Mr. Stripey

[spyfferoni]

Mr Stripey is pretty popular around here, I'm thinking that our hot dry summers must improve the flavor. I haven't grown it yet, but I have grown Burracker's Favorite and it was a beautiful tomato. I'm going to try it this summer to see how it compares.

Tyffanie

[carolyn137]

I forgot to mention that Seeds by Design sends out a list of the varieties available from them, at wholsale seed prices, they aren't a retail place, and that list is sent to almost every place you can think of and that's why you see Mr. Stripey and many others at all the big Box Stores as plants from their commercial suppliers.

it was on that list that Cherokee Purple was listed as Purple Cherokee so when seeing the latter you knew where the seeds were from and it was also on that list that Opalka was spelled Olapka, or whatever, which led me into some interesting chats at Pinetree Seeds with the owner.

hornstrider, by all means grow it, I wouldn't call it finicky, see how you like it this year and then don't make up your mind of it having a permanent place in your garden until you grow it a second year when the weather is different.

As for me, I give a variety two years to make up my mind before ditching it, and that's if the variety comes to me from folks that I know well , other than that, I was always growing different varieties all the time, b'c the more you grow the greater the data base you have on assessing new varieties.

[OneoftheEarls]

not much red in this...only toward the bottom but I still have seeds of the original and ones saved from this...

[hornstrider]

Carolyn........Thank you again. My Mr. Stripey is in the ground, and the biggest mater plant in my garden (over 4' tall), and loaded w/ maters. I understand about growing more than one season. The first time I grew Cherokee Purple they did not do so well for me. After reading all of the mater forums w/ everyone saying it was their fav. mater I decided to try again. They did well for me the next season, and now I grow Cherokee Purple every year. Next year I will give Brandywine another try. The first time I grew BW I grew them in an earth box. In fact I asked you for advice as to why they would not set fruit. You told me to be patient, and I was, and finally I was able to pick a few maters. Most of the fruit that did set had BER, and I decided not to grow them again. I have learned so much reading these forums, and because of people like you I have much success now. Thank you for taking the time to help people like me.

[organichris]

For my basically negative experience with Mr. Stripey (bi-color beefsteak) I will also add that I did not water it - ever, and it was still bland. Not mushy or watery or anything - just not very flavorful.

I'm growing Tigerella this year, and have heard mixed things about it as well, but I've heard enough good things about it, and the tomatoes are beautiful enough that I felt they were worthy of a place in the garden.

Thanks Camo and Carolyn. That is a very interesting lineage for todays "Mr. Stripey". It will be interesting to watch the plant and taste the fruit simply to see which plant the greenhouse supplier labeled as "Mr Stripey" when he planted the seed.

I can't regulate my water supply for individual plants because I use a buried soaker hose to water the entire row. Fortunately I have it regulated with a flow disc and timer to minimize the amount of water the row gets. We just received a little rain after four months of no rain. My tomatoes or garden would not exist without supplemental water. I think it is interesting that my Mr. Stripeys are growing right next to some Box Car Willies. One comment I read on the Box Car Willies is that they prefer to grow in constantly wet, soggy, soil. They supposedly would be happy growing in two inches of water. There is no possible way to satisfy the needs of both plants unless I pull out the soaker hose and install drip irrigation. While I do have drip irrigation in some places, I'm not going to install it in the entire garden.

Thanks again for the information.

Ted

[camochef]

Hornstrider,
I just noticed that you read they were similar to Brandywines. I don't know how I overlooked that statement originally. NO Comparison! I'm a Brandywine lover. Brandywine-Glick's, Brandywine Sudduth's, Cowlicks Brandywine, Black Brandywine, True Black Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Brandywine Stumps, Red Brandywine. Even the Brandywine crosses like Bear Creek, Liz Birt, Dora, Gary O'Sena, and those like Ed's Millenium, Jd's Special C-Tex, or Earl's Faux. Mr. Stripey is not in that category at all.
It's far from the worst tomato I've ever grown but it's no Brandywine either. That includes the somewhat unstable Black Brandywines, which I am trying again this year after not growing it for a while.
Camo

[cushman350]

I grew a Mr Stripey last year in the hot and dry Wichita Falls part of TEXAS. Large fruit and plant, not many maybe 8 large toms, great tasting to me but the variety is not suited for my specific growing challenges. The second year mushyness I don't know, is that from saved seeds?

[carolyn137]

One comment I read on the Box Car Willies is that they prefer to grow in constantly wet, soggy, soil. They supposedly would be happy growing in two inches of water. There is no possible way to satisfy the needs of both plants unless I pull out the soaker hose and install drip irrigation. While I do have drip irrigation in some places, I'm not going to install it in the entire garden.

*****

Now where would that information come from about Box Car Willie? Joe Bratka couldn't germinate any of the seeds that he found in a toolshed on his property that his father had bred and were already named.

So he sent the seeds to me and I was able to germinate:

Box Car Willie
Mule Team
Great Divide
Pasture
Red Barn, and I happen to think this is one of the best of that series.

There were three I couldn't germinate and I've always wondered what they might have been.

All to say that I've never heard that BCW or any of the others want that much water, etc., b'c I've grown them a lot, mainly for seed production for the earliest of my SSE YEarbook listings and they certainly don't need boggy, watery conditions to do well.

None of them are heirlooms as I said above, they were bred by Joe Bratka's father.

Here is the comment Carolyn. I would post the forum where it is located, but you may chastise me for linking to other forums on this forum. and no, I do not believe everything I read, but I may consider it.

"Box Car Willie grows very well for me. It is, however, very late and does not produce fruit until September. The yield is on par with other late varieties. It is quite tolerant of the tomato diseases that we have here. Appears to prefer very wet soil. While some tomatoes do poorly in wet conditions, it seems to grow best in mud and an inch or so of standing water. Plants grown in very wet conditions often grow well over 10 feet long. If grown in containers, Box Car Willie overwinters extremely well, even in a 50F area with only a small amount of light."

Ted

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

Here is the comment Carolyn. I would post the forum where it is located, but you may chastise me for linking to other forums on this forum. and no, I do not believe everything I read, but I may consider it.

"Box Car Willie grows very well for me. It is, however, very late and does not produce fruit until September. The yield is on par with other late varieties. It is quite tolerant of the tomato diseases that we have here. Appears to prefer very wet soil. While some tomatoes do poorly in wet conditions, it seems to grow best in mud and an inch or so of standing water. Plants grown in very wet conditions often grow well over 10 feet long. If grown in containers, Box Car Willie overwinters extremely well, even in a 50F area with only a small amount of light."

Ted

Someone gop concerned when I transferred a thread from here to there saying that the folks may not want their user names and posts made public. So since then I'll transfer a thread if I can find it via Google already made public. And there are certain sites that I've never transferred threads to or from.That's the way I handle it.

As to your quote above. Have you ever had tomato plants under water, or half under water or in mud for any length of time? I have and here's what happens.

In waterlogged soils the roots can no longer get oxygen and no nutrients can be taken up by the roots. So at first the foliage turns yellow, then if it contues b'c the conditions are still wet, the leaves start turning brown and at that point there's no way back and the plants die.

It's intertesting to me that not all varieties respond in the same way to those kinds of conditions, which indicates, at least to me, that water/nutrient transport within different varieties can be different.

But I think we already know that when we think of BER and how that comes about.

So while I underatnd you to say that you would consider not just Box Car Willie, but perhaps even other varieties, should do better in waterlogged soils than not, It's not what I'd be thinking at all.

[Jeannine Anne]

Well this is interesting, as we seem to have had permanent rain for almost forever I was getting quite excited about the idea that a tomato actually liked the wet.

Also very interesting regarding Mr Stripey, I just has a tidy in a seedcase and found 2 lots of Mr Stripeys, yep I did it. I presumed they were both the UK one as I had a recent round robin finish here and put them together.I did intend giving them as part of a grab bag for new gardeners to our community garden but feel that would be unfair now.

I don't post too often but I sure learn something all the time from you folk.

XX Jeannine

Carolyn,

Nope! I actually prefer to grow tomatoes with the absolute minimum of water required. I believe it intensifies the flavor of the tomato. To much water for me usually means I get a lot more tomato plant than is needed to produce the same amount of fruit the minimum amount required produces. I don't drown my tomatoes in water.

Ted

[organichris]

Yeah, so I had some extra time and was in the neighborhood, so I stopped by Home Depot to see what kind of trouble I could get into. Look at this amazingly fake looking picture. These guys ought to be ashamed.

Originally Posted by organichris

Yeah, so I had some extra time and was in the neighborhood, so I stopped by Home Depot to see what kind of trouble I could get into. Look at this amazingly fake looking picture. These guys ought to be ashamed.

Yep, the photo is undoubtedly photo shopped to improve its' "desirability". I don't really blame Home Depot or the other big box stores for the misleading marketing. Bonnie Plants now seems to be the vegetable garden plant supplier for the three major big box stores. Talking with a Walmart garden center manager and a Bonnie Plant company regional sales rep. last year, I learned that Bonnie pretty much makes all the decisions specific to varieties sold at each location, and all marketing decisions. When the delivery truck arrives at the big box store, a Bonnie rep. determines the displays and then places the correct price stickers on the plants. It's almost as if the stores lease the space to Bonnie to sell the plants and then collects the money and shares the profits. I really liked Bonnie plants at one time and admired the company history (it's a small business to mega business success story), but I now avoid their product line with a vengeance due to their quality and aggressive marketing style.

Ted