Carolyn can you identify if this is a Velvet Red?

15 years ago

I purchased theses seeds from an heirloom tomato seed seller here in California labeled Angora Super Sweet. But I don't think that they are. Here is a description and photo from Amishland Heirloom Seeds:

ANGORA SUPER SWEET TOMATO RARE!!! - also called " VELVET RED" This might be the most beautiful ornamental vegetable you will ever grow! Guaranteed to turn heads! The unbelievable foliage of this rare tomato is a fuzzy silvery gray color.

And a description from Tomatofest:

A very productive plant with fuzzy turquoise to blue-grey colored leaves. A 1-inch, super-sweet cherry developed by Joe Bratka.

Here are some photos of my 5 month old plant. Unripe fruit:

And ripe fruit:

Photos of leaves:

I don't think that this or my other plant from the same seed packet is a Velvet Red or Angora Super Sweet. The leaves are definitely not turquoise, grey or fuzzy. Neither is the fruit. Can anyone identify what it is?

Both plants also appear to be dying from the bottom up. Both are watered 2 or less times a week. Bottom photo is just after watering. 20 minutes later it looked fine.

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Comments (2)

carolyn137
15 years ago
First of all I wouldn't believe much of anything from Amishland Seeds, long story there, and it isn't rare at all since the SSE PUBLIC catalog has been offering it for many years and you've seen that others list it as well.But the foliage looks correct in that picture from Amishland.

And yes, Velvet Red and Angora Superweet are the same variety.

I can't get a sense of the size of the fruits, but if they're cherry sized then that's correct, and the fruits are NOT fuzzy, only the foliage.

And I don't see any grey fuzzy foliage in your pictures at all, but photography can sometimes fool one, so if you say the foliage is not grey and fuzzy, which is what angora foliage is, then I have to wonder if what you have is Velvet Red/ Angora Super sweet.

It's a beautiful plant and when the sun shines on it the foliage just sparkles, but as with some other angora foliaged plants the fruits are rather mediocre, IMO.

Carolyn
mr_potaohead
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the response Carolyn.

The unripe fruits are just under 3/4" and the ripe fruits are just over 1 1/4" in the photos above.

There is absolutely no grey fuzzy foliage anywhere on the plant. Unlike the photo from Amishland Seeds. It's growing right next to an Aker's West Virginia and where the branches intertwine you can't tell which leaves are from which plant, since they're both so green.
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