My annual "varieties that weren't" thread

[JosephineRose]

Hello all,

Fall is summer here, and we've just come off another week of 90 degree temps to cool down to the high 70s. Still, November is November, and it won't last forever. We might have our first rain in months at the end of the week, so I am topping plants and pulling my not so favorites and poor producers.

Time for an evaluation of what didn't come up as advertised!

This year I trialed "Apricot Brandywine", and it was spectacular. Heavy producing PL plant with large apricot colored fruits. It is still going, and was topped yesterday so I can get the last of the bunch (Yellow Brandywine barely produced for me last year, so this is its replacement.) Still, one of the original seedlings came up as an RL plant, so I transplanted it to see what would happen. What I got was a spectacular red (pink? - I need to be better about paying attention) Indeterminate with palm sized round fruits, good flavor, good texture, heavy production. I have no idea if it was a stray seed or not, but I saved it. Temporarily using the cliche "not apricot brandywine" as an identifier. Will plant multiples of it next year both in ground and in an earthbox, and we will see if it stays true.

Plate of Apricot Brandywine is in the backgound, Not Apricot Brandywine is in the front.

Apricot Brandywine and Not Apricot Brandywine.jpg

[JosephineRose]

Next up was a late planted Amish Paste in an earthbox. Seeds were from Baker Creek in late 2019 after I read raves about it. Interesting foliage - it seemed almost rugrose like, but not quite. Tolerant of our crazy weather this year and its placement on the deck, which doesn't get a full 6 hours of sun. First fruits were buried in the middle of the plant under lots of foliage - and it is not Amish Paste. What I have got are roma-sized black tomatoes with green shoulders, and I am pulling both perfect plums and perfect hearts from the same plant. I haven't tasted yet - I just picked my first five before the rain comes. Not a heavy producer - only two trusses so far - but the trusses do have 4-5 fruits each. Late planted in July, I am getting fruits now, so it is roughly 65-70 days to harvest.

How can these be from the same plant? But they are (picked early due to weather and critters).

Not Amish Paste.JPG

[JosephineRose]

Finally, I planted my first ever ground cherry this year - variety was called "Pineapple". I noted the seeds looked like tomatoes.

No surprise then that I got tomatoes instead of ground cherries. I have no idea what this is, but it is an indeterminate roma type tomato of medium/large size. More seeds than expected, texture is a little mealy, but that might be the partially shaded location. I am saving seeds to see what it does next year. Again, it was late planted and a moderate producer, so I am not closing the book on any of these.

Not Pineapple Ground Cherry.jpg

I usually assume these mistakes are the result of a stray seed. But how can one tell? In any case, I am trying to decide if I should replant from the seed packets that produced the surprises, find a new seed source and try again - or both!

Anyone know where I can find a reliable source for true Amish Paste that is not Baker Creek?

[Rockoe10]

Wonderful harvest! The Brandywine look extra tasty.

As for the different shaped fruit on one plant incident. This could be a couple things.
It could be weather issues with heat and rain causing strange growth patterns. Or it could be a chimera (Id bet on this one).

Sometimes, especially with hybrids, a mutation can occur (environmental stressors can also cause this). What happens is part of the plant is genetically different from the other part of the plant. Even animals and humans can be REAL LIFE chimeras (no joke, look it up. Its pretty wild). If you decide to, you can take cuttings from parts of the plant and propagate it.

[Shule]

That's definitely mixed up seed on the Pineapple tomatillo! Even if it were a rare interspecies cross that looked like a tomato, the fruits would probably be very small, and the seeds probably wouldn't have looked like tomato seeds. I'm inclined to think the Pineapple tomatillo is likely Amish Paste. There aren't many fully indeterminate tomatoes I know of that match that description, but Amish Paste is likely one of them (sans the mealiness).

I haven't tried Amish Paste, yet, but here are some vendors who sell it (I can't vouch for how true to type any of them are):
* http://www.tomatogrowers.com/mobile/AMI ... info/5056/
* https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/amish- ... omato-4140
* https://www.southernexposure.com/produc ... te-tomato/
* https://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_amish-paste.html
* https://www.seedsavers.org/amish-paste-organic-tomato
* https://www.timeless-tomatoes.com/amish-paste1.html
* https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/ ... 3817G.html
* https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomat ... 02037.html
* https://www.restorationseeds.com/produc ... ste-tomato

That Apricot Brandywine and the cross or whatever it be look awesome.

[bower]

It's always a nice surprise to see any of the "not"s produce a pretty and tasty fruit.
I love the look of the real Apricot Brandywine though. What a great color!
Glad to see you getting some harvest, JosephineRose. Hope the summerfall weather will be perfect!