Green-When-Ripe, Piriform, 2013

[travis]

[travis]

Clear epidermis. Smooth-edged, large mitten leaf, potato leaf foliage. Prolific, with good hotset ability. Green Giant in its pedigree.

[jennifer28]

I like it. It reminds me of a green tomato berry. How is the taste? Which I realize is subjective but how do you like it? And what will you call it? Very impressive.

[travis]

Originally Posted by jennifer28

I like it. It reminds me of a green tomato berry. How is the taste? Which I realize is subjective but how do you like it? And what will you call it? Very impressive.

Jennifer, about the flavor ...

I'm always hesitant to declare "great flavor" when someone asks me about one of the tomatoes I'm working on. It seems self-promoting and subjective to unilaterally declare a tomato of one's own creation to be of top notch flavor.

However, this past weekend, I sliced up a huge platter of various tomatoes to take to a cook-out. I used the green-when-ripe piriform basically to garnish all around the outside of the platter with the beefsteaks dominating the rest of the plate.

All the g-w-r slices disappeared. This shocked me. I got several comments on how well they complemented the other dishes, including beef burgers, veggie burgers, crab cakes, and just as a side dish to salads, etc.

Then at home yesterday, I served more of them wedged up in a mixed green salad with Vidalia onions, bell peppers, and a garlicy vinaigrette. Again I got compliments and declarations of how great the tomatoes tasted.

So, I guess by all accounts they're tasty. I've not had a negative comment yet. This doesn't surprise me considering the Green Giant parent. But it does surprise me that the pear shaped parent didn't drag the flavor down. I guess it just supplied more sugar content.

[travis]

No name yet as this particular vine is yielding fruit that indicates following generations from this particular seed may increase in size. I have another vine which yields smaller, smoother, pear shaped fruit that may stabilize at the cocktail size more quickly, I hope.

Taste is similar and close to Green Giant but not as assertive due to the pear shaped parent, I suppose. But far, far better than the average pear tomato. Which should not surprise considering.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

No name yet as this particular vine is yielding fruit that indicates following generations from this particular seed may increase in size. I have another vine which yields smaller, smoother, pear shaped fruit that may stabilize at the cocktail size more quickly, I hope.

Taste is similar and close to Green Giant but not as assertive due to the pear shaped parent, I suppose. But far, far better than the average pear tomato. Which should not surprise considering.

Reinhard Kraft had two lines going of a green when ripe heart, one was with Green Giant, the other was with Cherokee Green. And he sent seeds for both, I forget which gen now,to D.Slater.

May I assume that this derived from the Green Giant line of Reinhard's b'c I know that he had not given permission for any of those hearts to be offered,and I also know that he no longer particpates at that site,but perhaps what he doesn't know is more important,especially to me since Reinhard is a good friend of longstanding.

What say you?As in do you think it's ethical to work with his seeds even though he did not give permission for the heart ones.? As in creating new varieties using his original seeds sent/

Carolyn,who could be wrong,but a piriform is just an upside down heart,one could look at it that way, and the Green Giant plus heart was the tip off to me.Is anything being done with the Cherokee Green line?Lastly,I like what you showed.

[travis]

Carolyn, this tomato is the result of a cross I made myself several years ago. It has nothing to do with Kraft.

My original intent was a green-when-ripe grape line and a green-when-ripe necked pear, both on a potato leaf vine, and both with clear epidermis.

I have not yet achieved the necked pear, or the exact green grape that I'm looking for. However, I have achieved several lines that are worth pursuing, including the one I picture here, as well as several lines from GWR ping pongs, clear yellow ping pongs, deep yellow ping pongs, clear yellow beefsteaks, deep yellow beefsteaks, salad size tomatoes both globe and flattened globes, and several "saladette" size in beefsteak shapes and round shouldered globe shapes. And a couple of "white" tomato lines.

All are on potato leaf vines. All have Green Giant as one parent. None have Cherokee Green as a parent. None are from Kraft.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

Carolyn, this tomato is the result of a cross I made myself several years ago. It has nothing to do with Kraft.

My original intent was a green-when-ripe grape line and a green-when-ripe necked pear, both on a potato leaf vine, and both with clear epidermis.

I have not yet achieved the necked pear, or the exact green grape that I'm looking for. However, I have achieved several lines that are worth pursuing, including the one I picture here, as well as several lines from GWR ping pongs, clear yellow ping pongs, deep yellow ping pongs, clear yellow beefsteaks, deep yellow beefsteaks, salad size tomatoes both globe and flattened globes, and several "saladette" size in beefsteak shapes and round shouldered globe shapes. And a couple of "white" tomato lines.

All are on potato leaf vines. All have Green Giant as one parent. None have Cherokee Green as a parent. None are from Kraft.

I'm so glad to find that it's from your breeding work alone and not from anything Reinhard did.

We both know that seeds developed by others have been used without permission and that I find to be unethical in the extreme. From you I wouldn't expect that but my response was a knee jerk onewhen I saw Green Giant and a GWripe in the making.

I said above I liked it and of course I'm a huge fan of green when ripe varieties as you know. So when you have something to share, here I am.

I was going to answer you last night but was looking at the Weather Channel and really bad weather was approaching Evansville, they noted how many lightning strikes, so I thought to myself you might be in your basement with wife, with pillows over your heads.

That's what I do here. No basement, but pillow over the head, reciting the biblical passages I once knew and remembering and singing all the older songs I once knew.

My home has been hit by lightning several times, there are lightning rods, there is a comprehensive major surge protector for everything, never any structural damage, but who needs the rest as to power outages, leading to no water, no DSL so no Computer, etc.

Carolyn

[travis]

The stormy weather was all around us, but we just got much needed rain. We could see lots of lightening and hear mostly distant thunder, say 5 to 20 miles off to the northeast mostly.

No basement here. We are in the hands of Fate! We are so close to the airport's weather station (less than 1/2 mile) that anything reported in the way of wind and rain from EVV NOAA applies to our back yard as well.

Our house has been hit only once by lightening in the past 12 years. I don't wish that on anyone. It takes out electrical system randomly it seems. Doorbells, computers, televisions, mostly the light circuits across the entire ceiling, some outside circuits, weird and random as the charge finds ground. Insurance covered most of it.

The green-when-ripe piriform is ready to go, in the Wagnerian model

[Heritage]

travis,

Beautiful! If in those crosses you find a Green-Giant-flavored tomato, with a better shelf life than Green Giant (thicker skin?), hang onto it. Maybe this is a candidate? Nice work!

Steve

[jennifer28]

That is positive that the pear added and did not detract from the flavor. I very much like the looks of your new creation. I can see chefs wanting it. I have my own gardens and then I work with a larger nonprofit organization in food production gardens.

I do have a friend who has a farm might near my house www.rivercrestfarm.com and she mostly buys from Johnny's and Fedco. I think once you're done it would very cool to market the seed to Johnny's or Fedco. Just my crazy ideas

[SharonRossy]

Sounds so yummy! I'm growing ARGG for the first time, as I love green tomatoes. So good work. I would also love to try your gwr's when you are ready.

[peppero]

travis you have some interesting stuff going. hope they they amaze you.

jon

[Tania]

Bill, these are great looking tomatoes! And pear-shaped GWR are such a rare thing, I am so looking forward to see a stabilized line in the near future.

I admire your breeding efforts.

Tatiana

[remy]

Very nice Travis!