Midnight Roma - Plum Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum

Story: This seed was donated to us by Randa Toko who originally got it from Row 7 seeds and grew it out for the Ottolenghi Kitchen Garden at Wolves Lane in north London. It is a beautiful, long pointed, medium sized plum tomato. It looks incredible, having blue/ almost black skin and red flesh but it is more of a sauce tomato than a salad one, being quite fleshy and mild in taste. It is a late producing tomato so best grown in a greenhouse or polytunnel before blight sets at the end of summer. 

When to sow: From late February indoors to early April if you will be growing the plants outdoors.

Requirements: Nutrient-rich soil, regular watering, and a lot of sun and some support

When to harvest for food: For eating, pick fruits as they ripen from late June onwards

When to harvest for seed saving: Pick tomatoes for seed saving around the same time as for food - just make sure they are very ripe

Seed contributors: Omved Gardens, Randa Toko, Wolves Lane 

Isolation Needed: No

Saving Seed: Tomatoes largely self pollinate before the flowers open so there is no need to isolate them. There is an exception - some potato leaved varieties have protruding stigmas which can technically cross with the help of insects. You can grow as many tomato varieties as you like - we recommend keeping varieties 2 meters away apart to avoid confusion and reduce the chance of cross pollination. Allow fruits to fully ripen on the plant before picking. The seeds require fermentation to clean off the gloop and stop them sticking to each other - here's some instructions on how to do that.

Number of plants to save seeds from: 1 plants minimum, 3 or more is ideal

Pollination: Self pollinated  

How to send seed back: Please label all seed with variety, type, date and your contact. If you didn't get a chance to fill out our online data collection form, you can also send us a few lines about how it grew for you/flavour etc. Please aim to send back 1 tablespoon of dried seed or more so that we can continue to share with network members. Send to: The Seed Saving Network, Omved Gardens, 1 Townsend Yard, N6 5JF.

Please remember, if you’re an individual grower you can order up to 4 packets of seeds. If you order more than this, you will receive just four packs to begin with. This is to ensure we get plenty of data in return and to keep our stocks sustainable for years to come.* 

*Community groups and Experienced Growers can order larger quantities, please email us if this is the case.

If an item is out of stock we will send a close alternative.

We kindly borrowed this picture from the Incredible Seed Library