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Solanaceae
Throughout European history the Solanaceae family has been synonymous with poison. Only witches and fairies dealt with tomatoes and sunberries. One bite of their deadly fruits was known to strike children dead. The Europeans didn’t know that in other parts of the world, sunberry leaves were being sautéed as green vegetables and tomatoes were being made into salsa. Solanaceae comes from the Latin word solamen which means ‘quieting’.
All members of the Solanaceae family have a flower shape that is easy to identify. Each flower has five united or partially united petals forming a symmetrical wheel shaped corolla; five stamens are attached near the base. The cultivated species of the Solanaceae family are self pollinating, honey bees are not fond of the flowers, however other insects are and crossing sometimes occurs.
The species we hold are detailed below:
|
Genus |
Species |
Common Name |
|---|---|---|
| Capsicum | annuum | sweet and chili peppers |
| Capsicum | baccatum | |
| Capsicum | frutescens | |
| Capsicum | pubescens | sweet and chili peppers |
| Cyphomandra | betacea | Tamarillo, tree tomato |
| Lycopersicon | lycopersicum | tomato |
| Solanum | melongena | eggplant |
| Solanum | muricatum | pepino, melon pear (Subtropical Catalogue) |
| Solanum | quitoense | naranjilla (Subtropical Catalogue) |
| Solanum | tuberosum | potato |
Seed Saving Information
POTATO (Solanum tuberosum)
Those you are storing as seed potatoes need to be hung up in an airy place, out of the sun but in the light, in an onion bag (or string type bag that lets the light in and stops them from sprouting). This will discourage the shooting of the sprouts until you wish to plant them, when you take them down and put them in a tray in a dark place for a week or two. I suggest you keep your very best potatoes for seed - not ones smaller than the size of an egg. You can cut large potatoes up before planting, so long as you leave a shoot or eye on each piece and dip the cut side in wood ash or leave to dry in the sun.
If you have trouble with moths laying their eggs in the eyes of the potatoes when they are in storage (you can tell this is happening by the tiny little round things coming out of the eyes that look like eggs but is actually "caterpillar poo," connected together with a spider web like thread), you can make up a bucket of garlic and pyrethrum spray, or maybe neem oil spray, or may be wormwood liquid tea, and dip your onion bag of potatoes into it to kill the little caterpillars or the eggs.
TOMATOES (Lycopersicon lycopersicum)
Tomatoes are usually self pollinating and are not usually visited by bees. The flowers on the bottom trusses (or first trusses that appear) are sometimes physically different to the flowers on the following trusses and if you watch carefully you can see that sometimes the flowers are double, and have their stamens protruding in a way that they could be cross pollinated by the bees. I have seen very little crossing (though others tell me they have) however it is possible, and has been known to happen. I avoid saving seeds from fruit on the first truss of fruit. Always grow several plants of each type you are saving seeds from to check that the plant you save your seeds from is true to type.
When saving tomato seeds always chose fully ripened fruit. With tomatoes I cut the top off the fruit and squeeze out the seeds with the juice that surrounds them. Leave this juice to go mouldy on top 3-5 days, then add water and stir vigorously. The good seeds will sink and the poor seeds and the rubbish will float. Pour the rubbish off the top and add water and repeat until you have clean seed in the bottom of the container. I then tip the seeds into a sieve and then bang them into the drier or a piece of absorbent paper. Make sure that the temperature of the dehydrator if you are using one is able to be controlled and is lower than 35 degrees.
PEPPERS AND EGGPLANTS (Capsicum spp. and Solanum melongena)
Peppers and eggplants cross far more readily, and I would suggest you never plant hot peppers anywhere near sweet peppers if you are serious about saving seed. Sweet peppers could be saved in the same garden if you plant them in blocks (around 20 plants) 10 metres from another variety with a high crop in between such as corn. Hot peppers need to be in another area, probably 30 -50 metres away from any other peppers. Similarly eggplants need to be in blocks for good pollination rather than long rows but keep varieties 20-30 metres apart.
Pepper seeds are easy to save, just scoop them out of the peppers ( be careful if they are hot peppers as the heat is concentrated at the top of the seed stalks...wear gloves if necessary), place the seeds in a container in the sun, greenhouse, drier etc, and when crunchy, separate seeds and extraneous material and store. Eggplants need to be left to get very ripe (they change colour) and hard before picking. I chop them up and wiss in a blunt old blender with water. If you then tip this mixture into a bucket and add water the good seeds will sink and the weak seeds and rubbish will float and it can then be tipped off and the seeds dried.
POTATOES
Note about Orders
Back-order: Orders received from 1st December to 30th May, sent out in June. Orders received from 1st June to 30th November, sent out weekly while stocks last.
These potatoes are the best of all those we've trialed so far. They are all very old varieties that often have come to me with many different names from different places, all over the North and South Island, Stewart Island and the Chathams. Urenika is the most widespread; Pawhero, Karoro and Whataroa are also very widespread. All are good croppers given the right conditions. Please note not all of these potatoes are available for sale each year. Kowiniwini, Urenika, Whataroa and Karororo are available through Koanga Gardens shop www.koanga.co.nz or . Each year some of the other varieties will be available to Koanga Institute members. These will be on the shopping cart and also listed in the Koanga Institute catalogue.
Cultivation Tips
All of the potatoes we have are very old varieties that often have come to me with many different names from different places, all over the North and South Island, Stewart Island and the Chathams. Urenika is the most widespread; Pawhero, Karoro and Whataroa are also very widespread. All are good croppers given the right conditions.
Some people find potatoes easy to grow, while others find them very difficult. In Northland they are very blight prone and with heavy soils we have a hard job on our hands, a bit like growing tomatoes.
I have found the following things very helpful: I plant potatoes into trenches of wilted comfrey leaves, and if possible seaweed straight from the beach or seaweed meal - this means you can't plant your main crop potatoes until early November, which is the best time to plant them in terms of missing early and late blight. Mulch heavily or hill up (this stops the potato worm getting into the potatoes and infecting your eating and seed potatoes, and your ground!). A weekly foliar spray of fish with liquid nettle, cleavers, horsetail or any herb that concentrates silica, which grows strong cell tissue that helps prevent fungal attack. Keep on hand some Cutonic Copper or Summer Disease control,, in case you have a wet, humid season and it feels as though they'll get blight anyway. Some people prefer to put on a precautionary copper spray to prevent blight, and this does seem to work well. If you want to plant early or late season potatoes, the Phyter, copper or sulphur will probably be essential in the north anyway. Use compost, well-rotted manure, seaweed, etc. for early crop potatoes, as you won't have comfrey available.
Saving your own seed each year from the carefully selected healthiest plants will be your best way of ensuring large healthy crops each year.
Potatoes get viruses and if your potatoes have a virus it maybe often seen in the leaves. If you potatoes with crinkly or scrunched up or blotchy yellow leaves take them out. Remove the whole plant , and certainly don’t save your seed potatoes from them.
Harvesting and Storage
When harvesting potatoes, choose a dry, windy day. The potatoes need to dry in 1 day so they are not sitting in the sun going green and poisonous. As you pick them up, divide into 3 containers:
- Those that are damaged and, therefore, need to be eaten first
- Those that are good seed potatoes - select for whatever characteristics are important to you, e.g. size, shape, health of plant, size of crop on individual plant, etc
- Those that are suitable for storage
Those you are storing for eating need to go into a paper-type sack, like a rubbish bag, that keeps out the light, but which breathes (a thick hessian bag will also do). Store them in a cool, dry place.
CULTIVARS
Akaroa NZ 
This potato comes from Henry Harrington’s early life around Akaroa, as a descendant of the de Malmanche French settlers. It is a large rock like potato with few but deep eyes and a light purple/ pink blush under the skin. It is a fluffy potato so it is best boiled, or mashed, and has a good flavour.
Arran Banner EC
A round white variety with white flesh of firm texture and good cooking quality. Good flavour.
Chatham Island NZ
The old potato that used to be grown commercially on the Chatham Islands and exported to NZ and around the Pacific, similar to Whataroa, a very good one, waxy yellow, hard, flesh, great roasted, and the best of all late in the season when all the potatoes are sprouted and the new ones are not ready to dig!
Jersey Bennes NZ
This is the well-known traditional early Xmas potato. It is particularly famous in the South Island, where our seed potatoes are coming from. This is an outstanding line. A kidney shaped potato with very white skin and flesh and shallow eyes. The flesh is very soft and sweet. A good boiler or steamer, as it does not fall apart like many other early potatoes.
Plant as soon as danger of frosts is over. Approx 12 weeks to harvest. We plant in August to harvest mid December.
Karoro NZ
This is a creamy skinned potato, with a creamy coloured, very waxy flesh. Deep eyes. It is a small, round, hard potato, excellent for potato salads, and just simply steaming. Beautiful in a hangi. I have been told this potato was traditionally grown early around the Banks Peninsula area and also around the Hauraki Gulf and Great Barrier Island. The harvested potatoes were then taken out as a staple food by those going mutton birding, apparently to complement their diet of seafood and mutton-birds. This is a gourmet potato, similar in texture and flavour to several other very famous Irish and English potatoes (e.g. Pink Fir, and Ladies Finger). Although the texture and flavour is similar to these varieties, however, the shape of the potato is quite different.
Kereopa NZ
Smooth white skinned with distinctive purple netting, great roasted or boiled.
Koanga Early NZ
Similar to the well known early commercial variety called King Edward and previously called King Edward here. Oval shape smooth skin white with pink streaks, early potato good for boiling.
Kowiniwini NZ
This one is round with indented white eyes, and the flesh is very similar to Whataroa. I use them in the same way. They are very good keepers.
Matariki NZ
Matariki is the same as Karoro in every respect except its shape. It grows bigger and more blocky, so that the larger ones from each plant are almost square around the edges. They are quite curvy, bumpy potatoes. They are cream skinned and fleshed, the flesh is very dense and waxy, and they are wonderful potatoes cooked anyway except mashing. They make excellent potato salad and roast potatoes and oven baked chips.
Maori NZ
This is quite different to all the above listed potatoes. It is very round and large, with no inset eyes. It has white flesh and a bright purple skin, is an early potato and is an excellent one for baking in the jacket (it comes out nice and fluffy). Or, if you have to have a potato for mashing and you only grow old potatoes like us, then this one can be peeled, and it mashes really well. It is not good for boiling, chipping, sautéing, etc., because it falls apart. It was commonly grown as an early potato.
Old Blue NZ
Short sausage shape purple skin, very white flesh with a very strong purple mandala in the cross section, best boiled.
Parakeitia
Parakeitia Waikato
Pawhero NZ
Long sausage shape, purple skin, very white floury flesh, best in a hangi!
Pink Fir NZ
A traditional Irish potato. The name 'fir' is Gaelic for 'man.' An elongated potato with pinkish skin and yellow flesh. Retains its excellent, firm flesh when cooked. Outstanding waxy variety. Heavy cropper.
Scots
NZ
This is an old potato sent to us by a Scotsman, who says it came to this land with his family from the homeland. It is large and round with pink skin and white flesh and has good flavour. Very floury - excellent mashed potato.
Stewart Island NZ
A pink skinned deep eyed roundish potato I found growing on the cliffs there years ago, floury rather than waxy, good cropper.
Urenika NZ
A long potato with dark purple skin that retains its colour when cooked. Waxy when small, floury when large. Great boiled or steamed. Once they have been kept for a few months and the skins get tough, scrub and boil with the skins on, then peel when cooked. For sauté' or potato salad, skin comes off easily.
Urenika or, as it is often called, Tutai Kuri, is widespread over the whole of NZ and Chatham Islands. Produces huge crops and requires a long growing season. These are good keepers. This is the potato that scientists discovered had many many times the antioxidant levels of modern white potatoes.
Whataroa NZ
I actually found this potato on the West Coast of the South Island at a place called Whataroa. We used to call it West Coast but now see on the potato chart that Whataroa is the generally accepted name! I have been sent this potato by many people, calling it many different names; however, around the North it seems to have been very commonly called Waikato.
It has a quite large, irregular, round to oblong shape with a light purple and cream blotchy skin and yellow waxy, firm flesh with purple streaks throughout. It is a wonderful potato for making oven-baked chips and appears to have a very high sugar content. Especially good cut up into wedges or chunks baked with olive oil and soya sauce, but also steamed, or in a hangi. One of the best old potatoes and always a heavy cropper. Also a really good keeper.
PEPPERS
All peppers need warmth ..20oC…day and night for good germination.
SWEET PEPPERS
Heirloom Rainbow Mix 
A colourful mix of Golden Wonder, Early Red, Sweet Chocolate and Orange.
Alma Paprika OS - Currently Unavailable
Paprika peppers are peppers that were grown widely by many cultures especially do dry and grind and use for flavouring other dishes. One of their characteristics is that they have every thick walls to they produce a relatively large amount of paprika. Alma paprikas are small round flat squashed shape, that begin a pale lemon colour but turn a stunning reddy orange when fully ripe. Flavour is at it’s peak when fully ripe.
Burpees NZ
This is a heirloom from the Bay of Plenty. It was sent to us by Ezilda Cummings, the daughter of Haywood Wright NZ's famous plant breeder. It is a pepper from Haywards Wright Collection. It's a very round flat, blocky, thick walled, segmented Sweet pepper with good flavour. It does really well for us.
Chocolate OS
This is a favourite in our house. These peppers are easy to grow and have top flavour when they turn chocolate coloured They are sweet peppers great for raw or cooking, heavy croppers with a medium thickness wall.
Jimmy Nardello
This is our hardiest, easiest to grow,and most prolific sweet pepper. It is a long, thin, tapered, red, thin- walled, frying pepper, and is delicious added to everything that requires a cooked pepper. Each bush produces up to 50 fruit and they begin cropping earlier and continue later than most others.
Orange Bell OS
Super sweet, brilliant orange fruit are blocky, and good sized thick flesh is flavourful and among the best tasting of all peppers.
Tolli’s Sweet Italian OS
This sweet red Italian heirloom is one of our all round favourites for fresh eating. It is a medium sized, tapered pepper always producing a huge crop over a long period which taste really sweet and full of flavour.
HOT PEPPERS
Hungarian Yellow Wax OS
One of our favourite hot peppers because it’s so easy to grow, so productive and you can pick them at the heat level you prefer. They begin not very hot at all when they are yellow but get hotter as they become redder. Even when fully ripe they are only around 5-6 on the heat scale. They are great as fried peppers, or stuffed (renellos) or added to anything else.
Ancho St Louis OS
This pepper looks like a blocky sweet pepper and isn’t really hot at all but has loads of flavour. When green they are called Poblano and when ripe or brown called Ancho. Ancho are traditionally dried and ground and added to dishes for their wonderful flavour, usually with other hot peppers. They are around 12 on the heat scale of 1-10.
Ancho Mole Mix
A mix of Adji, Ancho Red and Ancho brown.
EGGPLANTS
Listada de Grandia OS
One of the easiest to grow; large longish, purple and white streaky skin.
Florence Round Purple
TOMATOES
We find that tomatoes somehow attract more attention than any other vegetable. We've trialled around 100 varieties over the last few years. It has amazed me that so many New Zealand heirloom tomatoes have come out of the woodwork and that they stand up with, and usually surpass the very best selections from all around the world in terms of taste, disease resistance and yield. We also have our own tomatoes to cover all the specific end uses: - drying, canning, freezing, bottling whole (Alma); pasting and saucing (Oxheart) and the wonderful eating tomatoes Guernsey Island, Latimer Beefsteak.
We receive a lot of comments about disappointing heirloom tomatoes. It is important to understand that an Heirloom probably is only useful if it is your own environment that it has been selected for. There are many varieties of organically grown Heirloom tomato seed available in this country today that are heirlooms from around the world that have been grown and selected in California recently where the average humidity is 10%. Our humidity is around 90% here in Northland in the summer. Our own tomatoes, selected in high humidity environments perform far better in our trials than any overseas heirlooms.
Cultivation Tips
We pride ourselves on our outstanding organic tomatoes, it is no mean feat in Northland, and this is how we do it. We had two very wet periods this season and we are still picking Alma tomatoes late May. We used a copper spray only twice.
- Plant lupins in autumn on next season's tomato beds, add rock phosphate, dolomite, manure and seaweed.
- Plant tomato seed at optimum time. Late September early October, into 7.5cm deep seed trays and water tray with fish and phyter.
- Plant cleome seed in a warm spot to germinate earlier than it would outside.
- Prick out week later at 4.5cm diagonal spacing, 7.5cm deep trays. Phyter.
- Plant out 3-6 weeks later into beds prepared 8 weeks earlier by scything down lupins and take away to make compost, U Bar the bed, then add 2cm of compost, use a watering can with a sprinkle head to water the bed with fish and phyter (to help keep the blight away) and put the stakes in at 50cm diagonal spacings.
- Plant tomatoes at the same time as cleome plants (it is important that cleome is flowering when 2nd generation of shield bugs arrive) and mulch.
Weekly Program for Tomatoes:
- Delateral and tie up only on a windy dry day, never a humid still day.
- Delateral by bending out very small laterals with clean fingers.
- Once first tomatoes begin sizing up, weekly liquid feed with comfrey (Ideal nutrient mix for tomatoes).
- Fortnightly foliar spray with Ocean Organics foliar seaweed.
- Fortnightly foliar spray with fish and phyter if necessary to keep blight away (in a humid wet summer) or in extremely wet conditions a Copper spray or summer disease control maybe used.
- Monthly fish and phyter on roots with watering can to keep blight away.
Once tomatoes begin ripening, and if bottom leaves are affected by blight I cut the leaves off with sharp clean secateurs and put sulphur powder on the cut so blight can not enter. If you have large cuts to make in the delateriling process sulphur is good here too. I put the sulphur in an old piece of nylon stocking and just tap it on the wound, the sulphur powder comes through the stocking.
It's worth the effort when you get an enormous crop to dry, paste and bottle so that they will keep you going for the rest of the year.
CULTIVARS
Ailsa Craig NZ
This well known old variety produces medium sized fruit, green backed fruit early in the season with a lot of flavour. Good both in a greenhouse or outdoors. Well known in the British Isles but this one has bee here for over 100 years
Alicante NZ
Alicante has come to our collection from Ian Clarke on the Coromandel who says it has been grown in that area for many years. Also from Spencer Chatterton. It is a medium size fleshy heavy bearer, tasty and good for bottling.
Alma NZ
This is one of our very special heritage tomatoes. It came here with the Dalmatian Gumdiggers and has been sent in to us by many people including Denis Hanna of Mangere who has given many seeds particularly Dutch beans over the years. Back home in Yugoslavia it was known as the Italian tomato and back in Italy it is known as Principe Borghese! So it is our very own, Italian drying tomato adapted to warm humid Northland conditions for over 150 years It is an egg shaped, egg sized, red firm drying tomato. It crops over a very long period, and crops heavily, and the fruit can be sliced and dried for winter use or put into oil containing garlic and herbs at the almost dry stage for table use. It is also a really good cooking tomato because it keeps its shape. I know someone who freezes them whole raw and takes them out as needed for fried tomatoes with ham/bacon and eggs. Some people love it as a fresh eating tomato as well. They are one of the high nutrition varieties in Mark Christiansen’s trial as well.
American Wonder
American Beauty
American Ted Terry NZ
A tomato from the Henry Harrington Collection in the far South. Medium size red fruit quite similar to Russian Red. healthy vines.
Beefsteak
Beefsteak Rachel
Beefsteak Mix Tomatoes NZ
Made up of Latimer Beefsteak, Williams (a ‘block’ tomato) and Carlton Victory.
Bennets
Black Roma NZ
From the Henry Harrington Collection. This is a stunning tomato, egg shaped and “black”. Black tomatoes have been showing up in Mark’s trials as having superior nutritional qualities and they taste really good.
Brandywine Yellow NZ
From the Henry Harrington Collection. These are indeterminate plants bearing huge flat fruit which is yellow and has a wonderful full rich flavour. Good soil will produce heavy crops.
Broad Ripple Yellow Currant OS
This one has been in our collection from way back via Seed Savers USA. It is a rambly large vine, that crops from early until late and produces masses and masses of small (1cm) yellow fruit with outstanding flavour.Excellent tasting strong grower with bushy form. Kids love them.
Carlton Victory NZ
Red beefsteak type, gifted to the Koanga Collection by B Scanlen of Henderson whose mother obtained it from the Carlton Seed Shop in Karangahake Rd Auckland in 1945 and who selected seed annually until her death. Good slicing tomato. Beefsteak type with excellent taste and good resistance to disease. Heavy producer.
Dalmatian NZ, see Oxheart
Cascade
Daly Oxheart
Dawn Ross
Dwarf
Gardeners Delight EC
This is an early commercial cultivar that I love. It has long racines of small to medium size red fruit with a very good flavour.
Garden Peach NZ
This tomato has come from the collection of Henry Harrington. It is a outstandingly heavy cropper, very healthy, and it’s called Garden Peach because the yellow pinkish skin is furry like a peach skin….almost! They are sweet and juicy with a full flavour .
Green Zebra OS
20 years in Koanga Collection. Medium sized, green/yellow stripey tomato with outstanding flavour. It crops well and is a healthy plant.
Guernsey Island NZ
A New Zealand heirloom tomato originally from the Guernsey Islands. Medium sized round fruit, top flavour, streaky red and green when ripe. Excellent disease resistance. This is not a slicing tomato, it is best served cut in 1/4's in salads, because it's quite a watery tomato, but with outstanding flavour.
Hammond NZ
Came to us from Bob Groves of Mangere 10 years ago where it was a family favourite for many years. It is a pinkish red , medium /large fleshy tomato with very good flavour.
Hawke's Bay Yellow NZ
From the Henry Harrington Collection originally from the Hawkes Bay… that has huge flattish yellow fruit in large bunches. Healthy vine, fruit has lots of flavour.
Heirloom 4 Colour Mix Tomato NZ
A mix of four of our most popular tasty, prolific and easy tomatoes: Russian Red, Guernsey Island, Ponsonby Red and Yellow Cropper.
Henry’s Beefsteak NZ
This is a beefsteak type but very similar if not the same as Waimana or Peron. A medium size, average flavour.
Henry’s Delight NZ
A choice from Henry himself…and a good one. the vine is not too vigorous, and produces loads of fruit , medium size red round, firm crops over long period, withstands stress well and has a good flavour.
Henry’s Dwarf Bush Cherry NZ - Currently Unavailable
This is another outstanding variety from the Henry Harrington Collection. The bushes grow only 20cm X20cm and crop very heavily with small cherry tomatoes that are around 1.5cm across. The plants are very strong and the fruit tastes really good. Henry says these tomatoes were once common in everybody’s gardens around Southland especially good for borders or children’s gardens and growing in pots.
Humboltii OS
This is a tomato that came to us with a special gardener from the US. We have kept it in our collection because it is so unusual, with very different growing habits to our normal tomatoes. It has huge hands of flower, hundreds in each hand and if the plant is happy and well fed and watered will set hundreds of small yellow and red pear shaped tomatoes with a nipple on the end. Yellow and red tomatoes are on separate plants. Good flavour huge crop.
Husky Pink
Italian NZ - Currently Unavailable
Sent in by Kathryn Moore of Uper Hutt. This is an outstanding variety producing large bunches of classic large Italian Roma type tomatoes ideal for processing in every way. Meaty full of flavour, red/orange colour with a green cap.
J Walsh NZ
Sent to us by June Walsh of Tauranga years ago this has turned out to be a real beauty. It is a reliable heavy cropper, bearing large bunches of light yellow honey colour, low acid, egg shaped tomatoes (larger than an egg though) that can be enjoyed by those who need acid free tomatoes. In a tomato those called “acid free” are those with high sugar contents. Good in salads.
Latimer Beefsteak NZ
A northern heirloom from Valerie Wilson that has been grown in the Latimer family on Auckland’s North Shore since 1927 organically for two generations! Classic beefsteak type with good flavour and disease resistance.
Lebanese NZ
This is a large flat red tomato with good flavour and excellent disease resistance, sent to our collection by a member.
Logan NZ
This medium/large sized round flattish tomato was the first orange tomato in our collection. It came from the North and most of those since have been from the South Island. It is a meaty but juicy full flavoured tomato, but is not well suited to summer rain.
Margaret Curtain NZ - Currently Unavailable
Another tomato from Henry’s collection. This is a large beefsteak, with the “black’ tomato colouring. It looks very like Black Krim but bigger if anything, with a green shoulder it is absolutely delicious, and I note that in the tomato research trials done by Mark Christensen, these coloured tomatoes come out very high in the nutritional stakes. Black Krim when grown from from imported seed does very badly in the North. This one did very well here in the Eastern Bay but it did not like the intense heat we had this summer here
Marglobe NZ
Originally an American tomato, sent in to us by Terry Harris of Blenheim who says it has round, large fruit, is a prolific cropper and used to be known as the bottling tomato.
Mexican Midget NZ
This has proved to be one of the best tasting and also possibly the most disease resistant of all. It’s a tiny wild type bush tomato. Children will love it!
Murray Day
Orange Roma OS
We couldn’t resist trying this overseas heirloom and it has done very well for us over the last two years. It is a meaty solid orange Roma type with loads of flavour. Excellent drying tomato as well as salad tomato.
Orange Tall NZ
Orange Yellow NZ
These tomatoes both grow very tall very fast and produce very large long racines of 2cm diameter orange very tasty tomatoes. They have come from the Henry Harrington Collection along with another called Small Sweet Orange, and we are unsure yet if they are all the same or if they have characteristics that mean they must be kept separate. They are all stunners and if any of you can grow more than 1 we would appreciate a report on your observations. Ours had differences but they also had different conditions.
Oregon Spring
Oxheart/Dalmatian NZ
These are the old Oxhearts we’ve had for years. Recently I had a women in asking if we had any of the old acid free Dalmatian tomatoes. She told me all about her father’s garden and the veges he grew and this was her favourite tomato. The only one she can eat now at all! It was the same as our Oxheart. They are large and very firm fleshed with almost no seeds, and are perfect for slicing or processing in any way. Very sweet, and are called low acid .
Peron NZ
It came out on the boats that travelled via America and has a very good name even now in communities where it has survived. It is around red tomato of medium size, with a great taste and easy to grow. This tomato has been sent in to us by many members around Nz from both the North and South Islands.
Pineapple NZ
Very large beefsteak type with multicoloured flesh and skin (red, orange, yellow) - delicious! From a Dalmatian line.
Ponsonby Red NZ
A stunning heavy producer of tasty medium sized red tomatoes—probably an early NZ commercial variety. These did well in our tomato trials and have continued to be a favourite.
Potentate OS OG
This is the traditional glasshouse tomato, and originally came to us from the Henry Doubleday Collection in England. They are heavy croppers, of red round medium sized tomatoes with average flavour but excellent reliability.
Purple Russian NZ - Currently Unavailable
Similar in growth and leaf shape to Red Russian but not as strong a grower and the fruit are smaller. They taste great and it’s disease resistant healthy grower. It’s really the colour of the tomatoes called ’black’ tomatoes which are proving to be super high in nutritious qualities!
Rainbow Heirloom Mix
Red Calabash OS
Indeterminate flattish lobed, red tasty fruit.
Reisentraube Red and Yellow NZ
These were originally saved from seed from tomatoes found at the Riccarton Markets! These are small cherry tomatoes, with a very pronounced nipple on the end. They grow on the most unusual enormous racines of flowers. There are hundreds of flowers on each racine and they set huge amounts of tomatoes on each hand. A real novelty.
Roma
Ron Ellis
Russian Red NZ
This one is well known in the North for its disease resistance and the ease with which it is grown because it is not a very vigorous variety. It crops very heavily with medium size fruit but does not requires much effort to keep it delateraled and does not grow as tall as other varieties. It has a potato type leaf. Flavour is very good.
Russian Red (bought)
Russian Red Henry
Scoresby EC
Dwarf early commercial variety This one is a good one for those who don't like tying tomatoes up. In the north it's better to tie them up out of the moisture and dampness on the ground but in many other parts of NZ dwarf or bush tomatoes do really well. The tomato has a good flavour is meaty red, and flat and lobed.
Scottish Yellow NZ
Siberian
Small Sweet Orange NZ
One of the three similar small orange cherry tomatoes from Henry’s collection that we trialled this season. This one had the best all round characteristics, mainly flavour but also the evenness of the line and the tender skin. They are deep orange when ripe and again, this is a colour of tomato that has a high nutritional value. It is obviously adapted for southern conditions having come from Southland, however in a very hot summer it did very well here too. We’re not 100% sure yet that it is actually different to the 2 other small sweet orange cherries listed above.. more growouts needed.
Southern Bush NZ
Yet another stunner from Henry’s Collection. This is a dwarf bush tomato that produces round red, medium sized fruit that is excellent quality, even sized and shapes ... Good enough to grow for Farmers Markets I would think.
Spring
Tigerella OS
This is like a sister tomato to our own heritage Guernsey Island, with different colours. They have excellent flavour, come in high on the nutritional stakes and crop heavily for along period. They are medium round very juicy tomatoes.
Tom Thumb
Tommy Toe OS
This tomato has won lots of taste tests. Tommy Toe is always the fastest tomato to reach the top of their stakes, and it is one of the very best tasters. The vines bear long racines of large cherry tomatoes (or small tomatoes).
Ueberreich NZ
Henry had several varieties of round, medium sized, slightly lobed, prolific, yellow tomatoes. We thought this one had the best flavour. Once again, is very disease resistant and a very heavy and early cropper.
Vic
Waimana NZ
This tomato is very well known in several areas of this land. It came to us from Lyle Millar originally, and he told us it had been grown for many years in that area by a Mr Henry Bell, who was famous for it. I have heard later that it came to NZ in the 1920’s from South Africa, to Nelson where it was grown for many years before being brought north to the Waimana area. It is an outstanding cultivar in the north, where it crops heavily, very disease resistant, and has medium/ large red tasty fruit. This tomato has been in our collection for many years, but not until this season did I feel as though I know it. In our trial of 40 tomatoes that were in our collection but relatively unknown or ungrown by us we found that around 10 of them were the same as this tomato. It’s overseas name is Peron. In New Zealand it has been called a great many other names but the one we use is Waimana because we have found that to be the best seed line and it’s a long loved line from a Waimana (Bay of Plenty) family.
Warf
Watermouth NZ
An heirloom Beefsteak from the Bay of Plenty this is large red meaty tasty disease resistant tomato that could easily become your favourite.
Wonder NZ
Another ‘wonder’ from Henry’s collection. This is an orange tomato, but quite distinctly three lobed, with variations in the colour which make it very beautiful. The fruit is flattish and medium sized, and very tasty. It fruited very early in large bunches, but did not like the extreme heat we had here.
Yellow NZ
An early cropper bearing trusses of yellow small/medium round tomatoes. Excellent health and good taste. From the Henry Harrington Collection.
Yellow Bay Golden Queen
Yellow Boy NZ
Similar if not the same as Neil Harrington, large lobed flattish round tomato, exceent health and taste.
Yellow Cropper NZ
We’ve had this in our collection for many years, and it once again came from Henry Harrington in Southland. This plant produces long raciness of medium sized very round, yellow, tomatoes, which if grown in the heat and left to fully ripen, or a glasshouse, turn orange. They are super disease resistant and the flavour is average. Huge crops, round medium-size fruit. This one scored 10 out of 10 for production!
Yellow Currant Cherry Tomato
We’ve been growing this overseas heirloom for years simply because the small, round cherry tomatoes taste fantastic. They ripen very early and crop until late into the season, and they’re perfect to add to tossed salads.
Yellow Neil Harrington NZ
From the Henry Harrington Collection, this one from his son Neil. It is a medium to huge size, yellow almost orange tomato , flattish and lobed, very healthy, god taster and early cropper. 
Yellow Pear NZ
We’ve had yellow pear in our collection for a long time but never been very taken with it because although they look wonderful, they tasted awful. This one is an excellent tasting tomato as well as being a heavy, long cropper, and very disease resistant. It was one of the last to give up in the autumn as well.
Yellow Plum NZ
When we first grew Henry Harrington’s Yellow Pear tomato we found that some of them were Yellow Plum. Rather than having the neck of the pear tomatoes they were plum shaped, but still excellent tasters. We have now separated the shapes. Like the pear it is an early and long cropper, with huge reliable crops.
Yellow Stuffer NZ
Outstanding tomato for stuffing - firm walls, flat bottom, hollow centre. A similar tomato came high in Mark’s tomato nutrition tests.
Yellow Yummy NZ
Another yellow from the Henry Harrington Collection. This is large round tomato, great taste and disease resistance. I’m totally blown away buy the number of yellow tomatoes coming out of Southland!!!???
Yellow unnamed
TOMATILLA OS
Tomatilla are South American members of the solanaceae family and are commonly eaten raw in salsas, just like tomatoes. They can also be cooked in salsas and chutneys.
They look like large cape Gooseberries and are ripe when the fruit finally bursts out of the ‘cape’ and turns a golden yellow (from green).They are easy to grow and prolific and will inevitably self seed.