25 Seeds
Cultivation: easy
Seed Saving: beginner
Water Requirements: 3
Galapagos Tomato (Solanum cheesmaniae)
Galapagos Tomato (Solanum cheesmaniae): wild species from the Galapagos, the Darwin Islands. The species is perennial, cultivated like common tomatoes, it produces numerous, small tomatoes, of about 1cm in diameter - sometimes a bit more - and weights only a few grams. They are eaten like normal tomatoes, even if they taste different, less sweet but not at all acid.
It does not tolerate low temperatures well, but it has excellent resistance to fungal and plant diseases common to tomatoes. We keep some plants in the greenhouse (open laterrally for the summer period), and irrigate them with rain: the chismaniae plants have never suffered problems, on the contrary, they have proved to be particularly thriving, more than the ones planted in the open field. Recent research has thrown light on the danger this rare species is facing due to invasive species that have scaped from home gardens and are now are hybridizing with the wild ones, this causes that their genetics gets diluted and might be lost in the future. ps: It also has great tolerance to pot cultivation.
A rare, tasty beauty in need to be saved!
It is imperative to us to preserve and treasure such varieties, below we share a link with more interesting information about this fantastic ecotype:
https://aboutgalapagos.nathab.com/blog/meet-the-galapagos-tomato-and-its-noteworthy-champion/
- Very low: no need for irrigation
- Low: also suitable for hot and arid areas, irrigate only in case of prolonged drough.
- Reduced: this variety is amongst the leas demanding of its species, hence it is highly suitable for areas with sporadic rainfall, to be irrigated only in case of prolonged droughts
- Tolerant to water stress: it needs moderate irrigation, suitable for gardens with low water consumption.
We are currently creating a guide for this kind of cultivation, unfortunately, until the guide is published, this is only an overall indication that we can provide without causing confusion about the process. Dry farming, in fact, requires cultivation techniques suitable for the specific pedoclimate and substrate. All of the varieties included in this category have been acclimatized in Italy.
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