Surprise Surprise

In the three years I've been growing tomatoes from seed, I always seem to get at least one or two surprises each year.

Last year I grew what I thought was Isis Candy from seed, but instead of fruit with red-orange-gold marbling, I got perfectly round 1" red cherry tomatoes. Since the fruit turned out to be very sweet, almost as sweet as Sungold, especially near the end of the season, I saved the seed to grow out this year. I grew two plants from seed saved from the surprise plant (that I now call "NOT Isis Candy"), but only one of the plants seems to be producing the same type of fruit as last year. The fruit are 1-1.5" in diameter and have the same green shoulders and marbling before breaking color. The second plant seems to be producing fruit with lighter coloring.

 The fruit on one "NOT Isis Candy" plant are similar to last year's fruit

The second "NOT Isis Candy" plant is producing much lighter fruit

Cherokee Purple has always been my favorite large tomato, so I've grown Cherokee Purple from saved seed the past two years. This year's plant is much more prolific than the last two years, but the fruit is much smaller in size, similar to Black and Red Boar. By late July, this "Cherokee Purple" plant had 31 fruit set larger than 1 cm in diameter, but the largest fruit was only about 1.5" in diameter, compared to the larger fruit that were 2.5"-3.5"on Spudakee, Vorlon, and Paul Robeson. 

By July 29th Cherokee Purple with 31 fruit set, the largest being 1.5" in diameter

Hundreds of Fruit by Late July

By late July most of the plants had several fruit set. The smaller varieties like Green Zebra and Black and Red Boar plant had 13 fruit larger than 1 cm in diameter. A second Black and Red Boar plant had 10 fruit larger than 1 cm in diameter. Only some of the fruit on the Black and Red Boar had a heart shape, compared to most of the fruit last year having a heart shape, possibly due to fruit set in colder weather.

The largest fruit is about 2" in diameter on Green Zebra by July 29th

 The largest fruit is about 1.5" in diameter on Black and Red Boar by July 29th

The larger black tomatoes like Paul Robeson, Spudakee, and Vorlon had each set a few fruit by late July. The first Paul Robeson had 7 fruit while the second had 9 fruit larger than 1 cm in diameter. Black Prince also had 7 fruit set by the end of July.

The largest fruit on the first Paul Robeson was a fused tomato with 2" and 3" halves 

The largest fruit on the second Paul Robeson plant was 3.5" in diameter by July 29th

The largest fruit on Spudakee was 2.5" in diameter by July 29th

The largest fruit on Vorlon was 2.5" in diameter by July 29th

The first Black Krim plant had 8 fruit set while the second only had 4 fruit since it was planted two weeks later to replace a plant that was uprooted. An Indian Stripe was also planted on June 28th to replace another plant that was uprooted. The Indian Stripe also only had 4 fruit larger than 1 cm in diameter by the end of July.

The largest fruit on Black Prince was 2" in diameter by July 29th

 The largest fruit on the first Black Krim plant was 2.2" in diameter by July 29th

The largest fruit on Indian Stripe was 1.5" in diameter by July 29th

Two of the plants grown, Rosella Purple and Tasmanian Chocolate, are part of the Dwarf Tomato Project. The quality of the Rosella Purple fruit has been reported to be comparable to Cherokee Purple, and the flavor of the Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes should be balanced and very good. However, the yields seem to be much lower than Spudakee and Vorlon, with Rosella Purple only having 3 fruit set and Tasmanian Chocolate only having 5 fruit set larger than 1 cm by late July. Tasmanian Chocolate fruit also has quite a bit of catfacing. 

The largest fruit on Rosella Purple was a fused tomato about 1.5" wide by 2.5" long

The largest fruit on Tasmanian Chocolate was 2.5" in diameter by July 29th

The only large non-black tomato I grew was Orange Strawberry, which was expected to produce orange heart-shaped fruit. However, my fruit have an oblate shape. The plant is also later and not very productive, taking 39 days to set fruit, the longest of any plant I'm growing this year, with only two fruit set larger than 1 cm by late July.

The largest fruit on Orange Strawberry was 1.5" in diameter by July 29th

Tomatoes Loving the Hot Weather and Setting Fruit

Seattle has been having an unusually warm summer, with average highs in the mid-70s to mid-80s in June and July. My tomato plants have been loving this weather and have set fruit earlier than they have in the three years I've been growing tomatoes.

The tomato beds on July 14th 

Two Sungold and one Green Zebra plant are 3-4' tall by July 14th

A third Sungold plant is also about 3.5' tall 

The first two Sungolds, planted from 1 gallon containers, were about 2' tall when transplanted on June 9th. Both already had two 1-cm fruit set and several open flowers at the time they were transplanted. New fruit set took less than 20 days from transplant since the flowers had already formed and about 40-45 days from transplant to color break. Newer fruit are also taking about 25 days from fruit set to blush. This is much faster than the 30-35 days from fruit set to blush (or about 70 days from transplant to color break) in 2012, when the average daytime temperatures were about 5-10 degrees cooler.  

The first fruit breaking on the first Sungold plant on July 14th

 The same truss on the first Sungold plant on July 16th

The first fruit also breaking on the second Sungold plant on July 14th

The same truss on the second Sungold plant on July 16th

A Green Zebra was planted on June 9th from a 4" pot and also took less than 20 days to set fruit. By July 16th, it had four fruit, the largest being about 1.5" in diameter.

The largest fruit on a Green Zebra plant is about 1.5" in diameter on July 16th

The larger black tomatoes also started setting fruit by July 16th. These included Cherokee Purple, Paul Robeson, Black Prince, Black Krim, Vorlon, and Rosella Purple, one of the plants from the Dwarf Tomato Project.

Cherokee Purple had set fruit by July 14th

Black Prince plant on July 14th

Black Prince also started setting fruit by July 16th

 A Paul Robeson plant with a megabloom by July 14th

A closer view of the Paul Robeson megabloom 

 Black Krim on July 16th

Another megabloom on a Rosella Purple on July 14th

Flowers but no fruit on Vorlon by July 14th

Fruit set on Vorlon by July 16th

The other black tomatoes (Spudakee and Black and Red Boar) had several open flowers but no fruit set by July 14th. 

Flowers but no fruit on Spudakee by July 14th

Last year I grew Isis Candy from seed, but the fruit formed were not the expected reddish-orange fruit with characteristic starburst. Instead, I got perfectly round 1" red fruit that got sweeter, almost as sweet as Sungold, by the end of the season. I saved seed from a few of the fruit, and I grew a few plants. I'm calling them "NOT Isis Candy F2", and I planted two plants and gave away a few plants to friends to grow out. 

 Flowers but no fruit on a NOT Isis Candy F2 plant