Have you ever grown any of these tomato varieties?

What was your experience?

Emerald Apple
Green Zebra
Green Grape
Aunt Ruby's German Green

Just trying to decide which tomato's to try next spring...several of these are russian varieties...and I thought they might do well in my mild summer climate...

Jen

Green Zebra is very flavorful. I grew it when I lived in the Willamette Valley and it did well there. Love the bright green insides, so unusual.

I had bad results with them this past year, but remember the Oregon Coast is not conducive to growing tomatoes in general. Most of my heirlooms were not successful.

I would try it just for its uniqueness and good taste.

MM talking to herself: Ok, one point for green zebra....

I did not have much flavor from my green zebras. I loved Aunt Ruby's german green! And have not tried green grape, although now that I think of it, I am not sure why.

I haven't grown them yet, but I have the green zebra and Aunt Ruby's green seeds to start for this next spring.

I got a green zebra from the farmers market a couple weeks ago and it was yummy! We will be growing it in our garden this year.

I went a bit crazy and will have about 30 different types of tomatoes in the spring! I can't wait to see which do well here and which I like the most.

Good luck! I hope you will find one that does well for you!

Oh I am so JEALOUS!!! I will have about 10 total plants...and 2 will be sweet 200...probably 8 other different ones 30 different ones would be glorious....

This year was my first with Green Zebra and we all loved them. Very tasty.
I will grow more next year here in Maine.

Haha! I will prob wonder what I was thinking come March! I just got all excited and ordered a few kinds, then found some more...then picked up a couple more at the nursery.. and hubby was doing the same! We will be starting them in a couple weeks for transplanting in Feb.

If you would like some green zebra seeds or some of the aunt rubys, I will be happy to send you some. I do have a couple extra!

OH! Duhh, if you don't mind that would be wonderful! I will PM you my address.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I have Green Zebra seeds cued up to get planted next, but have no experience with them.

Based on our different growing seasons, I'll have a little head start & may be able to help with some early "what not to do" pointers

duhh wrote:
I went a bit crazy and will have about 30 different types of tomatoes in the spring!

Ahhhh ... a kindred spirit ...


I'm in the same boat ...... this will be a very interesting spring.

I grew Green Grape and Aunt Ruby's German Green this summer. I loved the taste of Aunt Ruby's which is a beefsteak type. However, it is definitely not bred for a high temp, high humidity, low rainfall climate. We got one - count 'em, one - tomato from the entire plant and then it died. But that one tomato was de-lish. Hubby thinks it's a waste of time to try to grow them again, but I think they were good enough to try again and hope for a better growing year. (Our neighbor grew them the year before which was a wonderful growing year in this area, and he said they performed well in his garden. He really sings their praises.)

The Green Grape tomatoes looked really nice as a contrasting color in tomato salads but I wasn't crazy about the flavor. Again, I think some of it can be blamed on our lousy growing year. They didn't survive the summer.

Baker Creek's catalog says Green Grape was developed by Tom Wagner, and is a sister tomato to his Green Zebra, but the flavor may be even more "rich, sweet, and zingy."

I will grow Green Grape again but not as a mainstay, but rather to add interest and color contrast with red and yellow tomatoes. Baker Creek offers an Aunt Ruby's German Cherry tomato. If I had it to do over I think I would try those instead of Green Grape. But again, I think it all depends on your growing climate.

Thanks for all the input folks! Acara I will be waiting on the edge of my seat for your tips and advice.

I started a few seeds last night like you instructed as my testers before Jan/Feb comes and I need to have all my seeds started...

Thanks Ander! I bet the do look pretty in a salad...I will check out the other ones you mentioned.

I planned to put this on the seed exchange thread, but I'll post it here for now and you can move it if you think it needs to be moved.

I went crazy at Baker Creek's seed store in August and wound up buying over a dozen more tomato seed varieties. (They were out of yellow tomatoes or I'd have bought even more!) I'd be happy to share any of the following:

Missouri Pink Love Apple
Henderson's Pink Ponderosa
Monomakh's Hat
Royal Chico
Thessaloniki
Fox Cherry
Green Grape
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Henderson's Crimson Cushion
Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio
Jersey Giant
Great White
Flame or Hillbilly (had these on a tomato sandwich at their restaurant and had to go right over and buy a packet of them - wonderful-tasting yellow tomato with red stripes - meaty with few seeds)

I have these from SESE:
Tropic
Arkansas Traveler (2004 seed)
Rutgers ('04 seed but germinated fine for me last year)

I have one packet of Shumway's experimental variety, Early Big Red (came as a freebie in an '06 order but I've never tried them.)

I'm looking for seed for Sweet 100, any yellow pear or yellow cherry, and a large yellow tomato variety.

That is a whole lot of green tomatoes MM. We had a BAD tomato year in Western Washington; most of my tomatoes were naturally green.

Siltz (Red) was a big winner. Loads of baseball to softball fruit that ripened starting in August. Only two had BER. I know it isn't what you are looking for, I'm just saying, of the yard full of tomatoes I grew, those made salad and sandwiches.

I am still going to retry most of the seed I have. Persimmon yielded a few tasty globes but they crack around the stem end and bugs got into some of them. Early Girl made small tomatoes that often had BER even with extra calcium. Black Russian Paste started to color up in late August, but were mostly green in late September when we pulled the plants out. Cherokee Purple made HUGE, misshapen tomatoes that I would have loved to tried. Just started to color out in October, were not ripe when we left for hunting. Brandywine made two small hard green fruit that did not set until late August and never did ripen.

I did get a green zebra at Trader Joe's. It was pretty good, but after a wet cold year in the PNW, I am seriously longing for a little bit of red.

Now if you want to talk cold weather peppers....

Deborah.... another day without papers to grade.