White Rabbit Cherry

[lakelady]

Started off slower than Sungold, but oh my, this is so productive! I have two plants and more little cherry tomatoes than I can eat.

Not many people are familiar with this variety, but I wanted to share that it is sweet, but tomatoey sweet, not fruity sweet like Sungold. Fruits are bigger than Matt's Wild Cherry and smaller than sungold, and ripen to a yellowish white color, more yellow on top. If you can spot yellow on the vines, they are ready to pick (took me a while to figure out when they were ripe). Skins were not tough at all while the Sungolds were, possibly due to the heat. Great little tomato!

[RobinB]

How tall is the White Rabbit plant? I've got a tomato plant that I've grown for 8 years now that I've never identified and this looks a lot like it.

[lakelady]

Hey Robin, it flopped down over the side of the 5' cage, and is hanging down another 2-3 feet so I'd say quite tall. I thought it was a dud originally because it was so slow to start, but it loves loves loves the heat. This is the plant I have to grab a few every time I walk by as they call out my name lol... I can send you a few seeds if you want to do a side by side for next year

[RobinB]

Nope, White Rabbit can't be it then. Mine is a compact indeterminate -- it's never over 4-5' tall but has hundreds of marble-sized tomatoes on it every year. Like you, I have grown two of these plants in years past and it's too hard to keep up with them. Yep, this is the one that I go past every time I'm in the garden and munch!

I keep meaning to do a separate post with details to see if anybody knows what it's real name is. I got it on eBay a long time ago. The guy called it "Mini Yellow" and said it is from Russia. It's very early. Some years it has come in around 45 days, but never more than 60. The taste is just as you described "tomatoey sweet". It's a truly great tasting early tomato... one I look forward to every year!

Wanna do a trade? It would still be fun!

[lakelady]

wow Robin, that is strikingly similar to White Rabbit! Sure, I'll do a trade, will send you a pm.

At this point, I have a funny feeling I'll have hundreds of volunteers next year as I can't pick them fast enough and keep squashing them under my shoes lol...

[gardenfrog]

Lakelady, the tomato you have on your profile could win the Ugliest Tomato Contest!!! Ha!

[carolyn137]

I know White Rabbit well and so do a lot of other folks. it was bred by Joe Bratka who bred the very similar varieties of Ghost and Snow White and Super Snow White and friends.

Tania probably has the background on it at her site but I don't know what she says about it b'c she never knew Joe as I did.

[Miracle82]

Joe was my uncle..... I have many many of his seeds, unfortunately I can not get any of them to germinate. I believe it has been quite some time since they have been saved. My uncle has passed away and I am doing everything I can to get some of his seeds. I am not sure how he handled his collection and how they have turned up in so many places...including Amazon. But Carolyn you state you knew my Uncle and so I am reaching out to you with help in figuring out how I can get seeds which were truly his..... Thanks so much.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Miracle82

Joe was my uncle..... I have many many of his seeds, unfortunately I can not get any of them to germinate. I believe it has been quite some time since they have been saved. My uncle has passed away and I am doing everything I can to get some of his seeds. I am not sure how he handled his collection and how they have turned up in so many places...including Amazon. But Carolyn you state you knew my Uncle and so I am reaching out to you with help in figuring out how I can get seeds which were truly his..... Thanks so much.

Your post is very difficult for me to answer for many reasons. First he told me many times he had no relatives in the US and then I found, from him, that he had no living relatives left in Germany either.

And yes, I knew him very well and I think it was just a couple of years ago that he sent me an e-mail, so when did he pass away?

Initially he found seeds in glass jars in the toolhouse, could not germinate them and sent them to me and I was lucky to get several of them going such as Box Car Willie, Mule Team, Red Barn, Great Divide, etc., and those were bred by his father, not Joe.

Then he sent me a list of varieties that I believe some were authentic heirlooms from the Black Forest area of Germany and those were Marizol Gold and Marizol Purple and Eva Purple Ball. Subsequently he bred Marizol Red and marizol Pink and passed those off as heirlom varieties And I was not the only one to whom he sent his lists.

He also got seeds for many varieties from the then existing Forums at Organic Gardening and national Gardening as well.

One on his list was called by him Purple Brandy and no such thing existed and I suggested he call it Marizol Bratka, but he had already sent out seeds to others with the initial name which then caused great confusion.

He said if it's heirloom varieties that folks want then I'll breed them, and breed them he did, many of them and he found one person who would grow anything he sent that person even with the fictitious histories he gave them and that person then listed them in the SSE Yearbooks so that many thousands of folks then had access to them.

And then many listed them in their own seed offers, and many offered them at their seed websites.

I don't have the time to list all that he bred, but he did get them out to the public, which was the right thing to do, so one cannot say that the seeds were his and his alone.

Did he make any money from doing what he did? Nope, none of us do who find new varieties for what are called Open Pollinated ones, as opposed to F1 hybrids

Why don't you send me a list of what you are looking for, just PM me here at Tville, and I'll give you several suggestions on how to get some of them.

Summary? No one owns seedsof varieties they offer of the OP ones, which his were, for hybrids it's different in terms of ownership and quite compliacted at that.

I hope the above has helped, but still wondering why Joe never told me he had ANY relatives in the US. I know the house he lived in was his parents house and he lived there alone after they both died, and he did send me many pictures of his gardens, everything planted closely since the yard that went with the house was very small, as well as that toolshed where his father had stored what he bred in glass jars and already named.

Carolyn

[Miracle82]

I can not be sure as to why he would have gone on to say he had no living relatives in the US. As you had mentioned before he did have problems in living and so in many ways he was alone. Perhaps that sparked his answer. It is correct that the home he lived in was my grandparents and that he lived there alone after they passed. My Uncle Joe passed away about a year and a half ago. I have several of the seeds, but can not get them to germinate. Is this typical if they have sat for too long? I appreciate your in depth reply. And you are right in your description of his garden and tool shed. His garden was the most beautiful thing I have ever set eyes on. Such dedication, creativity, heart and soul went into the garden space.... I really miss him. I am just trying to keep his spirit alive by growing some of the tomatoes that he "bred". I am not an avid gardener, so all of these terms are new to me. Thanks so much for all your help. I guess in particular I am looking for a tomatoe that would be great as a patio/container tomatoe.... I also would like to find genuine seeds from his snow white, ghost, and white rabbit ......

[lakelady]

Originally Posted by gardenfrog

Lakelady, the tomato you have on your profile could win the Ugliest Tomato Contest!!! Ha!

Gardenfrog, I did submit it! Alien Brains lol

Carolyn, yes, I knew that you were familiar with this one as you corrected me earlier this year because I had it written as "little white rabbit" because I got it from you know who, the vendor who embellishes.... I thought it was fitting as I was growing one of Joe's dad's tomatoes, Mule Team this year (you were right about that one, sure does pump out the fruit like crazy!). Next year I'm going to try Red Barn too as I've heard good things about it.

[livinonfaith]

White Rabbit was one I grew this year, as well. Besides all of its other fantastic qualities, it won the prize for disease resistance, hands down!

While every other tomato in my garden eventually either died or was severely stunted by disease, this one barely even slowed down until frost. (And it was actually touching three diseased plants and had some yellowed leaves. So it was exposed, but just kept on keeping on.)

I'm definitely growing this one again!

[lakelady]

yup, all my other plants had died and I finally had to yank the last one out full of tomatoes. It didn't impress me in the beginning but it sure ended up with more fruit than sungold and I liked the flavor better.

[Peppery1]

Been online going through some sites for new 'mater seeds. Googled reviews on this and this one came up. Guess I'll have to get it. Thanks for posting on it. ;-)

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Peppery1

Been online going through some sites for new 'mater seeds. Googled reviews on this and this one came up. Guess I'll have to get it. Thanks for posting on it. ;-)

Please note my earlier post in this thead about White Rabbit.

Joe Bratka bred White Rabbit, Ghost, Snow White and Super Snow White and there is little difference between them.

And there are plenty of other so called white cherries and some that I like better.

Yes, I knew Joe very well, and with respect to his many other varieties, he said if folks want family heirlooms, then I'll breed them, and so he did. There were very few that were authentic ones from the Black Forest of Germany that were his own family heirlooms and two that I think are great are Marizol Gold, a gold/red bicolor and Marizol Purple. Both of these have distinctive bluish/green foliage.

Where did the Marizol name come from? At the time I had a student from Germany and she told me there was a small town in the Black Forest called Maria's Zell, (Maria's village or town) and clearly Marizol is a contraction of that original name.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn