Just had my first one yesterday and picked it when it looked like this. The green background gets more yellow. You can always go by feel too.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Great pic Karen! Thanks so much!

I have 21 potential varieties planted - ripe colors include red, pink, yellow, green, purple, and black, and I lost all my tag info!!! Sharpie on plastic - it doesn't last! And - never grew any of these before.

Trying to figure out which mater is which, what a conundrum!

I'm guess by feel - giving under gentle pressure? like an avocado but a bit less give than that?

Any other advice would be wonderful!

I bet a lot of us have mystery plants. I tried my best to keep everything labeled, but a few got by me. I overplanted anyway because I couldn't give enough away and certainly couldn't throw any away. I just found another GZ hiding in the back and it is quite soft and yellowish with the green stripes. Can't take credit for the picture, Mr. Google had it. Last year my plant didn't make it, so I finally got to taste one. I like them, do you? I think you are on target with the feel, but you will figure it out. I let them get soft at differing levels to see what I like best. Some of the blacks are difficult. I am watching and feeling a Paul Robeson now, because it its not a deep color but feels ripe. I touch and feel my tomatoes a lot......am I strange? ;) I have a yellow and a brown that I grew out from the market gourmet pack. I'll never know what the small yellow is, but it is the second year and it grows like heck. Tangy and prolific. Here a picture some of mine. Early girl or big boy, rosso bruno kumato, san marzano, brandywine, the mystery yellow, and sungold. The GZ is not there but they look just like the picture I linked previously. I also am growing striped german, a bicolor that I loved last year, and the paul robeson. I do have a better boy as well. Now that the heirlooms are coming the hybrid reds are getting frozen for sauce. They just don't compare. When I tasted my first brandywine the other day (last years plant didn't make it)I had a flashback of standing in my grandfather's garden with a shaker of salt and eating them right there warm from the sun. It was amazing. Enough now, I'll save the rest for my therapist.

Enjoy, Karen
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T and Jess, here's another picture. The GZ is the small greeny yellow on the right. It's quite soft now.

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