is bull's heart stable?

[tjg911]

i got seeds from duh_vinci so i know they should be correct. all the fruits on my plant, and there are many, are hearts but for 1 giant beefsteak!

tom

[Tania]

Tom,

Is this beefsteak fruit on the same plant where you have the heart-shaped fruits?

I know that Bull's Heart is stable, but there are many varieties called 'Bull's heart', which may or may not be the same.

Tania

[tjg911]

yes. there are about 12 or more pretty good sized hearts and 1 huge beefsteak! i have picked 5 or 6 fruits (the beefsteak today) but all of the picked ones are in the slightly colored stage and not ripe yet sitting on the table. i got seeds from the source (duh_vinci) so this is why i'm sure it is bull's heart ("Bychye Serdtse Rozovoe" which translates exactly into "Bull's Heart Pink").

what do you think?

tom

[Tania]

Tom,

In my garden I occasionally see some variation in fruit shapes on the same plant. According to my observations, the 'offtype' shapes usually appear when the fruit set happens when the weather conditions are not favorable for fruit set. Sometimes fused blossoms produce some odd shapes. So I think this is what you have.

It would be interesting to compare the sliced fruits and the number of seeds in both hearts and the beefsteak fruit. I am assuming they are all the same color, right?

Tania

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by tjg911

yes. there are about 12 or more pretty good sized hearts and ................1 huge beefsteak!
tom

I agree with Tania. It's probably just a fused bloom fruit. A megabloom would be capable of almost any shape. And......you do say you have only one "HUGE" tomato on the plant. When you harvest, cut the big one and one other by slicing from stem end to bloom end. That should show the "heart" pattern of the central core.

[tjg911]

thanks.

yes all the bull's hearts and the huge beefsteak shaped one from the same plant have really gotten pink over the past 36 hours inside. so the color is correct it is just the shape that threw me.

thought i had another "mystery" tomato, already have 1 this year tho on that plant all the fruits are the same shape.

tom

[Tania]

Tom,

I found a picture that I took just 2 days before all my plants died from late blight - it shows fruits on the same truss that are different shapes. It is not uncommon in my garden as I mentioned earlier. The variety is Hayslip.

[tjg911]

gee i never knew this and frankly i have never seen any tomato plant of any variety produce a fruit that was not the correct shape (or color) in all the years i have gardened. this can't be that common or i'd have noticed it before.

so to be clear, any heart shaped tomato has always produced heart shaped tomatoes

and

any oblate shaped tomato has always produced oblate shaped tomatoes

and

any plum shaped tomato has always produced plum shaped tomatoes

and so it goes.

now i could discuss my 1 yellow prue that is yellow prue and it's oddities but that's coming soon in an email to those who are growing yellow prue. i am waiting for more fruits to ripen before i start talking about what i am seeing but at least they are all prue shaped. now that "other yellow prue plant" that has produced 2 or 3 red oblate shaped fruits, well that's a whole nother deal as to fruit shapes and i am definitely waiting for more to ripen before i discuss what i am seeing in an email!

tom

[Tania]

Tom, the reason it is not uncommon in my garden is because of our long spells of cold and rainy weather in spring and early summer. When environmental conditions are stable, all the fruits are formed true to type.

Btw, I found an early pic of the Yellow Prue with some baby fruit - just before I lost the plants

[tjg911]

looks like mine at that stage.

tom

[fortyonenorth]

I don't know if this applies to your situation, but Carolyn was discussing this same issue on another thread here. She referenced a post by Mulio on GW. I'll link to the TV thread and you can follow it from there if you wish.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...t=mulio&page=3

[tjg911]

thanks, apparently this happens tho i never saw shapes different than what i should have gotten.

maybe this year is making up for that! i have tiny sun gold cherries, more fruits than usual but tiny tiny tomatoes! then there's the bull's heart mega beefsteak and i am getting unexpected results on a yellow prue (color is pure lemon yellow or streaked with red, and one is so yellow and red it is almost turning orange as it ripens) then a plant that should be yellow prue that has red oblate fruits and what now looks like heart shaped fruits.

it's like watching a fast paced movie!

tom

[erlyberd]

Tom, When am I coming over for a taste test! LOL

[dice]

Seeds of Change used to market a variety that they said was the
result of a breeding experiment that "would produce 3 different fruit
types on the same plant". I do not think one of them was a heart
shape, but I do not remember the exact details.

I looked through their listings, but I do not see anything that might be
it now. (I forgot the cultivar name that they listed it under. Three Sisters?
Named after the Native American agricultural technique? Anyway,
apparently it can happen for simple genetic reasons.)

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by dice

Seeds of Change used to market a variety that they said was the
result of a breeding experiment that "would produce 3 different fruit
types on the same plant". I do not think one of them was a heart
shape, but I do not remember the exact details.

I looked through their listings, but I do not see anything that might be
it now. (I forgot the cultivar name that they listed it under. Three Sisters?
Named after the Native American agricultural technique? Anyway,
apparently it can happen for simple genetic reasons.)

I know what you're talking about and it wasn't named Three Sisters but I can't think of the name of it either.

And I do read/post at several sites and I don't think I ever saw anyone refer to it, whatever it was.