Tomatoes are my favorite crop. I've grown mostly red and pink varieties, large-fruited, round, heart-shaped, pepper-shaped, and plum-shaped. In 2019, I planted the Buyan yellow variety, with sweet, plum-shaped yellow tomatoes. You can see an article about tomatoes, which I grew in 2019. In 2020, I planted different tomatoes – yellow, orange, orange-red, raspberry-red, green-yellow-pink, dark blue-cherry, striped.
I want to tell you about a tomato variety called Striped Chocolate. I really liked these unusual striped tomatoes, sweet, juicy, and beautiful.
I found information about this variety online. It was developed in 2010 by American breeders by crossing two tomato species. It's indeterminate, meaning it can grow and produce fruit all season long until frost kills it. It grows from 1.5 to 2 meters tall, with a strong, thick stem, not spreading, and medium-sized, dark green leaves. Each inflorescence produces 5-6 large, striped fruits weighing 500 grams or more. It's a mid-season variety.
I had three seedling bushes. This is what they looked like.
At the end of April, I planted two tomato seedlings in the greenhouse. At the beginning of the growing season, the seedlings encountered some minor problems, for some unknown reason: the top leaves began to wilt, drying out, and falling off.
It was very hot during the day, but quite cool at night, and we closed the greenhouse at night, opening it only after four o'clock in the afternoon, when we arrived at the dacha after work.
Regular watering didn't help; the leaves continued to wilt, and then the tops of the seedlings began to wilt as well. Most likely, the tomatoes were infected with a fungal disease. This had happened to other tomato varieties I received as well. My tomato seedlings were healthy.
I plucked off all the diseased leaves, cut off the tops, and began treatment. I had to treat the diseased bushes with a solution of HOM (copper oxychloride). I sprayed the diseased bushes once and then all the others as a preventative measure. Then, after a certain amount of time, I sprayed the tomatoes with a solution of phytosporin and watered all the tomatoes with phytosporin. New shoots grew on the diseased seedlings, and the leaves on them no longer wilted.
I planted the third plant in the cucumber greenhouse. Fortunately, it thrived. In the cucumber greenhouse, the plant is very tall, the trunks are strong, the tops of the stems touch the roof, and the fruits are larger than in the tomato greenhouse.
This can be explained by the fact that we applied a lot of rotted manure to the cucumbers. But the tomato beds were left without any compost this year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we were unable to go to the abandoned cowshed in the village to get rotted manure.
But those two bushes also recovered and grew tall. All the bushes bloomed profusely; even in that unfortunate summer, there were plenty of ovaries, although some of the flowers fell off. The first tomatoes ripened in mid-July.
Striped Chocolate has beautiful fruits when unripe - light green with bright green stripes of dark color, and ripe tomatoes are red with dark green stripes.
In shape, they are mostly round, flattened, smooth, weigh approximately 250-350 grams, and taste very sweet.
The whole family loved these tomatoes; they're eaten quickly, even before they ripen. Last year, the first ones to be eaten were the yellow Buyan tomatoes with their sweet, creamy texture, and this summer, everyone's been craving the Striped Chocolate ones.
I will definitely grow these unusually beautiful and tasty tomatoes, and I will even plant more bushes.
I completely agree, it's very tasty and productive. And most importantly, it's a variety, not a hybrid.