Need flavor opinions
 

I have a customer that wants heat and humidity tolerant varieties that he will be sending to India.

Carolyn kindly sent me a link to an old thread about varieties that (East ) Indians might like as they tend to like more sour or tart varieties.

Not mentioned in that thread are 3 varieties that I have that were bred for hot humid areas. But I couldn't find any flavor info on them. Since I don't really care much for red tomatoes I personally don't taste most of the reds I grow.

So how do these taste --

Atkinson

Creole

Walter

Thanks,
Carol

Carol, here's the link that I sent you so that others can see what was suggested. It wasn't all about heat tolerance, it was about tart/ assertuve tasting tomatoes the folks in India prefer.

[URL]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=9198&highlight=tart+indian+varieties[/URL]

Not all areas of India are hot and humid.:)

I know, but my customer did specifically ask for heat and humidity tolerant varieties besides the tart flavor.

I did make about a 1/2 dozen suggestions from that thread that I have a decent amount of seed. I'm not so sure some of them will do well in the heat, tho I did pick varieties that TomatoBase mentioned were grown by people in Texas or other areas of the south.

I'm asking about these 3 because I know there should do well in the heat but don't know about the flavor.

Carol

What about Silvery Fir Tree? My Indian friend at the store loved the ones I brought him to try!

Silvery Fir Tree IS on that thread and I do have seed for it.

But the thing about SFT, besides that fact that it's rather small, is that it doesn't last very long. Every time I've grown it the plant barely lasts long enough to get about 2 sets of fruit and then croaks. I always tell people that want to grow it that it won't last the season. But it will give you tomatoes till your main season plants come in.

I hate recommending a plant with such a short life like SFT has.

Carol

I agree with you, Carol, about how SFT just poops out. It's a cute little plant, though, and the tomatoes are good while they last.

Creole is a great hot & humid weather tomato - excellent balanced bold tang with plenty of sweet.

When I read your goal I thought of 3 good performers here - Old Brooks & Chesapeake & Sioux- not as sweet as many but excellent full flavor - "old-fashioned" tang & excellent performers in hot, humid & droughty climate here.

Did your customer specify whether he prefers short stake determinates, or if the person/people in India are prepared to trellis long vine varieties? All the tomato varieties I've received from India are short stake or ground-sprawl capable, in addition to tart flavored.

[QUOTE=travis;263802]Did your customer specify whether he prefers short stake determinates, or if the person/people in India are prepared to trellis long vine varieties? All the tomato varieties I've received from India are short stake or ground-sprawl capable, in addition to tart flavored.[/QUOTE]


Someone here may remember my talking about the pepper variety Elephant Ears recently which turned out to be lethally hot with no warning and it was from a commercial pack of seeds I was given from India.

A neighbor's son was in India for some cultural program or exchange, I don't remember ,and I asked them to ask him to bring back any tomatoes, peppers, etc. He did and I got about 10 packs I recall, the Elephant Ears was the only pepper and the rest were tomatoes, all in commercial packs.

I've tried so hard to remember the names of those tomatoes, I've looked at Tania's list of varieties from India, which is very short, and the only one that rings a faint bell is Pusa Ruby, which is an indeterminate.

Of course I grew all of them out and they were all small red fruited varieties and I really didn't like the taste of any of them. They were almost indistinguishable , one variety from another. And I'd like to say that most were determinates but I can't say that either b'c I just don't remember and I no longer have my data books from that time period so I can check/

I had moved back East from Denver in 1982 and started growing tomatoes at the old family farm I think that very next year and this before I ever knew about SSE which I joined in 1989. And between about 1983 and 1990 I grew varieties from Glecklers and Seeds Blum and didn't save seeds that much, just grew them recorded the data and moved on. And it was in that time period that I grew out all the tomatoes and one pepper from India.

I also remember that about the first person I requested seeds from was Craig LeHoullier, this via SSE, and at the time he wanted to leave the pharmaceutical field, he lived near Philadephia at the time, and I wanted to get out of academia b'c of the politics. but had accepted a postion at a private liberal arts college in I think 1983 or 4 and found politics there as well. So we commiserated. Which led to a very long friendship between us which exists to this day.

Sorry for the off topic stuff; sometimes it just happens.;)

Hey Carolyn,

No problem. We often like hearing about the history of things like this.

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Travis,

No my customer didn't mention anything about plant growth or fruit size for that matter. Just heat tolerant and sour / tart taste.

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I'll give him an email with a few of the taste profiles here of the varieties I have. Looks like Sioux is about the best with maybe Creole being OK too.

Thanks,
Carol

Here is what I had sent him earlier based on the thread Carolyn linked above. I got the descriptions partly from the thread but mostly from TomatoBase and used varieties based on if southern growers mentioned them for possible heat tolerance. I also sent him a link to TomatoBase so he could see the pics and more descriptions for himself. --


Sioux - smallish indet. plant, not much leaf cover, heavy producer of 3" red globular, somewhat acid flavored fruit, old fashioned flavor, very heat tolerant, good pest and disease tolerance, Red

Wisconsin 55 - Medium large variety developed for the area where I live. Very popular here for canning. While we have a shorter season, it can have heat and humidity, tho usually not like India gets. But we do get wild swings of weather and this variety will still produce decent. Red

Break O Day -- indet., medium sized plant with regular leaf foliage that is somewhat droopy. Produces 4-7 oz. red globe-shaped fruit with very good acidic flavor. Fruits are smooth, blemish-free and very juicy, with light-red interior and many seeds. Fruits grow in clusters of 4-6. Medium to high yield. I'm not sure about the heat tolerance tho. Red

Moskvich / Moskovich -- 70-75 days, indeterminate, regular leafed plant. Good sized 10-14oz fruit. Excellent flavour, very meaty. Good for canning as well. Does well in high heat with water restrictions, only a bit of cracking. Your classic looking tomato. Needs heavy staking to accommodate the large fruit. 5.5lb/plant. Not sure the flavor would be tart but many Russian varieties are more tart than sweet. Red

Non-Red

Aunt Gerties Gold -- Large yellow-orange beefsteak variety said to have a great strong cooked taste. Grown in Virginia and Texas by members so should do OK in the heat.

Green Zebra -- Small, golf ball sized (2-3 bites) green when ripe with a bit of yellow striping. Productive with a sharp taste. The green when ripe tomatoes can be good once you figure out when to pick them. For this variety I tell people to watch the first tomato in a cluster, the one closest to the plant. When IT has some yellow on it, pick that whole cluster. That first one will be slightly over ripe, soft, but the rest of the cluster will be just right.

Purple Calabash -- Probably the oddest variety. medium small flatish ribbed like a pumpkin PURPLE fruit. Decent production. Strong flavor that some people do not like. Does OK in Texas.

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He hasn't gotten back to me yet but I hope that's just because of the weekend.

Thanks for all the help everyone,
Carol

Carol - I grow Moskvich as an early. It has thrived in cool Spring weather, but not in Summer. I like it quite a lot but it is a sweet tomato IMO.

thanks Linda.

I think Moskvich was mentioned in that India thread. Not sure right now. The comment about heat came from a Texas grower. I've grown it once and can't remember how it did other than I have a lot of seed from it.

Flavor is so subjective too. We've all seen how one person's "must grow" is the next person's spitter.

Carol

Sour and tart, eh? Well, Green Zebra is way up that list. I've always thought Yellow Brandywine (Platfoot) was rather tart.

Moskvich was not tart for me, classic "balanced flavor".