hybrids, but they do not require as much water and chemicals as the hybrids that are so readily available.
Have you had any experiences with heirloom varieties?
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2 Comments
if the heirloom varieties ARE THOSE THAT ARE NOT HYBRIED OR IMPROVED, HERE IN AFRICA, WE HAVE A VERY SMALL (either yellow or red) tomato that does wonders where the hibrids just cant produce. No one even wastes chemicals on them. They are simply wonderful.
We are growing only heirloom tomatoes because we want to save the seed. With our hot sun and sandy soil, we’ve decided to try self-watering container gardening, using a soiless mix of vermicomposted horse manure, vermiculite. Our watering requirements were unsustainable, because the soil dried out so quickly and it leached away too much nutrients. So far, we’re seeing good results and the plants are doing very well, even with the July heat. We have some tomato seeds just coming up and are ready to transplant into their self-wateing container.