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Rasberry tomatoes?
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Posted by meggs WA Aust (My Page) on Wed, Nov 2, 05 at 5:03
| Have any of cornucopia enthusiats heard of Rasberry tomatoes? I remember those huge, absolutely delicious tomatoes from my childhood in Europe. The colour was sort of rasberry red, not orange-red like usual tomatoes. They were the size of a grapefruit though flatter (not as round). They did not have many seeds. My aunt grafted them and grew them in her garden. |
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RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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| They are now referred to as pink tomatoes - clear skin over red flesh leads to pink (best known examples probably Brandywine and Eva Purple Ball). The orangy reds you refer to (the typical color of Big Boy, etc) are yellow skin over red flesh. Years ago, in the US seed trade, the pink fruited ones were known as purple tomatoes. This has led to lots of confusion (Eva Purple Ball is pink, but Cherokee Purple is more of a purple - clear skin over red with retained chlorophyll, creating a dusky, darker color - we now call these in the "black" tomato color category!). I actually like using the terminology Scarlet for the red tomatoes, and Crimson for the pink tomatoes. But, the good news is that there are loads of what you call "Raspberry", what we now call pink, tomatoes around, many of which did likely originate in Europe. And many of them are indeed delicious! Craig |
RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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| And, Meggs, if you would like any seeds for pink ones, such as German Queen or Large Dark Purple or Gregori's Altai or whatever, just email me with your addy and I'll post them out FOC. |
RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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Tried, unsuccessfully, to grow some pinks for the first time last year. Fruit fly, nematodes or disease got them before I did. Actually, the same was true of all my tomatoes, no matter what their colour!
I have high hopes this year being in a drier, cooler climate. Fingers crossed. |
RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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| Ray, I have planted my tomatoes on a compost heap with a dressing of potash so hopefully they will be strong enough to withstand all of the most terrible pests. I am really looking forward to some different varieties of tommies. I just love them. |
RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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meggs, good healthy soil (like a compost heap dressed with potash) should produce some wonderful stuff. Healthy soil, healthy plants which are better able to withstand alll sorts of attack.
Related, but slightly off-topic, I read a paper by a French agro-scientist from the 80's who did some research after a plea from one of the French farming associations that their crops were being ravaged by pests despite the increased spraying of pesticides. He found that plants sprayed with those pesticides suffered mild stress which inhibited protein synthesis. The result was that the plants had more carbohydrates and sugars still floating around unsynthesized. In other words, the plants were pest heaven and they were attracted in droves.
Quite remarkable that they were able to 'smell' the readily available food. |
RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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| Ray, I am dead against spraying like most of the people on this forum. My sister lives and gardens in northern France and she sprays everything but she has pests galore!!! I on the other hand can handle an occasional fruit fly maggot, just a wee bit of protein :-) in my stewed fruit. However, this year I am going to hang yellow and orange pieces of cardboard that had been dipped in hair removal wax to bait fruit fly. I wonder how it will work. Last year I used the bottle baits with vegemite, I do not think it work all that well. |
RE: Rasberry tomatoes?
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| We have a fruit fly bait that attracts the males to reduce the number of matings and hence fruit stinging. But they only work for the Queensland fruit fly, not the Mediterranean ff which you guys have in WA. Maybe there's a similar product available in WA for your ff. Just a thought. |
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