Rare salad plant is king at open day

There was something for everyone at Saturday’s event from aerial rides to sheep shearing and wine tasting but one of the star attractions was a mouth-watering piece of history - a variety of tomato, first bred at the college in the 1940s.

Plumpton College used to be heavily involved in breeding tomato varieties and developed ‘Plumpton King’. At the time, breeders wanted heavy cropping, quality fruit that appealed to both commercial and amateur growers.

The dark red, medium-sized fruit with a strong tomato taste is excellent for salads, cooking, or canning.

It was first mentioned in ‘Soft Fruit Growing for The Amateur’ published by Penguin in 1942 but was lost from cultivation over the years, probably due to the introduction of F1 varieties.

Garden Organic UK found the last old packet of 12 British seeds and sent them to the college where three seeds germinated.

More plants have been grown and some of them were for sale at Plumpton’s open day (see picture below and on page 31).

Tutor Jim Miller said: “Bringing ‘Plumpton King’ back into cultivation would be a very important achievement, not only because of its history linked to the college but for reintroducing heirloom varieties that have been lost.

“At the present, there is a growing need for genetic diversity in our gardens and growing varieties such heirloom tomatoes can help preserve and maintain diversity. There is an increasing interest in open pollinated varieties instead of modern F1 types.”