Kellogg's Beefsteak tomato

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*****

Here's my Kellogg's Beefsteak tomato, so far, this year. This is from seeds I saved from tasty fruit in 2015. I grew it in 2015, in tough soil, and it didn't prosper, but it did produce a few undersized very tasty fruits. I attribute the lack of vigor and the undersized fruit to the soil, since other tomatoes struggled in it, too. The only ones to do decently in that soil were Galapagos Island (and their fruits were somewhat undersized and extra dark / concentrated-looking). Note that I grew Galapagos Island elsewhere that same year (and the fruits were larger and lighter in color).

Note that I'm growing KBX and Kellogg's Breakfast, this year, too.



heirloom_tomato

Well, it turns out, my plant this year is a cross between Kellogg's Beefsteak, and a red cherry tomato!

Possible father plants include these (considering the small size of the fruit):
* Husky Cherry Red F2 (one of at least three F2s)
* Sugar Lump (AKA Gardener's Delight)
* Texas Wild Cherry

The fruits are too small for the father to be any of these red tomatoes:
* Black Plum
* Martino's Roma
* San Marzano
* Delicious
* Market Wonder
* Roma
* Early Girl F2
* A Brandywine type that I grew

There's no noticeable anthocyanin, so Indigo Rose is out. I believe anthocyanin skin is dominant.

I harvested and ate the first ripe fruit, today.

My first impression upon harvesting it was that it was extremely firm for a ripe tomato. Same for eating it. It wasn't quite crunchy, but close. It's pleasant to eat. The skin was kind of shiny and waxy-seeming. it's like a slightly ribbed, large cherry.

The fruit was quite sweet, and unique in its taste qualities. It has somewhat of a tomatoey taste, but it's not terribly prominent. It's really interesting.

Overall, it looks and tastes nothing like Kellogg's Beefsteak did in 2015. The texture is totally different, too. It does not resemble any of the aforementioned cherry tomatoes terribly well, but I'm guessing Husky Cherry Red F2 is the father, considering it's so firm (Husky Cherry Red F2 can be firm). Growing out the F2s of this new cross might be revealing.

The fruit I ate had enough sunscald to prevent one side of it from turning red (but it didn't penetrate the skin all the way; so, it didn't hurt the resulting fruit's edible qualities).

Before it turned red, I felt that Galapagos Island was probably the father plant, but, yeah, it's yellow (not red).