Cowlick Country and Indian Stripe Nation

[puttgirl]

Great post and great replies! Where can I get some Indian stripe seed?

[G. Gordon Gumbo]

I want to give a brief update on Indian Stripe.

The one I call Indian Stripe "B" is not a "strain" as of yet apparently. I'm gratified it's doing well in North Carolina, but here I'm getting variable results. All good, but one plant definitely was way earlier than the other. Identical conditions start to present. But one plant is substantially earlier than the other by 10 - 15 days anyway.

Same report with the Indian Stripe seeds I got from Mr. Burson. One plant is way earlier and more productive than the other. Again, identical growing conditions start to present. Also, in both cases ("B" and "Burson") the earlier plants are the more productive plants.

So once again I'm stuck with saving seeds separately from the different plants. It's all I can think to do ... to continue taking looks in comparison plant to plant until I see what's up with this thing.

I will be happy to mix the seeds together when sending them out so people get a good cross section of the genetics in this variety. This year I have the benefit of growing four plants ... two from 2005 Victory Seeds origin and subsequently grown and saved by me for the past 4 seasons ... and two from Mr. Burson, the original source of Indian Stripe ... from seeds his son sent me this past winter.

All 4 plants are good specimens. All four plants are growing in 10-gallon black nursery tubs. All four plants are disease free, deep green and remain productive with new fruit setting every week. And that has been the most rewarding thing for me ... that I found a variety that will grow in containers and give large, meaty, sweet, rich, tomatoey, beautiful slicing tomatoes. What more can you ask for?

GGG

[Prudenspurple]

OK, I lied!

I said in my last post on 8/2 that I would not post again, but as the tomato season progressed and is now finally winding down to the end, I felt a wrap up was in order.

But first, of course, you will have to put up with the usual babblings, ramblings, and qualifications

This was indeed my worst tomato growing season over the past 30 some years! Weather, four legged vermin, disease, and my health took a huge toll on the garden. It almost got to the point of just plain not being enjoyable anymore and one heck of a lot of work. Almost! Interestly though it was probably my best year for actual fruit production, so I finally really got my soil working well. Unfortunately, that increase hardly ever made it into the house! Storms, disease, and four legged thieves all combined to greatly reduce my actual harvest.

The other major dissappointment was that my gardening circle totally fell apart. Whether from gardens going by the wayside, foreclosures, lack of interest, whatever, there ended up only 3 of us left by mid August and only myself here locally. Oh well, at least my seed and grow out list will be far less time consuming than it has been. (My loverly wife and love of my life might actually get to spend some non gardening time with me next early Spring)

OK, on to the info! (and there was much rejoicing)

In August and through mid September the weather greatly improved and so did the taste of both my Indian Stripe B and Cowlick.
The ISB's production sky rocketed ( and it was very good to start with), fruit size averaging 6-10oz, stripes begin to appear on about 1/3 of the fruit, and flavor more consistently very good. Plant size at a bushy 5-6'. Still no sign of disease at all!
Cowlick production picked up to fair to good, fruit size increased back upward to average 10-18oz, and flavor really picked up and became more consistent(Now, I know what Camo was talking about!). EB still nibbling away, but plant growth more than kept up. Plant sprawling over and across 6' arbor.

At this point someone must have turned on the bright neon sign that only critters can see that flashes " Free Great Tasting Food, Come Eat It All Now" and I lost one whole side from main trunk of the ISB due to diners fighting over the tomatoes. The CL was wiped out under 4'. Buggersnort! Fences,sprays, slingshot, traps, curses and prayers have no effect! But, still manage to harvest the occassional whole tasty tomato anyway.

September 20th brings the Black Plague, aka Late Blight, and quicker than Jack Sprat, my entire main tomato bed is totally wiped out in 4 days. With the exception of ISB! It continued to fight the good fight for another two weeks! This is one disease tolerant tomato folks!

Both tomatoes ended up being truly great tasting and productive, definately worth growing. I'll take a break and come back shortly to give final overall results and thoughts.

TimothyT

[Prudenspurple]

So, as I look over all the comments and results from others in the circle and my own experience this year my observations are the following:

Can't wait to grow both of these in a "good" year, but even with that said, they both ended up being good in a "bad" growing year!

Cowlick:
Better beginning results in the West and North than in the SouthEast due to humidity and disease factor. But, even here in the South if you are vigilant you will be highly rewarded! It is not really happy with high heat and humidity, but will indeed continue through to regain ground in the Fall. (I will be interested to see if saved seeds from this neck of the woods helps out)

Large rambling PL plant with good leaf cover. (81 days)
Productive early and late in the season with a slow down during the hot/humid months. (But still more productive than most brandywines here)
Large sized firm fruit (10-18oz) with some in the 1 1/2 lb size. A good looking pink fruit with few blemishes and few seeds.
This year's taste was all over the board with mid season being bland (but almost all my tomatoes were this year) and yet late season the taste really, really improved.
When they improved later on the consensus was that this is not a strong "in your face" beefsteak type flavor, but a very rich, tasty and deep flavor that stands out well alone with a very good balance of sweet/acid.

Definately a regrow and many thanks to Camo for sharing!

Taste - ending 8
Production - 6/7
Disease Tolerance - 4

Indian Stripe B:
Good growth and production in all regions. Very little slow down in hot/humid months.

Plant size was a more compact/medium size for a indeterminate(5'), and yet still vigorous, bushy, dark green. Very productive through early, mid, late season. My earliest large size fruit (70days) Even with all the vermin thieves enjoyed over 40 full sized ripe fruit and many more set when lost.
Fruit size ranged from 6oz to 15oz with avg. being 8-10oz. Color also all over the board from pinkish/purplish, sometimes almost brownish, many with green shoulders and very few stripes till fall. Yet an attractive fruit with few blemishes and little cracking.
What made this tomato shine was its disease tolerance. No other tomato, hybrid or heirloom has ever shown this type of tolerance to EB, Southern Wilt, Septoria, and even to a certain extent Late Blight.
Flavor again was fairly mild, but earthy and distinctive here untill fall, then also greatly improved. Flavor is very earthy, bit of smoky, with a good tang that finishes sweet.

Definately another regrow! And again, many thanks to GGG for sharing!

Taste - 8
Production - 9
Disease tolerance - my first ever 9!

Both of these tomatoes are excellent and definately worth growing for their own virtues!
So endeth the report on Cowlick Country and Indian Stripe Nation. To be continued next year!

TimothyT

[camochef]

TimothyT,
Thanks for the final update. This was a bad season up here also, for many reasons. My Cowlick's dropped all the way to #9. Due to lots of rain and cold weather. Mine did well early, tied with lancaster County Pink for the first to ripen this year on July 1st. Like yours their taste and production fell off during mid season but returned towards the end of the season.
I also grew Indian Stripe (strain unknown) and I really looked forward to trying them. Mine ripened much later than the cowlick's and they were huge, much larger than I was expecting. Many going well over a lb. some up to two lbs. Unfortunately the taste wasn't what I was expecting. Not bad mind you, but not a top 10 either. I ranked it at #21, still pretty good if you consider the competition.
Like you, I will grow both again and look forward to trying Indian Stripe on a good year. Cowlick's, Indian Stripe and Cherokee Purple joined Dana's Dusky Rose as the last four standing with greenies on them when I cleared everything off right before the first frost. I was actually shocked at Cherokee Purple being in that group as it's usually on of the irst to call it quits!
Good Luck next year!
Camo

[G. Gordon Gumbo]

Timothy,

Glad to hear that Indian Stripe worked well for you and showed at least some fortitude in the face of late blight. Maybe next summer I can do some crosses between Indian Stripe and something with known late blight resistance (whether you call it resistance, intermediate resistance or tolerance) like West Virginia 63 or some such variety.

Indian Stripe "B" continued to show improvement this summer for me. Also, the Indian Stripe that came from Clyde Burson, Sr.'s freezer was just as awesome ... the one he had hand labeled "Indian Zebra."

Two other great surprises should be mentioned: Bear Creek and Spudakee. You got to try both of them if Indian Stripe was successful for you.

I had two Spudakee vines this summer outlast everything in the garden except my [Brandywine x Neves Azorean Red] x Bolseno. Outproduced just about every large tomato but the [BWxNAR]xBol too. Finally just pulled all the immature fruit when cool weather shut it down and the green ones stopped turing color. Believe it or not, those two vines are still out there with little bitty green ones but the foliage is all played out.

Pretty much same story with Bear Creek, a stabilized cross of Brandywine x Cherokee Purple from Keith M. in KCMO who also gave us Gary'O Sena, Dora, Liz Bert and Purple Haze. Bear Creek just got better the longer the season went and it still has green foliage at the tops of the shoots except it obviously has shut down on flowering and ripening any fruit in the cool weather.

Neither of those two varieties (Spudakee and Bear Creek) ever succumbed to Septoria or Early Blight in spite of the fact they both showed signs during the earlier wet weather in June and early July. Both taste great but maybe not as good as Cherokee Purple which is awfully hard to beat, IMO.

But since my goal is bulletproof open pollinated tomatoes with superior flavor, I have to add Spudakee and Bear Creek to the list topped by Indian Stripe.

Obviously next year I'm going to trial Dana's Dusky Rose, Barlow Jap and Cowlick's Brandywine based on Camo's high ranking and wonderful work and wording. I'll never get to the point of ranking 20 or 30 varieties like Camo, but I hope to develop a Top 10 Bulletproof List within a few years from now.


GGG

[Prudenspurple]

Hey GGG,

Yup-em, the Spudakee you sent me was 3rd for taste and tied for 1st in production and size of plant this year and was able to keep ahead of diseases until end of season attack of LB! I've heard about about Bear Claw, but not Bear Creek...Sounds interesting.

Bye the bye my ISB was 72 days. Spudakee was 81 days.

"Bullet Proof" and productive and tasty....Keep up the great work!!!!

And thank you again!

TimothyT

[camochef]

Timothy and GGG,
Have you guys tried Amazon Chocolate or Sandul Moldovan yet? both readily available and both did better than Cowlick's or Indian Stripe for me this year. JD's Special C-Tex fits with them too.
Now Dana's Dusky Rose, Lillian Maciejewski's Poland Pink and Barlow Jap might be a little more difficult to find but well worth the effort of searching.
If production isn't an issue, try Brandywine -Glicks, they were fantastic this year they just don't produce as long, but everyone was close to two pounds.
GGG, knowing how you like blacks, you owe it to yourself to try Black Master, Shannon's South African Mystery Black and Swisher Sweet Almost as good as Amazon Choc and DDR.
Camo

[G. Gordon Gumbo]

Camo, thanks for the tips. My space is limited unless my market farmer buddy down the road allows me two rows next summer. Chances are he will.

Regarding the Amazon Chocolate, can I get those from Lisa at Amishland? Was she your original source? If so, did her Amazon Chocolate seeds all run true? Are those regular leaf or potato leaf, btw?

And yes, I've heard some good reports on that Black Master which I think is going to be listed in SSE Yearbook 2010.

Love your reports, Camo. Lots of detail to digest there. Shows lots of hard work and deep thought.


GGG

[Prudenspurple]

Ya know, between the two of you (Camo and GGG), I'm now contemplating sneaking over into the neighbor's yards one night and cutting down tall poplar trees so I can increase garden space! And dang it I love trees!

Camo,the first thing I did after reading your report was scarf up Amazon Chocolate seeds from two sources before word got out!

Again, thank you both for your wonderful advise and guidance!

May the Weather and Gardening Gods be with us all next year!

TimothyT.