This had to be COPIA tomato

[Andrey_BY]

I've some seeds from USA at the end of 2005 with the label "Copia" on the seed packet from a trade. I grow two plant of Copia this season and they bear small to full size beefsteak fruits until mid October in my big greenhouse. I like the taste of fruits and rather large juicy part, but they has got strange green+pink-purple with some gold striped colors unless normal Jeff's Dawson's Copia which is golden-yellow+pink striped accoring to TGS or Totally Tomato describtion.

I wonder what is it. Probably Black Pineapple a.k.a. Ananas Noire but they describe it as a mix of green, purple and yellow and the main look is different as you can see. Mine has got mostly green and pink-purple with some gold and looks like oblate unusual colored Big Zebra.

Photoes of my "Copia"

Average size


Butterfly from "Copia" and unripe Purple tomatillo


Copia from from different web-sources:





Here is some Black Pineapple photoes from different web-sources:

[westocast73]

If my memory is correct it looks very similar to the pictures Suze's took of "Berkley Tie Dye". If I recall Berkley Tie Dye didn't have much dark purple in the center like yours have but the exterior is certainly very similar.

Berkley Tie Dye

[Andrey_BY]

Mike, probably you are right. The only difference between BTD and my "Copia" according to photoes at this link is a massive central part (both its size and size of a dark-purple hint). It looks also like my "Copia" has much larger juice locules IMHO...

According to my tracking system I've got these seeds from a trade with John Hanna from Moscow, Idaho in 2005. His original source was TGS

[Suze]

If I had to guess, I'd say what you are seeing is some sort of instability in Copia (or I suppose it could be a cross).

Copia is a supposedly stabilized cross -- Marvel Stripe x Green Zebra.

Big Zebra -- which kind of looks like BTD, but I don't think either the exterior striping or interior is as vivid (BTD probably has a somewhat similar lineage) was found in a patch of Copia by TGS according to their catalog writeup. I've not grown BZ, but I do recall a couple of folks commenting that it wasn't always stable when they grew it out.

Can't recall if anyone was saying the same about Copia or not. And I do not know what generation either Copia or BZ were at when they were released to the public.

So, did the BZ come from instability in Copia, or was there a cross that took place in that patch where it was found? Beats me, I don't think anyone knows the answer to that.

I hope you're going to work with it; looks interesting. Different from BTD, there's really not dark in a BTD interior.

See the NORCATT pics as well, they really show coloration better than mine do.
http://www.tomatoville.com/viewtopic.php?t=2694

[Andrey_BY]

Thanks for your comments, Suze.

Since Big Zebra has a red- and green-striped exterior and green-and-pink interior it is not BZ in my case.

Probably it is just a instability or mutation of Copia or but definately not a cross in my greenhouse because I grew 2 plants in opposite corners with completely different neighboor-varieties.

Or it is one of BTD strains... Will grow several plants of it next year to see what will happen in the future :wink:

[angelique]

Hi Andrey,

Here is a picture of the Copia that I grew two years ago. Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Angelique

[michael johnson]

Andrey- it looks a real good one-please save some seeds from it, regardless of whatever it is,

If you go to the TGS web site and look up copia- just above it you will see Big zebra, read the comments about it where they say the found it growing by chance in a patch of Copia !!, and then look at the photo of it, looks like the busy bees have been hard at work and crossed it with a Copia, because Andrey's tomato is like a blend of both, - hence a new strain is born -well worth saving.

(Edited) sorry-I didnt realise Suze had already said that -above.

[Andrey_BY]

Of course, I'd saved several hundred seeds of it and gonna name it Green Copia :wink:

[michael johnson]

well-Andrey, make sure you save some for me, as I just gotta have some of those beauties

[michael johnson]

Andrey- approximatly when, will you be posting your new updated trade and wants list on Tomatoville- hopefully before christmas.

[Andrey_BY]

Yes, before our Orthodox Christmas (January 7)

But seriously, I'm very busy now at my working place with all these business-plans, forecasts and liquidity for the next year... Usual rush-hour time at the end of every year :wink: Maybe will finish on this week-end :wink:

As I promised it will be a revolution in the naming of Russian tomato varieties. You will see right original names in Latin (English) letters for all my Russian/Belarusian/Ukrainian/Moldovian/Polish/Czech/German varieties and their translated Enlish names when it is possible to translate :wink:

Also I'll mention as much background and source info as I can in order to present the real information about the certain variety if it is a heirloom or an old or modern commercial OP or just an old or modern amateur OP. This background info is what I missed much when I've seen so large collections of seeds in SSE Yearbook 2006 from Neil Lockhart or this Swedish guy Ake, for example.

[michael johnson]

Sounds like a lot of work-typing it all out

[Andrey_BY]

Originally Posted by michael johnson

Sounds like a lot of work-typing it all out

When you do it on a regular basis every year when adding new varieties I believe there can't any difficulties with a lot of typing work :wink: