first some backstory:
one of the tomato varieties i’m most excited about growing this season is OSU blue. it’s an open-pollinated tomato with bluish skin (it’s sometimes purple, dark red or even jet black, depending on the growing conditions and how much sunlight hits the fruit.) it was created by oregon state university researchers using traditional (non-GMO) breeding methods to grow a tomato high in anthocyanin. here’s a great post about them from you grow girl.
i’m growing 29 varieties of tomato this year and i’ve been playing favorites all along. window-front real estate was at a premium for seedlings so i made sure to give the most interesting varieties the nicest, sunniest spots. OSU blue seedlings crested the hierarchy and received tons of preferential treatment.
after planting out two of them i was thrilled to see one take off, quickly becoming the biggest, healthiest tomato plant in my garden. and then it set fruit. and then i saw this:
reisetomate! the easiest-to-identify tomato, unmistakable even at the size of a pencil eraser. and it’s definitely not just a mutant OSU blue--there are two others just like it on the plant.
somehow i mislabeled my tomatoes. i don’t know how this happened...i was so careful. i’m not sure how many are affected. i don’t know if the plants i have labeled as reisetomate are actually OSU blue. worst of all, some of my seedlings died or were aborted, so i don’t even know if i have any OSU blues growing at all.
i noticed this tomato plant, which i had labeled as black zebra cherry, displaying purplish pigmentation on the leaves. i know OSU blue plants sometimes do that but it’s possible black zebra cherry ones do too.
those cute plant tags i made are absolutely useless if they’re marking the wrong plants. this is such an irritating fail. it has me doubting the identity of every tomato i planted.
