Is Martino's Roma a Rugose Dwarf Paste ???

[333.okh]

Is Martino's Roma a Rugose Dwarf Paste ???

Just wondering and if anyone has grown it tell us how tall it gets and what you thought?

[nctomatoman]

No, it is a typical Determinate paste - so grows 3-4 feet tall, normal foliage, branches freely, but the branches terminate in flower clusters, and the fruit ripens in a concentrated set. When the plants are young, they are indistinguishable from indeterminate regular leaf varieties.

[TomNJ]

I grew them last year - seed from TGS. Mine were relatively short (3-4') and I described them in my garden log as "bushy with dark green rugose leaves". Very pretty plants that set heavily, but were hit harder by Septoria than most others. I'll grow them again, but no room this year.

TomNJ

[carolyn137]

I first listed Martino's Roma in the SSE YEarbook in 1992 and there was also a listing for Martini's Roma, which was not the right spelling but the variety described as to history, etc, and traits, was correct.

Here's what I wrote in 1992:

75 days, unique paste tomato ( it was at the time), tremendously vigorous determinate vines with gorgeous rugose foliage, 3.5 ft tree shaped plant ( at the time I didn't distinguish between det and dwarf) absolutely loaded with pear shaped fruit ( should have been roma shaped, not pear shaped)

Just to add the history, this variety was obtained by an SSE member from an 87 year old ( at the time 87) italian gardener in the Finger Lakes region of NYS who had gotten them from a friend of his who had brought them from Italy many years before that.

[nctomatoman]

Carolyn, I've not seen rugose foliage at all in my Martino's Roma....very interesting. It is determinate, but plain ol' RL tomato leaves.

[bigbubbacain]

Martino's is still the best tasting paste type I've ever grown.

[Tania]

My Martino's Roma does not have rugose leaves, but it is vigorous det.
Seeds originally from Reinhard Kraft (2006).

I was also wondering about the rugose foliage, reading some descriptions on the net and in the SSE Yearbooks.

Craig, what was your seed source?

Tania

[nctomatoman]

Hi, Tania! My seed source was Tomato Growers Supply, back in 1998.

[piegirl]

It is now a regular in my garden. I'll have to pay attention to the foliage. Fresh I would say so-so, cooked into sauce - just heavenly, they seem to just reach a point in cooking and melt into sauce and the aroma - also heavenly! Piegirl

[carolyn137]

I'm interested in where the rest of you got your non-rugose Martino
Roma's as well. I looked in the SSE YEarbook and see that some got it from Totally Tomatoes. Some sourced it to SSE itself as offered in the public catalog where it's correctly IDed as having "pretty rugose foliage"

So I'm glad that that's at least one seed source where it's rugose, b'c for a while there I thought I'd have to go on a search and destroy mission to find some of my older seeds, assuming I even saved any. And that would take me back to 1992.

Yes, I've never thrown out any seed I saved from about 1990 to the present and also never cataloged them or made a list. It's all up here as Carolyn taps her head, but for sure I can't remember all the varieties I've grown to date.

[DiggingDogFarm]

SSE lists it as indeterminate.

Martino's Roma
(Solanum lycopersicum) Italian heirloom with pretty rugose (puckered) foliage. Very heavy set of mild 2-3 ounce fruits perfectly suited for making sauce, salsa, and paste. Tends to fall off the vine when fully ripe. Indeterminate, 75 days from transplant.

http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=259(OG)

Has anyone grown out Martino's seed from SSE?

~Dig

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DiggingDogFarm

SSE lists it as indeterminate.

Martino's Roma
(Solanum lycopersicum) Italian heirloom with pretty rugose (puckered) foliage. Very heavy set of mild 2-3 ounce fruits perfectly suited for making sauce, salsa, and paste. Tends to fall off the vine when fully ripe. Indeterminate, 75 days from transplant.

http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=259(OG)

Has anyone grown out Martino's seed from SSE?

~Dig

No, I haven't grown it out from SSe seeds but did grow it out as seeds received from the first person who listed it in the SSE Yearbook, and yes, it is thick stemmed, yes, it does have rugose leaves and yes, the fruits do tend to fall off the vine when ripe.

For me it grew about 3 ft tall and was so loaded with fruit I had to support it. I first listed it in the 1992 or 93 SSE YEarbook, seeds from Maureen in 1991 as also mentioned in this link from Tania's tomato base:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...rtino%27s_Roma

Tania says RL, doesn't mention rugose, but all others say rugose, check out TOm Hauch's Heirloom Seeds for his description of it as well and other descriptions if you wish.

According to the criteria that Craig, ( nctomatoman) has posted for the Dwarf Project here at Tville, and you can read that if you wish, I think it might meet the criteria of being called a Dwarf, maybe just a det, Craig explains the difference between a Dwarf and a det in that introduction to the Dwarf Project, so I'll defer to him on this issue as you read his post.

[nctomatoman]

Hey there.....I am growing it, and it is not at all rugose - looks just like a normal leaf tomato as a seedling - it behaves like a Determinate. I've never seen a non-dwarf variety with rugose foliage - so this is all quite confusing!

[DiggingDogFarm]

Yeah, I'm totally confused too....I've grown it for a few years now.... I think my initial seed was from TGS...what I've grown certainly isn't rugose or indeterminate.
I've seen some describe it as semi-determinate.


~Dig

[DiggingDogFarm]

Hmmmm...even TGS describes it as rugose. Weird!!!


Martino's Roma #6809 (30 seeds) $2.55
Incredible yields of very richly flavored pear tomatoes that weigh about 2 ozs., and are 3 in. long. These paste-type fruit are meaty with few seeds and not much juice, perfectly suited to cooking, but delicious enough to eat fresh. Compact plants have rugose, dark foliage. Heirloom variety and extremely productive. Determinate. 75 days

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/processing.htm


~Dig