2013 Wild Boar Tomatoes - How are they Growing?

[TheWaterbug]

So does anyone have tomatoes from The Giveaway yet? My seedlings got a _really_ slow start, but they're picking up speed right now.

My Indigo Apple, Lush Queen, and AAA Solano have been in the ground for about a month, and they're ~18" tall and starting to flower.

My Red Furry Boar and Amos Coli went into the ground about two weeks ago, both because they were behind in growth and also because I got busy. They're ~9" tall, but starting to put on some growth.

I didn't have space for my Sweet Carneros Pink, so I gave that to my Mom, along with an "extra" IA, and I will be giving my extra Amos Coli and Lush Queen to a friend.

I'd think some of you all would have tomatoes by now! Or is there another thread on this already?

I'll try to take some pictures this evening.

[webmaster]

My Amos Coli's are big brutes. None are flowering yet or anything. Weather's been inconistent on the east coast, hot, freezing, wet, dry. Sometimes seemingly all in the same week!

[TheWaterbug]

Here are descriptions of the FREE Wild Boar Farms Tomato Seeds I am offering:
Lush Queen
Mid-Late, 6-12oz. Dense, Meaty, Very Beautiful Striped Pink Beefsteak. Good Production, Flavor, Improved Hang-Time, Shelf-Life.

INDIGO APPLE
Huge production, good Anthocyanin (same thing that makes blueberries blue). Large clusters of 2-4 oz. fruits. Small unripe fruit turn purple, as they grow and ripen they turn almost black on top where sunlight hits, bottom and interior are red. Fruit has excellent hang on the vine ability. Very ripe fruit has excellent sweet flavor. Crack & sunburn resistance.

RED FURRY BOAR
New Release. Wild Boar only has a limited supply. 2-4 oz. Red with Gold Stripes, Matte Skin, Fuzzy. Great, True Tomato Flavor, peach fuzz skin not at all intrusive. Heavy Producer. Another Great, Rare, Unusual Variety.

AAA SWEET SOLANO
120 plants all pure. Mutant discovered in Yellow Boar (Yellow Stripe). Very attractive yellow with green stripes turning deep orange color with gold stripes. Some hang time ability. Stays firm, very sweet with a hint of tropical fruit. Produced huge harvest for 2009. 2 – 4 OZ.

AMOS COLI
Large Meaty Paste Heirloom. Very Good Production. Dense Meaty with Great Well Balanced Flavor. Great for Fresh Eating, Canning and Sauce. Given to me at the 2012 National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, CA.

I looked over on Wild Boar Farms's website and copied their description for the 6th variety:

Sweet Carneros Pink
F-5 Rose pink with gold colored stripes. After 4 years this has proven to be very near 100% pure and of excellent quality. Huge producer for 2009. Great looking with a nice sweet tomato flavor

Do we know yet if these varieties are determinate or indeterminate? WBF says "indet." for Red Boar , but doesn't say for Indigo Apple, Sweet Carneros Pink, or AAA Sweet Solano, and doesn't list Lush Queen or Amos Coli at all.

[applestar]

According to my notes,

Indigo Apple -- INDET early-mid at about 70 days
Lush Queen -- INDET Mid (usually 75-80 days)
Red Furry Boar -- INDET Mid
Sweet Carnero's Pink -- INDET Mid
AAA Sweet Solano -- (huh not noted but it's a mutant YELLOW BOAR) mid-late
Amos Coli -- DET (unavailable but I assigned it mid-late)

Yellow (Striped) Boar is and INDET according to Tatiana's Tomatobase
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Yellow_Boar
oh wait she has a listing for AAA Sweet Solano, listed as INDET
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki ... eet_Solano

My largest Indigo Apple (about 24") and Amos Coli (about 28") are blooming and close to fruiting, so my estimate on Amos Coli was off, I think. I believe AAA Sweet Solano was closer to Mid than Mid-Late when I grew it before.

I was noticing that the dark antho/purple stem color of Indigo Apple has faded as it grew -- still dark near base but regular green higher up perhaps in response to heat, but hopefully will show the "indigo" in the skin of the fruits. I plant to use the "mirror trick" -- maybe use aluminum single serving pie pans or something -- to get sun shining all over the fruits for maximum all over antho/tan effect.

[TheWaterbug]

Two rows of 5 plants/cages. The three large in the back row (one hidden) and one large in the front row were purchased as plants from Home Depot or Armstrong and planted months ago. Ditto the sad little pepper in front



The CRW cages are 5' tall.

The five smaller plants to the left are my Wild Boar plants, sown on 3/2/13 and transplanted about 4 and 2 weeks ago:



The left most two were transplanted last, and those are Red Furry Boar (back corner) and Amos Coli. The bits on the ground are from today's pruning.

To the right of RFB is AAA Solano. To the right of Amos Coli are Lush Queen and Indigo Apple, which the one I really, really want to do well. Fortunately, it's the strongest of the 5 right now, and it's flowering. I can't seem to get my iPhone to focus, though :

[gixxerific]

Somehow my amos coli didn't make it to the garden. Unless its at my satellite garden. I haven't checked that list.

But Indigo apple is doing good. It has several tiny fruit on it. I will get some pics when it is further along.

[TheWaterbug]

These were all sown 3/2/13 and transplanted when approx. 12" tall, and buried an additional 4-6" deep:

Red Furry Boar:


AAA Solano:


Amos Coli:


Lush Queen:


Indigo Apple:


I've also got 4 store-bought varieties, so I have 9 different tomatoes this year. This is way more than I've ever grown before. If they all make tomatoes I'm going to have to buy a basil plant and a buffalo.

[applestar]

"Buffalo"? ...to milk and make buffalo milk mozzarella?

...is that a wild leap? -- but it would be perfect to go with poached peafowl eggs on your sandwich....

[applestar]

Indigo Apple (about 4ft tall)

-- it's very vigorous and quickly outgrowing the green (not for) tomato cage... I'm going to put up a double bamboo stake as soon as I can get into the inner spiral (heavy rains filled it up again today -- I really should have done it this morning while the swale was dry but I had a funeral to go to.)

First fruits -- a little antho/indigo starting


...also have a first marble sized green Amos Coli fruit

[gixxerific]

My indigo Apple like like yours. I will get pics later when they are bigger.

[PunkRotten]

I sowed some Amos Coli too but no fruits yet.

[TheWaterbug]

"Buffalo"? ...to milk and make buffalo milk mozzarella?

...is that a wild leap? -- but it would be perfect to go with poached peafowl eggs on your sandwich....

Of course!

And this morning I saw my first Indigo Apple:



Way smaller than an apple, and not very indigo, but it's a start!

[gixxerific]

Took some pics while out tying up and checking on things.

Here is Indigo Apple courtesy of Admin courtesy of Brad Gates. Many thanks to both of you.

[TheWaterbug]

"Buffalo"? ...to milk and make buffalo milk mozzarella?

...is that a wild leap? -- but it would be perfect to go with poached peafowl eggs on your sandwich....

Of course!

Here's my favorite thing to do with tomatoes. These ones aren't Wild Boar, which is why that's in another thread.

[gixxerific]

Looking good and rather productive I would call it a mid season. But the production looks to be great. Just now starting to get into the groove at early July. Been waiting on this one more to come.

[TheWaterbug]

What variety is that?

[gixxerific]

What variety is that?

Indigo Apple.

[applestar]

Here are mine.
First blushed and harvested:

...more to come:

[applestar]

TRYING TO GET AN EVEN TAN "UNDER THE CHIN"

...reminds me of the Quad scene in spring at school...

[TheWaterbug]

What variety is that?

Indigo Apple.

Heh. I was reading on my phone's tiny screen, so I didn't see the "Indigo Apple" written on the tomato!

My IAs are starting to bear more heavily, and right now they're all purple and green.

I'm surprised (and a tad disappointed) that they don't keep more of the purple color when they ripen. The pictures on the internet all show that deep black/purple shoulder.

How's the flavor?

[rainbowgardener]

Sorry no pictures, but I have some kind of wild boar, that's kind of stripey. Not sure what it will look at ripened up. The plant and the tomatoes are smaller than the one next to it, which is some kind of beefsteak. But the wild boar one is COVERED in clusters of tomatoes, just taking awhile to ripen up.

[applestar]

Remember, the purple/black color develops from exposure to the sun -- it's the tomato's equivalent of melanin or sun tan. So remove any foliage obscuring the fruits for maximum exposure.

In the photo above, you can see what I'm doing to try to get the bottom half of the fruits to get some color. Container plants can be aid on their sides.

[rainbowgardener]

Mine are currently dark green on the top/stem end and look like a watermelon on the blossom end. They are a bit heart shaped - longer than spherical and with a bit of a point on the bottom - but rounded, not a sharp point like your principessa. I'm thinking they are one of the wild boar ones from last years giveaway.

[applestar]

I think the aluminum tray reflectors are producing desired effect -- what do you think?

Yesterday:

Today:

[applestar]

More pictures of Indigo Apple: Earlier picked, fully ripe ones with less "blue"/Antho on the shoulders, and ones after the reflectors were put in place

-- look at the stripes on the double fruit!
-- look at the big one!
-- look at the REALLY dark one after removing all foliage above it

[gixxerific]

You are a nut Apple, I love it. The reflectors really work.

[TheWaterbug]

Catastrophe! Every one of my IA fruits has BER!

None of my other 8 tomato plants has it, and they're adjacent to this one, on the same watering system, with the same soil, fertilizer, etc.

[gixxerific]

That is odd, and I am sorry but it will go away give it time.

Mine never showed any sign I did have minor BER this year in a few variety's.

[applestar]

Here are three more I harvested today. If you are growing Indigo Apple (or any other Antho expression variety), playing with reflective material is definitely worth it. I was also going to try putting a sticker on the shoulder, but I forgot. I need to try pulling the calyx off of these....

1d9ad3dc5c9f0aa30b85b8cb5fc663fd.jpg (55.57 KiB) Viewed 924 times

[TheWaterbug]

That is odd, and I am sorry but it will go away give it time.

So I read through the perpetual BER thread, and it looks sudden drought can cause BER for fruit in a critical stage of development.

My entire garden is on a timered drip watering system, but about 3 weeks ago it mysteriously got shut off, without me noticing, for nearly a week. It was also pretty hot during that week. I don't track my tomatoes the way I do my pumpkins and such, but I think this roughly coincides with when these fruits were going through their rapid growth stage.

I checked some of my younger IAs, and they appear to be developing properly, so this might just be a one-time thing.

I don't understand why none of my other 8 varieties suffered similarly, but I suppose each variety has its own vulnerabilities.

[applestar]

Yeah, BER is a pain because whatever it was, it was in the past. (Nice work tracing back the probable cause) Indigo Apple seems pretty productive once it gets going, so hopefully, there will be many new fruits for you.

[applestar]

I've been thinking that the Indigo Apple has an unique flavor when eaten with skin on, especially near the shoulder -- the skin itself and the underlying flesh.

...unfortunately, my Indigo Apple fruits have been lackluster in flavor below the equator. They don't have the lingering intense flavor that I like and worse ones can be watery and bland.

But I've been trying to puzzle out what I'm tasting in the upper half, and whether the antho in the skin has something to do with it. ...today, I ate my first eggplant out of the garden. I just sliced it and baked them in the toaster oven with meatballs in tomato sauce. The skin of this eggplant was tough and as I was chewing on the outer slice with all that skin, it occurred to me that the flavor was very similar to the Indigo Apple upper half with skin on that I just ate not 5 minutes ago (I had one of the solid antho-black shoulder fruits.)

...anyone else notice the same? ...or is it psychosomatic, eyes to brains kind of false recognition on my part?

Compare the eggplant at top of the photo with solid antho Indigo Apple next to it

(I promise to post something about the Amos Coli next time )

[dustyrivergardens]

Amos Coli tomatoes have been doing wonderful huge paste tomatoes absolutely one of the best fresh eating tomatoes for a paste, I would put them above Opalka. I am going to bottle some whole and sauce some so time will tell on just how good a tomato these really are but right now I am thinking they might have a spot in my garden for years to come. Next to my Rio Grande's and my San Marzano's lol....

[webmaster]

I haven't noticed the taste issue with the Indigos. Terroir? The Indigos were some of my best producers. The color in the skin has anti-oxidents I think.

Glad you had a good experience with the Amos Coli!

[applestar]

This is actually from seed giveaway a couple of years ago, but it seems the Berkeley Tie-Dye turned out to be Berkeley Tie Dye Heart -- all fruits were heart shaped -- and Wild Boar Farms does have this listed as a separate variety.

Here's what it looked like inside:

This last fruit harvested was absolutely delicious with rich lingering flavor.

I didn't take a pic after it was fully ripe, but here's one from when it was picked about a week ago:

Green and yellow striped heart at 3 o' clock is the Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart

[gixxerific]

I haven't noticed the taste issue with the Indigos. Terroir? The Indigos were some of my best producers. The color in the skin has anti-oxidents I think.

My Indigo's were very productive but flavor was lackluster for me.

Yes, Webmaster, they are high in antioxidants, however the real facts on any positive effects are unknown. Though we are led to believe that there is some benefit just form past encounters. The pigment is called anthocyanin. It is what makes purple and blue fruit their color.

In addition to their role as light-attenuators, anthocyanins also act as powerful antioxidants. However, it is not clear whether anthocyanins can significantly contribute to scavenging of free radicals produced through metabolic processes in leaves, since they are located in the vacuole and, thus, spatially separated from metabolic reactive oxygen species. Some studies have shown hydrogen peroxide produced in other organelles can be neutralized by vacuolar anthocyanin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin