Red versus Yellow tumbling tomatoes

Harvesting and preserving your fruit & veg

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Primrose
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I harvested my first ripe three yellow outdoor tumbling tomatoes today which I think slightly earlier than previous years, possibly due to last week's heatwave.

I always grow a few tumbling red and yellow plants but last week apart, I notice consistently that although I always sow them on the same date and plant them out at exactly the same time, the yellow ones always flower slightly ahead of the red ones and they also start to ripen earlier too. My red ones are showing no sign at all of even beginning to change colour.

I'm intrigued by this and wonder if the natural skin colour of fruit has something to do with the speed at which it ripens?
Westi
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My yellow are always first as well - never given it any thought until your post though Primrose. Interesting to see the replies!
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KG Steve
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I'll do some research and see if I can find out for you Primrose.
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Primrose
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Thanks Steve. Bought some interesting bright orange cherry tomatoes from a market stall yesterday. They were obviously a cordon variety but I'm going to save some seed and sow a couple of experimental plants next year so that I can add this colour to my investigations. I already grow Ildi yellow cherry plum (cordon) tomatoes so this year will see if they ripen ahead of my red cherry ones.
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KG Steve
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Yes I like 'Ildi' - grew them a few years back when we gave them away with the magazine. Good feedback from readers who grew them subsequently, too. Yes do let us know Primrose.
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KG Steve
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I've had a very interesting response from a friend in the industry who is one of the UK's foremost tomato breeders and he says:

Regarding the tomato ripening, I see no genetic reason why a yellow or orange should ripen before a red. In the case of the Tumbling Tom series I think it may be the poorer fruit set on the red which actually misleads us into thinking the yellow is earlier, perhaps you have your own thoughts on this but in my experience Tumbling Tom Red always struggles to set fruit early.

Certainly ‘Sungold’ is a very early variety but I do not associate this with the colour, it is simply much earlier to ripen. Anyone who has collected self-pollinated seed from 'Sungold' and grown it out will have noted that it segregates for red coloured fruit which are as early to ripen as their orange siblings. Of course, it is of interest that the first cultivated tomatoes grown in Italy in the 17th century were yellow, rather than red (hence pomodoro) but again this is historical and much of that yellow fruited material must now be incorporated in our red fruited varieties.
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Westi
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Interesting Steve!

Maybe it is the fact that the first cultivated tomatoes were yellow? Obviously now with some of the genetics into the red ones, it would still be stronger in the yellow ones wouldn't it? And as these have been around for centuries they might have adapted/ evolved to set fruit earlier. Not a bright idea in our climate but from where they came from it would get a crop before the fruit was frizzled by the sun & droughts, or rather the seeds would be ready for that event so when they ripened would time with the frizzle so the seeds were mature enough to fall, survive & germinate when conditions were eventually right.

Not sure I've described that too well but hope you get the drift?
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KG Steve
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Yes maybe Westi although my friend wondered if it was just a trait of 'Tumbling Tom Red'. It will be interesting to see how the 'Ildi' perform.
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Pa Snip
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Tumbling Tom, decided to be late germinators this year, now they are actually growing I see that the yellows are flowering whereas the reds have not yet started to do so.

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
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The actual winner for me this year is my orange ones in the greenhouse, wee baby plum type. Looking forward to checking the outdoor ones tomorrow when I go to Lottie!
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sally wright
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Dear Primrose,
having grown both TT red and TT yellow for a number of years I can agree with the general assessment that the yellow fruits earlier, gives a better yield, thinner skins and the flavour is loads better. Both TT yellow and Ildl will produce very late into the Autumn and fruit can be had for Christmas; especially from a June sowing.

The fact is that I do not think that TTR and TTY are in any way related and one should drop the Tumbling Tom label; because to imply that one is a variation of the other is just wrong as they are so different.

Regards Sally Wright.
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Pa Snip
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Anybody got access to a DNA kit

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
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