Solanum lycopersicum
Moneymaker tomato: its English name says exactly what it is — the money-making tomato. Selected in England in the 1910s for greenhouse cultivation, it has the rare ability to set fruit well in cool, damp weather, when most varieties fail to set.
Characteristics:
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Suited to humid climates: this is its real specialty — it sets fruit well where humidity causes other varieties to fail.
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Vigorous and productive: regular trusses of medium-sized, round fruits.
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Early: approximately three months from sowing to the first harvests.
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Dense flesh, few seeds: enjoyable fresh or cooked.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: full sun. It tolerates poorly sunny summers better than other varieties.
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Soil: rich, loose and well drained, enriched with well-rotted compost.
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Method: sow from February to April under cover, at a minimum of 20 °C — below that temperature, the seeds will not germinate. Waiting until the end of the frosts to sow would mean losing nearly two months of the growing season. Transplant into pots at the two-true-leaf stage. See how to sow seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant outdoors after the last frosts, spacing plants 60 cm apart. Bury the stem up to the first leaves: the tomato produces roots along the entire buried section, resulting in a more vigorous plant.
- This is an indeterminate variety: install a sturdy stake as soon as you plant it. It performs particularly well in a greenhouse, which is what it was developed for.
Care advice:
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Always water at the base, never over the foliage, preferably in the morning. Its tolerance of ambient humidity does not eliminate the need for this precaution: late blight remains its main threat.
- Keep the plants well ventilated and do not overcrowd them, especially in a greenhouse: air circulation is the best prevention against fungal diseases.
- Remove suckers. Rotate crops every three to four years.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest when fully red, when the fruit yields slightly under your finger. Store at room temperature, never in the refrigerator.
Beneficial companions:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its flowers are pollinated by vibration: only bumblebees can fully exploit them. In a closed greenhouse, gently shake the flowering stems to make up for their absence.
- An old, open-pollinated variety, growing it helps preserve cultivated diversity. See our heritage tomatoes to sow.
Uses:
- Raw in salads, stuffed, in sauces or preserved. Its dense flesh and consistent fruit make it an all-purpose tomato.
Saving your own seeds:
Take the pulp from a beautiful, fully ripe fruit and let it ferment for two to three days in a little water — this step breaks down the gelatinous coating that inhibits germination — then rinse it: the healthy seeds will sink to the bottom. Dry them flat. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, test them for germination rates, and carefully sort and package them, without any chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
The tomato for uncertain summers, created for the English greenhouse.
