What makes it a beefsteak?

[carolyn137]

Are we there yet?

Aside from locule and other considerations I, for one, am glad that it was the f gene that allowed for the evolution of one of the tomato species from the highlands of Chile and Peru to morph into ultimately all the maybe 15-20 000 named tomato varieties we have today, exclusive of any accessions that are at the Rick Center at UC Davis or other similar places where unnamed accessions are in seed banks.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by barkeater

The definition of a beefsteak as I've always known it is what Travis said. A beefsteak has to be multilocular to meet the definition.

Bark,

So, what do I call the occasional monolocular tomato?

Trmat

[Suze]

By the by-

I was probably (I will admit deliberately ) pushing it a wee bit with the last two pics I posted - Absinthe and Terhune - but to me I think they both qualify as "beefsteak" because they are both multilocular with a few smaller intermediate locules (yep, small, but there) towards the center. Edit/add - if you disagree with my assessment, fine - but please explain why they aren't "beefsteak" to your mind and what they are categorized as then - IOW, would you say they could just be described as slicers, or is there some other term you'd use? No biggie, just more curious than anything else.

Feldon's pic of Stump of the World just screams textbook beefsteak to me though - nice example.

[barkeater]

So, what do I call the occasional monolocular tomato?

I don't know of a monolocular tomato, but cherry tomatoes are mostly bilocular.

[Tormato]

Bark,

I asked because I have a tomato variety (unknown name) that produces monolocular fruit. Maybe one every two years, or so. My estimate would be about 1 in every 100 to 200 tomatoes. The locule, in the monolocular tomato, has always been near the center of the tomato.

Gary