Tomato Marvel Stripes

A large orange beefsteak heritage tomato on vigorous indeterminate plants.

Description

Marvel Stripes is an unusual bi-coloured tomato (yellow with red patches) growing on a strong indeterminate plant which (even so) can need extra support to deal with the weight of the late ripening, sweet and fruity tomatoes which can be up to 2lbs each.

It is supposedly of Mexican origin.

We grew it for the first time in 2011 and it ripened in mid-October, struggling in the dull, damp weather and overall not cropping very well (only four or five ripe tomatoes and a number of green ones which failed to ripen off-the-vine).

We’ve grown it a number of times since with reasonable success, a relatively small number of reasonably large fruit giving a decent enough crop from the plants. It needs a lot of space to produce a good crop. Our main comment is that its flavour develops as it ripens and so it is important to let it become fully ripe (check its softness) before removing the fruit carefully from the plant.

It is a late ripening tomato and (like many beefsteak varieties) it struggles to ripen off the vine.