Ray, are any of them known to grow in certain conditions, ie cold, humid etc?.

Ray,
Soon I will be enjoying a well-earned tomato sabbatical before getting back into it about August. This season, I grew Erica d'Australie and Ethel Watkins Best. I would gladly give Australian Giant Oxheart a shot if that helps. -:grub

The commercially available ones have descriptions but not the rest. I know next to nothing about most of those in the list above, except that with the exception of the last two, they're all red! Not very useful I know, but there it is.

Okay Grub, I'll mark you down for Australian Giant Oxheart.

BTW: What ever happened to that Polish from Mantis? is it worth growing again? And what came of the RL variant? Sorry for all the question. I'm curious.

Grub, mine all produced lots of fruit but between nematodes, fruit fly, fruit cracking and rain, I didn't get to eat a single one. Richard might chime in here with his thoughts on it.

Okay, thanks. I'll watch this space.

Ray, just pick any one out and i'll give it a go.

I grew only one of the PL Polish and both the RL that came up. I have saved seeds of the PL one and will probably grow two or three next season. Although I grew it in a smallish pot it still produced about twenty fruit and they were very tasty. The RL plants produced flatish ribbed fruit and were nothing special on the taste buds. The only problem with the PL fruit was cracking which they nearly all did.
Mantis

Thanks Lomatia. Email on its way.

I'll have a go at one of them Ray. Pick one for me please.

Mantis

Thanks for the report, Mantis.

Concrete Red sounds like a rock.

Hi Ray
Put me down for one (or whatever)
I have... Burnley Gem, in production at the moment
Ditto...... Australian Red, (bush)
and also... Burwood Bounty

I would love to try a College var and of course a Tas var
Had Patrina and Hubby stay last night...not a tomato did we eat despite the fact that we had 39 vars in buckets all around the house
cheers
Peter

Thanks Peter and Richard. Your help is much appreciated. I'll be in touch by email.

Sorry, I was using Adam's PC and didn't realise I was logged in as him!
So ..... Thanks Peter and Richard. Your help is much appreciated. I'll be in touch by email.

Thanx Peter etc, hee hee.
I hope you had enough chilies for Patrina and Co Tas. She's a little partial to them I hear.
I've been trying to accustom myself to them again, so as to facilitate eating food what Ray cooks. I seem to have gotten rid of my ulcer, which is fortuitous. It was murder when it was active.

Hi Ray
I'll put my hand up for one variety (you pick), since you're including instructions and I'd want to do The Right Thing.
Bron

No sweat Adam, I took chilli sauce with me, and it was well received, especially by the Japanese helper staying with Peter! That's why he's grinning in the pic. These young folks come from all over the world to learn more about Peter's organic farming methods.

So, here's a pic of Peter with some of his helpers outside the kitchen/back porch area on the morning we left.

PP

Here is a link that might be useful: Peter & friends in Derby

Hi Guys
Nice shot Patrina
You will be sorry to hear that we had a severe frost on staurday morning and I now have no...toms, caps, corn, rockmelons, watermelons, cucumbers, pumpkins (5 types), gourds (2 types), Japanese Yams, nor few beans
Some of the bushier types of toms have some inner leaves still alive and will continue to grow but many were totalled...especially the bush vars...as can be expected
cheers (well.....)
Peter

Ohhh nooooo!!! Wow, after all the hard work to have them ruined so close to harvest time?! How frustrating!

So sorry to hear.

Yeah, we copped a dose of that frost too Peter. Very cold for a March morning. Brrrr! Didn't lose anything as most of the summer vegetables are finished anyway. Shocked the leaves off some deciduous though.

Peter,
Can you salvage enoough fruits to make a green tomato chutney?

Pep,
What are you sowing next? I'm thinking Kohl Rabi, carrots, silverbeet, broadbeans. some onion thing, and various lettuces/salad greens.

Grub, who has made a 20ft long timber harvesting pole with a gaff at the end to get to his chokos. We love them!

Very hard to believe that we all live in the same country. We had 39C on Saturday. This Saturday's forcast is for a minimum of 9C.
Cheers Colin.

Ray, have not been in touch recently as computer systems have been wonky. Apologies!

I am growing out for the Aussie cause:
Adelaide Dwarf Red
Australian Early Dwarf Red
Bush Whopper
Grosse Lisse (well, have to for comparison with the next one, eh?)
Juane Grosse Lisse (spelled as such in both Cdn and US genebanks!)
Scoresby Dwarf
Simpson Summer Palace
Tatinter
Tatura
Victorian Dwarf

100 seeds per variety (from 6 plants per) were requested but I can up the seed count if need be. There may be another one or two more varieties from downunder identified along the way.

Sound okay?

PP will be able to take pics of the transplants when she visits in June. :>) Certified organic farm, natch.

Jennifer

Fantastic Jennifer!

Wow, I just counted that there's only 54 sleeps before I catch the first flight! I'm visiting a friend in Melbourne for a couple days before heading out.

Oh boy, I have so much to do before then.... get crackin' PP!

Goodness gwacious, Patrina! When do you ever have time for gardening?

Seems to me you're never home - flitting about the world like a Cabbage White... ;-)

Yeah Bronwyn, I'd travel even more if I could I always wanted to travel since I was about 10, but didn't take my first trip out of Australia until I was 40+

This will be my first trip to visit gardening buddies!

PP

Well I got up the courage to go and talk to Spooks' daughter about the tomatoes he grew. She tells me that all the ones he grew were commercially available. So I guess his varieties could easily have been the same as some from Rays list above. What was commercially available back then I do not know.

Mantis

That's very interesting Mantis. Maybe Spook's seeds could be grown alongside the ones Ray has for comparison, and even if it isn't identical to any of those, there's still a possibility that it could be identified by comparison to the descriptions of old Australian ones (if they are recorded somewhere).

PP

Ray,
I have quite okay fruitset on College Cropwell.
It seem to be quite a scalloped tommy :)

There seems to be diminishing interest in this promising project.

Oh, well. But I would like to go on record as saying my College Cropwell is most certainly crossed, as it's putting out a varieties of fruit shapes, and they all seems pretty gnarled and small.

Still, I will save seeds.

Over to you.

Tasmanian Blushing Yellow is a ripper of a plant and the tomato is pretty and tasty. Have taken cuttings of the plant that produced best. Saved some seed but not as many as I'd have liked. The flowers I bagged didn't set fruit.

There was a crossed plant, too. Red fruit and productive. I have a few more of the original seeds and shall sow them and the saved seeds next season.

Spatz said:

"The flowers I bagged didn't set fruit."

Don't I know that feeling. I reckon the increased humidity or heat in the bag prevents the fruitset. And this is the reason I am still waiting for Green Giant as the first few trusses didn't set fruit. Eventually, I gave up on bagging and was rewarded.

Grub, Interest isn't dwindling, at least not for me. I've had one lot of seed back so far.
Next season's growouts will be fewer in number. I must get off my butt and order the seeds from the USDA!

Hi Ray,
After my miserable attempt at growing the Australian tomato for you this season. I don't know if I should make this offer, but am willing to try whatever you want to send me

Hi all,
For the past 5/6 years I have had the same bushes of thai hot and jalapenos growing in the same spot
My question is do chillis lose their heat over the years or is my mouth going numb.
Am ready to hear any suggestions that aren't derogatory re my mouth.
REGARDS

Totora, I won't comment on your mouth, but one does get very used to the heat of chillies and gradually you can take hotter and hotter chillies. So a chilli that may have been hot a few years ago may now seem pretty mild.

I don't think your chillies are losing heat by being in the same spot for some years.

Ray, I don't have 500 seeds of Tasmanian Blushing Yellow, as requested in your original post. I'd say there are about 200 seeds. But there's a tiny green tomato still on the bush that was bagged. So I might get seeds off this one, if it does grow a bit more and ripen up a bit before the plant dies or the first frost hits.

I've also taken cuttings and one of them is starting to flower. I should get some fruit off this one. Will put it in the greenhouse in the next few weeks.

I will be growing this tomato again next year and probably get more plants of it in the ground. I still have 3 of the original seeds (I think, would have to dig out the seeds and count them) and I'll try to germinate and grow these. Together with the saved seeds from this year.

Over 25 years ago, my husband was given some tomatoes
from an elderly couple. They told him that they were
Australian tomatoes. They told him to keep the seeds
and start them the following year. I have been growing
these tomatoes ever since. In my opinion they are the
best tasting tomatoes ever. The tomatoes when ripe are
not red, but a shade of pink. The shape of the tomato
resembles a heart shape. The tomatoes can get so big that
a single slice will cover a piece of bread. Does this
sound like any kind of Australian tomato that you know of?

Really impressed with all this.. good on you all.

Toutez's tommie sounds a lot like a well developed Oxheart.. Amish Paste are very similiar.. but maybe not so large..but both are rather pinkish. Wouldn't think either are "Australian".. but if they originally arrived FROM Australia that could account for it..