[rxkeith]

its a bit of a mess in the tomato patch.

after having a real dry spell a good part of the summer, we had about a week of rain
recently. i also came down sick with the dreaded man cold for a week, so had little
interest in going into the garden. the result is a lot of tomatoes splitting, and spilling
their guts. just poor timing.

mama helen line has a couple surprises.

one plant is producing chocolate colored tomatoes about four oz in size. the only
chocolate variety i had growing last year was jds special c tex. i don't know if i have
a cross or a recessive chocolate trait or what. flavor is decent so i will be saving
seeds.
the other off type is the determinate growing plant with broad leaves.

the fruit on six of the plants are a beautiful deep rose pink. flavor is inconsistent
however. two plants have a nice zippy flavor. the other four plants are just average in
taste. was it the rain? could be.

fruit is pretty close in size in the seven plants in this line. one plant has slightly larger fruit, along with the zippy taste, so might be going to f6 grow out.
so, of the seven plants of this line, i have one determinate plant, six indeterminate,
one plant with chocolate colored fruit. three of the plants have good flavor, four plants are just average in flavor.

hot rod helen line nine plants growing.
most plants are looking pretty uniform in the size, and color of the tomatoes.
i am getting pink plum shape tomatoes about two oz in size. most tomatoes taper to a dull point while one plant has a rounder end.
flavor is more uniform in this line, kind of a strong sweet tart flavor.

the tomatoes on two plants have a crunchy texture. i am not so keen on crunchy tomatoes.
of the seven remaining plants in this line, five are producing tomatoes close enough in
taste that it would be difficult to determine which plant they came off of in a blind
taste test. i believe this line is close to being stable.


thats all for now.






keith