Question on origin of Eva's Purple Ball

[zeroma]

I am wondering what the ral history of Eva's Purple Ball is? I first heard of it in an older issue of Organic Gardening as being the winner of most productive tomato in whatever class it was listed.

Other than that bit,
who grows it,
how does it do for you,
what zone are you in
any problems with it
how do you use it, slicer, canning?

I'm planning to grow it next year and really curious about it.

Thanks,

Zeroma

[rsg2001]

A great site to look for such information on tons of varieties is Tatiana's TomatoBase. Here is the link to Eva Purple Ball which came to the U.S. via the Black Forest region of Germany. It is also one of my favorite varieties as it's pretty consistent, and the tomatoes are fantastic.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Eva_Purple_Ball

[RayR]

Consistent is right, always produces lots of those perfectly shaped pink tomatoes, never any cracking. I use them as a small slicer or cut up in salads. I don't can, so have no opinion there.
No problems with it at all, it's worth growing.

[dustdevil]

It's a wonderful tomato. It has one minor fault. I like to vine ripen mine and EPB has the propensity of dropping really ripe tomatoes on the ground. It also doesn't keep very long once it's ripe.

[Fusion_power]

It shows lots of genetics that are NOT typical of heirlooms and one specific trait that is common only in S. Penneli. I am of the opinion that it is a relatively modern creation. I like it for production, but flavor is in the 7.5 to 8.0 range for me.

When used as the female parent in a cross, it produces plants that are more productive than either parent most of the time. I have a stabilized cross of Big Beef X Eva Purple Ball that looks almost exactly like the EPB parent but has better disease tolerance. Randy Gardner used the (BB X EPB) in a cross with one of his disease tolerant red tomatoes and it turned out to be the most productive tomato that I have ever grown. In field conditions, I got an average of 85 pounds per plant in my garden this year. That is exceptionally high considering that a very productive variety rarely exceeds 50 pounds per plant.

DarJones

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by rsg2001

A great site to look for such information on tons of varieties is Tatiana's TomatoBase. Here is the link to Eva Purple Ball which came to the U.S. via the Black Forest region of Germany. It is also one of my favorite varieties as it's pretty consistent, and the tomatoes are fantastic.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Eva_Purple_Ball

It was Joe Bratka, the original source of seeds to me who has introduced many varieties. I convinced him to join SSE and co-list Eva with me, and he did, but then SSE was not for him.

Some of you may know him for the various so called white ones he bred such as Snow White, Super Snow White, Rabbit and Ghost.

He also bred all the sara thises and that's in many colors and passed them off as heirlooms when indeed they were not.

The only authentic heirloom ones I got from Joe were Eva, not Eva's, Purple Ball, Marizol Purple and Marizol Gold ( a great gold/red bicolor). He then went on to actually breed other colored marizols such as a red and pink.

Then came the incident with what he called Purple Brandywine which he also passed off as an heirloom, but he bred that one as well. When I asked him about it he said if folks wanted heirlooms, he'd breed them.

I convinced him to change the name to Marizol Bratka b/c the initial cross that led to Purple Brandywine was a cross between Brandywine and Marizol Purple, but he'd already distributed seeds as Purple Brandywine, so the two names exist, but almost everyone has switched to Marizol Bratka as I think is only right to use his name so folks know it isn't an heirloom.

And where does the word Marizol come from? A german student I taught told me that it's a shortened version of Maria's Zell, which means Maria's town/ village and Maria's Zell is found in the Black Forest of Germany,

Ok, more than you wanted to know but there you go anyway.

[zeroma]

Thanks rsg2001

I do use that link a lot, even though I didn't look it up there before asking my questions.

[zeroma]

Carolyn,

Now that's what I'm talking about! You answered my curious mind. I have read your previous posts about the Purple Brandywine and really wanted to know more about the possible 'not really an heirloom' issue with some of the wonderful tomatoes out in the world.

So is Eva as you state, the real heirloom and Eva's Purple Ball a newer open pollinated version of Eva by Joe?


zeroma

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by zeroma

Carolyn,

Now that's what I'm talking about! You answered my curious mind. I have read your previous posts about the Purple Brandywine and really wanted to know more about the possible 'not really an heirloom' issue with some of the wonderful tomatoes out in the world.

So is Eva as you state, the real heirloom and Eva's Purple Ball a newer open pollinated version of Eva by Joe?


zeroma

Yes, Eva Purple Ball is a real heirloom. That one and the two Marizols I mentioned above. This was before Joe decided he was going to breed heirloom varieties.

Some seed site changed the name to Eva's, which was wrong to do which led to some other seed sites doing the same thing, unfortunately, so no, there was just the one Eva Purple Ball first listed by Joe and myself in I think the 1991 or 1992 SSE YEarbook.

[Granite26]

Every year I keep adding more Eva Purple Ball plants to my grow. Great flavor, very productive and nice blemish free fruit. A winner for me here in WI.

[Longlake]

Originally Posted by zeroma

I am wondering what the ral history of Eva's Purple Ball is? I first heard of it in an older issue of Organic Gardening as being the winner of most productive tomato in whatever class it was listed.

Other than that bit,
who grows it,
how does it do for you,
what zone are you in
any problems with it
how do you use it, slicer, canning?

I'm planning to grow it next year and really curious about it.

Thanks,

Zeroma

EPB was a standout in my Zone 3 garden this year, and will definitely be making a comeback in 2013. It produced tons of fruit quite early, and kept churning them out. No disease problems. No deformed fruit. Just perfect tennis to baseball-sized fruit with plenty of juicy flavor. Was great on BLTs, salads, salsa and canned...totally satisfying my tomato fix until the bigger beefsteaks started repening. Even then, I kept going back to EPB for a juicy snack. Definitely worth growing!

[zeroma]

Now I''m really pumped to start growing EPB in 2013's garden. Thank all of you for sharing your wisdom and experience about this new 'favorite' want to grow plant.

How large does the plant grow for you?

[Longlake]

Originally Posted by zeroma

Now I''m really pumped to start growing EPB in 2013's garden. Thank all of you for sharing your wisdom and experience about this new 'favorite' want to grow plant.

How large does the plant grow for you?

I grew it in a CRW cage, which it easily topped...so 5 feet there. By the end of the season it was probably 7 feet, but not crazy big/bushy like some of the beefsteaks get.

I'll try to attach a pic of the ripe fruit, don't have a pic of the plant itself.

[delltraveller]

I'm growing Eva Purple Ball for the first time this year, and given it's reputation for production, I planted it in one of my more challenging in ground locations. I'm really pleased how well it's done, even in it's not so hot spot. It's surpassed 5 feet, headed to 6, in height and set a good quantity of those round mid-sized fruits when the weather gave it a chance to do so. The plant held up well in the heat and still looks pretty good. I've been going out having some discussions with it about ripening up all those green tomatoes it has on it!

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

In field conditions, I got an average of 85 pounds per plant in my garden this year. That is exceptionally high considering that a very productive variety rarely exceeds 50 pounds per plant.

DarJones

I would be interested in field trialling that in Oklahoma.