Do you know the name of this striped paste type?

[Indyartist]

First just to let everyone know how I ended up in this condition of having an un-named paste tomato, I started growing heirloom tomatoes back in the early 90' (1990's not 1890's ) long before I had the internet. I've now after about a 10 year lapse have come back to it. When I was growing from seed and until just lately I was the only one I knew doing it. So, my sorting saving methods were not accurate as they would be if I had ever envisioned trading seeds with people who knew more about the art then myself. So, on with our story:
I purchased seeds for this paste tomato from Tomato Grower's Supply for my 2009 garden. Grew it, photographed it and saved the seeds which I can re-grow this year( I did not grow this variety in 2010) but I do not know specifically what the name of this variety is. I marked the seeds "Striped Paste" but this is likely more of a description but possibly also the name. I've included some pictures which show it's look and also it in scale with some other tomatoes like Black Cherry, Yellow Pear Cherry and Azoychka.

After thinking twice about it, it is possible the seeds were purchased for my 2008 garden but in either case they were from TGS. I looked in my 2011 catalog and couldn't find this variety.

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

I purchased seeds for this paste tomato from Tomato Grower's Supply for my 2009 garden. Grew it, photographed it and saved the seeds which I can re-grow this year( I did not grow this variety in 2010) but I do not know specifically what the name of this variety is. I marked the seeds "Striped Paste" but this is likely more of a description but possibly also the name. I've included some pictures which show it's look and also it in scale with some other tomatoes like Black Cherry, Yellow Pear Cherry and Azoychka.

Did you check what paste varieties Tomato Growers' Supply had for the 2008 or 2009 season (a paper catalogue from 2008 or possibly 2007 is best)? Your pictures also look very much like Striped Roman, a John Swenson creation.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by GunnarSK

Did you check what paste varieties Tomato Growers' Supply had for the 2008 or 2009 season (a paper catalogue from 2008 or possibly 2007 is best)? Your pictures also look very much like Striped Roman, a John Swenson creation.

I'll dig down in my basement but I certainly did not have the good foresight to intentionally save the old catalogs. Saving the catalogs, at least one per year, does sound like a pretty darn good idea now though.

[Indyartist]

I found another picture of this variety still green on the plant.

[carolyn137]

I have the 2009 TGS catalog and just took a look at the paste ones and don't see anything that matches exactly the shape of what you show and nothing that's striped.

So I read down through the index and still didn't see anything like what you describe.

When I look at your fruits I don't see distinct striping and I mention that b'c if one looks at the pictures of Howard German and San Marzano Redorta, for instance, there are a few long orange vertical areas, but I think that's a photography issue since while I haven't grown the Redorta one I have grown Howard German and it's solid red.

I just looked again and the variety Rocky also shows some orange, but certainly not striped.

When you were growing it were the stripes definite orange on red and appeared around the complete fruit?

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I have the 2009 TGS catalog and just took a look at the paste ones and don't see anything that matches exactly the shape of what you show and nothing that's striped.

So I read down through the index and still didn't see anything like what you describe.

When I look at your fruits I don't see distinct striping and I mention that b'c if one looks at the pictures of Howard German and San Marzano Redorta, for instance, there are a few long orange vertical areas, but I think that's a photography issue since while I haven't grown the Redorta one I have grown Howard German and it's solid red.

I just looked again and the variety Rocky also shows some orange, but certainly not striped.

When you were growing it were the stripes definite orange on red and appeared around the complete fruit?

As for how striped it was or this years will be is best shown in the photos I've posted. I think both my photo of the tomato still green on the vine and the then ripened fruit shows what degree the "striping" is. I have went back again to my photo, as my memory is suspect but my photo is marked by my digital camera, and the green version was taken 7/ 12/ 08 and ripened on my kitchen table was taken 8/8/2008. So, my original thought (post) was about a year off and these photos are from my 2008 garden. I do think they were described as striped in TGS and I would consider them striped but I am not familiar with any of the other varieties you mentioned.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by GunnarSK

Did you check what paste varieties Tomato Growers' Supply had for the 2008 or 2009 season (a paper catalogue from 2008 or possibly 2007 is best)? Your pictures also look very much like Striped Roman, a John Swenson creation.

I did a "Bing" search of "Striped Roman" and found this link which is a variety with the same coloring and amount of striping. The only difference in my fruit is that they were not as elongated and pointy as the example picture on this link. This may be the variety though. This "Striped Roman" also seems to be known by "Speckled Roman" as well.
I would like to name the seeds accurately though so I'm not accused or don't inadvertently misname the tomatoes I have.

[OneoftheEarls]

Yours

Striped Romans


Speckled Roman


variance in shape


John Swenson, a member of Seed-Savers Exchange, developed these by crossing two old varieties; Banana Legs and Antique Roman.
I think they are two names for the same cross.
I found information that shows a sport called Roman Holiday but could not find photos nor a commercial source.

[salix]

My immediate thought was Striped (or Speckled) Roman - but the ones I've grown were a bit larger...

[Indyartist]

What to do now? Everything seems to point to "Striped Roman" especially the coloring but what to make of my small Roma shaped compared to what seems an extreme variance in size and shape from the original? Would you/ should I call these "Striped Roman" or do I have some sort of new variant? My beautiful Greek wife commented," The fall of the Roman Empire!"

[RinTinTin]

I would contact the vendor and ask them. Now that you know the year, they should be able to ID it based on their varieties that year.

BTW, that Striped Roman photo looks beautiful...how's the flavor?

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by RinTinTin

I would contact the vendor and ask them. Now that you know the year, they should be able to ID it based on their varieties that year.

BTW, that Striped Roman photo looks beautiful...how's the flavor?

I can say as for my version of it, my wife really liked them. I will grow them this year and will document the whole result. Actually the more I think about it the more I remember, I grew the Striped Roman (or that is what I assume) and the Azoychka (which is a wonderful yellow beefsteak type) and did not get seeds saved from either in 2008 but in both instances I had a single volunteer plant that grew in 2009 that I saved the seeds from. In the case of the Azoychka it was a small plant that wasn't tended and actually only produced one fruit that I saved the seeds from. The Azoychka I grew in 2010 and it was my best overall producing tomato and is on my top 5 all time list and my 20 yr daughter has already talked about how delicious one of the ones I gave her were. I'll try and contact Tomato Grower's and see if they can tell me if these should be the Striped Roman.

[TZ-OH6]

Here is the paste list from TGS 2008, but none looked to be striped.

Bellstar
Classica VFFNA Hybrid
Giant Paste
Grandma Mary's Paste
Halley 3155 VFF
Howard German
Hungarian Italian
Italian Red Pear
Jersey Devil
LaRoma II VFFNA Hybrid
Mama Leone
Margherita VF Hybrid
Martino's Roma
Opalka
Polish Linguisa
Principe Borghese
Rio Grande VFF
Rocky
Roma VF
San Marzano
San Marzano Redorta
Sausage
Super Italian Paste
Super Marzano VFNT Hybrid
Victoria Supreme VFFNA Hybrid
Viva Italia VFFNA Hybrid

[carolyn137]

I had a single volunteer plant that grew

*****

Is there any chance that what you have now, as for seeds, might have come from the volunteer plant you refer to? If so, if you don't bag blossoms then the fruits of that plant could be F1 crossed fruits and the striping form a variety that you or a neighbor might have grown. Insect pollinators can fly long distances.

Above you said that you didn't recognize any of the varieties I mentioned, but they were straight out of the 2009 TGS catalog and you'll see them in the long list that TZ just posted as well.'What I'd do is to NOT call, rather e-mail TGS and ask what striped pastes they offered in the time span 2008 and 2009 although I know thre were none in the 2009 catalog.

I can't remember Linda offering Speckled Roman, or any other striped pastes but my memory is certainly far from being perfect/
The reason I suggest e-mailing is b/c this is THE busiest time of the year for TGS and ALL seed companies and it's not seeds you're ordering and I think it might be better to let Linda look for some time of her own where she can chack back catalogs for you.

Just a gentle suggestion, knowing Linda as I have since about 1991; one fine lady and one fine company IMO.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I had a single volunteer plant that grew

*****

Is there any chance that what you have now, as for seeds, might have come from the volunteer plant you refer to? If so, if you don't bag blossoms then the fruits of that plant could be F1 crossed fruits and the striping form a variety that you or a neighbor might have grown. Insect pollinators can fly long distances.

Above you said that you didn't recognize any of the varieties I mentioned, but they were straight out of the 2009 TGS catalog and you'll see them in the long list that TZ just posted as well.'What I'd do is to NOT call, rather e-mail TGS and ask what striped pastes they offered in the time span 2008 and 2009 although I know thre were none in the 2009 catalog.

I can't remember Linda offering Speckled Roman, or any other striped pastes but my memory is certainly far from being perfect/
The reason I suggest e-mailing is b/c this is THE busiest time of the year for TGS and ALL seed companies and it's not seeds you're ordering and I think it might be better to let Linda look for some time of her own where she can chack back catalogs for you.

Just a gentle suggestion, knowing Linda as I have since about 1991; one fine lady and one fine company IMO.

Thanks Carolyn,
I am certain the seeds I have now came from the single volunteer plant that
came in 2009. My original planting and all my photos are from 2008. The longer this post gets the more accurate. I remembered somewhere in the posts above that the photos were from 2008 and the volunteer came in 2009 which I saved seeds from. I'll take your advice on the e-mail.