Roughwood Golden Plum

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by PNW_D

Carolyn, couldn't seem to access WWW book reference, but here's a pic from Jeff's site for further comparison ....

http://sev.lternet.edu/~jnekola/Heirloom/tomatoesR.htm

D, I just clicked on the book reference again and it still comes up fine for me. I don't know about others here in terms of accessing it.

The usefullness of the book reference is b'c Weaver wrote more than he did, or altered some of what he wrote in his original listing in the SSE YEarbook.

And yes, someone did post that picture, but thanks again.

[Sorellina]

Ciao all-

My seed source was Bill Malin and while the plant doesn't have what we've all come to know as "true" potato-leaves, the leaves do have smooth margins. They're just not these huge mitten things like you see on other plants like Marianna's Peace. The leaves are much smaller than that and there are more of them per stem.

The fruit in Remy's photo isn't truly indicative of the variety. Most of the fruits I've gotten have indeed been elongated plums, like an orange roma type, very firm-fleshed and lovely for blanching and dicing because the flesh doesn't fall apart. I've never seen the narrow necks on them like in Mark's photo. Those look more like what I've seen with Aladdin's Lamp.

As for the growth habit, what I've gotten is more like a compact indeterminate. I've grown it twice and both times, the top height of the plants was between 4-5 ft with lots of sucker branches that I don't prune, so the plants get very wide. It's a tremendously productive plant for such a short one and it stands up to sub-par conditions very well. I don't see much blossom drop with it even when our summers get quite humid.

I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to make an orange salsa or anything else that requires blanching and dicing. It's a mainstay in my colourful paste row. I also use Aladdin's Lamp quite a bit for the same reasons.

[korney19]

My source was Bill too. I only grew one plant that year and all the fruits pictured, regardless of different shapes, were all from the same plant. He lists it as Indeterminate. I'd say it's like EoE, a compact Indeterminate, if it is INDET. I think I had a few fruits along the way but then left everything else to ripen, but that sounds more like DETerminate!

[MikeInCypress]

Just checked and I received my seeds from Mark Korney as well.

MikeInCypress

[lefty_logan]

Bill said that his reverted back to a red plum in the f16 generation. The original cross was San Marzano x Yellow Brandywine. William Woys Weaver made the cross. He saved seeds from the red plum and found it was a genetic mutation. The saved seeds from the red plum is now called Throwback Potato Leaf Plum

[korney19]

My envelope said F14...maybe it's up to F16 now as a red plum. I wonder where it got its juiciness.

A genetic throwback in the F14 generation to the red San Marzano phenotype parent; from F14 Roughwood Golden Plum. 4oz red fruits 2" x 4" long with a nipple on the end. Very juicy, unlike San Marzano. A good acid-sweet balance. May be unstable as to fruit color--the PL trait should be OK since Roughwood is PL & therefore recessive.

[lefty_logan]

I believe the red version is at the f5 generation.