Evergreen

[nicky]

My 1st ever green when ripe started to blush & soften yesterday... I have read the Tomatoville tips on how to tell when the green when ripe ones are ready... I am trying to wait becuse I think that I m likely to try to eat it too soon....

I can' wait!!!! It is my 1st tomato of the year (other than the cheater 2' beefsteak & Ultrasonic I bought at the nursery).

Here is a pic of a sucker of the Evergreen plant that I rooted in my little greenhouse in early June (about 6weeks late for our area)... It seems to love the heat (over 120F in the greenhouse the last 2 weeks). It has been topped at 5.5' which makes it 2' taller than the outdoor plant started a full 2.5 months before it!


I'll post the tasting in a day or two!

[markd42]

Ooh very cool. Never tried one. Neat about the sucker. Do tell us how they taste.

Mark

[nicky]

So, I couldn't wait any longer.... Here it is!


And now on the scale


And finally... Sliced!


And the taste? FANTASTIC Juicy, full, sweet with a zing. The texture was melt in your mouth wonderful. I barely had to chew... but it wasn't the least bit mushy. Even my husband who looked at the green with disgust, tasted it and said it was his new favourite. Only problem is that I don't want to sacrifice any of the future fruit for seed and it is the only green when ripe that I am growing! Now I want to try more...

So, now I am off to search through old posts about greens and pick a bunch for next year. Evergreen will definately be one of them! Darn tomato garden just got expanded again

[ScottinAtlanta]

Great post! How do you root a sucker? Sounds faster than starting from seed.

[nicky]

I think that Carolyn has posted several times that she pinches the sucker and pops it in the ground with a moat around it for water. You can seaarch out her posts, sounds like the simplest method.

I pinched it and stuck it in potting soil sitting in a well watered tray in the greenhouse, but out of direct sun for about 5 days. At the end of 5 days the roots had already filled my little pot! I think that the heat of the greenhouse really helped it take off. Just make sure that you use a sucker or a growing tip - not a side branch. I tried the branch just to see what it would do. It grew roots and so I planted it, watered it, fed it... It just kept growing roots. The actual branch didn't grow at all. But it got greener and thicker - it was the healthiest branch I've ever seen!

[ScottinAtlanta]

Thanks - already got two of them going.

[carolyn137]

THe only time I take sucker cuttings is if there's been serious critter or weather damage to the plants in question. I don't do it to raise additional plants of a specific variety.

And yes, I just take a sucker cutting and jam it in the soil by the plant from which it was taken, build a moat around it and keep the moat filled with water until I see new growth.

Some folks root sucker cuttings in water but then they just have to be adapted to growing in a solid matrix so why not go directly to a solid matrix, whether it be inground or in artificial mix?

As for green when ripe varieties, they are a huge favorite of mine and over the years I must have grown at least 20-30 of them, both the large fruited ones as well as the cherry sized ones.

One can look at Tania's page of green when ripes:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...Green_Tomatoes

And I'd be OK with listing some that I've grown, b'c I know I can't remember ALL of them.

Many years ago Craig ( nctomatoman) and I agreed that the next fad after the so called black tomato fad waned, would be the green when ripes, which I love. But here we are with the black fad still going and at the same time the green when ripe fad is surging ahead as well.

[nicky]

Thanks for the sucker detail Carolyn!

I can definately see why you love the green when ripes if Evergreen is anything like the rest. I hope that it likes my garden conditions again next year! Can t wait to eat a few more, but none are blushing at the moment.