Kumato tomato review

Have you ever heard about kumato tomatoes? For years I have heard how amazing these tomatoes taste and how very sweet they are. I read quotes such as “Kumato, the most delicious commercial tomato on the market”.

I was skeptical that a supermarket tomato could actually taste good, but so many reviews couldn’t be that far wrong – or could they?

Many brown tomatoes do have complex and rich taste, delicious varieties such as ‘black cherry’ and ‘Japanese black trifele’ immediately spring to mind, so I had high hopes for kumato. Others such as Black Russian are pretty bland, so kumato really could go either way. I cut into the kumato and it looked nice inside, which got my hopes up.

Kumato certainly look very good. If the marketing is to be believed I may even be able to buy a decent tomato from the supermarket rather than growing it myself. Imagine the garden space that would free up for other things. So I tried some to see for myself.

Kumato photo by Achim Raschka https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5550820

When I tasted it I was disappointed, it was mealy and insipid. It was much like any supermarket tomato except perhaps a little less sour and with far less flavour. That’s right, the kumato I ate had less flavour than a supermarket tomato.

I grow some varieties of very sweet tomatoes which I love, and I grow some very sour tomatoes which I adore, so am not new to sweet tomatoes or sour tomatoes. Unfortunately kumato was neither sweet nor sour, and it lacked any depth or complexity of taste.

Kumato wasn’t horrible, I didn’t want to spit it out, it didn’t make me gag or anything extreme like that, but it was not enjoyable. Salt helps bring out the flavour of some tomatoes, perhaps it needs salt. I added salt to see if that helped, but it didn’t. Then it was just salty and bland.

I grow a lot of varieties of tomato, some very old heirlooms, others are very new varieties, plus I dabble in breeding new tomato varieties, so my kids have tasted many dozens of different varieties of tomatoes in their short lives. They each have their favourites, and they tend to agree on the ones they don’t like. They know the brown tomatoes tend to have rich taste and were excited to try a kumato. When eating one each of them had a similar reaction, they were surprised at how bland kumato tomatoes are. How disappointing. Kids love tomatoes so I had hoped at least one of the kids would enjoy them, but they didn’t.

Japanese Black Trifele tomato - I love how these taste

I thought we may have gotten a bad batch, so I have tried kumato a few different times, and each time the result has been bland. I tried some that were firmer, and others that were far riper, each time the same result. We also tried ‘mini kumato’, which taste just as bland as kumato only smaller.

When tomatoes are put in the fridge they tend to lose flavour, some varieties are worse than others at this. All supermarkets tomatoes have been through cold storage before I get to buy them. Perhaps kumato could be decent tasting when ripe but responds very poorly to cold storage? I guess I will never know as I have no way to ever try a fresh one that has not been refrigerated. If that is the case this would be a dreadful trait for a commercially produced variety to have!

I don’t know why kumato have such great reviews, I suspect many people have never eaten a good tomato so have nothing to compare them against. I found them so bland I would prefer one of the unnamed red round supermarket tomatoes to a kumato. While those unnamed red round supermarket tomatoes certainly don’t taste great, they at least have more flavour than a kumato.

Black Russian tomato - sure looks pretty

After eating kumato several different times I read a description on Wikipedia which says they are “varying in flavor from almost no flavor to sweeter than typical tomatoes”. Kumato having almost no flavour sounds like my experiences with them and unfortunately it seems as though this is pretty common.

One of the biggest problems with growing food is that I have eaten good tasting food. If I had never eaten a good tomato perhaps I could convince myself that kumato taste ok simply because they lack sourness?

It looks like if I want a good tasting tomato I still have to grow it myself. I sell a few different types of tomato seeds, but kumato will never be on that list, if you are interested have a look at my for sale page.

The amazing V1-X

A few months ago my eldest son was given a toy for his birthday.  It was one of those things where you look after a fake pet.  It was a version of what I think they used to call a Tamagotchi or something like that.  I don't see the point, but he seemed to enjoy it and the other kids all wanted one themselves.

My second son desperately wanted one, but didn't want to wait until his birthday.  He asked for one, and we told him to wait until his birthday, he didn't want to miss out on the fun so he made his own.

He decided it needed a name, so he called it a "V1-X".

The amazing V1-X

V1X ready to play

He got a small box, put a toy car in it, and shook is left and right, and up and down.  Hours of fun!

I am not sure what the rules are, but he got high scores often.

I gave it a go, apparently I wasn't as good and I lost a life somehow?  I was told that my scores were pretty low.  It was really quite amusing playing with the V1-X and being told I lost a life.

Apparently if you get over a certain score, or something, you get an upgrade.  To be honest, I was never sure if an upgrade was a good thing or a bad thing.  It didn't really matter, my scores were never high enough to earn an upgrade.

An upgrade meant there were two toys to shake around in the box.  Again, I was never quite sure what the rules were.

V1-X upgrade

V1-X with various upgrades

Finally his birthday arrived and he got a real Tamagotchi thing.  He played with it a bit, but the novelty wore off pretty fast.  I assume it is still in his room somewhere but I haven't seen him use it in a long time.

I am not sure if he had more fun with the tamagotchi, or his V1-X.  He certainly got more use out of the V1-X and spent longer playing with it.

Sometimes my kids make me laugh.

Interesting strawberry leaves

I have been growing strawberries for years.  Normally the leaves all look much the same.  Sometimes they are larger or smaller, or more jagged or smoother, but really they all look much the same.  There are a few 'yellow leaf' forms, but to me they look like a sickly green.

Sometimes, my strawberries grow interesting leaves.  I have also been tinkering with breeding strawberries, sometimes a few interesting things come out of the crosses.  Crossing appears to introduce instability, which isn't always a bad thing.

I have had a few strawberry plants that sometimes throw up variegated leaves.  I had hoped this trait would continue and I would have a line of variegated plants, so far it is always restricted to a single leaf.  Hopefully in the future this variegation happens to a runner, then I may be able to grow variegated strawberry plants.

Variegated strawberry leaf

Variegated leaf

I have also had a few leaves with four or five leaflets instead of the usual three.  I really like this trait, but it does seem to be restricted to single leaves instead of entire plants.

Some plants tend to display this trait more often than others, it is more common in the wide crosses, but as yet I do not have any plants I consider to consistently grow four or five leaflets instead of the usual three.

Five leaflets instead of three.

Four leaflets instead of three

Five leaflets on the left, I don't know how many on the right

Five leaflets

If you have strawberries that grow interesting leaves and are willing to send me a plant or some seeds let me know.  I would be keen to grow them.

Currently strawberry seeds are still legal to import into Australia.  I know there is at least one variety of variegated strawberry around but don't know if it grows variegated from seed.

I do sell some strawberry plants through my for sale page.  Unfortunately at the moment I can't guarantee that any will ever grow interesting leaves like this.

Thyme progress

For some reason it is difficult to find many named varieties of thyme in Australia.  For some reason it is almost impossible to find any comparisons of thyme varieties.  Plant nurseries write such lovely things about their plants, but an honest side by side comparison is practically unheard of.

Last year I wrote a post comparing some thyme varieties to highlight the differences between them.  To expand on that, below are comparative pictures of the growth after about 6 months.  The pictures were taken at the beginning of spring after the plants had survived winter.

I wish I had planted them further apart, but I needed the space so they are cramped together.  The small pots contain cuttings of each variety.  You can see how each of the varieties of thyme grew compared to the others.  They are probably each double that size now and have started to flower.

Four varieties of thyme growing side by side.  It is pretty obvious that Jekka's thyme is larger and stronger than the other varieties.  It goes outside of the picture to the left somewhat.

Left to right: Jekka's thyme, Tabor thyme, Variegated lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme

Why Grow More Dandelions? An Edible, Useful Garden Plant

I like dandelions (Taraxacum officinale).  They are a perennial edible plant that are easy to grow.  I allow them to flower and set seed in my yard and encourage them as best I can.

Dandelions have many uses.  People eat the nutritious leaves and roots, they are high in vitamins minerals and inulin, nice coffee substitute can be made from the roots, wine can apparently be made from the flowers, animals relish all parts, bees (both native bees and honey bees) and other pollinators just adore them, they have medical uses, and they can be useful in composts.  Dandelions flower for much of the year where I live now, which is great for bees and other pollinators.

If you look closely you may notice that every photo on this page of dandelion flowers has a honey bee somewhere in the picture.  Bees really seem to love dandelions.

Dandelions have many uses, they grow reasonably fast, they are reasonably productive, they have no real problems with pests or diseases, and they can just grow in my lawn so do not use space that is needed for other vegetables.

I don’t see what is not to like and I like to encourage people to grow dandelions in the lawn.

Dandelion - you should grow more of them!

I have never understood why anyone would want to get rid of dandelions from the lawn or why dandelion poison exists.  The only problem I can think of is that they don’t survive if it is hot or dry.  That is no real reason to poison them though.

I have read permaculture sites and gardening books who claim that 'dandelions are a gift from nature that freely grow everywhere and thrive in damp as well as dry places'.  Even though I wish this were true, this is not the case.

Dandelion (with a honey bee) in the lawn

I do wonder if they are mistaking another plant for dandelions, perhaps flatweed (also called false dandelion, or cat’s ear, Hypochaeris radicata).   In Australia there is only a small sliver of the country where dandelion will thrive, the rest is too hot and/or too dry for dandelion to survive.  You don’t see dandelions growing far out west.  I am also told that they don’t survive in the tropics, but I haven't spent much time int the tropics so am not certain of that claim.

When we lived in Central West NSW I used to grow dandelions in the vegetable garden as they would not survive anywhere else on our property.   They needed a lot of water, and some shade, but it was worth it to have these delightful little plants growing.  I hated the fact that my kids were growing up without blowing the seeds off the seed heads, plus the highly nutritious leaves were great feed for animals, so I grew them.

There were some dandelions growing in town under the big bridge next to the river where it was shaded, cool, and damp.  Other than that small patch by the river and my vegetable garden I never saw any others in that area.  I used to sprinkle their seed in cooler and damper areas of our property, as well as let the kids blow the seed heads to disperse seeds to the four winds.  Occasionally seedlings would pop up and grow through the cooler months, but as soon as spring heat hit they would die completely.  It was just too hot and dry there for them.  Flatweed, on the other hand, grew easily out there and was often found on roadsides as well as in paddocks.

Flatweed is not dandelion, they are very different plants.  Even as a young child I never understood how people could confuse dandelion with flatweed.  They are similar size and a similar colour, but they look, feel, smell, and taste very different.  A cat and a small dog can be a similar size and colour, yet most people have little trouble telling them apart.

Dandelion is different to flatweed

I like dandelion and encourage it to grow in my lawn, but I dislike flatweed.  I don’t dislike flatweed enough to remove them, I just don’t actively encourage them to grow.  People often confuse these two plants.

Dandelion and flatweed grow in different places

Contrary to what many gardening books say, dandelion do not survive ‘just about anywhere’ and do not ‘thrive in damp soil as well as dry soil’.  

 Dandelion needs ample water to survive, flatweed survives in dry paddocks and lawns with no issues.  They can and often do grow side by side, and flatweed can happily survive damp places, but dandelion does not survive anywhere very dry.  

Even though dandelion have a deep tap root, once it gets too dry they simply burn off and never return.  Dandelion don’t cope with semi-arid conditions at all, whereas flatweed is often found scattered throughout semi-arid areas.  

If you don't believe me look around.  Even in your yard you will notice an absence of dandelions in any areas that are perpetually dry.

The leaves are different

Dandelion gets the ‘lion’ part of its name from its leaves.  They have jagged edges which apparently looked like lion teeth to someone back in merry old England.  The leaves of flatweed have rounded lobe shaped edges.  

The leaves on flatweed are hairy (like the ear of a cat, hence the other common name of “cat’s ear”), leaves of dandelion are smooth and hairless.  

Leaves of dandelion are always soft and easy to break, the leaves of flatweed get fibrous as they age and become tougher.  This has implications if you plan to eat them, it also makes it simple to tell them apart based on the leaves.

Dandelion leaves are smooth with jagged edges

Flatweed leaves are hairy with rounded edges

The flower stems are different

Dandelions flowers have a single stem that is hollow, flatweed have a forked stem that is solid.   

Dandelion tend to have thicker flower stems that are easy to snap, flatweed flower stems are more difficult to snap and tend to be thinner.  

It is pretty simple to tell dandelion and flatweed apart purely based on the flower stems.

They smell and taste different

If you damage a leaf you notice a smell from both plants. I won’t try to describe how they smell, but they smell different.  

Dandelion leaves tend to get bitter when the plant is flowering, flatweed is less bitter or even not bitter at all.

They have slightly different uses

People and animals can eat both plants.  Dandelion are palatable by most animals that eat leaves or grass, flatweed varies in its palatability.  

Flatweed is apparently toxic to horses when eaten in large quantities, dandelion has no known toxicity issues.  

A coffee substitute can apparently be made from the roots of both plants.  I like dandelion coffee, I haven’t tried flatweed coffee but I know someone who tried to make dandelion root coffee and used flatweed as they didn’t know the difference between the plants.  The result apparently tasted pretty terrible.

As you can see, dandelion and flatweed are completely different plants.  I just don’t understand where the confusion comes from.

Dandelion, the bees love them

Hopefully more people will encourage dandelion to grow in their lawn so they can benefit from them.  They are such a useful plant, plus they look nice.  An added bonus is they stay short if mowed, and get taller if the grass around them is taller, so you don't need to worry about killing them off by mowing too much.

You can buy dandelion seeds and sometimes plants through various nurseries, but I wouldn’t waste the money.  If you live somewhere that they can grow you will hopefully be able to find the seeds pretty easily.  If not, but you would like to grow them in your vegetable garden like I used to, let me know and I am sure I can get you some seeds.  My contact details can be found on my for sale catalogue.

Overwintering diploid potatoes

Last year I grew some diploid potatoes from true potato seed.  I really enjoyed it.  Every single plant produced different potatoes.  Each of them tasted far superior to anything you can get from the markets.  They were quite remarkable.

Unfortunately these diploid potatoes lack any real dormancy and start to grow not long after producing tubers, so it was unlikely that they would survive winter without help.

Being seed grown meant that each plant was unique, and I would love to keep the best new varieties alive.  Unfortunately I lack the time and space required to grow them via tissue culture, which means I had to think of a way to keep them alive through winter.

I attempted three methods of overwintering potatoes, putting them in the crisper of the fridge, leaving them in the garden, and putting them in a pot in a protected position.  Read more and I will explain what worked for me and what didn't.

Diploid potato grown from True Potato Seed

mulberry tree time from planting cuttings to fruiting

Have you ever wondered how long it takes for a white mulberry to go from a small cutting until it is large enough to fruit?  I have grown cuttings a few times so thought I would share my experiences and hope that it helps someone.

I have looked on the internet and found a nursery overseas that claims they sell 2 year old plants that should fruit in 2 - 3 years.  That seems overly long to me.  Judging how quickly I get things to fruit from cuttings or seed grown and how much longer they claim it takes for 2 year old plants to fruit I would have doubts over the quality of their plants and/or the accuracy of their claims.

Large mulberry cuttings can fruit that same year, but what about small cuttings?  Obviously it varies from plant to plant, some will fruit much faster or slower than others, and the climate will change things.

Here are some photos of a cutting that I took of a cutting from a white mulberry that is meant to be white fruiting (most white mulberries are dark fruited).  The cutting was around 10cm long and far thinner than a pencil.

My little cutting went from this tiny cutting just sprouting roots September 2017:

to this small ~60cm tall tree just before going dormant:

to this little tree emerging from dormancy in October 2018:

Unless something goes wrong I should find out in a month or two if it is white fruited or dark fruited. 

Mulberry breaking dormancy - note the catkin emerging

Almost every node that is producing leaves is also producing catkins, each of which should turn into mulberries.

It appears that this will be a productive tree once I plant it in the soil.  I am hoping that it will be white fruited, but even if it is dark fruited I think it will still be well worth growing.

 

I am waiting until the fruit ripens before planting this tree in a larger pot or in the soil.  I would hate for transplant stress to cause it to abort its fruit and have to wait another year.

I am assuming that some varieties of white mulberry take longer than this to fruit.  I assume that some varieties will be more productive and others less productive than this one.  Regardless, it appears that this is a productive and reasonably fast growing variety.  Going from a cutting to a fruiting tree in a year is pretty impressive.  I don't know of many fruit trees other than mulberry that can do this.