Nightingale project
 

2020 is the international year of the nurse and they could not have predicted what a terrible year it would be for nurses all over the world.
It is also the bicentennial of Florence Nightingale born 200 years ago and so I am calling the white tomato I have bred Nightingale in honour of nurses.
A new white potato leaf tomato Bred by this registered nurse of 35 years, selected in the international year of the nurse and Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday.
It can have no other name. :)
I grew the F1 starting in January, folks who follow my northern gardener FB page will have seen it and the first ripe was about May 11.
I immediately sowed the F2 seeds, about 100 seedlings were culled down to just the best potato leaf ones as I intend for my tomato to be a white potato leaf saladette. Pictured here are the F1 fruit from regular leaf plants and now the F2 potato leaf selections ready to plant out.
I will post updates on this project here and likely more frequently on Northern Gardener and Instagram for those interested in following the progress of my “Nightingale”
Happy Solstice!
KarenO

Beautiful and so totally appropriate Karen

Indeed, the perfect name for your new tomato! There can be no better one.

F2 plants are growing very well, starting to bloom. All with the very large potato leaves I like so much
KarenO

F2 plants are growing very well, starting to bloom. All with the very large potato leaves I like so much
KarenO

Looks great! I would be honored to grow these in celebration of our extremely brave and selfless men and women nurses everywhere, once they're ready.

Terrific name and story Karen! How was the taste?

[QUOTE=hl2601;758272]Terrific name and story Karen! How was the taste?[/QUOTE]

The F1 was quite good. Sweet and citrusy.
Hoping for better in one of these big potato leaf plants though
KarenO

Plants are doing great. All big potato leaf selections with variable fruit from large cocktail cherry to small beefsteak shaped saladette size. There are several that look promising so far, nothing is ripe yet but the pale green colour is giving hints of what I’m hoping for, especially in the last photo.
KarenO :yes:

Pleased with the results so far of the F2’s. A lot of pale-light yellow tomatoes to choose from from cocktail through to the small beefsteak shown by itself first. (including two of the whitest I’ve personally ever seen.) All PL plants.
I’m loving the big white saladette on the nice truss. Fits my vision when I planned the cross to a T.
I think I’ve possibly found my Nightingale

Some beautiful tomatoes there Karen. Good to have something that fits what you were thinking about originally, with plenty of other options if you decide to follow them up. I like that small beefsteak

These look gorgeous! I’d love to try them one day. It’s a lovely way to commemorate the enormous effort that nurses are putting in this year (or any year really).

A cocktail, a beefsteak and a globe. The final three F2 selections
To take forward. The Best flavour is in the cocktail of this group.
All Large potato leaf Plants.

Lots more photos in the Nightingale project album on northern Gardener
[url]https://m.facebook.com/NorthernGardenerCanada/[/url]

I’m pleased so far with these very early results
KarenO

Beautiful tomatoes there Karen, looking forward to hearing about these next season

Gorgeous! :yes: