Uncle Steve's Oxheart vs. Uncle Steve's Italian Plum

[Tania]

Are these different tomatoes?

(I thought I'd wait until the SSE yearbook arrives and check it out for an answer, but couldn't wait any longer :wink: )

[rxkeith]

uncle steve italian plum came from my great uncle steve who immigrated from sicily in the early 1900s. the plant is a wispy leaf leaf variety that doesn't look like much when small but grows up to be a 6 ft plus indeterminate sprawler. fruit is orangy red to deeper red when ripe, about 6-12oz in size. midseason 75-80 days. paste type, meaty, but has some juice too. so its good enough to eat fresh or for cooking or canning.
any other questions just let me know. i've been growing it for awhile now.
i don't know anything about the oxheart variety.

keith in calumet

[veggiecanner]

Now that keith answered, i just want to let you know I grew the plum type and it did well in my garden last year. I'll be growing it again this year, seperated so to save seed. The plants were productive and had a good flavor.

[bully]

I don't know of Uncle Steve's oxheart either but here are his beans and tomatoes

[Tania]

Thank you Keith and veggiecanner for the information, and thank you Bully for the picture!

I got a few seeds in a trade that were marked 'Uncle Steve's Italian Oxheart', and since I had the Uncle Steve's Italian Plum I was wondering if the 'oxheart' might be another (wrong?) name for it...

Anyway, sounds like I'll have to grow them side by side and see if they are the same. And if they are... now I know what the true name should be!

[veggiecanner]

When i grew the Uncle steves plum. It was weird, each plant of the 4 I grew had 1 or 2 extra large fruit on it. They were shaped a bit different than the rest of the fruit. But i would not call them oz heart. I did not save seed because they were planted too close to the rest of my tomatoes. i will be growing for seed this year though. The seed i have came from keith in 2003 or 4.(just for note)

[Treefrog_FL]

Tania,
How did Uncle Steve's Oxheart turn out?
I ask because maybe you got hold of some of my Uncle Steve's Oxheart seeds, which I have been circulating around here for the last few years.
If so, the plant is regular leaf, vigorous, indeterminate, not at all wispy.
The fruits are red, heart shaped, tend to be quite large early on, many over a pound, some have grown two pounders, with very few seeds.
My uncle, who was from Filicudi, Italy moved to the US when he was a young boy. He worked on developing this tomato in Massachusetts during the late 1930's. He simply called it Oxheart. It was grown by all the old Italians in the family for years.


Uncle Steve's Plum are more of a paste tomato.
I haven't grown those yet.

Treefrog

[carolyn137]

AS Treefrog knows, he sent me some seeds right before I fell and it's one of the varieties that BC day is growing out for me for seed production so I can list it in the SSE Yearbook for 2007.

And Treefrog and Nancy have been communicating about it.

She says she doesn't have a lot of them that have ripened for seed but I told her not to worry.

The two others that she's doing seed production on for me that I will be listing in the 2007 Yearbook are Joe's Portuguese and Perito Italian and lots of seed for both. Perhaps even enough to offer here with some others if I decide to do an offer this year.

And I have to contact Shoe in NC about the other two he's doing for me, both of which I've grown before but didn't get enough seed to list and then I have to check with Tree in Maine for a large pink heirloom from Germany that was sent to me.

My main problem is that the background on Perito and Joe's Portuguese are in e-mails that were in my faves when my faves got wiped out. I've got to call Wayne my computer guy and see if he can do a restore.

[Tania]

Treefrog,

Yes, I think my Uncle Steve's Oxheart fits your description - so it must be some of your seeds that were traded around among GW members last fall...

The fruits were red, heart shaped, 8-19 oz, and the plant was tall indet with not so wispy foliage, as you described. Late fruits were pretty good, the early fruits had some hollow cavities, must be environmental...

Here are some pictures I took back in August



I think I have a ripe fruit picture somewhere, but I have to find it and put it on the web, can't do it from work.

[Treefrog_FL]

That certainly looks like it Tania.
How was the production and taste in BC?
A friend in Connecticut has grown the 2 lb tomatoes for the last couple of years. It's his favorite tomato now.
He does have pictures.
It does quite well here in Florida too. Everyone loves it.
But any tomato grown in FL winter doesn't come close to the flavor of northern summer grown ones.

My uncle is in his 90's now, living in NH.
He hasn't grown tomatoes in a while, but this year he tried, only to have them wiped out by the wet,wet spring and early summer.
He's happy when I tell him his tomato is making its way around the world.

TF

[kdlund]

Originally Posted by rxkeith

uncle steve italian plum came from my great uncle steve who immigrated from sicily in the early 1900s. the plant is a wispy leaf leaf variety that doesn't look like much when small but grows up to be a 6 ft plus indeterminate sprawler. fruit is orangy red to deeper red when ripe, about 6-12oz in size. midseason 75-80 days. paste type, meaty, but has some juice too. so its good enough to eat fresh or for cooking or canning.
any other questions just let me know. i've been growing it for awhile now.
i don't know anything about the oxheart variety.

keith in calumet

I have been looking for this tomato for a long time. Is there anyway I can get seeds. I can't get them to send me any from Canada. Or does anyone know where I can get seeds in the US

[rxkeith]

you can get some from me.
if you want to try the pole beans from my great uncle, i can send you
a few of those too.
send me a pm with your address, and i will send some your way.






keith