Is Martino's Roma a Rugose Dwarf Paste ???

[DiggingDogFarm]

Any idea where I can obtain seed for the Martino's that actually is rugose?
I'd like to compare it to the regular leaf 'strain'.


Thanks!

~Diggin'

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DiggingDogFarm

Any idea where I can obtain seed for the Martino's that actually is rugose?
I'd like to compare it to the regular leaf 'strain'.


Thanks!

~Diggin'

#182 - MARTINO’S ROMA 83 days – This 3 foot tall plant yields plenty of paste tomatoes! The red, pear shaped fruit weigh about 2 ounces each, and have dry, meaty flesh, with heavy, rugose-leaf foliage. Shows resistance to blossom end rot. Determinate vines.

From:

http://www.heirloomseeds.com/

I looked at Tania's seed source list and picked this source, but you might also check Jeff Casey's site which is also listed in Tania's list with a few others.

As I said above my original seeds were from Maureen Conway who was the first to list this variety in an SSE YEarbook, which reminds me that the Public SSE website/catalog is another place listed at Tania's site but I didn't take the time to check out that description either.

My seeds are too old to send to anyone. Sorry.

[simmran1]

Chiming in to say I grew from seed purchased from Kitchen Gardens in 2010 and of the 6 plants all were regular leaf plants. To me the important result is paste tomatoes in abundance. If that is the goal, Napoli is a 75 day, det., regular leaf, and M. Jones writes: 'out of over 60 paste and plum type Italian tomatoes, I grew this year this one won the grand prize, it sets out so many fruits you can barely see the foliage of the plant, red pears at 2.5-3 oz. are blemish and crack free, easily beats out any hybrid Roma you could grow, rich full flavor, if you like to can, this is your man, IA DR G'. And yes I'm growing Napoli, as my Martino's Roma plants went down early. -Randy

[DiggingDogFarm]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

......the Public SSE website/catalog is another place listed at Tania's site but I didn't take the time to check out that description either.

I posted their description above.

Casey describes it as regular leaf.

Lots of places list it as rugose, but so far all I've found were regular leaf.
This makes me think that some don't know what rugose actually means, but just copy the description from somewhere else.


~Diggin'

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DiggingDogFarm

I posted their description above.

Casey describes it as regular leaf.

Lots of places list it as rugose, but so far all I've found were regular leaf.
This makes me think that some don't know what rugose actually means, but just copy the description from somewhere else.


~Diggin'

So I went back and checked and yes, you did give the description for the SSE one in post #11.

I'm beginning to think that you may be right and that some folks don't realy know what rugose foliage looks like, and some don't distinguish well between Det and indet. And for sure some folks, commercial or otherwise often use the same exact descriptions they read from elsewhere. It happens.

At least the SSE blurb got the rugose right. But it seems to me that they would have used the seeds that Maureen Conway had submitted for the seed bank, assuming she did, and she described it as det with rugose foliage which is exactly what I got with seeds from her directly.

[DiggingDogFarm]

Glen at Sandhill lists it as dark green and rugose...Glen should certainly know what rugose means....I may order some seed from them for next year so I can get to the bottom of this! LOL
You'd think that TGS would know what rugose means, but apparently not!!!!

~Diggin'

[TomNJ]

I grew Martino's Roma two years ago and described them in my notes as "short bushy determinates, dark green rugose leaves, heavy setting". I saved seeds and am happy to share with anyone who wants to try them.

TomNJ

[zipcode]

I would describe them as 'somewhat rugose'. They're not looking quite like the dwarfs, seems to be in the middle from rugose to normal, but closer to rugose. Not very scientific i know. All you need to know is that they're quite sensitive to foliage diseases, and very set on making tomatoes, which are quite good tasting especially late in the season.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by zipcode

I would describe them as 'somewhat rugose'. They're not looking quite like the dwarfs, seems to be in the middle from rugose to normal, but closer to rugose. Not very scientific i know. All you need to know is that they're quite sensitive to foliage diseases, and very set on making tomatoes, which are quite good tasting especially late in the season.

I've found the exact opposite of you in that any rugose variety that I've grown has been quite tolerant of the common foliage diseases and the same holds true for most PL varieties that I grow.

I've attributed that to perhaps the thicker leaf epidermis of both rugose and PL plants but have absolutely no scentific data to back up my suggestion.