So all of my tomato plants are doing well so far, all are waist high (or higher), and starting to bloom and work on fruits. Then theres my poor little green zebra tomato. only about a foot tall. it has always seemed to lag behind compared to the other tomatoes, but only recently has it gone limp like this, and the other tomatoes are growing in the same space. weak specimen perhaps? or is there something i am overlooking?
I'm wondering if it may have contracted a disease, one of the wilt varieties perhaps. Your other varieties may be resistant to whatever is plaguing this plant. From my research, Green Zebra doesn't appear to have been bred for resistance to any of the known tomato diseases (V,F,N, etc). Also, it seems that while many people love it have great success with it, a smaller but significant number of people report lackluster results similar to yours, plants which grow poorly if at all & die w/o producing fruit, even while surrounded by numerous healthy tomato plants of other varieties.
I have a couple of Green Zebra seedlings which I've yet to pot up for the 2nd 1/2 of our growing season. Since this is my 1st time growing them, I can't offer much in the way of comparison but am now curious to see which group my results will fall into. My guess is with this one success or failure may well be a matter of whether ones soil happens to contain the disease(s) to which it is vulnerable. Curious to hear what ideas others may have on this issue.
here are my other plants that i am growing here, photo #1 is one of my mystery volunteer seedlings, so i couldnt tell you what they were, they came up in my batch of compost, lol. #2 is German johnson, #3 is white wonder (seems to have gotten a touch of leaf curl, but is still keeping right on truckin'), and #4 is another of the mystery volunteers.
i have heard that green zebra is the more finicky of tomatoes to grow for the main reason of that lack of resistance to pretty much anything, i could be finding out for myself the hard way, lol ;)
This message was edited Jun 23, 2014 3:12 PM
an update:
no improvement yet on the limp leaves, in fact some of the limp ones at the bottom are showing signs of drying up. however i have noticed that the growth at the very tip top of the plant, and the side shoots that it has are still properly firm.
are there any green tomato varieties that share a similar sweet - tart like taste with green zebra? because i dont think i will try G.Z. again, perhaps that can be a challenge that can be set upon the hybridize-rs here among D.G. to produce one that doesnt have such a wimpy immune system ;)
I absolutely love Green Zebra. In my zone is a massive producer. In fact I can really say that this year I had the biggest production of tennis balls size tomatoes from Green Zebra.
Still producing now and very strong plant ... not with a "wimpy" immune system at all.
Look at these harvest pictures : Green Zebra is always present ... The green and yellow tomatoes.
Sorry it is not working out for you , it is an amazing taste tomato.
Happy gardening!
i tried it a couple of years ago and failed miserably with it then as well, im thinking perhaps it does not like my particular climate very well, as i often read here on DG that certain varieties prefer certain climates over others.
This message was edited Jun 24, 2014 12:17 PM
jmc1987
I do agree with you. Last month I visit my friend in CA and I was so surprised to see how her tomatoes did look. We planted the same variety and there was a huge difference in look; from the size of the stem to the leaves ... so I believe that each zone has its favorite variety.
It took me a while to figure out good variety for my zone and soon you will learn too.
Happy gardening !
so far i have found out that german johnson seems to like it here, i even have a double tomato forming up on it. I did try a green tomato variety last year called Aunt Ruby's German green. that one went nuts, although the taste was a bit too odd in my mouth for my liking, lol. but it performed well at least.
and whatever the mystery volunteer tomatoes are, they seem to be another that enjoys growing here. so that is at least two i know of for sure, lol. the white wonder has been growing well, but not flowering until just the other day when i noticed little pin head sized buds starting to develop on it. it is another that has done well in the past, its just been a long while since ive tried it again.
