Crimson Crush Blight Resistant Tomatoes Results

Back in May I was able to offer free blight-resistant Crimson Crush tomato plants from Dobies. Unfortunately it backfired a bit as the limited stocks went in a couple of hours and this left some people upset.

Crimson Crush Tomatoes

Crimson Crush Blight Resistant Tomatoes

I grew some plants myself, both in the greenhouse and outside. The outdoors plant hasn’t done very well but that’s due to the rotten summer. The leaves show a characteristic purple colour indicative of the low night time temperatures.

Fair enough, we have challenging conditions here at the best of times and normally I would not even attempt outdoor tomatoes here. The plant struggled to make three trusses but has produced a small amount of fruit.

Most importantly, no sign whatsoever of blight. On the other hand, this hasn’t been a bad year for blight.

Size and Yield of Crimson Crush

The greenhouse grown plants did far better and were stopped at five trusses. Each truss produced a reasonable amount of fruits which were a decent size. I get a bit fed up with the current trend for smaller and smaller tomatoes. I like something that can be sliced on a sandwich or quartered in a salad.

Flavour of Crimson Crush

The flavour was good, not quite as good as my favourite Ailsa Craig but still a nice standard tomato with that acid bite. Far superior to Moneymaker or Gardener’s Delight for my money. Certainly worth growing even if it wasn’t blight-resistant.

Blight Resistance

One point on resistant crops, whether they be blight-resistant or club-root resistant etc. Resistant does not mean immune or invulnerable. Especially with blight which has various strains and mutates, any resistant plant can be taken down by one strain and shrug off another.

What it does mean is that a blight-resistant plant is more likely to be productive when blight is about than non-resistant varieties. With blight-resistant Sarpo potatoes I’ve found my plants to be standing proud when all the other potatoes on the whole allotment site had gone down.

As Simon Crawford the breeder of Crimson Crush states….

“Crimson Crush remained relatively free of blight but it is not immune, showing around 10 percent of infection when controls such as ‘Ailsa Craig’ were 100 percent infected”

I’d love to hear how you got on with Crimson Crush. Particularly:

  • Did you grow indoors or undercover?
  • Did your other tomatoes or potatoes suffer with blight?
  • Were you happy with the yield?
  • What did you think of the flavour and fruits generally?

Just pop your answer into the comments box below. Your email is not shown and putting in a website is optional. If it’s the first time you’ve commented on here it will take a little while to be shown as I have to manually approve it. This is because of spam posters.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary
88 comments on “Crimson Crush Blight Resistant Tomatoes Results
  1. Brian King says:

    Removed my Crimson Crush plants in mid-September. My thoughts ..

    no blight this year on any of my tomatoes until the end of September, so the jury is still out on its resistance capabilities as far as I am concerned

    plants produced lots of foliage, more than my other varieties (Tamina and Sungold)

    in general, larger fruits than I was expecting. Overall crop weight significantly less than Tamina.

    fruits are quite solid, i.e. little liquid.

    taste is relatively bland, certainly in comparison to my other varieties.

    However, I will probably give them another go next year.

    • Tania thorn says:

      Me too! Shrugged off blight beautifully, but the taste was more Moneymaker generic bland than proper homegrown to my mind. So much so that although I really want (& need) the blight resistance, I’m going to try the new crimson crush cherry and beefsteak type this year in the hope of a decent flavour:-(

      • Jacqui Thomson says:

        I have grown Crimson Crush for the last 4 years after trying the free plants back in 2015. I read that people have problems with size of plant; I can only say that I have trouble keeping mine lower than 4 feet high because they tend to fall over with the weight of the fruit if they get too tall. The fruit itself is mostly quite large, fleshy and juicy. I don’t use these as my salad toms – they are grown from a Marvellous tomato obtained from Lidl and they give a huge crop in the greenhouse. The Crimson Crush have always been grown outdoors in our allotment in South Devon, and have never gotten blight, even when the potatoes were a pitiful sight. I use these wonderful tomatoes as cooking tomatoes. They are skinned, chopped, then pulped down in a pan, and left to reduce somewhat. Then frozen into oblong boxes, and then stored as ‘bricks’ of tomato pulp in weights of around 800 grams, ready for all my winter sauces. They are so sweet that you would think they’d been grown in the Italian sun. This year, 2020, I have got some tiny plants grown from last years seed, because I saved some, and luckily too, because I cannot buy any original seeds because of the lockdown situation. Hope they come at least close to the original, but if not, at least I’ll know to get fresh seeds every year. Happy growing in these difficult times.

  2. Barbara says:

    Dobies did a 2nd offer so I was fortunate to get a couple of plants. As mentioned, a very cool summer so hard to say much on performance. I grew mine outdoors on the plot – but I had not grown any other tomatoes to compare. The plants barely grew 18 inch and for a long while only 1 truss. The third appeared in September but in the end I had to pull the plants up. Size of fruits were bigger than expected, not juicy so perfect to pop into a soup/sauce and the flavour was surprisingly good but I was disappointed with the yield. As risk of blight was low this year with very low rainfall here, the resistance claim was difficult to judge although I wasn’t sure if the foliage was blighted or not. The fruit on the other hand was unaffected and blemish free.

    I wouldn’t mind trying them again just to see how they cope in different weather conditions, but I expect the seed/plants will be expensive so unlikely I will be growing them in the foreseeable future.

  3. Guy Gibson says:

    “I wouldn’t mind trying them again just to see how they cope in different weather conditions, but I expect the seed/plants will be expensive so unlikely I will be growing them in the foreseeable future.”

    I’m an absolute novice to gardenning so please excuse my ignorance – could Barbara (and I was planning to aswell for that matter) not just save seeds from this years Crimson Crush crop and plant them next year, rather than purchase new plants?

    • Barbara says:

      @Guy Gibson:

      Crimson Crush is an F1 hybrid – hence, seeds from this year’s fruit might not have the same culinary characteristics (or blight resistance) in the next generation fruit

    • David Harriman says:

      @Guy Gibson:
      Hello Guy. Unfortunately it’s not that simple to save seeds from Crimson Crush, because they are an F1 hybrid which means that they have been bred from two parent plants which are both different to the resulting Crimson Crush. If you save seeds from them (CC), they will not reproduce true i.e. they will be different to the tomato they were saved from. They might have some of the desired qualities, or none at all. They might resemble one of the parent plants, or not, or could be a complete mongrel.
      If you grow saved seed from CC, it will be an F2, and you might be lucky and get something good, but you would have to grow it again, and again, saving seeds from the plants with qualities you like for a few years for it to stabilise, and give you the plants/fruit you expect each year. Year three it would be an F3, year four it’s an F4 and so on. I hope that helps. Kind regards, David Harriman.

  4. allan says:

    unfortunatly lost all crimson crush to blight. grew them outside at allotment. they grew nice and big but within three days went from ok to gone. will try again nxt year with a little cover.

  5. Edwin Kelly says:

    Re the Crimson Crush….both plants I recieved are still fruiting in my polytunnel and remain blight free. Well impressed with the quality and size of the fruits but seem to take a longer time to ripen,and the yield was not as I had hoped for.

    I would certainly would like to try these again next year in a different position in the tunnel as mu current toms were already in and established when the two plants arrived.

    Thanl you for giving me the opportunity to try these blight free plants.

  6. Catherine says:

    I was lucky enough to receive free plants to trial, I gave one to my allotment neighbour and grew one myself in the poly tunnel.
    The plant grew well in size, comparable to all my other plants, no blight.
    The fruits were larger than I expected, just a bit bigger than Shirley, no problems with the fruit, no blossom end rot or other fruit problems but I will not grow them again as I have had more taste from supermarket tomatoes.

  7. Lesley Watson says:

    I grew Crimson Crush from plants outdoors, alongside Ferline my usual choice of outdoor, blight resistant tomato. They were a bit slow to get going but soon caught up with the Ferline plants.

    For the first time ever Ferline let me down and succumbed to blight so I removed them. The Crimson Crush plants did get a little blight on the leaves not stems but the fruits remained ok even in storage unlike the Ferline ones.
    Flavour and yield were OK.

    I will therefore definitely be growing only Crimson Crush outdoors next year.

  8. Steve Jupp says:

    I had lost most of my own young tomato plants in my poly-tunnel to blight before I saw the offer so I was very glad to be able to get some Crimson crush to try. I grew them in the tunnel so there were blight spores around but no sign of it on the new plants. I potted up a couple of side shoots that I removed and these soon caught up with the others. I was impressed with the fruit, taste and quantity and the lower juice content made them great for sandwiches.
    I have made green and red chutney from the fruit which tasted good and I hope will get better with ageing. I have saved a few seeds to try next year but being F1 plants they may not come true. Overall I am very impressed with Crimson Crush. Thank you John and Dobies.

  9. John Taylor says:

    Crimson crush a nice size but not a lot of flavour there was no blight on the plants which I grew in the greenhouse plants seemed to take a long time to ripen

  10. Fruittea says:

    I also wanted to try Crimson Crush and decided to buy three expensive plants. One outside and two in the greenhouse. At first they shot off with plenty of foliage and looked promising but then the one outside seemed to stop growing and never reached more than 18 inches high and produced about four small and fairly tasteless tomatoes – it then went a yellow colour (not sure it was blight). The ones inside are still growing and produced lots of foliage but very few fruits – about ten on each and the upper trusses none at all. The fruits were a lovely colour and looked good but had very little taste and the overall the yield compared badly to others (Megabite, Alicanti and Aunt Ruby) who all thrived and produced plenty of fruit and didn’t suffer from are not blighted.

  11. Brian says:

    I grew them outside and got lots of leaves and three trusses only . Taste was very pleasant . I took side shoot cuttings which grew well and have setting flowers at present but doubt if they will be any use despite putting them in greenhouse for past 4weeks at 75 degrees . Plenty of Tomorite liquid in bottom of plant pots of the off shoot plants . Thank you for supplying them , I have told lots of locals how good they are!

  12. Keir Wayman says:

    This was my first year for growing just about anything so I was pleased to get 2 tomato plants through the post. It may seem daft to those in the know, but I wasn’t sure what to do with them so put them into a pot for a while. At the same time I grew another variety from seed and planted the little offshoots that I pinched out from between the main stems.
    Unfortunately, the plants I grew from seed all died when the conservatory overheated one day, I’d given a couple of plants to next door who grew them on outside in pots to produce small toms.
    The Crimson Crush plants had by this time been transplanted to the garden where they still are today, there are some large green fruits on and some have been harvested both ripe & green. The plants have kept growing and are now about 4 feet high. As to flavour & quantity, well there have been quite a few fruits but the flavour has not been intense, probably due to lack of good weather. No sign at all of blight.
    I’m hoping to keep some seeds and try again next year with a little earlier planting out to give them a good start.

  13. Graham Knight says:

    I was lucky enough to get a couple of these plants and grew them outside, I planted them in quite an exposed part of my plot. The idea was to put them where they had the most chance of picking up any blight that may have been in the wind.
    As with previous comments I got lots of plant/leaf growth but very few trusses, I think only 3 per plant. That said the tomatoes were huge, almost the size of a good beefsteak tomato!
    The flavour was good, and I found them especially good with a bit of egg and bacon on a sunday morning.
    All told I got about 3-4 lbs of tomatoes of each plant. I found evidence of blight on a few leaves and one tomato. So the blight resistance claim would appear to be fairly accurate.
    Overall a very good tomato and worth growing again, although like others I’m not sure I would buy expensive seeds. I have kept a couple back for their seeds, it will be interesting to see what happens next year.

  14. Joan Roberts says:

    I grew the trial plants plus bought ones in 70L tubs in a small greenhouse.
    Grew in 2 spurts -the first trusses were good with nice, sharp taste but I don’t think the fruit from now on will make anything on the plants so will need to use in chutney.
    I will grow again because I like the taste and firm texture of the fruit but in the larger polytunnel in raised beds next time. Overall a poor year for all my tomatoes (Roma, Moneymaker and Sungold)
    No blight this year so can’t comment on blight resistance

  15. Stuart Robertson says:

    I was lucky enough to receive two plants from Dobies. One I grew in my greenhouse, the other on my allotment. The one in my greenhouse took a long time to really get going and eventually only set three trusses. The fruits were quite large and solid with a good flavour, although not as good as Ailsa Craig. The other plant did incredibly well on my allotment, as did the other three varieties I grew there. The fruits were very large with the flavour as above. I have ordered CC seed for next year. I have practised ‘no dig’ on the allotment for the last two years in raised beds and tomatoes,in particular,thrive very well under that regime. No blight at all, the same for potatoes.

  16. Jacqui says:

    my allotment suffers quite regularly with blight and last year I lost a lot of tomatoes to it. So this year I was very happy to try Crimson Crush. I am really pleased with the results. I didn’t spray them with Bordeaux mixture just to test their strength. Fruit are large and tasty and plentiful. I will definitely grow them next year. Further down the plot I grew a couple of different varieties of tomato, a plum tomato and a cherry tomato sprayed them with Bordeaux mixture but they did succumb to blight so I think this is proof that crimson crush is stronger. They bore fruit from 28 July – 1st October.I also put Epsom salts around the base of the plants regularly as I believe this makes the tomatoes sweeter. I would be interested to know if it was possible to save some seeds and grow my own crimson crush next year. Please advise.

  17. VickyMac says:

    Grew the plants outside – low blight year – only two full smith periods all season in our area and so I can’t tell if they were more resistant or not. The yield was incredibly poor. Only 3 tomatoes from one plant and 6 from another and so as now have only tasted one – it was OK. I am growing 4 other outdoor varieties all with fabulous quantities of fruit and great flavours and so I wouldn’t be pushed to go for Crimson Crush again. Thanks for the trial plants though – always like to try something new.

  18. Carolan Roper-Hall says:

    I live in the Coventry area and for the past two years have lost my potato and tomato (ferlinef1) crop to blight- both crops where grown at my allotment.
    I had decided not to grow either of them again until I was offered 3 crimson crush from Dobies
    I planted two out side and one in my poly tunnel.
    The two outside didn’t do well and struggled to grow although I had a few fruits off them but they lacked flavour.
    It was a different story in the poly tunnel,the plant did really well and produced a large crop of large well flavoured tomatoes,I gave them a good comfrey feed and regular watering.i have had tomatoes of better flavour but I think that is due to the amount of sun they had.
    I will be growing these again if they are a sensible price.

  19. richard williams says:

    The plants grew strongly and well outside with no protection. They produced an average yield – nothing like our normal Moneymaker plants, but certainly acceptable. We liked the flavour of the fruits, especially as a cooking tomato. Blight resistance excellent – other varieties succumbed but not these. Will certainly grow again in conjunction with other varieties to provide a degree of insurance against an early blight.

  20. JimB says:

    Hi
    I grew my lot in the greenhouse as i find growing outdoors here, none never have any taste what soever!

    One plant died almost immediately it was planted, the other two were very poor growers, spindly plants and as for the tomatoes themselves completely tasteless and a miserable crop!

    Would not waste time,effort or space on them again!

    Cheers!

  21. Paul johnstone says:

    I grow lots , probably 30 or more plants of tomatoes out doors in Reading berks .the trial plants were small and never caught up with my own .
    Sadly the only produced a few fruits and failed to grow very tall .
    My own plants grew well and produced lots of fruit .taste was poor this year i think due to little heat .
    Blight was not an issue this year .
    I would try them again but only from seed so i could get them going in march .

  22. Ivan Howlett says:

    I was sent two plants form the batch on offer, so went a little late. I planted them on the plot at the end of the celery. Plants grew to about three feet in height and I had approx three trusses on each. The tomatoes were large, firm and for the most part ripened on the vine. I have fifteen toMatoes ripening in the conservatory. I am certainly going to try some more next year.

  23. Growster... says:

    Did you grow indoors or undercover?
    Outside, in Miracle Gro compost in 8″ pots, standing in trays.

    Did your other tomatoes or potatoes suffer with blight?
    No.

    Were you happy with the yield?
    Although the two plants grew to three trusses each, we felt that had we planted them out earlier, we’d have made four or even five! Each truss had no more than four good toms. May well grow them in the greenhouse next year.

    What did you think of the flavour and fruits generally? Not bad at all, nice regular shaped fruit

  24. Mazb says:

    I grew my Crimson crush plants outside in a grow bag with a tomatoe plastic greenhouse cover,I was very pleased with the results, I had three plants and they Grew to about 4ft and didn’t have no blight,had a good yield off the plants the fruit was a good size and tasted lovely

  25. Bella565 says:

    It was the second time I’ve ever grown tomatoes and I was thrilled when my two plants arrived in the post. My mum grows cherry tomatoes so I wanted to grow something bigger.

    I potted them into a large pot and left them in the sun outside, as I won’t be getting a greenhouse until next year. I watered them every day at night or first thing in the morning, and once a week I used a tomato feed to help them along.

    I ended up with five trusses (would have been more but I stopped the growth at five) and took all the side shoots off to help with the growth. I had plenty of tomatoes but no good sunshine to help them ripen.

    I managed two good sized tomatoes which were bland, but as someone has already said, no sunshine means lack of taste, and they are now currently stripped of all leaves in a desperate hope of any of them turning red…. two are yellow, so I’m getting there.

    More importantly…. NO BLIGHT!

    I will try these again next year, but having said that, I’ll have a greenhouse by then so that should help them along no end.

  26. TREVOR says:

    Did you grow indoors or undercover?
    OUTDOORS IN RAISED BED ON ALLOTMENT IN SOUTH DEVON (10 MILES FROM DOBIES!!)
    Did your other tomatoes or potatoes suffer with blight?
    YES – WELL AND TRULY – POTATO FIRST EARLIES OK AND SARPO MIRA MAINCROP WAS EXCELLENT BUT LOTS OF TIME AND EFFORT WENT TO WASTE WITH NO TOMATOES WHATSOEVER
    Were you happy with the yield?
    ONE PLANT SUCCUMBED TO THE BLIGHT BEFORE FRUITING AND THE OTHER DID MANAGE TO PRODUCE SOME FRUIT BUT ALAS WAS BLOTCHED WITH BLIGHT BEFORE RIPENING
    What did you think of the flavour and fruits generally?
    FRUIT SIZE WAS OK BUT NOT MANY ON TRUSS – NEVER GOT ROUND TO TASTING!

  27. Emily says:

    I grew my Crimson Crush outdoors. I wasn’t impressed with the flavour, size or number of fruit produced (one fruit), However, to be fair, none of my other tomato plants produced very many fruits at all this year which I put down to the poor weather conditions and all were grown outside.

  28. Mike Edwards says:

    Isn’t it amazing how tastes and experience can vary so much?!!

    It would be useful to know where those commenting are based. I am in Southampton and these are without doubt the best outdoor tomatoes I have ever grown. That may not be saying too much as the only outdoor ones I udsually grow are indoor ones like Alicante or Gardeners Delight surplus and put in outside.

    These tomatoes were terrific. My only disappointment was that I couldn’t start them off earlier so they could grow taller and have more trusses. I have never seen an outdoor tomato ripen so early, and the taste for me is as good as any large variety I have ever eaten.

    Hope to grow them again next year, more of them and earlier.

  29. Steve says:

    I had 4 plants and gave 1 to my son for his allotment. He reports good growth and good taste.
    I grew the remaining 3 plants in very poor conditions with mixed results.
    The one I grew in a grobag in a tattered plastic greenhouse took a long time to get going and has yet to produce a ripe tomato and there are not many of them.
    The other 2 were almost dumped into some ground just recovered from beneath an old shed with some home ‘grown’ compost under them. They have received minimal attention and watering/fertilising but grew strongly if not very high. They have produced a good crop which is still ripening but we have had several ripe tomatoes which we felt had a real old fashioned taste if somewhat tough skinned.
    There are a few spots on the leaves which could be blight but it is not spreading. (I have had no recent blight warnings for my area.)
    Definitely worth trying again next year but with more care as we liked the taste and want to grow tomatoes outside on the allotment.

  30. john Crofts says:

    Grew two crimson crush outside, had good yield right up until early Oct,not one green tomato left on plant,good size and an excellent flavour

  31. Anthea Willis says:

    Hi John
    We were lucky enough to get a couple of the free plugs and I also bought three plants. Very impressed with the vigour and ease of growing. They have done well in the greenhouse and the garden and on the allotment. They have not got blight (but that hasn’t been much of a problem generally this year.) They cropped well, flavour was average but I have been disappointed with the flavour of all the tomatoes this year. I took some side shoots about 5 inches long and put them in soil in pots. They soon rooted and I was amazed how quickly these caught up with the parent plants. As I said in my comment to Suttons, I would grow them again even if they eventually did get blight! They are definitely n the repertoire from now on.

  32. Philip Surridge says:

    I was one of the lucky ones , on air ale the two plugs looked a bit sorry for themselves, however soon improved after potting on they were in 3inch pot for a little over two weeks , then planted outdoors in a sheltered raised bed consisting of well rotted horse muck and approximately a foot of top soil.
    Slow progress at first ! However I planted 6 Allacantie Tomato plants in the same bed within three weeks all plants where progressing well after about six weeks a couple of the Allacantie were showing signs of leaf curl I think this was due to wind damage as they were A bit more exposed than the others. As the trusses formed side shooting and regular feeding, all have produced good plump tomatoes, The main difference that has been noticeable is that the crimson Crush are not producing as many tomatoes on a single truss as the Allacantie however Crimson Crush are larger google round tomatoes, as a bonus I am also picking tomatoes off of a side shoot taken from the crimson crush , I’ve allowed 5 five trusses to form on each plant, and intend keeping some seed, perhaps you can advise on how best to get seed . Over hall I’m well pleased with the outcome many thanks Phil.

  33. John Harrison says:

    Interesting variety of comments – unfortunately it’s been a poor year for outdoor tomatoes generally and it’s been a good year for blight so not really a fair test of the resistance.
    Flavour is a very subjective thing but it does vary depending on the conditions. My greenhouse grown plants gave a better flavour than the outdoor plant so I think the warmth is the difference.
    Being a hybrid you are not going to get the same plant from saved seed but as some people have said, you can produce plants from side shoots so a couple of plants can easily be turned into many more.
    They are available as seeds, plants and grafted plants from Dobies – Click Here

  34. David Finnegan says:

    hello

    My toms arrived in the post and looked like they had been crushed they were very sad . I put them in a small pot and nursed them but it took a long time to show any growth. They did both survive but are now late so I put them outside. They are small and the fruit is light but there is no sign of blight

  35. mr brian tollett says:

    I was one of the lucky people who got a free sample of crimson crush tomatoes and I have to say that they where the best tomatoes we have grown in along time I run a small growing club for children in Glasgow this is the first tomatoes they have ever grown and we got a lot of tomatoes we will be growing them again next year they are a nice size and have a great taste as you know children can be a bit fussy about veg and fruit but they loved these so well done on offering this variety to try out best regards mr BRIAN TOLLETT

  36. Sylvia says:

    Bought 3 plants from Suttons. Only one survived as I may have planted them outside too early (we had a cold snap within a couple of days) However the one plant has cropped – be it slow to ripen. The good news is that there is no blight although there has been blight on neighbouring allotment plots. I would certainly try them again. Based in Surrey

  37. mike hicks says:

    I Grew Crimson Crush in a polythene tall closhe (mainly for wind protection). There was loads of large fruits but they were slow to ripen. I left the front off of the cloche to let more light in and hopefully ripen them up. Unfortunately some thieving toe rag stole all the large ones one saturday night.
    The few that I eat were lovely and blight free despite one of my sarpe mira potatoes getting blight 6ft away.
    I would grow them again but not at £4 plus for 10 seeds

  38. Chris McTernan says:

    I planted mine outside, the only space for them was in a slightly shady position. They thrived and produced a couple of trusses each plant. No sign of blight but slug damage. None of the tomatoes have ripened so far so I have dug up the plants and put into the conservatory as I want them to ripen to save the seeds to try again next year. Next year they will be planted in pots to give them a better chance. None of my other tomatoes have had blight this year and the crops have been exceptionally good.

    Chris

  39. Tim Alderman says:

    I grew outdoor in beds, and under glass in greenhouse borders and in grow pots in grow bags again under glass.
    All returned good crops of large tomatoes, taste in all cases was acceptable.
    Although not a bad year for blight my maincrop potatoes were affected but none of the tomatoes. I WILL grow these again next year if they are available.

  40. Jo Komisarczuk says:

    Grew my two plants outside against a south eastern facing fence in a deep bag. All other tomatoes suffered blight these included black Russian, lydl, red cherry, tigarella. All had to be removed and were in various beds and containers in the garden with only a few fruits picked. The test batch, kept strong producing over 4kgs of fruit. Although there was one branch showing the classic signs of blight which I removed and waited with baited breathe. The cut limb showed a deep scar but no more blight was found. To date the two plants have produced just over for 4 kilos of good sized, well flavored fruit. There is still about .75 of a kilo left to ripen.

    The plants produced for and five trusses and I was very pleased. I live in Surrey about 2.5 kms from wisley gardens, so fairly good conditions although when in the gardens last week I noticed no tomatoes in the vegetable gardens.

  41. David Harriman says:

    I grew my Crimson Crush outside infull sun against a south-facing wall. They were more of a dwarf-bush than the vine I was expecting, and only grew to about 2ft high. They remain blight-free, and are still looking healthy as of 6th October.
    Overall the yeild was very poor – to date I have only had six tomatoes in total from two-plants. They tasted OK but nothing special, although the skins were really thick and tough.
    So much for “F1 hybrid vigour”! I don’t think I’ll bother with them again, although I might consider planting a couple of seeds next year to see if I might grow them out into something more useful as an F2.

    • Philip Surridge says:

      Thank you David For comments on hybrid seed I’ve leant a lot from your comments , perhaps because my Crimson Crush were grown outdoors contained in a open envirement , ” what I mean is open overhead and also shelterd from wind damage being grown up aganst corrugated enclosure, well spaced apart . That was the reason they did well Each truss produced 4 – 5 tomatoes , and were limited to 5 trusses . Considering the slow start , the end result as been satisfactory . All were good plump fruit . The seed venture I haven’t tried before , and just an experiment, thanks again for your advice .
      Regards Phil Surridge.
      @David Harriman:

  42. I grew three of these plants outside on my allotment where blight is guaranteed. I grew three craigella plants for comparison too.
    Blight attacked the craigella but late in he year however the Crimson crush had no blight what so ever.
    I found the fruits to be good flavour and a decent size.
    Overall I shall now be growing these plants every year as the blight resistance has allowed me to grow tomatoes on a site where many other allotmenters have given up trying.

  43. Hilary Julian says:

    I lost all my other tomato plants to blight but the Crimson Crush were barely affected. I grew them outside on my allotment and it was my first attempt at tomatoes so I didn’t look after them as well as I might have (it’s all learning) but I got quite a good yield anyway. As the weather has been so horrible I have picked them and they are ripening on my window ledge. I might try them again next year if they aren’t too expensive. Thanks for the opportunity to try them.

  44. John Nicholson says:

    I grew my 2 Crimson Crush next to 5 Gardener’s Delight. These came down with the blight at the beginning of September, the Crimson Crush a week later. I had sprayed the GD with Bordeaux Mixture before this, but not the CC. I then sprayed the CC, and they have recovered – no further blight damage on the plant, some yellow-orange stains on the fruit but no rot or decay, so far. Like others I found they made a dwarf bush with few tomatoes, that were fair but not exceptional fruit. Bit disappointed to be honest.

  45. Martin Lawson says:

    I received my two tomatoes from the original batch. They were rather bedraggled but soon came to.
    I grew them indoors in a greenhouse with other tomatoes. I took a truss cutting off one plant and therefore grew three plants.
    The growth was quick and good. The number of tomatoes was not comparable with my other tomatoes grown e.g. Shirley, Moneymaker and Golden Sunrise.
    The tomatoes were much bigger than expected but the taste was not great. they were very beefy with little juice.
    They were blight resistant but then I was not bothered with blight on any tomatoes this year.
    I don’t think I would grow again as the taste of trusty old Moneymaker was better and you can save the seed from them.

  46. Nigel Johnson says:

    What a fantastic plant – mine arrived as part of the free offer, although I have to say they looked a little sorry for themselves on delivery. Having no greenhouse I grew mine outside on the allotment and did not really look after them that well. The fact is that I have had masses of trusses of fruit which have ripened into a really tasty tomato. There is no doubt that I shall be growing these again! I am astonished by some of the comments above; my plants grew three feet tall were extremely bushy and vigorous – NO blight and still healthy as at 7th October. A great tomato!!

  47. Richie says:

    we grew crimson crush, outdoors in the north east of England. Never suffered from blight, low yield, tasty good sized tomatoes,
    would try again.

  48. Yvonne says:

    I grew them on the allotment. We always grow Gardeners Delight in our greenhouse. While it was nice to see tomatoes on the allotment, and they were bigger than I was expecting,and more fruits than I expected but the taste was bland so I would not grow them again. We have never had blight problems up there but there was a bit of slug damage to the fruits

  49. Barbara says:

    I was lucky to get the two free crimson crush plants and I have been pleased with the way they have performed.I don’t really need to grow tomatoes outside because I have a greenhouse but I grew them outside on my allotment.In the past when I have grown any spare plants outside they always get blight but these remained pretty blight free,just a few signs on the leaves and on one tomato.The tomatoes were large and although the taste was not very sweet like others that I grow it was pleasant enough and I made chutney with some and still have plenty left.When I last checked there were still plenty still to ripen.If they don’t I will pick them and ripen indoors.Overall I was very impressed and will try again next year and I was hoping to keep some seed to see what I get.When you only want one or two plants it is not worth paying a lot for seeds.

  50. Derek Taylor says:

    Not very good as the two plants arrived in a poor state, planted both up so they had a bad start.
    They did not crop well, half as much as Moneymaker.

    Grew them in my greenhouse, not at all impressed!
    But I did keep some seeds for next year, see how it goes?

  51. JimB says:

    .

    Reading the responses from others, I wonder were there more than one type of tomato plants sent out for us to try!

    My plants were pencil thin,terrible growers, very few tomatoes which were very small AND a terrible taste!

    Others have decent plants, good crop, large beefy tomatoes and good taste!

    Very strange responses all round!

  52. Stuart Goodman says:

    I had two freebee plant’s of Crimson Crush tomato plants and planted one in the greenhouse and one out side. So impressed I have just ordered two packets of seeds for the next season. Recommended them to everyone for flavour and and cropping not least to say “no blight ”
    Fantastic.

  53. Stuart Cocking says:

    When I received my two plants they were very leggy and in poor condition however they pulled round and were planted in the greenhouse.
    I stopped the plants at three trusses, the size was good also the colour .

    In the same greenhouse there were three different types of tomatoes which all got blight the crimson crush got it also but not on the fruit and the taste was ok.

  54. Iain Boyd says:

    I grew both of my plants in pots in the same greenhouse alongside three other varieties. None of the plants showed signs of blight and all cropped well. The two Crimson Crush plants performed differently to one another, one doing markedly better than the other. Good-looking, large fruit which have been enjoyed in a number of ways. Ripening took no longer than the Costoluto Genovese next to them (another large variety), so all in all happy. I have been pleased with them and may well keep some seed for next year from the better performing plant.

  55. WOBBLY BOB says:

    tried crimson crush and was very pleased with them. grew them outside and they made solid healthy plants with 4 trusses of good size fruits larger than my ailsa craig or alicante which were greenhouse grown.mid october they are still in good condition even up+t north here in north yorkshire. good flavour-strong plants and NO BLIGHT even though i would not normally grow tomatoes outside because of blight.in all a success

  56. Liz says:

    No blight on our allotment site this year, so can’t really say how resistant they are. My two plants were grown outside and feed occasionally with tomato food. They were slow to produce fruit but the fruit was of a good size and useful for cooking in flans, pizzas etc. but didn’t really impress as a salad tomato. I would give them another try as this was such a poor year for outdoor tomatoes, none of mine did well (San Marzano, and Moneymaker).

  57. Ted Lester says:

    My Crimson Crush tomatoes were an absolute disaster. Their growth was very slow and the leaves were thin and weak and looked very ill, and they had very few fruits. I shall avoid them like the plague in the future.
    On a brighter note. In January this year I bought one very large tomato in the Aldi supermarket and the flavour was as I would expect from a supermarket tomato. However, I saved some seeds and grew the plants on my allotment. They were fed on Comfrey and potash and the results were astonishing. I have never seen such large tomatoes and the flavour was better than the bought one. I had an abundance of very large fruit; many of which I gave away because my Wife could not make any more Puree or soup, and they were delicious when stuffed and baked in the oven. I do not know the name of the variety, but I shall save seed again for next year.
    I have photographs of them if anyone would like to see them. Ted Lester.

  58. Barbara says:

    It’s strange to see that there has been such variable results with growing Crimson Crush.
    I have already posted my experience which was pretty normal.However,I always think that you should try something new for more than one year because weather conditions etc can affect the outcome.

    Using the seed from a supermarket tomato sound interesting,I will probably give that a try,but of course the whole point of this tomato is that it should be very blight resistant.

    • JimB says:

      @Barbara:

      Hi Ted,
      Would love to see a photie of your tomato!

      This is not a criticism but a simple question, were all the plants and also the tomatoes more or less the same?

      When I save seeds of veg or flowers there is usually a wide variation in the resulting plants, especially Echinacea “Tomato Soup”,which I saved and sower seed last year, the resulting were nowhere like the parent, most of which I have already dumped as useless!

      I am wary of saving tomato seeds as the only year I did so, I had massive plants with lots of flowers but no fruit, so it was a partially wasted season for me that year!

      Cheers!

      • John Harrison says:

        @JimB: Seed saving is great unless you are saving from an F1 hybrid. In that case the offspring will be nothing like the parent but will take after a grandparent to some degree.

        Also supermarket varieties may well be an F1 but even if not the plant may well be weak as commercial growers use grafted rootstocks to gain productivity. Imported tomatoes may well be varieties bred for a warmer climate too. Can be worth a go but be aware of the risks.

  59. surbie100 says:

    I had 2 of the trial plants from Dobies and have been asked to send in a review to them. I grew both outdoors. One of the plants was poor, the other v sturdy. Each had 4 trusses, with 3-4 large fruit, so not the highest yield, but comparable in size to the beefsteak varieties I grew (Katya, Black Russian). I like the flavour and the size.

    ALL my outdoor tomatoes got blight and had to be removed. The Crimson Crush powered through, even through being 4m away from a bed of 20+ blighted plants that were left as Spore Central for a month.

    The bigger plant is still there in mid-October, with 2 red tomatoes on and 2 more which are turning (and 3-4 green ones). The leaves are only just showing cold stress. At home I have 4 rooted sideshoots, one of which is a foot and a half high with sideshoots of its own. Am going to try and get them through winter, but otherwise I will likely buy seed as my allotment site has big issues with blight and blighted plants being left for some time.

  60. Janis says:

    It was rather late and the plants small when planted outside on my allotment,
    it was a very good year for me producing heavy crops of tomatoes with blight not starting until late September, one of the two crimson crush plants is still in the ground (the rest of 30 plants now removed from allotment )with healthy tomatoes. They did not produce many fruits.

  61. Manu says:

    I had to plant my Crimson crush out in the garden as my greenhouse was already full , very please with them it is still doing well and both have some good size tomatoes on them which as you suggested need to bring in before the frost.

  62. Rosey says:

    I gave one plant to my sister who grew it in the greenhouse she had 2 small trusses of fruit and another one still to ripen. She like the flavour and will definately grow again if seed is available.

    Iam a novice gardener and put mine outside. It only grew to about 2 feet and only had 3 small trusses. I have had 3 ripe tomatoes and there are still a few very green ones left.I have now moved the pot inside the greenhouse to see if they will ripen. I liked the flavour.

  63. Robert Coley says:

    Hiya John………………

    Well, what can I say……. the tomato was not what I was expecting, very bland and no where near as good as as other varieties. I was worth trying, but I don’t think I will try again.

  64. Rick L says:

    I grew both the free plants on in pots for a while and then planted them outdoors on the allotment next to our potatoes.

    All our other tomatoes are planted in the greenhouse and have nearly finished now but the Crimson Crush are still looking strong and the fruit is still ripening. We live in the Northwest so I thought they may have succumbed by now to the cold nights or the strong winds. People on neighbouring plots have grown other outdoor type tomatoes and these have not done as well as Crimson Crush.

    The fruits are not as tasty as those from plants grown indoors (as I expected) and are larger than expected but have been a good fall back. We had two Smiths periods over summer and at the first signs of blight on the potatoes we removed their tops but despite being next to the potatoes, Crimson Crush showed no signs of blight.

    I would definitely grow these again outside and would like to try them in the greenhouse too.

  65. David Worton says:

    I received 2 crimson crush plants from Dobies. I grew them in my greenhouse.
    The plants yielded 2 tomatoes each, all 4 tomatoes were blight free and pleasant tasting. I had a small amount of blight in my potatoes.
    I don’t think I’ll be purchasing any crimson crush seed next year.
    although I have to say the other tomatoes that I grew gave a poor yield as well.

    David Worton

  66. Pat naylor says:

    Hi
    Thanks for the tomato plants Crimson Crush. I planted them outside in a raised bed. Grew well with no problems had a lot of botrytis on greenhouse plants but Crimson Crush didn’t suffer outside. Good sized healthy plants. cut down and brought inside shed mid September to avoid slugs/wildlife?! which were being a menace.
    Taste OK but not as good as Roma; quite fleshy like marmand without the size. Still some are going red on kitchen windowsill great memory of summer. Good keeping and freezing properties. Will look for it next year.

  67. Julie Webb says:

    My Crimson Crush tomatoes were placed on my allotment upon arrival. Once planted they quickly grew into fine healthy specimens. No sign of blight.. They were only taken out of the ground 2weeks ago after producing around 8lb of tomatoes per plant. Not as much flavour as my black russian tomatoes which were grown in the greenhouse, but still ripening off the last Of the Tom’s in the greenhouse. Maybe I’m on of the fortunate ones who live in the South so we obviously have a longer growing period.

  68. Nick says:

    I grew Crimson Crush outside from grafted plants. Found the plants very slow to get established. Generally blight wasn’t as much of a problem for any tomato last year but it did eventually show up and Crimson Crush was infected. Picked off tomatoes to try and ripen them off the plant but they still succumbed to blight. Comments to Suttons went unanswered. Crimson Crush may be more resistant than other varieties but is not fully resistant, Suttons probably oversold the resistance and I will not be trying these again this year.

  69. Richard knight says:

    As above plants are very expensive. Given task of raising seeds. Of 45 seeds only 4 germinated. Supplier kindly sent another 45 FOC however, only 2 of these germinated. Supplier has admitted there is a problem with the seeds and I have to point out I had to part some of the seeds with pen knife. The plants that I have managed to raise do not look very healthy. Our allotment assn awaits suppliers comments with interest.

  70. colin spooner says:

    received three free plants from Suttons in 2015 and was so impressed I ordered seed this year. all seeds germinated, no problem. they are at the moment about 30″ high and growing fast.They are outside on an allotment as were last years and are very robust looking.Last years fruit were large and a good flavour (they need a stout cane for support) and hope to get the same results this year.Looking good so far.

  71. Graham White says:

    I grew Crimson Crush for the first time this year. Seeds germinated well and were planted out on my allotment at around 25cm high. I was a bit miffed as the plants grew into straggly specimens. The Ferline, planted around the same time at the other end of the allotment were their usual muscular unnatractive plants. I’ve been harvesting since late Aug and the results are a bit dissapointing. Yield has been good but the fruit is variable, most have characteristic pale areas radiating from the calyx, some have odd bulges many have black speckles on the skin near the top. Size is also variable. Taste is OK but not spectacular. The Ferline continue to impress with their large glossy, solid, sweet fruit so I will be sticking with these.

  72. Susanna Clymo says:

    I grew Crimson Crush for the first time this year, having given up on tomatoes years ago because our allotment site suffers so badly from blight. A friend gave me four seedlings. All grew away fast, and eventually produced heavy crops of large and delicious tomatoes.

    Allotment neighbours have commented on this success, as all had abandoned growing tomatoes because of blight. There are now (late September) signs of blight on my four plants, but they seem to be cropping through it. This is the first time I have succeeded with tomatoes on any allotment or even in my back garden.

    I think the flavour is exceptionally good, and the tomato is fleshy yet firm, and cooks down into a good sauce. One negative characteristic is that the calyx is very firmly attached to the fruit, and the area immediately under it is woody. This is easily trimmed off with a knife.

    We are both convinced that this is the only tomato we are going to grow from now on, and have ordered plenty of seeds to share. I am very grateful to the breeders for producing it.

  73. Jeni B says:

    I was given 4 plants by a fellow allotmenteer, who had produced more than she needed. I planted them outdoors, in an open, sunny position, in decent soil that I had sheet composted over last winter. They grew as bushes, rather than cordon, and got to about 4 feet in height, with lots of good, healthy leaves and loads of tomatoes. The size and shape of the tomatoes varied a lot, from smallish, smooth rounded tomatoes with a slightly pointy tip, to large, almost beefsteak sized, and ribbed, to really gnarly, with sort of scabby areas of brown skin, indented into the tomatoes (hard to describe – I might try and get some pictures if anyone is interested). Each plant produced all these types of tomatoes, it wasn’t a case of different plants producing the different types.
    All had a delicious flavour, and I had no blight, though many of my fellow allotmenteers lost all their plants to blight this year. The skins were fairly thick but not tough, and the flesh was firm but juicy, not dripping with juice, but moist in the mouth. I still have quite a few on the plants, which I will bring in soon to finish ripening indoors. I have used these in salads and for cooking and both ways they were great.I will definitely grow them again.
    How odd that people have had such different experiences. My allotment is in Broadstairs, in Thanet, in the South East.

  74. Michael Armitage says:

    For better or worse, I saved some seed from the 2015 crop, which had been OK, but not lustrous.

    I sowed several of these for the 2016 season, and have had some surprising results.

    Out of about fifteen plants, about seven or eight succumbed to blight, some stayed alive in the greenhouse, and produced some fruit, others outside did a bit of growth, but weren’t spectacular.

    But I have one fabulous plant on the allotment, and also another similar but smaller, which looks entirely different to the others, and has wide leaves, (like tobacco), huge fruits, and is still flourishing! They both have no sign of blight, despite being planted next to some Marmande, which all suffered.

    We’re still harvesting the toms, and some are still there as happy as they could be, so I really want to see how they last into these cooler months now!

    Definitely a seed-saver for next year!

  75. Tania thorn says:

    ANY TIPS FOR IMPROVING TASTE? I grew from F1 seed in greenhouse 35 miles North of london, watered fine, even fed them…but very bland and yet other people seemed to get tasty Crimson Crush…what could I do differently?

    • Jeni Butler says:

      Mine were delicious. I put lots of organic matter on my soil in the form of home made compost. Maybe that is what made the difference, but I’m not an expert, so I can’t say for sure. Good luck if you try again.

  76. Ricky pearse says:

    Bought 50 seeds grew well outdoors good crop .But then blight hit in every plant infected .The plant itself survived but all the tomatoes were infected,even the toms that appeared free that i picked pink eventually became infected ,even a week later Contacted dobies who said it must be a new strain of virus TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT

    • John Harrison says:

      What a shame for you, Ricky. Sadly blight does seem to mutate quickly like the flu. Most years my Sarpo potatoes resist the blight but a couple of years they’ve been struck down just like the non-resistant varieties.

  77. Angela Gilbert says:

    We suffer from blight in this area (east Midlands) and we have grown Crimson Crush this year, planting them outdoors. The plants have been vigorous, yielding a good crop of quite large, delicious tomatoes. Great for use in salad, fried or cooked in the oven, and for sauces and soup.

    However, from our experience this variety is definitely not blight resistant! We noticed some brown marks on leaves in August and cut them off. Had to take out three infected plants on 3rd September, and today, 5th September, six more plants have had to be removed. We can’t believe how quickly blight has spread in the last 48 hours but we have had quite a lot of rain.

    On the plus side we have had a good yield and for this reason and the taste, we will definitely grow this variety again.

    Today’s garden activity cutting down the affected plants has produced a washing up bowl overflowing with tomatoes. Most are ripe, so tomorrow morning will be spent making soup and sauce which we will enjoy very much indeed over the winter. And I know what we will be having or breakfast, fried tomatoes on toast!

  78. Elaine Franks says:

    Gardening in Wet & warm Wales, I’ve never been able to crop tomatoes outside before as blight is regular every year. Crimson Crush has been a total revelation! Sown in mid Feb, both tunnel & experimental outdoor plants have cropped heavily and kept on producing until stopped by frost on Oct. 18th. Flavour is reasonable, ok, it’s not outstanding (I grow Sungold undercover for superb flavour) but they’re fine for general cooking use, and for the first time in thirty years I’ve been able to grow outside producing as much as we need for the year, whilst leaving space in the tunnels for other things. Under cropping with Oca has been very successful, so although I only use F1’s very rarely, I shall definitely be using Crimson Crush again for 2019. General verdict…… absolutely brilliant, never seen anything as blight resistant before.

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