Carmello and French Carmello

[jwr6404]

Picked up a French Carmello plant today. It was listed as an indeterminate. Was looking for a Carmello which I understood to be a determinate. Anyone out there in Tomatoville know if these are the same tomato with a different name.

jwr

[MikeInCypress]

Carmello is a French Import. I would say it is semi determinate rather than determinate. It has always continued to fruit til frost for me. In my opinion they are the same variety

Michael

[carolyn137]

Renee Shepherd was the first to offer both Carmello and Dona as F1 hybrids from France back in the early 90's.

I grew them both and never grew either one again. I recall the plants as being compact, but not indet, and would agree maybe semi-det.

However, over the years I've also seen both offered as OP's as well.

[michael johnson]

I have grown it once or twice previously, I found it cropped very well- with fairly large tomatoes, but they seemed to be a bit on the watery side- only average flavour, and a bit prone to leaf deseases- especialy in late july/August time.

[Adriana]

Carmello was a huge producer for me but just above average in flavor. The fruits were uniform to a flaw = they look like store tomatoes.

[nctomatoman]

The warning about any of the three Shepherd French varieties (Carmello, Dona, and Lorissa) that appeared in the 1980's is that they were all hybrids but not explicitly described as so (or at least it was hidden in very long text) - so quite a few people saved seed and reoffered them. It is very likely that plants from saved seed had minor or significant differences from the hybrids, so who knows what is out there these days!