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jdoran_gw

Brownberry Cherry & Pineapple Tomato

Jdoran
9 years ago

So, we ordered several varieties of heirloom tomato plants online at the beginning of the growing season. Now, they're all grown up and starting to blossom and set fruit. Two of the varieties are completely new to us.

One is called Brownberry Cherry. It was described as one of the only truly brown cherry tomatoes. The other is the Hawaiian Pineapple tomato, which was described as large striped beefsteaks.

Now, I'm starting to wonder if at some point in the transplanting process I mixed the two up. They're both in pots on our deck. The one I have marked as the brownberry cherry is huge, with potato leaves. It's developing very large blossoms, and has one tomato developing. This tomato looks ribbed, short & squat. It's still smaller than a normal cherry tomato. However, the size of the blossoms and shape of tomato make me think it looks more like what I expected from the pineapple. The other plant has very small blossoms, and hasn't developed any fruit yet.

Has anyone grown either of these varieties in the past, and can describe the appearance of their plants as they were starting to grow fruit? I haven't been able to find any helpful pictures online.

Comments (13)

  • carolyn137
    9 years ago

    Since I can do just one clickable link at the end of this post and I have more than that, I'll give the links here and then all you have to do is to highlight them and transfer them to your main box one at a time at the top of your browser and hit GO.

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Brown_Berry

    Bred by Sahin Seeds in the Netherlands and is not the only brown cherry and cherry is not part of the name. Here's another brown cherry;

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Brown_Cherry

    And there are others as well, small cherries that do not have brown as part of the name, such as Chocolate Cherry.

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Hawaiian_Pineapple

    This variety is pure oranage,no stripes ever, but can be confused with the variety Pineapple which is a typical red/gold bicolor which sometimes has some ill defined stripes.

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Pineapple

    There are over 200 red/gold bicolors known.

    Of the ones mentioned I've grown Pineapple, Brown Berry and Chocolate Cherry, but not Hawaiian Pineapple.

    Note that for each page inTania;s data base the traits of a variety are given, comments by others, pictures, the history of a variety when known and also known seed sources.

    Hope the above helps,

    Carolyn

    Carolyn

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    Well, fortunately you are getting close to the time to find it out yourself. But in the meantime, i can tell from your descriptions that perhaps you have transposed the identity of those to tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes have usually much smaller flowers than say beef steaks. I could be wrong.

  • Jdoran
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks! I went back and reviewed the tomato descriptions from the garden I ordered them from. It is, indeed just a Brown Berry--and I was incorrect, it was billed as one of the first brown cherries, but not the only.

    The Pineapple, well I'm still not sure if I ordered the "hawaiian" or just the regular pineapple. Pictures show what looks like the bicolored regular pineapple, however I was convinced I remembered seeing "Hawaiian Pineapple" as the name. Luckily, as seysonn said, I'll find out pretty soon.

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    There are few tomatoes with "Pineapple" suffixed to the name. It appear that it refers to the color more than a variety. If you google it and go to images you will see what I mean.

    Brow Berry is a brown, small size (larger than cherry) per info on the net. Here is a picture. It looks like "Indigo Rose" to me.

  • carolyn137
    9 years ago

    There are few tomatoes with "Pineapple" suffixed to the name. It appear that it refers to the color more than a variety. If you google it and go to images you will see what I mean.

    &&&&&

    Yes, in addition to Hawaiian Pineapple there are Pineapple Fog and Pineapple Pig, the latter one being a Brad Gates one, and Pineapple Fog is just a smaller version of the variety Pineapple and has just one possible seed source, although I don't think Solana ships to the US, but the best known one is Pineapple itself which is widely known and grown,

    IMO they don't refer to color alone and Pineapple Pig pictures are in the link below which show the exterior striping. When you hold your mouse over thepictures, look at the ones that were uploaded by Brad Gates himself, or by Wild Boar Farms, the name of his company.

    Carolyn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Pineapple Pig

  • barrie2m_(6a, central PA)
    9 years ago

    JDoran, don't rule out that your seeds are corrupt. I also planted Brown Berry aside of Chocolate cherry and Black Cherry wanting to compare the three but the Brown Berry fruits are large (3-4 oz.) and red. I won't mention seed Co. names but this seems to occur more than people think. Order that variety from a different source next year. For this year just enjoy what you have planted.

  • Jdoran
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    For the record, here's a picture of the tomato that I have labeled as brownberry...I definitely can't see it developing into any of the brownberry pictures I've seen. Still no fruit formed on the "pineapple"

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    This one resembles Costoluto (ribbed) of somekind. Some pineapple are ribbed or boat shape too.

    It is like a suspense drama. You don't know the end.

  • Jdoran
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Well...I guess this one remains a mystery to me. We have had our first few ripe "brownberries". I decided that I must've mixed up the pineapple and brownberry, since the other tomatoes seem like what I imagined for the pineapple. But these...well, I just don't know. I have to think the seed company sent the wrong seeds. Anyone think the tomato in the picture could possibly be brownberry? I pulled it off because it was splitting (pretty obvious in the picture), so it has a little more ripening to do.

  • Jdoran
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This is one of our pineapple tomatoes in case anyone was curious :)

  • carolyn137
    9 years ago

    Interesting fruit, but it sure doesn't look like the red/gold bicolor that I know and have grown.

    Carolyn

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    Yes, it is not definitely "Brown" . As I increase the light intensity/angle on my monitor it gets close to yellow. It also depends on the light exposure at which you took the picture. My opinion is that it is some kind of "Pineapple"

    Now The most important thing (IMO) is how doe it taste to you ? is the plant producing in good numbers ? I personally don't care a lot about the name as long as I like it , it is heirloom/op that I can save seeds and plant them. That is all that matters to me, personally.

  • Jdoran
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    The ribbed tomato is far more productive. Tons of big tomatoes, even with a fair amount of blossoms dropping off. The taste is...just ok. Not very sweet, and more bland than my other heirlooms. The smooth round, yellow orange ones are little less productive. They are, however, delicious. Every bit as good as the best tomatoes I have in my garden. Very sweet. They're pretty dense too. However, I've noticed more splitting on them than my other varieties.