Suggestions for good not too late bi-color

[carolyn137]

Gary, not one of the newer varieties but Big Rainbow has always been less than the 90 + days that so many post as DTM's for so many of the bicolors. It was orginally a family heirloom from Polk County, MN so if it was grown there for a long time why not try it.

Marizol Gold is another one that has also not been that late, in my book I referred to it as being late midseason and I defined late season as being anything over 80 days.

Orange Russian 117 was not good here, could have been the season, but I love the parent Russian 117.

Over the years I've grown a heck of a lot of gold/red bicolors but they aren't my faves for the simple reason that a variety will be sweet and lucious one year and the next year with the same variety bland and mealy. So I've concluded that they are very much influenced by weather in any one season.

Some of the others have given you some suggestions as well but take any one, such as Northern Lights and I just checked the DTM's of some who listed it in the 2011 SSE Yearbook and they range from 75 days from someone in VT to 95+ days as grown elsewhere.

So get a weather forecast for next season , 2012, and then make a decision.

[swamper]

I'd recommend Little Lucky. It produced a lot more fruit than Lucky Cross. Plant several as it may be unstable for color and shape.

[Tania]

I would like to put a vote for the Hazel Mae tomato. In this my worst ever tomato year the 4 Hazel Mae plants survived the late blight and up-to-date produced 5 gigantic bi-colored fruits with very nice sweet flavor. I was impressed to see these fruits blush at the same time when smaller (and supposedly much earlier) varieties started to ripen.

If the plants survive through October, I think I will have enough seeds collected to offer in my 2012 catalog. Well, in any event, I will have some seeds

[Tania]

Originally Posted by swamper

I'd recommend Little Lucky. It produced a lot more fruit than Lucky Cross. Plant several as it may be unstable for color and shape.

Little Lucky is a stable variety. As to fruit shapes, I do agree that the plants produce fruits of variable shapes, which may be normal for this tomato (or could be just my challenging climatic conditions contributing to the variability).

On a related note, I find the colors of most of the bi-color tomatoes I grew change quite a bit when fruits mature. It is very common for me to see the bi-colors to mature to red/pink on the outside, especially when I am not in a hurry to slice them up for a salad, - and still retain the bi-colored appearance inside. This is when I find their flavor the best, most intense and sweet.

[fortyonenorth]

Tania - you're not alone with the variable shapes. I got LL seeds from you and it was very late - 90+ days. The first half dozen fruits were all small hearts. What's left on the vine (and there are quite a few) are closer to what I expected - small and oblate.

Originally Posted by Tania

Little Lucky is a stable variety. As to fruit shapes, I do agree that
the plants produce fruits of variable shapes, which may be normal for this tomato (or could be just my challenging climatic conditions contributing to the variability).

On a related note, I find the colors of most of the bi-color tomatoes I grew change quite a bit when fruits mature. It is very common for me to see the bi-colors to mature to red/pink on the outside, especially when I am not in a hurry to slice them up for a salad, - and still retain the bi-colored appearance inside. This is when I find their flavor the best, most intense and sweet.

[Tania]

Good to know I am not alone!

My original seed was from Victory Seeds.

Here is a picture where you can see some blunt heart and oval shaped tomatoes (at the bottom) - not the best picture to illustrate the variability in shapes, but unfortunately I do not have a better one: [

[RayR]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Gary, not one of the newer varieties but Big Rainbow has always been less than the 90 + days that so many post as DTM's for so many of the bicolors. It was orginally a family heirloom from Polk County, MN so if it was grown there for a long time why not try it.

I've not grown a bi-color before but this year but I grew Big Rainbow. I'm not quite sure of the purity of all the seeds in the pack because one plant produced medium size yellow tomatoes, another two produced small to medium size bi-colors, but the last plant has produces what I would expect of Big Rainbow, some big bi-color tomatoes, 2 have ripened so far, one a little over 16oz. and another 25oz. We tried the 16oz beauty so far and WOW! that was a good tomato!—EXTREMELY juicy and VERY sweet with just enough of an acid bite.