Your opinon of Omar's Lebanese?

[Vince]

Got one growing. Ive, read carolyn's book so am familiar with her opinion. What is yours(Good and Bad)? Cheers!

Vince

[Gimme3]

One opinion...on a Omar's huh ?

Jus view it as that then...an ill tell ya...from a Georgia grower's experience.

It is a CV very apt to triple blossom, an thus produce a humongous big fruit. It is a CV worthy of growin...if one is attempting to grow a few Absolute...whoppers. Its a sorta limp-leaved growin plant, and it dont hide it's treasure well. It tastes average to me, an not worth...repetitive effort. In a good season...its not much better than a Park's Whopper...which is junk...in my book. Its a watery fruit...an i dont care for that, period. Its a tomato that never exhibited any natural tolerance of nearby afflictions, that all the rest deal with....as well as they did. I think its a great CV to get a whopper from, but other than that...it has no appeal.

You asked for opinions...))) Best Wishes if you Growin it...)))

[PaulF]

For me, Omar's has been very large, juicy and quite tasty. Different area, different results. Not an every year tomato, but one I have planted several years in the last ten.

[Noreaster]

Our first 2 tries were unimpressive.

Large fruit: Yes
Taste good: Yes
Taste extra special: NO
Productive plant: NO

Maybe year 3 will be the lucky one for us ! Good luck to you in YOUR first planting !

[korney19]

When I grew it, it was pretty large but it was a little on the "puffy" side--it wasn't hollow but did have a lot of air space in the locules. This could have been the weather that year however my other varieties didn't have that problem. I can't recall the taste so it maybe didn't stand out among the other varieties that year (maybe 70-80 others.)

[carolyn137]

Mark, what you show looks red and has ribbing all over the fruit.

That's not what Omar's Lebanese looks like.

I know my opinion wasn't asked for in the opening post, but any of you who have the SSE Yearbooks are welcome to see the many entries for this variety in the SSE Yearbooks going back to when I first introduced it who think it's a great variety, as do I after growing it many times in different seasons at different places.

I'll say no more.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Mark, what you show looks red and has ribbing all over the fruit.

That's not what Omar's Lebanese looks like.

I know my opinion wasn't asked for in the opening post, but any of you who have the SSE Yearbooks are welcome to see the many entries for this variety in the SSE Yearbooks going back to when I first introduced it who think it's a great variety, as do I after growing it many times in different seasons at different places.

I'll say no more.

Carolyn, that's a pink that's not 100% ripe. They were grown from TGS seeds. Before then, I grew it from Chuck Wyatt's seeds and definitely got a red, (which looks more orangy in photos) but it obviously was so wrong I didn't bother taking a pic, as I just searched thru all my 2003-2004 pics...unless it was earlier. Here's the original pic from Sept 08, 2004 of the pink one, it was somewhat late too:




If that pic doesn't look right to you, you may not like Jeff Nekola's pic of Omar's Lebanese, from NY MA C 97 (yes, that's you) that doesn't look pink either:




This is all Jeff wrote:


Omar's Lebanese
Moderate set of 4-5" diameter, flattened, rough fruits.


NY MA C 97


I do see more than just a little similarity between my fruit on the plate and the one on the right in Jeff's pic.

[carolyn137]

Mark, I have less problems with colors b'c I know that photography can be deceiving sometimes, but look at the fruit at the left of Jeff's picture which is as smooth as can be, which is what Omar's lebanese should look like. Sure, perhaps some ribbing at the shoulders, but not all the way down to the blossom end as I saw in your picture.

Want some Omar's Lebanese seed?

Just a joke Mark, just a joke.

[jenn_sc]

I am growing Omar's Lebanese this year too. I hope it's a good one! Carolyn said favorable things about it in her book so I am looking forward to trying it.

Jennifer

[korney19]

Maybe that has to do with the way I water or fertilize, or not enough room in the cages, or the weather, or the seed source? I wouldn't say the fruit on the left is as smooth as can be either, and I'd venture to guess that the top of it looks similar to the fruit on the right.

This was the first fruit off the plant, 83 days from transplant date. I double checked my sheet and read it wrong, it wasn't TGS but 2003 TT seeds. On a side note, Kornesevvsije beat Omar's by about 11 days and 3-4x production.

I've posted this pic before on another forum in a thread I believe re: Omar's Lebanese, and at that time said the locules had not much juice & seeds and a lot of empty space, and back then, someone else agreed... I'm not saying it was hollow ike a pepper or stuffing type, but I have on occasion had different varieties do that--the locules were half full. Incomplete pollination?

If you want me to check the 2003 Wrong Varieties spreadsheet,I can probably dig that up somewhere on one of my drives here.

I think that big lobe in the big pic may be where the fruit sat up against a cage wire but can't explain the rest of the ribs, (though Jeff did describe it as rough fruits...)

[WVTomatoMan]

I like Omar's. It has good taste, in fact it was voted as being one of the best tasting varieties of 2006 by my coworkers. It produces fairly large fruit, but wasn't very productive for me. The knock I've heard on Omar's is that the taste often suffers when grown in the south.

Good luck and I hope you like it. Perhaps come back and tell us what you think of it.

Randy

[Noreaster]

That's the biggest problem I look out for with ANY new heirloom/op....and I grow many new varieties each year.....what a waste of space when no matter HOW good it tastes, there are so few !

God Bless those who have so much garden area to grow in that they just don't give a hoot !

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Noreaster

That's the biggest problem I look out for with ANY new heirloom/op....and I grow many new varieties each year.....what a waste of space when no matter HOW good it tastes, there are so few !

God Bless those who have so much garden area to grow in that they just don't give a hoot !

I have a slightly different perspective on this.

Take variety X, whatever. Some growing in the north will love it, others find it less than desirable. Take that same variety and grow it in the south and you'll hear the same thing, some like it, some could do without it.

I've been posting online about tomatoes since about 1990 and growing tomatoes for more years than I'd like to admit, , and I plant each variety new to me with the hopes that I'll find a new favorite.

But it's only after I grow each variety, and grow it a second time if it didn't perform well that first time, that I'll make some tentative conclusions about it.

I do recognize that folks with more room have the opportunity to trial more varieties, but I also feel that since no two people grow tomatoes the same way, and that soil and weather and amendments and all else vary, that if someone sees that others like it, why not try it and make up your own mind about it, for you'll never find consensus on ANY variety.

Just my opinion.

[NCTIM]

I liked Omar's Lebanese as did the other 3 folks that I grew seedlings for last year. It is a fun one to grow. We are all growing it again this year.

I admit that I am growing it again primarily for the size. It produced well enough and the first few were huge. It is a good tasting tomato but I suspect that many grow it to get a 3 pound tomato.

Tim

[Vince]

Thanks for all the opinions everyone!

It seems more like it than dislike it. I guess I will have to see for myself. It is one of my biggest plants thus far and hopefully will be reasonably productive in my garden. Cheers.

Vince