Green Zebra tomatoes?

[Vanisle_BC]

Has anyone grown Green Zebra: What color is the flesh when ripe; and do they tend more towards sweet, or tangy/acid?

[applestar]

Green Zebra is a green when ripe (GWR) with green flesh/gel and yellow striped green skin.

I think it tends on the acid side, and moreover, I had trouble getting it to mature in time during the growing season.

I think the Cherokees are a little more accommodating. I’ve grown Cherokee Green and Cherokee Lime. I agree with the assessment that Cherokee Lime is a bit sweeter. There is another variety called Cherokee Lime Stripes, but the seed batch I had lacked vigor and didn’t manage to grow up both years I tried to grow them.

I have to go look up the name but there is another GWR variety that grew best for me here, with better overall flavor profile.

[pepperhead212]

I grew green zebras years ago, and they are definitely bright green inside when ripe. The light green stripes turn to gold, when ripe, and the tomatoes get quite soft, and the flavor is fantastic, if you like strong flavored varieties. They ripened for me around 7-20, or shortly thereafter, so they were about 80 days for me. Every year, when I would line up the tomatoes of different varieties for taste tests, with my friends, it came out on top most years, and the few years another one would test on top, it would be second! Some friends were not expecting a green tomato to taste so good, but after trying it so many times, they were believers. The only reason I stopped growing it was that it was prone to disease, a blight (I think early blight, even though it was late in the season), that was common after one of seasons back then, and a number of others were also prone to this. I tried several other green varieties back then, and nothing tasted as good. While producing, they were very productive, and more heat resistant than most other varieties.

I also tried Green Zebra Cherry, but the only year I grew it back then, almost every tomato split, due to the major amount of rain that season. This hqppened with one other variety, but no other had too many split, so I never grew them again, until last year, when I got a gift pack of GZ cherries, from Bounty Hunters Seeds. I had great luck with them, until late in the season, when they started splitting - we had a heavy period in September, which probably triggered that.

This year I have two others of Tom Wagner - Green Brandy, and Primary Colors Angora - both new to me. Green Zebra was one of his first varieties, at least that I had heard of, in the late 80s, or early 90s, when I started growing it.

[Vanisle_BC]

Thanks for all the info, Pepperhead. I may try Green Zebra this year. Your comments about blight might concern me. I only once had tomato blight; but not since I started following Steve Solomon's advice about keeping the foliage dry. I have a transparent roof on my Tom. bed and only water at ground level. Don't know whether that has done the trick or I've just been lucky.

Is blight 'contagious' - does one variety's infection increase the vulnerability of others nearby?

My biggest problem this year is likely to be heat & drought - they devastated my 2023 crop. I may start a topic about coping with our 'new climate'.

Please keep posting abut your tomato experience. Peppers too; but we're not heat lovers - the hottest I grow is Anaheim and we usually use it green .

Happy seed buying/starting.