Yeah Whwoz, I'm really looking forward to try KarenO's bicolor hearts too.
We are into a run of miserable summers here, with Greenland's meltwater and bergs close at hand. When the cold weather breaks it's unusually hot - and the glasshouse in July and August is anyway out of the goldilocks and into 95F+ on sunny days. So between the extremes suffered, and how little time I devoted, I'm really pleased with how low maintenance this year's group have been. These lines have been outstanding for foliage health in all generations, with a few exceptions that were culled along the way.
Other than one frantic afternoon of tying up, I have done nothing this summer except water and open the greenhouse in the morning. Occasionally take a minute to brush off the blossom ends. Not one blighty leaf have I found to remove the entire season. I have a pest in the greenhouse that has mined some leaves and I've picked a few of those off, is all. Zero pruning on determinates, until I topped them all a few days ago to try and ripen up what's there.
So I feel I've made some progress towards the low maintenance short season tomatoes that I wanted.
The indeterminate Skipper at the farm greenhouse also made a healthy row with lots of fruit, very consistent at F5 and identical to last year's early delicious tomato with a reduced point but almost sharp as a thorn. The two pink determinate Skippers that I grew were not identical - one larger fruited but without the classy pointy shape. Both are good eating but I prefer the earliest, pointy shaped one with the tight clusters. Sweet and rich with a grassy peel. Those sibling crossed determinate Skippers may take an extra season to stabilize. Still it is exciting to be saving F6 seeds.
