Green When Ripe comparison/advice

[kerns125]

OK guys, I'm back with another comparison and request for advice.
Only want to grow one or two GWR varieties in 2016 due to space contraints.

This year I am trying to choose between Aunt Ruby's German Green, Absinthe, Green Giant, Lime Green Salad, and Malakhitovaya Shkatulka/Malachite Box.

I'm leaning toward ARGG and/or Malakhitovaya Shkatulka, and will probably also throw a Lime Green Salad plant into a deck pot for good measure since it's so compact.

Am I making a mistake by skipping Green Giant? Craig's description of it in Epic Tomatoes makes my mouth water. My main focus is flavor, if that helps. The more intense the better, and I do like tangy (ie green zebra). Last year I grew Cherokee Green and Green Zebra, and liked them both a lot....

If you could only choose one of these varieties (not Cherokee Green - yes I know it's good, but I already tried that one!), which would it be? Which is the most flavorful in your opinion?

Jen

[Gerardo]

ARGG is productive, puts out big tomatoes, and they're definitely sweet. Not a big fan of GWR so that's as far as I got, other than Green Zebra.

[KarenO]

from your list I would choose malachite box. very good. Productive, not too big. delicious flavour and hold well. Become a limey green-yellow when fully ripe.
KO

[sdambr]

I grew Malakhitovaya Shkatulka this past summer. It was very productive and early. Unfortunately the early ones were a bit mealy, but they improved tremendously with the season.

[carolyn137]

I've grown lots of GWripes since they are a favoriteof mine, and have grown several that you mention,but if I'm asked which ONE that you asked about it would have to be Malachite Box, and no way am I going to go back up and get the other spelling.

Carolyn

[Cole_Robbie]

As if you didn't have enough options, I vote for Esmerelda Golosina.

[travis]

Green Giant.

[Gardeneer]

I can bet that ARGG is the most popular and favorite of many. This is based on the repetition that I have heard and my mind has collected the data. Not scientific though.
This is the most unbiased opinion that you can get, cause I have no favorite .. so far.

[travis]

Captain Lucky

[kerns125]

Thanks, all!

Captain Lucky is on my grow list, but as a tricolor, not a GWR! So is Berkeley Tie Dye.

Sounds like a varied favorites list from people. Darn it. I think, unless a sudden surge of strong opinions come in hereafter, I'll probably go with Malachite Box this year and if I find more space I'll add another.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

Captain Lucky

So the Green Giant one you posted wasn't the end of your choices?

Captain Lucky?

C'mon Bill GWRipes are not red on the outside and tricolor in the flesh last I knew.So is Ananas Noir also a GWRipe?

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Captain_Lucky

And in the Picture Gallery please ignore the first one on the left, thank you very much.

Carolyn

[travis]

Captain Lucky is a green-when-ripe tomato that happens to have enough propensity to develop lycopene that it will express extensive bicolor red interior streaks, and under enough heat pressure, will extend its red, subcutaneous lycopene blush most of the way up the sides of the tomato from the blossom end.

I do not subscribe to the "tricolor" category. Green-when-ripe simply is gf genetics expressed in a yellow fleshed (rr) tomato. Many green when ripe tomatoes have bicolor interior red streaks. No one raised the "tricolor" flag when AAGG was mentioned earlier, yet it can have extensive interior red streaks and substantial exterior red blush under hot, sunny conditions. So can many other green-when-ripe tomatoes.

The "third" color in what y'all are referring to as a "tricolor" tomato is yellow, right? You're saying the tomato is green, red, and yellow, right? Well, my take on it is the PRIMARY color is yellow, masked by green (gf) and streak with red, regardless of the extent of the exterior red blush.

The yellow y'all are attributing as the third color is seen alongside the red streaks where the fully red lycopene in the streaking is fading in intensity into the green flesh as the chlorophyll becomes the stronger masking element. Under hot growing conditions, many times, I've seen this so-called "tricoloration" in tomatoes that otherwise under cooler growing conditions will be fully green-when-ripe with minor red interior streaking and an insignificant exterior red blush (Capt. Lucky, for example).

And then maybe the Capt. Lucky I grew was from an earlier stage of segregation, and y'all are growing a more advanced recombination that expresses more exterior red subcutaneous lycopene in the pericarp. Keep in mind, there are at least a half dozen close sister lines to Capt. Lucky, several of which some of us have grown beginning at the F2 and F3 generations.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

Captain Lucky is a green-when-ripe tomato that happens to have enough propensity to develop lycopene that it will express extensive bicolor red interior streaks, and under enough heat pressure, will extend its red, subcutaneous lycopene blush most of the way up the sides of the tomato from the blossom end.

I do not subscribe to the "tricolor" category. Green-when-ripe simply is gf genetics expressed in a yellow fleshed (rr) tomato. Many green when ripe tomatoes have bicolor interior red streaks. No one raised the "tricolor" flag when AAGG was mentioned earlier, yet it can have extensive interior red streaks and substantial exterior red blush under hot, sunny conditions. So can many other green-when-ripe tomatoes.

The "third" color in what y'all are referring to as a "tricolor" tomato is yellow, right? You're saying the tomato is green, red, and yellow, right? Well, my take on it is the PRIMARY color is yellow, masked by green (gf) and streak with red, regardless of the extent of the exterior red blush.

The yellow y'all are attributing as the third color is seen alongside the red streaks where the fully red lycopene in the streaking is fading in intensity into the green flesh as the chlorophyll becomes the stronger masking element. Under hot growing conditions, many times, I've seen this so-called "tricoloration" in tomatoes that otherwise under cooler growing conditions will be fully green-when-ripe with minor red interior streaking and an insignificant exterior red blush (Capt. Lucky, for example).

And then maybe the Capt. Lucky I grew was from an earlier stage of segregation, and y'all are growing a more advanced recombination that expresses more exterior red subcutaneous lycopene in the pericarp. Keep in mind, there are at least a half dozen close sister lines to Capt. Lucky, several of which some of us have grown beginning at the F2 and F3 generations.

First, thanks for the additional genetics discussion, always 'preciated as ya'll know.

Second, I do from time to time find a bit of pink inside the large GWRipes.

Third, where did some of you get F2 and F3 seeds for close sisterlines that you were growing? Are you suggesting that something somewhere crossed in the gardens of some of you growing them?

You also said that maybe theCaptain Lucky you grew was from an early stage of segregation, but Tania says

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Captain_Lucky

Notes that it was stable when released and Millard was also SSE listing it in the SSE YEarbook, and I checked the 2015 and he still is as well as others. Neil L in IL got it from him in 2012

So where did early segregants of Captain Lucky come from?


Carolyn, asking questions b'c she wants to but also does NOT want to do what she should be doing otherwise as in offline.

[Gardeneer]

So , what is meant by " Green When Ripe" ?
Doe it refer to its visual appearance/skin color or the flesh , or both.

As seen in this picture from Tania's Captain Lucky has primarily GREEN flesh. It seems to have more green Than Anananas Noire ( in my avatar). I never considered AN a GWR.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by kerns125

OK guys, I'm back with another comparison and request for advice.
Only want to grow one or two GWR varieties in 2016 due to space contraints.

This year I am trying to choose between Aunt Ruby's German Green, Absinthe, Green Giant, Lime Green Salad, and Malakhitovaya Shkatulka/Malachite Box.

I'm leaning toward ARGG and/or Malakhitovaya Shkatulka, and will probably also throw a Lime Green Salad plant into a deck pot for good measure since it's so compact.

Am I making a mistake by skipping Green Giant? Craig's description of it in Epic Tomatoes makes my mouth water. My main focus is flavor, if that helps. The more intense the better, and I do like tangy (ie green zebra). Last year I grew Cherokee Green and Green Zebra, and liked them both a lot....

If you could only choose one of these varieties (not Cherokee Green - yes I know it's good, but I already tried that one!), which would it be? Which is the most flavorful in your opinion?

Jen

Green Giant, the only green when ripe that I like, is a sweet tomato. Of all the greens, it's likely the closest in taste (just guessing - until next summer) to Pappy Kerns.