Glacier X Green Zebra Hybrid Flavor Surprise

[Tom Wagner]

Glacier crossed to Green Zebra turned out to be a surprise of sorts.

This morning, I was extracting the F-2 seed of this hybrid and as usual, I taste the fruit as I squish the seed out. Very good taste with quite a bit of tartness. These were fruits picked recently in an unheated open greenhouse, so cool weather up to ripening was a factor. I remembered a few things about Glacier, but wanted to know if others had good experiences with this variety? I put together some bullet factoids as follows:

• Glacier Well named, as this is a very cold tolerant variety, almost down to frost. Unknown origin but produces an early and extremely heavy cro

• Glacier This Swedish cultivar is very early and tolerates cool weather

• Flavor is one of the best we offer, especially for an early variety.

• Glacier is said to set the standard for early, flavorful tomatoes and we agree. It is right up there taste-wise with our delicious and also early Moskvich tomato

• Fruits with a full flavor that most of the other early tomatoes lack. This is a potato-leaf variety

So, the influence of Glacier in the Glacier X Green Zebra
hybrid is significant. Cooler weather forced other hybrids off the flavor faves. This fact may important in developing new lines and hybrids for cool climates.

This hybrid exceeded the yield/production of either parent by a wide margin. The fruits turned red with a very slight trace of striping. The sizes ranged between 2 and 2 1/2 inches with a modest pepper shape. The interior color was red but had some varicolored traces. The leaves were regular, not potato leaf as Glacier.

The F-2 seed will be placed on a higher priority of reseeding on account of the flavor component. The selection templates in the segregating progeny will be for potato leaf/reg leaf, tartness, red or green flesh, green stripes, red/yellow stripes, cold hardiness, overall flavors, and earliness.

Tom Wagner

[cosmicgardener]

Sounds interesting Tom. I'm always on the lookout for cold tolerant tomatoes. Especially the reds. Keep up updated.
cosmic

[akgardengirl]

It grows well up here. Matter of fact, it is one you always find in the seed racks up here in the spring along with the Polar series. Your cross is interesting because I can grow Glacier but didn't have any success with Green Zebra in 2006.
Sue

[tuk50]

Green Zebra is a staple in my garden due to its extreme heat tolerance and taste. Did the F1's attain the size of the GZ plant. The one left in my garden now is 10ft x 6ft. The fruit become much smaller, like 2 inches or so by the end of the summer. 8)

[Tom Wagner]

Tuk50,

Green Zebra was bred up just south of Lancaster, Kansas and heat tolerance must have been a factor during the hot, dry summer months. Seems I didn't always get the irrigation water going, so I am happy to know from others like you that Green Zebra does well in places like Arizona. My brother lives there, BTW.

The taste of Green Zebra was a compromise of summer harvests followed by winter harvests in the little greenhouse I had built adjoining the brick garage of my folk's farm.
Some of my fondest memories of tomato variety development were in that 20 by 10 greenhouse. My parents got married and lived in that garage while their house was being bulit in 1939.

The flavor of Green Zebra and its zing was due to trying to get some kind of flavor out of gallon pot culture during the depth of winter. The pots were tin cans discarded by the Lancaster grade school's lunch program. I would try one segregation of Green Zebra prototypes after another 'til I found the "Eureka" line. It had to have the kick of a zebra mule to get my attention!

The hybrid of Glacier and Green Zebra is an indeterminate, but the short season near Monroe, Washington didn't allow me to grow them for long. So I don't know if they would have gotton anywhere near your 6 by 10 vines.

I have noticed for 35 years or so that Green Zebras start out around 2 1/2 inches and drop below 2 inches as the season progresses.

Thanks, Tuk, for jogging my memories.

[tuk50]

I had no idea where this wonderful tomato came from till reading this thread. Thank you for it. I got my first seeds as a gift package from Baker Creek in 2004 and have grown it since. My daughter in law and I are the two main critics of tomatoes in my garden and this is about the only one we both agree on... lol.. It is truly underestimated in all forums I frequent as to its heat tolerance. I think because of the large size of the plant it helps keep a microclimate in the interior so that even though I don't use shade in my garden, it still sets a few tomatoes in the interior each summer and as soon as the temps drop out of the 100's it starts blooming again heavily till frost, probably later this month. 8)

[Tania]

I like Glacier - it is one of the best 'earlies' here in my PNW garden. here is my description for Glacier:

55 days, det., potato leaf, compact plant with open habit, 1-2 oz round red fruit, excellent taste for an early tomato, sweet, early fruits are seedless

Tom, your hybrid sounds very interesting - please keep us posted on the progress.

Btw, I loved your Black Prince X Cherokee Purple F1 - I can post some pictures if you like. The Mountain Roma X F2 Sun Sugar produced orange plum shaped large cherries with pointed tip on one plant and red matte fruits of the same shape and size on the other; the taste of the orange-fruited var was very good at the beginning of the seson (and it smelled like Sundgold, btw :-)), and the red-fruited one was very tasty towards the end of the season.

Cheers,

[Tom Wagner]

Tania,

Thanks for posting about those tomato hybrids. Go ahead and post any pictures you have.

For the readership information, I visited Tania at her Seed Office earlier in this year in BC. I enjoy seeing what others collect in tomatoes.

Tom

[Tania]

Tom,

you can find my pictures of Black Prince X Cherokee Purple F1 at
http://t-garden.homeip.net/mwiki/ind...okee_Purple_F1