Blue Old Woman is another new variety in my collection. I'd never grown purple tomatoes before, only seeing them in pictures. Well, since I had these unusual tomato seeds, why not grow them!
What I learned about the Blue Bayou on the Internet
A variety bred by Tom Wagner. Tom Wagner is an American breeder who develops exotic varieties with a variety of colors.
The Blue Bayou tomato is an indeterminate variety, growing from 1.5 to 1.7 meters tall. The leaves and stems are dark green with a bluish tint. It is a mid-season variety. The fruits are small, round, weighing up to 120 g, and grow in clusters. The fruits have a dual coloring, ranging from cherry to dark purple.
The juicy pulp has a wonderful sweet taste with a slight sourness.
The variety is productive and the tomatoes are stored well.
What does such a strange name, Blue Oxbow Lake, mean? I knew an oxbow lake was an elderly nun, but surely a tomato of that color wouldn't be named after a nun? I asked what the word meant and found out. An oxbow lake is a section of an old riverbed. So, live and learn!
I grew the Blue Oxbow Stump using seedlings. This is what my seedlings looked like in early April. Two bushes with purple stems, one light green.
They grew very slowly.
At the end of April, I planted two of the more robust bushes in the greenhouse. I planted the weakest seedling in the open ground at the end of May.
In June, purple fruits began to appear on the tomatoes.
And around the same time, the leaves on the tops of the trees began to turn yellow and wither.
I sprayed the bushes and watered them at the roots with a solution of phytosporin, cut off the diseased leaves and upper stems.
I didn't remove the side shoots growing from the lower part of the trunk; they grew healthy and soon replaced the main stem. I treated the plant several times, and the disease subsided.
At the beginning of August the first tomatoes began to ripen; they were small and sweet in taste.
The grandson appreciated them and said that these were his favorite tomatoes.
The bush that grew outside was not sick, looked strong, and the tomatoes on it were much larger.
In early September, I picked all the tomatoes from the bushes growing outside because the nights had gotten cold.
The unripe fruits of the Blue Old Lady ripened in the country house; they tasted the same as those ripened on the bushes.
I collected seeds from the largest fruits and will plant the Blue Old Woman again next year.