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bazbear

Trying to find the name of a particular tomato

Bazbear
10 years ago

We went to a yard sale some 60 miles from our home, and a man had a huge vegetable garden. He was selling some delicious looking veggies, but more so, he had started quite a few tomato plants and was asking a dollar per. He showed me his back area, and it was a terrific sight. He did say that he didn't label each plant, so he told me I was getting one of three varieties, and since we had bought some conventional local tomato plants here, we really went ahead and said, we'll eat and enjoy.....but one particular tomato, we have two plants with a fair yield, were the best tomatoes we have grown, sweet and delicious.I'm trying to get a photo of it, but came across this forum in my search, so I thought if I told you about it, you might know.....THE SHAPE OF THE TOMATO IS LIKE A FIG, a large fig....it's smooth on top, kind of looks like a big acorn in fact, but when you move to the bottom, there are ridges, no longer perfectly smooth, and our first reaction was, it's like a giant red fig............does that give anyone a hint of what it was, maybe one of two or three you're thinking of, and I could look up 3 types, to narrow what is now a very large search....................................our friends, family, ourselves, are interested so that we can all look for these next year.....nice and sweet.....we also are saving seeds, my wife is an excellent keeper of plants, she is not experienced with vegetables as she is with flowering plants...........thank you

Comments (23)

  • zzackey
    10 years ago

    If it was an heirloom plant it will produce the same fruit. If it wasn't I don't think you will be happy. I found out the hard way this year when I had dozens of tomatoes come up from seeds. They were very bitter and the skins were tough. Try Totally Tomatoes. They sell a wide variety of tomato seeds. I'm curious what it is!

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    thank you Zackey....I haven't done an exhaustive search, tho I found a page with hundreds upon hundreds of photos and forwarded them to my wife who I think will pick out the tomato.....we have never grown from seeds, so we are going to save these seeds and give it a shot, but it's the balance of the tomatoes we'd like to be plants.....we don't have a lot of sun, many trees around us, so we put them in giant pots on our back deck which gets sun all day.....will post any news I get, thanks for taking the time to write.

  • carolyn137
    10 years ago

    If you had a good picture, Google is now able to match a picture with something that looks the same that they HAVE in their files.

    However, that is NOT going to definetly ID thespecific variety.

    There are almost 15 to 20 K OP varieties, and within those maybe a few hundreds of small ones.

    IMO it's impossible to ID a variety from just a picture, with very few exceptions.

    I know that the above doesn't help much but NO tomato seed site is the place to go and no sense even going to the best of them, which is Tania's superb data base is going to help either.

    Carolyn

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I hear ya, one page I got had hundreds of varieties and photos, but we're gonna look......I wish I could ask the man, but this was at the beginning of spring, and on a day that we went to many yard sales traveling away from our home, a hobby of ours to get away, have fun, and find unusual things...these tomatoes were delicious....the man said these were particular an Italian variety....I appreciate your suggestions, even if you think it will be hard to know....

  • miesenbacher
    10 years ago

    Check the tomato section and see if any looks likes yours.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Grow Italian

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    A picture or too can help to narrow it down, because as you've described it has a peculiar size and shape.

    I bought recently several "heirloom" tomatoes from stores(to save seeds from) I have been able to figure out, to most part, what variety there were. I just bough one yesterday. I am 99% sure that it is either Black Krim or Cherokee Purple. The shape and size tell me probably it is not BK.
    The point I am trying to make is that, with some good pictures from the fruits and possibly from the plant, somebody might be able to pin point it. Somebody that has been growing one just like that.
    ....................
    sometimes a picture can speak 1000 words.

  • carolyn137
    10 years ago

    Smooth on top and then gets smaller towards the bottom and looks like a large fig?

    Could be a plum or heart shaped variety. it would help if you knew the fruit color.

    So here's some more places to look at. First, at the very bottom , from Tania's if you have lots of time and I guess the assumption is that you're looking for something with an Italian sounding name.

    And now two from Tania's site, one for hearts and one for plum shaped varieties, again, looking for ones with Italian sounding names. And that you have time on your hands, ( smile)

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Category:Heart-Shaped_Tomatoes

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Category:Plum_Tomatoes

    Carolyn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Italian ones from Tania's website

  • helenh
    10 years ago

    It would be easier to track down the person who didn't label his plants and see if he could give you a hint about names of things he planted. It will be impossible to ID the tomato from pictures. Maybe your seeds will turn out to be the same as the parent.

    Here is a link that might be useful: piraform tomatoes

  • carolyn137
    10 years ago

    Helen, the poster said smooth at the top and then narrows down, but piriform varieties are narrow at the top and then have big bottoms, if you will.LOL

    And yes, most with ridges, and I love the few piriform varieties I've grown.

    Carolyn

  • helenh
    10 years ago

    He also said fig shaped. My figs are wide at the bottom.

    I'd like to know the names of the piriform tomatoes you liked. I think the pictures of them are beautiful but I was afraid they were only for cooking. I think it would be fun to find my first ripe one. I used to grow flowers and only a salad garden with maybe six tomato plants. Now I am neglecting my flowers and playing with tomatoes - too many.

    Here is a link that might be useful: fig image

    This post was edited by helenh on Sat, Oct 26, 13 at 13:24

  • carolyn137
    10 years ago

    I looked at your fig pictures and from what I can see the large one at the left where it's attached to the stem is small there, and then is larger at the bottom. You know more about figs than I do since we can't grow them up here in the semi-tundra and I haven't even eaten a fig in recent memory. LOL

    There are two piriforms I remember growing:

    Albenga
    Liguria

    And a few years ago Johnny's Seeds was offering two of them, and I grew one and it was just called Piriform.

    I grew them b'c I was curious and not for the taste b'c they don't have the greatest reputation for outstanding taste.

    For great taste I'd grow a reversed piriform as to shape and that would be a heart shaped one. ( smile)

    Carolyn

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I think my post got lost; in it I said excuse me, but I'm not at my pc, but I see your comments, and appreciate your taking the time to respond. I will return later :)

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I think my post got lost; in it I said excuse me, but I'm not at my pc, but I see your comments, and appreciate your taking the time to respond. I will return later :)

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    Bazbear,

    If you are so interested to find out the name, I wonder WHY DON'T YOU POST A PICTURE of the fruit also of the plant. !!!!

  • helenh
    10 years ago

    You can't really identify tomatoes from a picture. You can if you have a list of possibilities. For example the original grower said it was one of three and he didn't label them. If you had those three names, a picture would help.

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    we had some left on the vine, but it was getting into the high 30's, and this, as it turned more red, also had some ridges in it.....I read someone say unless you had 3 names to choose from, a photo doesn't help, but I don't have names, other than the tomato came from Italy....since I wrote last, we went thru our itineraries of our yards sales, and we found the address where we bought these plants, so I plan to write the gentleman a letter and make the inquire....they were delicious tomatoes :)

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    Way to go. I am sure the experts can narrow it down even maybe tell you what it is. There shouldn't be too many tomatoes like that.

    I , a noobie, have already found few possible matches. Check the link below.

    Here is a link that might be useful: check here

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Interesting that the photo doesn't really show the ridges, and what we said reminded us of a fig. Yet people who have seen it see those ridges forming a 'valve' look, thus, people think it looks more like a heart than a fig............I'm quite the layperson, and as I might have stated here, I know I did somewhere, that we found the address of the man who sold them to us....when we go to yard sales I make a spread sheet and it allows us to GPS our way on Eastern Long Island, and when we visit an address, be it called yard sale, garage sale, tag sale, moving sale, estate sale, whatever, we check off that we visited, and then we write down what we purchased, and how thrilling is it to find tomato plants for a dollar a piece and we got some delicious tomatoes.............so I shall write the gentleman, with this photo, and I'm sure he'll tell me the name; he was some gardener, that back yard of his must have 30 or 40 vegetables, and 10 kinds of tomatoes......thank you folks for trying to identify it............

  • helenh
    10 years ago

    Yes it looks like a heart tomato to me, but there are many beautiful and tasty heart tomatoes. This one did well in your garden so it is worth some effort to find its identity. I think the gardener will be pleased that you like his tomatoes so much.

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    Interesting that the photo doesn't really show the ridges, ..

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    As I look more closely I can see some ridges.

    The same is true with the attached photo called "Hungarian Heart"
    if you look closely. Obviously, the ridges are not pronounced.

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    your photo is very close to others we had grown.....the one I posted was the last one we had and it was on the vine, and the temps here were to go down to the high 30's......so we took it off the vine, and the ridges were less pronounced.
    But I might have thrown you all off as the ridges are not so pronounced that they cause the tomato to lose it smoothness....so I started off with fig, and now think the 'heart' description is closer........and seysonn's photo is very close

  • helenh
    10 years ago

    I don't know if there are hybrids that look like your picture. I think there is a good chance you can grow that tomato from seed that you saved. It is easy to do and if it is not what you usually do, it would be interesting to try it.

  • Bazbear
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    yes we have said quite a few seeds :)

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