Old German.....heart?

[Gardenrube]

Hello all! My wife purchased an old german start for me this year. It is regular leaf plant without the wispy leaves inherant in some hearts. I first thought it strange when almost all the fruit were the classic heaart shape in the 6-10 oz. range. I thought maybe it was a mixup with the tags at the nursery...however now that they are starting to ripen the color pattern is similar to the pictures of the regular Old German on Tatiana's site. The flavor is unknown since I gave away the only ripe one I had so far by accident!

Is this a mixup or a natural mutation? I will try to post some pictures soon.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Gardenrube

Hello all! My wife purchased an old german start for me this year. It is regular leaf plant without the wispy leaves inherant in some hearts. I first thought it strange when almost all the fruit were the classic heaart shape in the 6-10 oz. range. I thought maybe it was a mixup with the tags at the nursery...however now that they are starting to ripen the color pattern is similar to the pictures of the regular Old German on Tatiana's site. The flavor is unknown since I gave away the only ripe one I had so far by accident!

Is this a mixup or a natural mutation? I will try to post some pictures soon.

Old German is not a heart as you know, but if you are getting true hearts that are gold/red bicolors, there's only one that I know of and that's Orange Russian # 117.

So either a tag was not right, or moved, and it might be a good idea to go back to the place where your wife got the plant and ask them is they did stock Orange Russian # 117.

And if they didn't stock it then the seeds they used might have had some cross pollinated seed. No way to tell at this point until you ask them dorectly about Orange Russian #117 and then ask them where they got their seeds or plants for Old German.

But be sure to save some seeds from the fruits to use for next year to see if it is genetically stable. Hopeully in the meantime you and the nursery can figure out what's going on.

[feldon30]

I don't know anyone who has ever grown Old German who got what they hoped for. Either it throws a mule plant (not a single blossom or tomato), or very few small tomatoes.

I'm surprised it's become so popular at nurseries.

[Dewayne mater]

Feldon - now you know one. I grew it last year. It produced about a dozen tomatoes ranging from well over a pound to 2/3 of a pound. It was extemely late, with first fruits starting in July after everything else had quit producing due to extreme heat. It held up through the N. TX. summer when plants around it were dying. It produced a fruit that had mostly meat, with small amounts of gel/seeds. The wife and I found the fruit to taste unique to any tomato we ever had, with a mild sweet taste with a fruity nose. In short, it was suprisingly good tasting, though not as good as any of my favorites such as Brandywine, Indian Stripe and Black and Brown Boar. It was also an asethetically gorgeous fruit that was bright yellow and orange that got almost as dark a red in places inside.

I've read many of the negative things about it on Tville and elsewhere, but I'd say, if you have the room, want something different looking and good tasting, grow a plant and see what you get.

[feldon30]

Very cool. I'm glad it did well for you. I'm guessing you saved seeds? Have you grown any other bicolors?

[Dewayne mater]

It was my first and only bicolor so far. It was a nursery special. As you mentioned, nurseries seem to carry it, though it is low on the demand list on places like here and G.W. Last year was my first year growing from seed and I didn't have enough varieties to fill every slot, so I went to the nursery and saw Old Germ. and decided, what the heck. Now that I've done the seed thing, I've gotten to where I have more than I have places to grow, a great problem to have.

My circumstances forced me to use earthtainers this year and I may add more of them next year just to have more space for more options. FYI: I had very good luck with tainers, save for a BER issue, that I eventually decided (with lots of help from Ray and Ami) was being caused by direct sun on the tainers causing extreme heat and preventing proper calcium uptake. Fixed that and boom, excellent production.

[Gardenrube]

Just a quick update here: My wife said she didn't remember seeing an orange russian 117 at the nursery. I later called the nursery and they had never heard of orange russian 117. They said they order their seed in bulk from Gurneys. I asked for a list of heirlooms they sold this year: Black Krim, Brandywine, Roma, Gardeners Delight, Mortgage lifter, Aunt ruby's german green, Old german, and beefsteak.

I don't really see anything in that list or on gurneys site similar to what i have. I also cant find my usb cable to nsend a picture. I will keep looking!

[Gardenrube]

A couple other things, the dtm on these hearts has been on par with all my other tomatoes actually beating out several including, Eva pb,BTD, Marianna's Peace, and Opalka. The description for OR 117 says late (90) dtm.

Also the leaf shape is almost a rounded version of a regular leaf, the plant is huge!

[carolyn137]

If it's a stray seed and a known variety you should be able to ID it although as I said I know of only the one gold/red bicolor heart but I haven't taken the time to look around to see if there's another one.

I think the best thing to do is to save some seeds and plant it out next year to see if you get the same. If you get different plants with different fruits from the saved F2 seeds then you know it was a crossed variety.

After all, the variety Orange Strawberry, also a heart, was found as a stray seed in a commercial pack of seeds for the variety Pineapple.