#GREEN ZEBRA TOMATO FULL#

Mulch around the tomatoes to aid in moisture retention and weed suppression and keep the tomatoes consistently irrigated. You may want to cover the seedlings with row covers or hot caps to keep them warm in the early season. Harden off your Green Zebra tomato plants for a week or so prior to transplanting to reduce stress.

#GREEN ZEBRA TOMATO FULL#

Choose a well-draining site with a pH between 6.0-6.8 in full sun, at least 8 hours per day. (10 C.) at night, you can transplant them outside. When the seedlings have 2-3 sets of well-developed leaves and outdoor temps don’t dip below 50 degrees F. Keep the seeds at temps between 65-90 degrees F. Sow the seeds Â½ inch deep in a well-draining soilless mix. Because they have a relatively long growing season, they are best started indoors 6 weeks prior to the last frost in your region. Green Zebras are harvestable in about 75 days from transplantation.

The vines only reach to around 5 feet in length and can easily be supported in a container. These practically blemish-free beauties can be grown in the garden proper but the tomatoes also make terrific container grown specimens. Maybe they don’t have the age that Grandma’s Mortgage Lifter from the Depression era possesses but, nonetheless, they are a cross between a hybrid and an heirloom. Generally speaking, most people agree that they are a created heirloom. Seems a bit odd to me but, apparently, because World War II ended then and thereafter seeds were widely available from commercial growers and seed companies, whereas before ’45 your neighbor or a church member or your mom were the sources for your seeds. Hard core heirloom definitions say a true heirloom must be “borne of seeds that have been handed down for at least 50 years, but preferably 100.” Some folks pick a rather arbitrary date of 1945 that is seeds available prior to 1945 have heirloom status. So are Green Zebra tomato plants considered heirlooms? It depends upon who you ask. Today, they are widely available through other catalogues and nurseries and it isn’t unusual to find them at the farmer’s market or at high end grocers. They were available in his Tater-Mater Seed catalog from 1983-1986. Tom was determined to improve Evergreen tomatoes however, it did take him some time.įinally in 1983, Tom introduced Green Zebra tomato plants to the world.

While he liked Evergreen tomatoes, they tended to crack. He had been thinking about improving upon one of his favorite tomatoes, Evergreen, in the 1950’s.

So where did this luscious fruit come from? It would seem to be an heirloom, but is it? Green Zebra heirloom tomatoes were developed by a guy named Tom Wagner from Everett, Washington. The flesh is also green, firm and sweet, yet with a sharp tang. Green Zebra tomato plants yield medium sized (2 inches across or so) fruit that is as its name suggests, chartreuse striated with brilliant lime green stripes. Intrigued? Read on to find out the history of Green Zebra tomatoes and any other useful Green Zebra tomato info we can unearth. These beauties, and beautiful they are, lend themselves perfectly to frying. If you love green tomatoes and secretly hope less than stellar conditions will result in early green tomato drop, fear not, there’s a tomato cultivar just for you – Green Zebra heirloom tomatoes.

Green zebra tomato