Lithium Sunset Heart?

Spartanburg123 · August 14, 2017

Marsha sent me seeds early in 2017. I grew Lithium Sunset- beautiful striped beefsteaks, red and yellow stripes, with excellent flavor. I gave a few seedlings to my coworker Mike, who provided a few seedlings to a friend. He observed at least three tomatoes on his plant that were blunt hearts, while the others were oblate. He saved those seeds from the affected fruit. Besides enviromental factors, is there anything else that could be going on? I'm not familiar with any striped heart tomatoes.....Thanks!

Darin

ginger2778 · August 14, 2017

Darin ,some of mine had this shape too. I think it's just responding to the heat with physiologic elongation. It's not enough of a heart , IMHO, to recognize it as an actual heart shape. Again, just my opinion. What do others of you think?

Spartanburg123 · August 14, 2017

Marsha- I agree, it looks environmental to me as well. There were only 3 or 4 like this on the plant. He did save seed to try out next year- I just thought I'd share for feedback.

oakley · August 14, 2017

Yes, I get some elongation as well on some fruit. Always worth a grow-out, but I'm
more convinced if the entire plant or at least most have that trait. And continues
through the season.
I actually did a , "oh, no" yesterday, when a nice big one on TennSuited looked like a
heart, lol. It has a good fold and quite pretty, slightly elongated. Not enough for a heart.

Spartanburg123 · August 14, 2017

Good advice Oakley!

**carolyn137** · August 14, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spartanburg123

Marsha sent me seeds early in 2017. I grew Lithium Sunset- beautiful striped beefsteaks, red and yellow stripes, with excellent flavor. I gave a few seedlings to my coworker Mike, who provided a few seedlings to a friend. He observed at least three tomatoes on his plant that were blunt hearts, while the others were oblate. He saved those seeds from the affected fruit. Besides enviromental factors, is there anything else that could be going on? I'm not familiar with any striped heart tomatoes.....Thanks!

Darin

Yes,there is a striped heart tomato, it's called Indian Stripe Heart PL, and was finally stabilized by Marina in Russia from seeds she got here at Tville from my seed offer a few years ago. She grew it out a couple of years more to be sure it was genetically stable and sent me lots of seeds this past Spring.

There's also a Cherokee Purple Heart and CP has stripes until it ripens up.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_c...ple-heart.html

Some good pictures here from Tania's link where you can see the striping much better.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/C...e_Purple_Heart

Carolyn

KarenO · August 14, 2017

Hi Darin,
There are a few hearts with an actual striped epidermis such as Brad Gates Berkeley tie dye heart for example. None that colours of lithium sunset I can think of.
It may be environmental or there may be a tendency to a heart shape trying to assert itself,
You can grow it out and see or your friend can. It's possible there is a heart in the lineage of lithium sunset. It's a gorgeous striped fruit regardless and I like that shape in the photos for the small blossom scar if nothing else.
KarenO

Spartanburg123 · August 14, 2017

Thanks Carolyn and Karen. We enjoyed the flavor of this tomato this year, and it has such a deep red/yellow color. I'll let everyone know how it turns out

D.

pondgardener · August 14, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Yes,there is a striped heart tomato, it's called Indian Stripe Heart PL, and was finally stabilized by Marina in Russia from seeds she got here at Tville from my seed offer a few years ago. She grew it out a couple of years more to be sure it was genetically stable and sent me lots of seeds this past Spring.

There's also a Cherokee Purple Heart and CP has stripes until it ripens up.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_c...ple-heart.html

Some good pictures here from Tania's link where you can see the striping much better.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/C...e_Purple_Heart

Carolyn

So Carolyn,

Is there an Indian Stripe heart that is regular leaf? I planted out 4 plants of Indian Stripe this year and one of the plants had what looks like heart shaped tomatoes. I am at work at the moment, so I don't have access to my records as to where I got the seed or to be able to post any pictures.

George

PaddyMc · August 18, 2017

As long as I've grown it, Lithium Sunset has always thrown the occasional "heart-ish" shaped fruit, but I'm convinced it's entirely environmental. It does have a cool range of shapes. Some times you get hearts, smooth and round, and flat and ruffled all on the same plant. I still have the note from Fred Hempel somewhere when he sent me seeds saying that I was welcome to distribute it since he was moving in a different direction (if I remember correctly, it was because chefs didn't like the inconsistent shape). I think it's the most beautiful striped tomato out there (in fact in my breeding notes, "lithium-type" stripes is one of the descriptors I can check). It's a great tomato that deserves to be more widly grown, and for which Fred deserves more credit.

ginger2778 · August 18, 2017

Paddy, knowing that you used it as a parent in so many of your crosses was exactly the reason I wanted to grow it. I have spread it around to quite a few in my last seed offer. Fred, I ADORE this tomato. Thank you for breeding this gift to tomato growers.

Spartanburg123 · August 18, 2017

What Marsha said above, this is truly a great creation, and I thank Fred and Paddy for doing so much to bring this to the masses.

Gardeneer · August 18, 2017

Lots of tomatoes produce some blunt heart shape tomatoes. In my garden IS-PL , Limmony, Big Beef and some others produce occasional blunt heart shape fruits But I cannot call them true heart shape.
BTW: I just went out and picked one from my IS-PL.

Labradors2 · August 18, 2017

I'm another Lithium Sunset lover who gets the occasional heart shape.

Love this mater!

Linda

JosephineRose · August 18, 2017

Looks like I'm getting one too! I'll save seeds from it and see if I get more.

BTW, when is Lithium Sunset ripe? Mine went from Green to mostly yellow with green stripes to yellow with red stripe. They are getting rather soft, but should I be waiting for it to be mostly red with yellow stripe?

August 14, 2017	#7
KarenO Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Vancouver Island Posts: 5,931	Hi Darin, There are a few hearts with an actual striped epidermis such as Brad Gates Berkeley tie dye heart for example. None that colours of lithium sunset I can think of. It may be environmental or there may be a tendency to a heart shape trying to assert itself, You can grow it out and see or your friend can. It's possible there is a heart in the lineage of lithium sunset. It's a gorgeous striped fruit regardless and I like that shape in the photos for the small blossom scar if nothing else. KarenO Last edited by KarenO; August 14, 2017 at 02:05 PM.

August 18, 2017	#13
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,919	Lots of tomatoes produce some blunt heart shape tomatoes. In my garden IS-PL , Limmony, Big Beef and some others produce occasional blunt heart shape fruits But I cannot call them true heart shape. BTW: I just went out and picked one from my IS-PL. __________________ Gardeneer Happy Gardening !

August 14, 2017	#2
ginger2778 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Plantation, Florida zone 10 Posts: 9,283	Darin ,some of mine had this shape too. I think it's just responding to the heat with physiologic elongation. It's not enough of a heart , IMHO, to recognize it as an actual heart shape. Again, just my opinion. What do others of you think?

August 14, 2017	#3
Spartanburg123 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Spartanburg, SC Posts: 1,262	Marsha- I agree, it looks environmental to me as well. There were only 3 or 4 like this on the plant. He did save seed to try out next year- I just thought I'd share for feedback.

August 14, 2017	#4
oakley Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: NewYork 5a Posts: 2,303	Yes, I get some elongation as well on some fruit. Always worth a grow-out, but I'm more convinced if the entire plant or at least most have that trait. And continues through the season. I actually did a , "oh, no" yesterday, when a nice big one on TennSuited looked like a heart, lol. It has a good fold and quite pretty, slightly elongated. Not enough for a heart.

August 18, 2017	#10
PaddyMc Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Idaho Posts: 241	As long as I've grown it, Lithium Sunset has always thrown the occasional "heart-ish" shaped fruit, but I'm convinced it's entirely environmental. It does have a cool range of shapes. Some times you get hearts, smooth and round, and flat and ruffled all on the same plant. I still have the note from Fred Hempel somewhere when he sent me seeds saying that I was welcome to distribute it since he was moving in a different direction (if I remember correctly, it was because chefs didn't like the inconsistent shape). I think it's the most beautiful striped tomato out there (in fact in my breeding notes, "lithium-type" stripes is one of the descriptors I can check). It's a great tomato that deserves to be more widly grown, and for which Fred deserves more credit.

August 18, 2017	#14
Labradors2 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Ontario Posts: 3,896	I'm another Lithium Sunset lover who gets the occasional heart shape. Love this mater! Linda

August 18, 2017	#15
JosephineRose Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: California Posts: 383	Looks like I'm getting one too! I'll save seeds from it and see if I get more. BTW, when is Lithium Sunset ripe? Mine went from Green to mostly yellow with green stripes to yellow with red stripe. They are getting rather soft, but should I be waiting for it to be mostly red with yellow stripe?