Growth habit of Indian Stripe

[Mark0820]

This is my first year planting Indian Stripe, and I have seen references at other sites and threads where people mention that Indian Stripe has a more "compact" growth habit than other plants.

Since I have limited planting space, I try to pair up plants of similar size so the larger plants don't shade the smaller ones. I would appreciate any height estimates for a full grown Indian Stripe plant in terms of feet.

Currently, I have a spot next to the Danko plants. My guess is IS is taller than Danko, but possibly shorter than other plants.

[b54red]

Indian Stripe is a fair sized plant but not one of the really big ones. If you have a long enough growing season it can get quite big. I would call it a medium sized plant but a big producer for its' size.

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by b54red

Indian Stripe is a fair sized plant but not one of the really big ones. If you have a long enough growing season it can get quite big. I would call it a medium sized plant but a big producer for its' size.

I do have a fairly long season. In general, I would say most of my tomato plants are about 8 - 10 ft. when the season ends.

[b54red]

Marko a lot of the size will be determined by whether you prune the plant to only a few stems or let everything grow. Since I prune mine they get a bit taller and spread wider on the trellis than when they are not pruned. Since most of your plants get 8 to 10 ft I would guess IS will get between 6 and 8 ft for you.

[barkeater]

Mark,

I grow in cages and Indian Stripe, like most blacks (other than Black Cherry!), does not grow tall and are compact indeterminates. They are bushy but only average about 4 - 5 feet tall. I'm growing Danko for the first time too so can't really compare them, but they should be OK together for what I've read.

[carolyn137]

As the person who first introduced Indian Stripe I would describe the plant habit as perhaps a compact indeterminate but would be definitely be larger than Danko, which I also introduced. And I mean introduce by first listing the varieties in the SSE Yearbook, seeds for IS to me by Donna, a friend in TX who got them from Arkansas and seeds for Danko from a friend of a friend who brought the seeds back to me from the former USSR, now the CIS, in 2008.

I've offered seeds for both of these in my free seed offer here at Tville.

Andrey from Belarus also distributed seed for Danko and I think it's one great red heart both taste and production-wise.

[b54red]

Carolyn, thank you very much for introducing Indian Stripe. It was my best performer last year and one of the best tasting. If it does half as well this year I will still be happy. I have not had the pleasure of trying Danko yet but maybe next year if I can wrangle some seed. My favorite heart for pure tomato flavor has been Donskoi but alas my lone plant this year has already passed on due to fusarium. I'll try to grow it in the fall but that can be quite tricky.

[kath]

Both of my Indian Stripe plants only reached about 5 1/2-6' and were pruned to 2 stems early, but later wound up with about 4 stems each. It was among the shortest indeterminates of about 170 varieties that I grew.

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by b54red

Marko a lot of the size will be determined by whether you prune the plant to only a few stems or let everything grow. Since I prune mine they get a bit taller and spread wider on the trellis than when they are not pruned. Since most of your plants get 8 to 10 ft I would guess IS will get between 6 and 8 ft for you.

I see. I only prune up to the first cluster of blossoms (leaving the highest side shoot below the first cluster and all side shoots above the first cluster).