Ailsa Craig Tomato Plug Plants

• Good grown outdoors, better indoors.
  
• Salad size tomato
  
• Eating, Sliced in salads
• Best in pots and containers, but will grow by direct planting into soil.

As far as taste goes this variety is still the one which many gardeners compare against for measuring how tasty a tomato is. Ailsa Craig has just the right balance of sweetness and acidity combined with deep tomato flavour. There are few, if any tomatoes, which can match Ailsa Craig when it comes to taste. The texture is good for salads and just firm enough to make them excellent for slicing and serving on burgers and in sandwiches.

Older varieties like this are inevitably good as far as disease resistance goes and Ailsa Craig does not disappoint. That's one of the many reasons why it's still being grown 100 years after its introduction. Size is exactly what we all expect of a tomato and the deep red, relatively thin glossy skin makes it look the part.

Ailsa Craig is a reasonably vigorous grower and if left to its own devices can grow rather tall. Remember to pinch out leaves which cover any ripening tomatoes. Thin out leaves below the first truss when that forms and most definitely remove any yellowing foliage or stems that are near the soil surface.

The origins of this most popular tomato variety are largely a mystery but it is thought that it was first introduced in 1908 and won an Award of Merit from the RHS in 1911.