Lucky Cross
| Lucky Cross | |
|---|---|
| Maturity | late |
| Growth habit | indet. |
| Leaf type | potato |
| Fruit color | bi-color |
| Fruit shape | beefsteak |
| Fruit size | large |
| Fruit type | slicer |
| Variety type | open-pollinated |
| Country | USA |
B.C KO T
- Indet., potato leaf, tall plant, late to bloom and set fruit, fruit shape is exactly like Brandywine's, late to set fruit and late to ripen, but it is well worth it. Fruits are yellow with pink streaks inside, and turn darker as they continue ripening on the counter to almost solid red-pink at the blossom end. Excellent flavor. 8-16 oz.
Seed source:
- 1. Mireille Blais, Quebec, Canada 07
- 2. Jeff Fleming of Augusta, Michigan (MI FL J) 08 (germination failure)
- 3. Rob Gee, Ohio 09
- 4. Darrel Jones, Alabama 13 / Craig LeHoullier of Raleigh, North Carolina (NC LE C) (crossed seed)
Year grown: 2008(1, 2), 2010(3), 2013(4 - crossed), 2014(1, 2)
Location: Zone 7b, PNW, Anmore, BC, Canada (760 ft above sea level)
IL LO N
- 85 days, indet., potato leaf plant with a good yield of 8-14 oz red-yellow bicolor fruit with very good flavor.
Seed source:
- Bill Minkey of Darien, Wisconsin (WI MI B) 03
Year grown:
Location: Oblong, Illinois
MI FL J
- Very large vines, require staking or caging. Moderate to good production of large (mostly 10-14 oz but some jumbos up to 22 oz) red and yellow streaked/marbled fruits. I tend to find them with more red than yellow, unlike many red/yellow bicolor tomatoes which are mostly yellow marbled with red. They have a fabulous, complex sweet rich flavor that really packs a punch. In my opinion Lucky Cross is at least equal to pink Brandywine and perhaps better. First mature fruit are typically about 80 days. For me this variety produces more reliably than pink Brandywine, and – to really ice the cake for me – even the fruit obtained deep into the fall, when cool weather usually dampens the sweetness of other varieties, still taste wonderfully sweet. When the first frost is nearing, it is definitely worth your while to pick the remaining fruit that have a chance to ripen indoors because they are the best tomatoes you will have until the following summer. I’ve grown a number of yellow/red bicolor varieties and Lucky Cross is far and away the best flavored one of the bunch; most others are meekly sweet flavored. Beautiful, long-producing, and mouth-wateringly delicious – what more can you ask from a tomato?
- I grew out one of Craig's earlier generations of the Lucky Cross and found it to be nothing special, but it was not stabilized then, and I obviously did not have the same thing that he was observing. His persistence with this really hit the jackpot.
Seed source:
- Craig LeHoullier of North Carolina
Year grown: 2005, 2006, 2007
Location: Augusta, Michigan
TX GU R
- 85 days, indet., potato leaf, 10-18 oz, red-yellow bi-color, excellent flavor, productive.
Seed source:
- ?
Year grown:
Location: Pasadena, Texas
History
- In growing out Brandywine in 1997 (from seed saved in 1993), Craig LeHoullier noted a number of regular leaf seedlings. Unsure if this was a cross or mix up, he grew out one plant, which produced large, oblate pink fruit with distinct vertical gold stripes - a very unusual result. Assuming therefore he was looking at an F1 hybrid, he undertook growouts of saved seed over the next few years. The most promising produced large, smooth oblate bicolored fruit on a potato leaf plant with superb flavor. With a working name of Rainbow Brandywine, Craig was joined in stabilization efforts by a nearby North Carolina seed saver, Larry Bohs. Eventually the selection neared stabilization and Craig named it Lucky Cross. A second selection, essentially a smaller, rounder version with similarly excellent flavor, was also stabilized and named Little Lucky. In looking over his garden map of 1993, the experimental variety Tad grew nearby. (Tad was a variety named by Carolyn Male for seed saver and amateur breeder Tad Smith - it is the result of an effort to get a Tigerella type striping on large fruit with a bicolor interior. He started with a cross that included Old German with Tigerella. Tad ended up being a medium sized, nearly round yellow fruit with distinct gold stripes. It is nearly certain that Tad is indeed the source of the striped characteristic of the crossed Brandywine seed.)
- No commercial sources were noted for 2004 in the Garden Seed Inventory 6th edition, but it is now available from a number of commercial vendors.
- This variety first appeared in SSE 2002 Yearbook, listed by both Craig LeHoullier and Larry Bohs of NC (NC BO L), who helped Craig in stabilizing it.
Related
Picture Gallery
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross - ripe fruit. 2008-10-02.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross - ripe fruit. 2008-10-02.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Rob Gee) - ripe fruit. 2010-09-24.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Rob Gee) - ripe fruit. 2010-09-24.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (1) - ripe fruit. 2014-09-07.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (1) - ripe fruit. 2014-09-07.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross - sliced ripe fruit. 2008-10-05.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (1) - sliced fruit. 2014-09-07.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (1) - sliced fruit. 2014-09-07.
Jeff Fleming (MI FL J). Lucky Cross-pic#3. 2005
Susan Anderson (TX AN S): Lucky Cross. 2004
Susan Anderson (TX AN S): Lucky Cross - sliced. 2004
John Beidler (CT BE J). Lucky Cross. 2007-09-07
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Rob Gee) - sliced fruit. 2010-09-24.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross. 2008-05-25.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Robert Gee) - plant. 2010-07-03.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Darrel Jones) - plant. 2013-06-23.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Darrel Jones) - plant. 2013-07-02.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross - flower. 2008-06-25.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Darrel Jones) - baby fruit. 2013-07-02.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Mireille Blais) - baby fruit. 2008-07-22.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (Mireille Blais) - green fruit. 2008-08-11.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Lucky Cross (1) - green fruit. 2014-07-19.
.JPG)
Seed Availability