Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
Island Bay Tomato
A variety of heirloom tomato
How to sow Island Bay tomato: Direct seed indoors and transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for Island Bay tomato: Plant in Full Sun
An indeterminate Italian tomato brought to New Zealand by the Italian boat builders and fishermen of Island Bay, Wellington. Large, even-sized, very red fruit with very full flavour, great for eating and processing. Very healthy bushes. Needs staking. Sow in trays in late September, prick out at 3 cm, pot on at 10 cm and plant out at 10 to 15 cm high at 50 cm spacing, two rows per 1 m bed.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Island Bay tomato, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 70 days at its best temperature, about 1155 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Island Bay tomato will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by shiny,
The Island Bay tomato plants have been finally turning red. I only got 5 seeds last year, and these sprouted into three plants. - which are now giving huge fruit.
I made some tomato sauce out of these. They're great raw but they are definitely good for sauce too….
Island Bay tomatoes
by shiny,
I'm growing a precious heirloom. The Island Bay tomatoes have a tale behind their journey to me. Some of the first Italian immigrants to this country settled in nearby Island Bay.
They'd concluded the tomatoes available in Aotearoa were not the tomatoes they knew and remembered from Ita…
Island Bay tomatoes
View all Island Bay tomato harvests
Sign in or sign up to track your Island Bay tomato harvests.If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 70 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
basil
carrot
chives
black beauty eggplant
Photos
shiny harvested 1.
View all Island Bay tomato seeds