On chillis and tomatoes - a visit to an inspirational seed producer

You may have seen from my recent posts that I was visiting Sea Spring Seeds on the Jurassic Coast, home of the Dorset Naga chilli. Needless to say there was so much to see, taste and learn.

First, a big welcome to all the new subscribers this week, there’s quite a few of you! I hope you enjoy the posts and I am always happy to answer any questions you might have.

The Dorset Naga - once the hottest chilli in the world

This week I turn my attention to chillis and tomatoes.

Before I launch into my visit, a bit of background for those readers who are not familiar with Sea Spring Seeds. The small farm is located beside Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, just along from Chesil Beach, in a stunning position with a view of the sea, so the site is mild but windy.

Here Joy and Michael Michaud produce seed for nearly 100 chilli and sweet pepper varieties, as well as tomato and other veg. If you have visited RHS Hampton Court, you may have seen their trade stand and plant display in the allotment area.

The small and immaculate site has a number of polytunnels and many small greenhouses for seed production. You are immediately struck by the lack of flowers on the site - no pollinator flowers here. Why? Because they don’t want to encourage bumble bees, in particular, that may cross pollinate their peppers! And as you would expect from a couple of scientists everything is labelled and recorded.

Joy and Michael have produced a number of new varieties of chillis, most notably the Dorset Naga, once the hottest chilli in the world, but there are plenty of other varieties that they have developed - Fairy Lights, Sparkler, Joker and more - and as Joy explained, the sales success of a new variety depends on its name which has to be carefully considered.

Variety evaluation

One of the key elements behind the success of their seed business is the fact that they trial everything before selling. Every variety is evaluated for its suitability for growing in a garden or allotment. And that is so important. We were all impressed by the chilli and tomato trials, so how was this achieved?

Firstly, there’s no fancy fertilizers here, simply Miracle Gro which is readily available to the gardener. And interestingly, Joy doesn’t bother with a potash-based tomato fertiliser either - they all get the same weekly dose of a general purpose nitrogen-based fertiliser. Why? Joy believes that you need healthy leaves for a good crop. And I can’t argue with that given the fact that their plants looked healthy, and were laden with fruits.

Encourage good leaf growth

Joy once carried out research into photosynthesis and told us that 80% of a plant’s photosynthesis is carried out by the growing leaves so she never removes the growing tips of her tomatoes and she feeds to encourage good leaf growth and lots of photosynthetic product. This is used to fuel the production of fruits (tomatoes and peppers). So next year, I may abandon my tomato feeds and stick to good old Miracle Gro as the results she achieved were stunning as you can see from the photos.

Tomato tasting

And on to tasting. The trials include varieties new to Joy and Michael alongside some of their regular varieties that they haven’t tested for a while and may be not selling as well as they should. All varieties, of course, are described as tasty otherwise they would never sell. But so many of the new varieties in this trial tasted bland and a few could only be described as horrible!!! So its reassuring to know that nothing goes onto the Sea Spring list without passing the taste test.

The tomato trials

OMG - A tomato simply laden with fruit. This one was called IIdi and it was super productive and tasty.

We looked at the blight trial too. They grow Red Alert which is susceptible to late blight as their control. Some varieties had already succumbed while others were unaffected. But remember, blight is an evolving disease, it changes overtime, so blight resistant varieties may not be so resistant in the future. (See recommended varieties below.)

Joy explaining the blight trials to all on the tour

The pepper trials.

Some take away advice and recommendations

1. Growing peppers - Peppers can be potted up in relatively small pots, with a few chicken manure pellets added to the compost for slow release nutrients. Then feed a high nitrogen feed weekly, aiming to get lots of leaves for maximum photosynthesis. Avoid using potash-based fertiliser, and stake well before the plants get too heavy as laden stems have a habit of snapping. Space them well, as they don’t like being cramped.

One of the many cayenne varieties under trial..

2. Padrons - often described as ‘pepper roulette’ When served with a plate of padrons, you may find that 1 in 6 is megahot while the rest are mild. But if picked at the right time, padrons are spicy but mild. This is when they are immature and small. Leave them on the plant too long and they get hotter.

3. Blight resistant tomato varieties that also taste OK to consider: Crimson Crush, Cocktail Crush, Consuelo and Akron.

Blight trial - Red Alert had already succumbed to blight.

Blight resistant Akron

4. A micro tomato when you don’t have much space. This is Patio Plum (above) which is compact but laden with tasty fruits.

5. I loved the way Joy had trained Sun Belle horizontally, rather like an espalier, in a small greenhouse. This is the perfect method when head room is limited as it avoids removing the growing tip and, as you can see, this tomato is prolific.

   

   The horizontally trained Sun Belle tomato...

So that’s all for this week

Happy Gardening

Sally

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