Estate is another newly released variety from Wild Garden Seed and bred by Frank Morton. It is also pledged to the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). Like Home Stoop (variety A), Estate developed from a cross of Stupice, Homestead, and Peron Sprayless, a pre-1954 Argentinean development of Prof. Abelardo Piovano. They two are similar, but if I would say Estate is giving higher quality fruit than its relative Home Stoop.

Estate produces very large and quintessentially ideal tomatoes, but we’ve found it’s vigor and productivity to be a bit variable in the field. It also has similar problems to Home Stoop in retaining a green, under-ripe quality to the flesh. One kudos has been Estate’s disease severity scores, which have all been 0’s and 1’s. There are individual plants in the field that look amazing, and other that appear to have stunted after the first half of the season. Sensory feedback on Estate has also been very variable. Some people are vastly disappointed, particularly after being so excited by its visual appeal. But others have enjoyed a very “tomato” flavor.

First Ripe Fruit:

All harvest data represents two Estate plants from each block, or six plants total:

Harvest 1 (August 25, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 3

Marketable Fruit: 10 fruit weighing 2086g (4.6 lb.) Unmarketable Fruit: 11 fruit weighing 1135g (2.5 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: scabbing, cracking, too small

Harvest 2 (September 1, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 4

Marketable Fruit: 13 fruit weighing 2758g (6.08 lb.) Unmarketable Fruit: 5 fruit weighing 350g (12.35 oz.)

Reasons why unmarketable: scabbing, too small

Average Fruit Size: 7.87 cm x 6.86 cm      (3.1″ x 2.7″)

Brix: 8.1, 6.2, 7.1

Harvest 3 (September 8, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 2

Marketable Fruit: 9 fruit weighing 1811g (3.99 lb.)   Unmarketable Fruit: 4 fruit weighing 507g (1.12 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: cracking, too small

Harvest 4 (September 15, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 3

Marketable Fruit: 11 fruit weighing 2583g (5.69 lb.)   Unmarketable Fruit: 4 fruit weighing 620g (1.37 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: scabbing, too small

Harvest 5 (September 22, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 2

Marketable Fruit: 7 fruit weighing 1642g (3.62 lb.)   Unmarketable Fruit: 4 fruit weighing 459g (1.01 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: scabbing, too small, cracking