elongated plum types

[frogsleapfarm]

This year I'm trying some "new to me" elongated plum type varieties; Opalka, Rinaldo, Giannini, and VB-Russia. Any experience here with one or more of these? I'm also going to try Striped Roman and Casady's Folly to look at some striped types.

[PVP]

Of those, I have only grown Opalka and think it's a great tomato. For me though, I ended up eating every single one fresh on salads mainly or in salsa. Tasted too good to toss in a pot for sauce.

Think I'll send you some Romeo seeds because they make huge fruit ... one to 2 pounds ... same shape, very meaty, with only about 20 - 25 seeds per tomato and basically all meat.

With your skill at crossing tomatoes, I hope you will cross Romeo x Opalka. That might greatly improve the Romeo flavor, which in itself is not bad but not nearly as good as Opalka.


Bill

[camochef]

Opalka has been a favorite up until this past season. I also ate the majority of them like candy everytime I entered the gardens. This past year was extremely cool and wet and they didn't fair too well. They produced like a champ, plenty of long, somewhat bloated looking fruits, but they tasted very bland and watery.
The winner in elongated paste tomatoes last year for me was Wessel's Purple Pride, (a cross between Cherokee Purple and Sausage). It not only produced very well, it tasted great, and it was the neatest looking tomato in the gardens. It had an almost metalic look to it's dark purple skin with its green shoulders. Fruits weren't as large as the Opalka's, averaging five inches to the Opalka's 6-7 inches, but it made up in the amount that each plant produced.
I'll definately be planting more in the future, but I'm not condeming Opalka's either just because of one years bad weather conditions.
Camo

[darthslater]

Opalka is a great tomato, however I have obtained seed from my realatives that live in Sicaly, it was like smuggeling drugs but I have them. These are reminicsent of the san marzano strain , however,much larger! They also do not succumb to blossemend rot as easily. There are those that say a healthy dose of clam shell will not cure this , WRONG time and time again I have proven this as fact by adding clamshell mix to the soil before planting a so called sauce tomato, there are those who will argue that the tomatoes cannot process vitamin d through the stems, I never argue with RESULTS!!!

Darth

[frogsleapfarm]

Camo - Wessel's sounds interesting. Do you know a seed source?

[sorellina]

Ciao Froggie-

Opalka is one of my top 5 favourite tomatoes period. I use them for anything you'd use a tomato for. This year, I'm trialing several new to me large red pastes, but I always go back to Opalka and Uncle Charlie's Giant Italian Pear, my family heirloom, a huge bomb-shaped red paste. I've got plenty of seed if you'd like to try that one as well. Striped or Speckled Roman is a great tomato to use for Caprese Salad to show off the stripes, but it can be a bit sickly as a seedling. I've grown it 3 times and I always have to baby them a bit until they get going.

[camochef]

Feb 18, 2010 8:32:45 GMT -5 frogsleapfarm said:

Camo - Wessel's sounds interesting. Do you know a seed source?

I received them from a fellow tomato grower and good friend from Indiana. Sorry, I don't give out names of those that aren't professional growers or dealers. But I can say he's the same one that gave me Goatbag, Spudakee, Indian Stripe, Jd's special C-Tex, Rose, Earl's Faux, Porkchop. Tom's Yellow Wonder, Pink Berkley Tie-dye, Cherokee Green,and some other hard to find tomatoes and some really great peppers a couple years back.
I think he cut back on his gardening last year, and I haven't heard much from him this year.
I sent out almost all my surplus seed from this past season, as I want to cut back drasticly, so I'm afraid I can't help you this late in the season. Perhaps some I sent seed too will have enough to share a few. Good Luck, they're well worth searching for!
Camo

[frogsleapfarm]

Thanks Camo, I appreciate the heads up - I'll start looking.

Mark

[PVP]

Mark, I can tell from Camo's list of tomatoes that I trade with the same Hoosier from whom he got Wessels, and I'll try contacting him in the next few days on your behalf.

Bill

[frogsleapfarm]

Thanks Bill.

[camochef]

frogsleapfarm,
Mark, I also sent an e-mail to the person I got the seeds from along with the address to this forum. I hope to see him join and answer your questions personally, but I haven't heard back from him yet. Might be out of town???
So hopefully you'll learn something soon before it's too late in the season.
Camo

[PVP]

Frogs, I am sorting thru seeds this week and found about 30 Wessel's Purple Pride from another Hoosier grower over in Seymour, Indiana, grown in 2008. I'll be including 10 or 15 seeds for Wessel's in my next package to you.

Bill

[frogsleapfarm]

Thanks Bill. I'll save seed and send some back at the end of the season.

Mark