Category: News

Do you love the taste of tomatoes and want to grow them yourself?

Follow these 5 top tips on how to grow your very own tomatoes at home…

1.   Find a nice sunny spot in your garden -tomatoes should have 6-8 hours of sunshine a day.
2.   Plant the seeds in nutrient-rich soil for optimum growth.
3.   Water the roots every 3 days.
4.   Add organic fertiliser every 2 weeks.
5.   Remove the first yellow flower the tomato plant produces.

We hope these tips help you grow your own tomatoes, get in touch with us and show us how well your home-grown tomatoes are doing! 

We are excited to announce a new variety of tomato this month which is called ‘Delisher’!

With Delisher being a new collection of tomato, we thought that we could give you, our loyal and ever-growing followers, an introduction to this new form of tomato to develop a better understanding of this variety.

Delisher is a baby plum tomato with a sweet, crisp, and juicy taste that will leave you wanting more!

With this in mind, Delisher is the perfect tomato to encourage even the fussiest of eaters to try. It is the perfect snack tomato alone or accompanied with any dish such as salads as it adds a luscious flavour to anything it is paired with.

It is smaller than Strabena and has a completely different taste experience. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t hesitate to try Delisher and incorporate it into your meals just in time for Summer!

With over 10,000 varieties of tomato world-wide it is important to know how to trial and identify these different varieties.

How do I do this?

With trials it is effective to start with a few plants of a selection of types that you would like to compare with current ranges. When trialing varieties, ask yourself these questions…

• Are they different?
• Is the taste unique?
• Will this variety consistently produce annually?
• Are the plants more susceptible to P&D issues?
• Which customer will want to try it?

The answer to these questions decides whether the tomato will make it to a main variety, so they are extremely decisive in the status of a tomato. Deciding a tomatoes variety can take up to 5 years. So make sure that you stick to the questions!

This year the duration of British Tomato Fortnight is 23rd May – 5th June 2022, so why not take this opportunity to learn something new or build up your knowledge of British-grown tomatoes!

It can’t be denied that us Brits love tomatoes, which is evident from British people eating 500,000 tonnes of tomatoes every year! Keep reading to find out five facts about why we celebrate British tomatoes and see if you learn something new…

1. British- grown tomatoes are known for their flavour, because they’re grown locally, tomatoes are chosen for their taste instead of durability
2. The nutrition in tomatoes protects from illnesses such as cancer and maintains heart health
3. British tomatoes are good for the environment, because they are grown locally this reduces miles of transporting the tomatoes
4. Locally grown British tomatoes are kept on the vine for longer, meaning that they absorb more flavour
5. British tomato growers use eco-friendly methods to grow their toms such as nourishing their crops with rainwater and using bumble bees to pollinate plants

Did you find out something new this British Tomato Fortnight? Let us know and see you next time!

We are celebrating the British Tomato Fortnight in style!

EVG who we work with on packing and marketing our fruit, came up with the idea to get a tomato shipper into Sainsbury’s stores during the British Tomato Fortnight, 23rd May- 5th June. 

With Sainsbury’s being a long established customer of ours, it was a great opportunity for us to get on board and help promote British tomatoes. 

Since then, most Sainsbury’s stores now have a shipper like this somewhere in the fresh produce section. However, if you stop by Sainsbury’s in Leamington, you will see our very own Roly Holt.

After putting Roly’s picture on the stand, just a couple of days later, Stuart the store manager stated that sales of British tomatoes had increased by 120%. We are extremely happy about this and wish the growth of British tomato sales continue to increase.  

Let us know if you spot Roly in Sainsbury’s. Share on social media and tag us in your photos.

Here at R&L Holt, as well as our tomatoes, our customers are at the heart of our business, and we are grateful for all our loyal tomato-community. So, we thought that we’d share 5 facts about what we do here at R&L Holt so you can all get to know us better!

1.     We are a family run tomato business.
2.     We have been growing tomatoes since the early 1980s – for over 4 decades.
3.     All our tomatoes are grown hydroponically using Nutrient Film Technique
4.     We have 3 sites in the local area, Sandylands (Offenham), Hornsfield (Badsey) and Springhill (Lower Moor).
5.     We are the largest tomato growers in the Midlands!

If you have any more questions about what we do at R&L Holt, don’t hesitate to ask!

The conventional crops are now well underway. After a slow start mainly due to managing energy carefully, we now have new varieties being grown both in trial and commercially. 

The slow start was due to the unpredictability of the energy markets over the last six months and is something we have to consider when growing tomatoes.

However, the good news is that picks have ramped up this month ready for BTF. This week alone across our sites over 500,000 tomatoes have been picked!  

On 27th April 2022, the flying farmers association visited us at Springhill Nurseries. 

We had 20 light aircraft that flew into Defford air strip from all over the UK. The 56 visitors then participated in a tour of Springhill Nurseries, the crop, and then the biomass CHP plant and AD.

“Great to have a group visit again, so many questions and amazed faces as what goes into growing the perfect tomato!” Roly Holt. 

It really was a honour to have the flying farmers association visit us and we look forward to welcoming more visitors to Springhill Nurseries. 

It’s that time again, our variety of the month for May is the Dunne tomato!

Did you know…

1. Dunne is part of the Solanaceae tomato family 
2. The full name for the Dunne variety is Solanum lycopersicum
3. Dunne is edible to birds
4. It has poisonous leaves and roots
5. The lifespan of Dunne is perennial

Did you learn something new about the Dunne variety? Make sure you come back next month for five more facts about our June variety!

It’s that time again! Are you ready for 5 more fun facts about tomatoes?

Did you know that…

1. There are over 10 thousand varieties of tomatoes
2. The main thing that tomatoes are used for are sauces
3. In 2017, China produced 59.514,733 tonnes of tomatoes
4. Tomatoes can be traced back to 700 AD from the Early Aztecs
5. In the late 1700s the tomato was branded the ‘poison apple’ as it was believed that the aristocracy became ill and died after eating them

Have you learnt something new about tomatoes today? Come along next time to find out more interesting facts about tomatoes!