Heart Shaped Omar's Lebanese!

[Spartanburg123]

The verdict is in, and these tomatoes are absolutely delicious! Very sweet, and have the classic tomato taste. I've only harvested these two fruit, more to come. The larger fruit was catfaced so bad that the heart shape is not obvious like the others. Very few seeds were collected from these two- about 12 from the smaller one, and 20 from the larger.

I have never seen a heart variety with leaves as broad and dense as this. Great tomato!!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Spartanburg123

Okay, first blushing fruit of this heart-shaped tomato. Still don't know whether it's a stray seed, or a bee cross. My gut tells me that this is actually a spontaneous mutation, as the leaves are massive and not spindly like the known varieties of heart-shaped tomatoes. I compared the leaf habit to the Omar's Lebanese next to it, from the same seed pack. Ripe pictures to come, along with a taste review!

Thanks for your interest....

Darin

Yes, I'm still very interested.

First, not all heart varieties have wispy highly dissected leaves.

Second, I just checked the picture of Omar in my tomato book and the leaves are exactly as you pictured.

Is there a thirdly? If so, here is Tania's page again but not many showing leaf form.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Omar%27s_Lebanese

Fourthly, Google IMAGES which shows more pictures of leaf from than the others.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...89.lNU2vrDi3iU

And now updating from your most recent pictures.

Looks like a blunt pink heart. All hearts on just one plant and all other Omar plants gaves the typical beefsteak shape/

Seeds from a commercial source that were used/

So whatever happened happened at the place where Totally Tomatoes was getting their seed from and how the tomatoes were grown.

Could it be a bee cross and one of the blossoms was pollinated? Only way for you to know is to save seeds from heart fruits, the F2 seeds, and plant out several plants in order to see possible genetic segregation.

Could it be a mutation? I don't think so. Using Orange Minsk as an example there were BOTH heart and beefsteak fruits on the same plant, the heart ones were sent to me.

Could it be a stray seed that got into the commercial pack and the variety is already known? Yes, that's a distinct possibility.

As for me, mama to OL, I'd love for it to be a genetically stable heart, so we shall see.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

[Spartanburg123]

Carolyn- are you planting these seeds out this year? I inboxed you about it a few weeks ago, but never heard from you- don't know how often you check. I am not growing it, no room at this time. Hopefully you'll grow a few and confirm the heart shape!

Thanks!!!

Darin

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Spartanburg123

Carolyn- are you planting these seeds out this year? I inboxed you about it a few weeks ago, but never heard from you- don't know how often you check. I am not growing it, no room at this time. Hopefully you'll grow a few and confirm the heart shape!

Thanks!!!

Darin

Yes Darin, two of my seed producers are growing out the seeds you sent this summer.

I'm sorry I didn't get back to you but I am terribly behind on answering both PM's and e-mails,and now this Verizon strike here on the East Coast has done a number on us.

I've been kicked off 4 times in the past 3 days,have lost several posts I've done for others, and when Freda was just here she said her DIL who has a very important job as an auditor for a large bank was also having problems and named two others as well.

The modem light will show all is OK,but it's not and so I played Solitaire,kept trying,finally got on,but who knows for how long this will last.

Carolyn

[Spartanburg123]

Excellent Carolyn! Please keep me abreast of their progress! And thanks for getting back to me!

Darin

[Spartanburg123]

Dutch- can you please attach some pictures of these plants? Thanks for growing them out!!!!

Darin

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Spartanburg123

Dutch- can you please attach some pictures of these plants? Thanks for growing them out!!!!

Darin

Here's the background on Darin's request since up to now we've been communicating via PM.

I had told Darin that the seeds he sent me were being grownout by 1 or 2 of my now 7 seed producers this summer.

Darin asked me if I could put him in touch with one of them,I chose Dutch,and Dutch responded and said he had 12 plants out and every one of them was producing hearts.

I was delighted, Darin was delighted,Dutch was delighted and as I told them in a PM, Omar himself would be delighted as well,but I have no way to contact him,since it's been many years since he brought me those seeds from his family's place in the hill towns of Lebanon.

Carolyn

[Spartanburg123]

Yes, thanks for the context Carolyn! I will feel even more delighted if the taste is appreciated widely!!

[Dutch]

Carolyn's 2016 grow outs of Omar's Lebanese Heart by Dutch pictured below.
Omar'sLebaneseHeart_a.jpgOmar'sLebaneseHeart_b.jpgOmar'sLebaneseHeart_c.jpg
Thank you Omar, Darin, And Carolyn.
Dutch

[Spartanburg123]

Those look exactly like what I grew last year! Keep me updated on how they progress, taste, disease tolerance, etc. I am thrilled beyond words!!

Thanks!


Darin

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Spartanburg123

Those look exactly like what I grew last year! Keep me updated on how they progress, taste, disease tolerance, etc. I am thrilled beyond words!!

Thanks!


Darin

“Well bless our pea-pickin heart”.
Dutch

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Spartanburg123

Those look exactly like what I grew last year! Keep me updated on how they progress, taste, disease tolerance, etc. I am thrilled beyond words!!

Thanks!


Darin

Darin, as far as I know there should be no difference with taste or disease tolerance based on other varieties that have a mutation that allows for a heart form.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Orange_Minsk


http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Orange_Minsk_Heart

What I haven't done is to compare the foliage of Omar's with the picture in my book with the new heart form foliage. They look the same to me,but I'd like you and Dutch to comment about that.

Carolyn,feeling very good right now since there WAS something really wrong with my DSL and it took Tom almost 2 hours to ID it and it was a bad module on the DSL side of the box in the basement,module for the phone was OK.

[Spartanburg123]

Carolyn- thanks, that's good information!

I posted pictures of the foliage at the beginning of this thread, a direct comparison of leaf habit. Since it was growing right next to a "normal oblate" Omar's Lebanese I would say that the leaves were noticeably larger on the heart modification.

[Dutch]

I think I've grown Omar's Lebanese in the past, but didn't take pictures of it. I will take a good look at the leaves tomorrow morning.
BER isn't a problem for me because my soil is dolomite clay. It holds water well and last year I only had to water the garden twice all year and some sections only once.
Dutch

[Spartanburg123]

Great info, Dutch! Where are you located? This plant has enormous leaves, even larger than the Omar's Lebanese "brother" that was next to it. I only tasted two fruit- and they were good!

I didn't grow it this year for a few reasons. 1) I had many other varieties to try and limited space, and 2), I wanted subjective opinions from experts regarding the characteristics of this tomato.

I'm so glad it's producing hearts as it first did in my garden, and I hope it produces buckets of awesome tomatoes to grace your table in a month or so.

Thanks!!!

Darin