True Colours – Tomatoes With Niall Radford

Fancy a look at some truly stunning tomatoes, shapely as anything on earth, and full of indescribable, inimitable colour? Well come and see what Niall Radford has been up to using our systems! He’ll let you in on how the magic happens too – if you’re very well behaved.

Concentrating his efforts on a couple of small greenhouses for 2023, Niall has seemingly devised a perfect set up for his 25L / 6.6 gal AutoPot XL modules. ‘I only fill them to about 15L / 3.9 gal with a mixture of coir, compost, and perlite.’ This grow media seems to have provided a winning combination of aeration and water retention in which Niall’s beautifully niche heirloom tomatoes are thriving. 

Think fruity-fresh, Sart Roloise with their gorgeous, ombre fades from purple shoulders to yellow/green blossom ends. Admire Niall’s perfectly formed, intensely flavoursome, indigo and green-mottled Kaleidoscopic Jewels, dazzling little opal shaped fruit that absolutely live up to their moniker. Prefer something milder, yet dense and meaty? Niall’s crushing that too with voluptuously shaped, crimson and black Crushed Hearts. 

Yet more colour variety is on show with orange-black/purple Lucid Gems, a beautiful, sweet tomato that dials down on acidity. Like to get trippy inside? You’ll love Niall’s P20 Beauty King’s with their wildly structured, vibrant pink interiors. The list can, and does, go on, running the gamut of Ozark Sunrise, Midnight Sun, Black Beauty, Rebel Starfighter VT16, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, and Blue Beauty, many of which are available via Niall’s smart and informative seed shop. Fed on Hydrosol (a two-part, water-soluble, mineral feed) and a little Fulvic Acid the plants and fruit are exhibiting a robustness of form and colour that is quite extraordinary.

The fruit are able to reach such astonishing highs thanks, in part, to the means by which they’re supported. In their individual AutoPot modules the plants each draw water from a reservoir, via pipework to their own individual requirements. As the plants know the correct rate of intake better than any human they’re always set fair to achieve their full potential. As well as being highly effective, the particular system setup Niall is using is also a great advert for the longevity and sustainability of AutoPot hardware. 

Rather than opting for the very latest model trays, pipe, and fittings, Niall has made good with his existing, old-style 3mm aperture / 6mm outer AutoPot kit. Here and there the system has been extended and renovated using our still-available range of 6mm spares. But essentially this is a excellent example of how the systems can provide exceptional results year-on-year, with minimal changes required. As Niall explains, ‘I just purchased a few new AQUAvalves and extra pipe for this greenhouse as I had some spare pots and trays. Although running on the original smaller aperture, I’ve not encountered any blockages. As a matter of course I run off a litre daily just to make sure everything is moving, but other than that there’s very little extra work involved’. 

Making the greenhouse as user friendly as possible is key, especially when you’re looking to maximise floorspace. Niall has some sound advice on this front too. ‘If I was setting this up again, I’d run the main feed line round the front of the pots (outside perimeter of the greenhouse) rather than down the middle of the floor. Down the middle lends itself to inevitably standing on the joints and potentially causing small leaks.’

‘Plumbing in the pipe work for this 12Pot XL set up took less than 30 minutes, it’s always handy to have some warm water to dip the pipe in before pushing on to the connectors. I’ve found from experience that this makes the job a whole lot easier and quicker.’

When you think how often you see great plants in a well maintained space you realise how much of growing isn’t rocket science. Keeping kit in good nick really can help you get great results, a theory Niall extends to his water supply. ‘I probably don’t need to, but I fully drain the reservoir every third filling, give it a good wash out and also give the main feed line a good flush with water. Purely precautionary but good practice that probably stems from a prior life in the hospitality industry – cleaning beer lines!’

‘The twelve XL’s in the small greenhouse are running off a 225 L / 60 gal FlexiTank which is a bit excessive as they’re only getting through about a third of a tank a week – handy if I had a 3 week holiday though!’ And who wouldn’t want a little getaway given the conditions we’ve all been enjoying of late!?

The weather, whatever. On every conceivable level this summer’s squibs have been almost exclusively damp for Niall and most U.K. growers alike. That has eased some of the usual pressures of excess temperatures, but it also complicates matters considerably. In the heat growers can set up for extended hot spells and (almost) predict when they’ll need to deploy climatic controls. 

Instead, with fluctuating but generally sub par temps and rain aplenty, it’s a fine balance to be struck between maintaining airflow and maximising warmth, such as it is! Consistently inconsistent, there’s often a seasonably hot day to throw into the mix too. In Niall’s experience of 2023, ‘the weather has been a hinderance with fruit slow to ripen, it has also meant that I’ve had to pay a lot more attention to ventilation’. The general health of the plants has not been too bad though and at least responding to variable watering requirements is entirely taken care of with his XL modules, minimising workload on the irrigation front. 

Still can’t get enough of these beautiful tomatoes? Neither can we, that’s why we follow Niall’s continuing adventures via his insta feed @niallradford – as should you, hasten there at once, there’s something new to see practically every day!