I don't think my Mule Team is really a mule.....

[Dr_Redwine]

I was looking at my two Mule Team plants and was wondering why I thought before ordering the seed that this would be a good 'crop' tomato. I am new to most every variety I have, so I thought maybe I just misjudged this one. No big deal, I don't have to grow it again. The plants themselves only have 8-10 tomatoes each on them and are not as vigorous as some of the others.

Anyway, I was thumbing through Carolyn's book and really studied her description of Mule Team and realized it is nothing like what I have. Mine are regular leaf, so that matches OK. Now here is where it gets interesting...Carolyn says a good tomato for beginners, skeptics, etc. with blemish-free, slightly ribbed fruits and a good tolerance of foliage disease. Mine have huge, ribbed beefsteaks with clefts, cracks and early blight on the lower leaves. Some of the fruit have signs of the blight on the stem end. OK, so maybe I should have gotten on the Daconil a little sooner.

The real kicker to me is that the fruits do not resemble the picture in Carolyn's book at all. The shape just isn't right. Has anyone else experienced seeds not being true to the packaging?? Tell me your stories.....

DrR

[barkeater]

If you check Carolyn's book, she says pretty much the same thing about Box Car Willie. However, when I grew the seeds offered by Totally Tomatoes, they were heavily ribbed, late, 1 lb. beefstaeaks. Apparantly the bees have to work overtime on these workhorses which causes crosspollination, or not. ;-)

[Dr_Redwine]

I wasn't going to name the source of my seed, but you did... :wink: The crazy part is that I grew about 15 of these seedlings that were identical when they were little. They were all short, stocky, little jokers that were different from the other seedlings throughout the time I had them, but I could tell they were all the same variety.
DrR

[cecilsgarden1958]

Mule Team peaked my interest a few years back. Sounded great. A real good main crop tomato that was for beginners because it did so well. Well, I averaged 1/4 of a fruit per plant. It just did not do anything for me. I have since found a few that do, like Red Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Golden Sunay. I didn't care for CP, but the other two were delicious. I don't have ideal conditions for tomatoes and this does affect my choices, so keep in mind that I am a poor character referance for choices
CECIL

[garaj]

I have grown the variety Mule Team a couple of three times; seeds from TGS. It's one of my favorites and I think I know this variety. This Spring season, however, I got a surprise. Plants appeared normal, regular leaf, etc. but fruit were very much larger than I had previously experienced. They filled out showing a glorious deep orange color and for a while I was convinced that the variety was Persimmon. Indeed, they looked very much like the photo of Persimmon in the TGS catalog. As they completely ripened, color changed to very deep red. So, they weren't Persimmon. I just don't remember that deep orange color from previous plantings of Mule Team. I've saved seeds, since flavor was great, and will check against Mule Team from another source during the upcoming Autumn planting. We'll see. Garaj

The quicker you fall behind on a schedule, the more time you have to make it up in.

[geoguy_TN]

My mule team started out slow and it doesn't have a huge amount of tomatoes. I have picked some really big ones though - around 1.5 pounds I would estimate. They are good, but not overwhelmingly good taste. We'll see if it can started cranking 'em out pretty soon.

[carolyn137]

Some of you might recall that both Box Car Willie and Mule Team, as well as Pasture and Great Divide, were all varieties that I was able to germinate when Joe Bratka, whose father bred them, could not.

What I show in my book is from my stock of the original seeds which I have maintained thru the years for all of those varieties.

Mule Team and BCW are indeed as I do picture them in my book, globes, maybe slightly flattened, no fluting, no ribbing, etc.

As time goes by I kind of gasp at what some folks are getting from some seed sources.

Two folks requested all the varieties in my book that they weren't already carrying. Those two were Glenn Drowns at SandHill Preservation and Chuck Wyatt.

For a seed source for both BCW and Mule Team I suggest SandHill Preservation since I know what seeds I sent to Glenn and his record for correct varieties and seed purity is very high and no tomato seed he sells is over two years old.

[nancysil]

I have had MANY that I've purchased not come true to type in the past couple of years. This years annoyances are a "Dr. Lyle-not" (I have 2 plants which turned out to be some type of determinate tomato) and "Stump-of-the-World-Not" (4 of these plants which have turned out to be regular leaf, one of which is a cherry tomato).

[feldon30]

I had 2 out of 6 Stupice come up that clearly aren't. Seeds from a popular commercial provider.