Aunt Ruby's German Green
| Aunt Ruby's German Green | |
|---|---|
| Maturity | late |
| Growth habit | indet. |
| Leaf type | regular |
| Fruit color | green |
| Fruit shape | beefsteak, irregular |
| Fruit size | large |
| Fruit type | slicer |
| Variety type | family heirloom |
| Country | Germany, USA |
B.C KO T
- midseason, indet., regular leaf plants with a good yield of green-when-ripe beefsteaks, often irregular shapes, 8-18 oz, sometimes with pinkish stripes radiating from the bottom. Excellent rich sweet flavor, meaty flesh with small seed cavities. Flesh has a beautiful greenish yellow color, and it is almost 'buttery' in texture. One of our favorite green-when-ripe tomatoes.
Seed source:
- 1. Reimer Seeds
- 2. Carolyn Male of Salem, New York (NY MA C) 05
- 3. Pinetree Seeds 05
- 4. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds 12
Year grown: 2006 (3), 2009 (2), 2011*(4)
Location: Zone 6b, PNW, Columbia Valley (Lower Mainland), BC, Canada (780 ft above sea level)
IL LO N
- 85 days, indet., regular leaf plant, good yield of 0.5-1 lb greenish yellow fruit with a pink flush, good flavor.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds / Bill Minkey of Darien, Wisconsin (WI MI B) 97 / Ruby Arnold of Greenville, Tennessee 92
Location: Oblong, Illinois
MAN ST T
- Originally from Ruby Arnold of Greenville, Tennessee. The large green beefsteak type fruit average 1 lb or more and have a sweet spicy flavor. Indeterminate. (85 days from transplant.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds / Heritage Harvest Seed
Location: Carman, Manitoba, Canada
MI FL J
- 80 days, huge, vigorous indeterminate plant that needs caging or staking. Produces medium to large light yellowish green fruit with dark green shoulders, sometimes with pink blush near blossom end, and an almost neon-green gel around the seeds. The flavor has a wonderful spicy edge to its excellent fruity sweet taste, making this one fabulous and unique variety. If you know someone who scoffs at the idea of eating a non-red tomato, this one will change his/her mind.
- I’ve found it very challenging to obtain and maintain the authentic strain of this variety, having obtained chance crosses from the seed from several different sources, including my own saved seed. Unlike my experience with other tomato varieties including potato leaf types, it appears to be highly susceptible to crossing, even when taking efforts to moderately isolate it (by 30-50 ft.) from other varieties. Crossed plants invariably seem to give ordinary-tasting fruit which can be any color, presumably depending on what variety the bee visited before finding the ARGG flower. At this point I recommend growing multiple plants, as some of them may be the authentic strain and others will be chance crosses. I’m still experimenting with how to reliably obtain the uncrossed strain. Maybe you'll have better luck with commercial sources; 41 were noted for 2004 in Garden Seed Inventory 6th edition.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds / multiple sources; authentic strain from NC LE C and TX LA M2, crossed strains from these same sources and others.
Year: annually since 1996
Location: Augusta, Michigan
MI MA D
- Days to maturity : 100. Size: 12 oz. to 16 oz. Type: beefsteak, slightly ribbed. Taste: sweet and spicy - I loved it. Foliage: Heavy regular leaf.
- This was one of my favorites. It set fruit earlier than most of my other beefsteaks this size but matured about 20 days later than expected as did all of the tomatoes. The yield was moderate to good. It was not as difficult to tell when they ripened as I thought that it would be since this was my first time growing a green tomato.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds / Darrel Jones of Alabama, Selected Plants
Year: 2009
Location: Iron River, Michigan, Zone 3b
TX AN S
- 75 days, vigorous regular leaf plants, high-average production of medium to medium-large fruits with a green interior, and greenish amber exterior. I usually do not get a pink blush. Occasional irregular shapes. Excellent spicy, sweet-tart taste.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds
Year: been growing it on and off since 2002 or so
Location: Bastrop, Texas
TX GU R
- 80 days, indet., 12-16 oz, yellow blush when ripe, fabulous flavor, a favorite.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds
Location: Pasadena, Texas
GERM SC K
- green tomato, beefsteak type, indet.
- Source
- Reimer Seeds / CV Treml (Raritätengärtnerei Treml)
Year: 2005
Location: Quitzdorf am See, Germany.
NY GA S
- This is a beautiful bright green beefsteak tomato. Fruits can reach up to one pound. Sweet and great for slicing!
Year: 2014
Location: Southold, NY
History
- Family heirloom from Germany.
- First introduced in the SSE 1993 Yearbook by Bill Minkey of Darien, Wisconsin (WI MI B). Bill Minkey received the seed from Nita Hofstrom of Clinton, Wisconsin, whose aunt, Ruby Arnold of Greeneville, TN, grew it for years. The seed originally came from Ruby Arnold's German immigrant grandfather, and Ruby simply called it 'German Green' tomato. Bill Minkey asked Ruby for permission to rename this variety and he called it 'Aunt Ruby's German Green' after Ruby Arnold.
- Slow Food USA recently nominated this tomato to the Ark of Taste Program.
- This is one of the 100 varieties described in Carolyn J. Male's book "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden".
Accidental Crosses
- Aunt Ruby's German Green Cherry
- Aunt Ruby's German Black Cherry
- Aunt Ruby's Yellow Cherry
- Aunt Ruby's German Black (off-type)
Picture Gallery
Donna Socci-Brown, Stratford CT. Aunt Ruby's German Green - Leaf. 2008-06-27.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green - flowers. 2009-07-11.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green - green fruit. 2009-06-27
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green. 2006
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green - green fruit. 2009-07-11.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green (NY MA C) - ripe fruit. 2009-07-30.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green (NY MA C) - ripe fruit. 2009-07-30.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green (NY MA C) - ripe fruit. 2009-09-06.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green (NY MA C) - sliced fruit. 2009-07-30.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green (NY MA C) - sliced fruit. 2009-09-06.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Aunt Ruby's German Green (NY MA C) - sliced fruit. 2009-09-08.
Susan Anderson (TX AN S): Aunt Ruby's German Green. 2007.
Klaus-Peter Schurz (GERM SC K). Aunt Ruby's German Green - sliced.
Jeff Fleming (MI FL J). Aunt Ruby's German Green. 2005
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Seed Availability
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