Description

Speckled Roman is  wonderful, all purpose tomato that is mainly used as a saucing tomato but I also like it on sandwiches. It’s quite eye catching and I always make room to grow it every year.

Botanical name: Solanum lycopersicum

Planting: Plant in late spring after frosts are unlikely. Plant 60-100cm apart.

Care: This tomato is best staked to keep the plant off the ground as it grows. Make sure to plant in well fertilised soil and water regularly.

Harvest: Harvest when at full colour with the colours bright.

Diseases: Tomatoes can fall prey to some viral diseases so don’t plant in the same place that tomatoes were growing in the past two years. I find that Speckled Roman does rot easily if you let the fruit touch the ground.

Cooking: A sucing tomato that is fine flavoured enough to use in salads and sandwiches too.

Seed Saving: Tomatoes are self pollinating so you don’t need bees or other insects to pollinate them. That said, although they won’t usually cross with other tomatoes you should plant at least 4 metres away from other tomatoes to make sure. Keep in mind that ‘potato leaf’ varieties will readily cross with other tomatoes so if you are also growing a potato leaf variety it will be best to net either this tomato or that one away from insects to make sure it doesn’t cross with it.