TOW-STRIPED SWEETHEART 11-27-10

[darthslater]

Ok you have heard of lucky cross and Little lucky and Little Lucky heart, but little is known about the "Other" sister, Striped Sweetheart. I just got mine this year because I am an avid heart fan and I also love stripes. My source was Lee, and I ordered them from him out of the SSE catalog. Lee, if you have a pic please post it! I checked out what Craig Leoullier had to say about it on his blog, interesting read. It also says that Striped Sweetheart is a large tomato, Yellow with Red stripes.
Any input from anyone on this would be very welcome!!

[oztom]

I'm with you Dean. Two characteristics that I love in tomatoes are hearts and stripes. Let's hope Lee, or someone else who has grown it, can post a pic.

[carolyn137]

I can't post a picture, no camera, but perhaps Lee can post a picture and there is one at Jeff Casey's website.

I grew it this past year as did Shoe in NC who was doing some seed production for me and neither of us got heart shaped fruits. And if you look at the picture at Jeff Casey's site he shows two fruits and not so much hearts either.

Since we had a group e-mail going for those who were doing seed production for me and there were Lee and Shoe and Craig LeHoullier and myself, I brought it up there.

Lee said it was at the I think F6 or F7 but it looks like it's lost the heart trait and Craig suggested to Lee that it might be good to go back and work on it a bit more, and Lee agreed.

it wasn't a good year here so I couldn't really assess taste of that one as was true for many others. But yes, it is striped and that comes from the one parent Tad.

I also grew two others that came out of the natural cross between Brandywine and Tad that Craig had sent me but both need more work. I don't have their names near me right now.

And there's another one that is going to cause confusion I'm pretty sure and already has.

Craig's friend Larry did some of the initial growouts of the cross and he named one of the selections Liam's Brandywine. And some are going to see that as another so called strain of Brandywine, but it isn't. It's not a Brandywine at all although it is a large pink, but has RL foliage. And was listed in the 2010 SSE YEarbook. There already has been a mixup that has gotten into a catalog, but no sense dwelling on that now.

And of course there's Lucky Cross and Little Lucky and Little Lucky Heart and lots of folks have used some of them in crosses with other varieties.

Last I knew keith had a good one going with Little Lucky X Sungold F1. Calling it Sunlucky, I think. Or was the one parent Lucky Cross and not Little Lucky, I can't remember right now.

Lee, please comment if I've said something that you don't agree with or can further flesh out about Striped Sweetheart.

Carolyn, who wanted to grow it to add to Lee's SSE listing of it, but it just didn't work out, sadly, so while I have lots of seed from Shoe I didn't SSE list it and won't be listing it in my free seed offer at Tville which I do every year.

Edited to add before someone asks, Tad is a variety that Tad Smith, a friend of both Craig's and mine and Tad was a three way cross he did and sent the seeds to me saying that there was a 1/64 chance of getting it, and he described what it should look like as well as senmding me a xsome schematic with the three genes noted. I put out 12 plants and was lucky to get it that first year. I sent seeds to Craig and to Tad. Tad asked that no seeds be shared until he upsized it and while we're no longer in touch with Tad, Craig and I have honored his request to not distribute seed. Tad has Ph.D in Plant Pathology and worked for a long time as head of the Late Blight Potato unit at a firm near Philly. He also is a talented tomato breeder and has bred Snowstorm and Pale Perfect Purple, both of which are available. He used to breed some F1's and send them to Craig and myself and some of them were wonderful. Craig has a photographic memory and can remember some of the parentages on those, now long gone, but I can't remember those parentages except one was a great heart.

[lee]

Here's some photos of this one for your viewing pleasure.
Not so sure about the large size description from Craig. Typically, this one comes in around 4 oz.
Carolyn has pretty much got the story straight one this one. I
figured two years of a "heart" shape fruit in the F5/F6 generations would consider it stable, but the past two seasons, it has given
me mostly oblate shaped fruit. However, the coloration, size, potato
leaf shape, productivity, and taste have all been exactly the same.
So, could I have had 2 years of environmentally induced shapes???
Could be.... however the taste of this one alone makes it a great one
to trial. I'm partial to tomatoes with a bite, and this is one of the few
sweet tasting varieties that I actually enjoy.

Here's the fruit the year before the naming. The label shows the generations from Craig's re-growout of the original BWxTad that I
got seeds from.
The fruit at 1 o-clock shows the pointy heart shape really well.


And here's the fruit the following year. You can see the heart shape
much better in this photo.



Lee

[jcm05]

Lee, how do you compare the taste to Lucky Cross?

[carolyn137]

I'm partial to tomatoes with a bite, and this is one of the few
sweet tasting varieties that I actually enjoy.

*****

IS what Lee wrote.

And I can say that even though it wasn't a good year here my fruits of SS, and there were lots, were not on the sweet side at all, and I forgot to say above that ALL of my fruits were round. Shoe remarked near the end of the season in NC that he got one fruit that tended towards an elongated bottom, so was that one also due to environmental influences? Could be and Lee has spoken to that in his post above. I know I've had some varieties that have had elongated bottoms, not really hearts, due to something environmental, b'c normally they wouldn't.

John, I'll let Lee speak to the taste of SS as compared with Lucky Cross, as you requested.

Carolyn, off to watch the tennis semi-finals from London, that is, in her own LR. ;D

[darthslater]

Thank you everyone for the info, I will make sure to plant most or all the seeds you gave me Lee so as to see if it perhaps it is a numbers thing. I am always looking for different tomatoes because I have the perfect test grounds selling to numerous chefs, not a problem if it isn't totally stable, the mistakes get eaten. It would be interesting to see the rest of the sibling lines also.

[lee]

John,

I prefer Lucky Cross in taste, because it has a more complex flavor combination. However, if
you like sweet tomatoes, this one is very good.

As an added note to this one's history... I was actually searching from something different! The F4
fruit was a large potato leaf bicolor that had a similar taste as Lucky Cross. And when I say large, I mean 24 oz. plus! I went back to that seed line and got a 18oz. bi-color this past season, that I hope to get stabilized in the next couple of seasons.

Lee

[darthslater]

Lee, don't let stabilization stop you, as mentioned, the mistakes get eaten Iwould love a giant version of striped sweetheart!! I can stabilize as I sell!!

[redneckplanter]

beautiful maters..............

[flowerpower]

Thanks for the pics. That is a nice looking tomato.

[bammer]

Lee, Is this whispy leafed? and is it a good producer?

[lee]

Jan 23, 2011 10:11:40 GMT -5 bammer said:

Lee, Is this whispy leafed? and is it a good producer?

No it's a potato leaf plant. And for me, I would say it about average in production compared to the other OPs I grow.

Lee