A variety with an unusual color, unique taste and appetizing name - "Striped Chocolate" tomato

Pink, yellow and red tomatoes are no longer surprising. They can be found both in the market and in the store. To interest the consumer, agronomists began to develop new varieties with an exotic appearance. Purple, orange, brown, black and dark green tomatoes of various shapes and sizes began to go on sale. Perhaps one of the most unusual varieties is the striped chocolate tomato. Its fruit is covered with dark stripes. Apart from the original appearance, this variety is very tasty and gives a bountiful harvest from the bush.

Description of the variety

Striped chocolate is a hybrid tomato variety. It was bred by American breeders by crossing Pink Steak and Shimmeig Craig. This tomato has not yet been entered into the Russian register.

Striped chocolate tomatoes are very unusual in appearance. They are large and have a pink or brown color with stripes (see photo).

This tomato belongs to determinant varieties. Its growth continues until a fruiting ovary appears at the top, after which the plant stops stretching. Usually healthy bushes of this variety reach 1.5 m in height.

Tomato variety Striped chocolate has other names as well. The most common ones are:

• Chocolate striped;
• Chocolate strips;
• Chocolate Stripes.

Distinctive features

The main distinguishing feature of the variety is an unusual type of fruit. Tomatoes are shaped like a steak, they are large and flattened. Their color is brown or pink with dark stripes. The stripes can be chocolate, brown, olive, dark green, yellow, or orange.

The striped chocolate fruit is fleshy but juicy. They have a small amount of seeds and a pronounced sweet taste. The skin of these tomatoes is thin.

Interesting! The variety is immune to most tomato diseases. It is even resistant to late blight, which most often causes spoilage of the crop.

These tomatoes are used for fresh consumption. Due to their thin skin and large size, they are not used as a whole for preservation, but they are great for preparing tomato paste, ketchup, sauces, etc.

Specifications

Tomato Striped chocolate, despite its exoticism, is unpretentious and resistant to adverse environmental conditions. This makes it possible to cope with its cultivation even for novice gardeners.

Description of the characteristics of the variety:

Important! Tomato Striped chocolate is a young variety. Therefore, conclusions about the presence of immunity to the described diseases were made based on the experience of the gardeners who grew it. Not enough research has been done to officially confirm this information.

Growing seedlings

In order to get healthy and strong plants that will give a good harvest, tomatoes are grown in our country using seedlings. Sowing seeds is done in mid-March - early April.

Seed preparation

To speed up the germination of seeds and prevent their infection with diseases, you need to prepare planting material. Before doing this, make sure the seeds have not expired.

To take away seedthat can germinate, they are soaked for half an hour in salt water. The floating seeds are removed, and the ones that have settled to the bottom are washed and used for planting.

The seeds need to be disinfected. The most popular way is to soak them in a potassium permanganate solution for 20 minutes.

Then the planting material is soaked for 12 hours in gauze soaked in warm water. You can use a growth stimulant - this will speed up the germination of tomatoes.

Since the sale potassium permanganate is prohibited without a prescription, gardeners began to use a different method, which involves soaking the seeds for a day in a soda solution. This method allows you to simultaneously disinfect and stimulate the growth of tomatoes.

Soil and capacity

Choosing the right soil is the key to successful tomato cultivation.

Potting mix options:

1. Purchased mixes. Potting mixes for vegetables are available at the store. They contain all the components necessary for plant growth.
2. Preparing the soil yourself. This is the most economical way. The easiest way to prepare soil for tomatoes is to mix equal proportions of turf and humus. To make the soil more fertile, you can add sand and ash to the mixture.
3. Peat tablets. This is the most convenient but also the most expensive way to grow tomatoes. Such containers are bags, in which there is already peat soil with all the necessary fertilizers. When using this method, diving tomatoes is not required.

Purchased and homemade soil must be disinfected. This can be done by calcining it in the oven, watering it with boiling water, or treating it with a solution of potassium permanganate.

You can take any containers for planting seeds: these can be special boxes, pots, cassettes or homemade containers.

Sowing planting material

Prepared and disinfected containers are filled with soil mixture. Seeds are laid on it in rows. The distance between the rows should be 3 cm, and between the seeds - 1.5 cm. Top the seeds are sprinkled with soil mixture.

The container with seeds is placed in a warm place until the first shoots appear. It needs to be covered with glass or foil. If the temperature is maintained at 25 degrees, then seedlings will appear a week after sowing the planting material.

The soil needs to be moistened regularly, it is best to do this with a spray bottle as it dries. When waterlogging the soil, you need to remove the film and let the excess moisture evaporate.

Council.Due to the high humidity, mold can appear on the topsoil. If this happens, then you need to carefully remove the infected layer of earth (without removing the seeds) and water the rest of the soil with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

Seedling care rules

To get healthy and viable seedlings, the following care rules must be followed:

1. Provide adequate light for the plants. It is best to use a fluorescent or special phytolamp. If it is not there, then boxes with seedlings should be placed in the brightest part of the room.
2. Film or glass will create greenhouse conditions for seedlings with a high level of humidity. Therefore, even after the first shoots appear, the structure is not immediately disassembled. First, the boxes are ventilated for several hours a day. The glass can be removed after two weeks.
3. Watering immature plants under the film is necessary so that water does not fall on their aboveground part. For watering, you can use a syringe or pipette. Once you have taken apart the greenhouse, you can start watering the tomatoes as usual. The water should be at room temperature. The soil is moistened as it dries.
4. When the first true leaves appear, the plants are transplanted into individual pots. When transplanting plants, a clod of earth should remain on their roots. One grown tomato needs at least 1 liter of soil. Therefore, gardeners often make two picks, each time using a larger container.
5. Seedlings must be prepared in advance for transplanting into the ground. To do this, on warm and sunny days, plants are placed on the windowsill or taken out into the street. The first time the tomatoes are left in the fresh air for 15-20 minutes, then this time is increased to an hour or two. Gradually, you can start taking plants outside for the whole day.
6. Seedlings feed organic fertilizers. For example, you can use biohumus. For one plant, half of the indicated dose is taken. The first feeding is done in the third week after the germination of the plants. This is then done weekly.

How to grow tomatoes

Growing the Striped Chocolate variety is not much different from caring for other tomatoes. It is unpretentious, and any gardener can handle it. These tomatoes can be grown both in the greenhouse and in the open field. In the northern regions, it is better to use the second option.

Transplanting

Before planting seedlings in a permanent place, you need to prepare the soil. Ideally, this is done in the fall.

For 1 sq. m of soil, you need to take 0.5 kg of lime, 5 kg of organic fertilizers and 40 g of superphosphate. Dig up the soil well before planting the plants.

Council.You should not grow tomatoes in one place for more than two years in a row. This should not be done in beds where other nightshades (for example, potatoes or eggplants) grew last year. The best precursors for this crop are legumes, onions, carrots and cabbage.

Before planting seedlings, you need to dig holes. Row spacing should be 50 cm and between plants 40 cm. Wells are watered with water in advance.

Seedlings are placed in the prepared recesses. You need to remove it from the containers just before planting. Wells with plants are watered with water, and covered with soil from above.

Before planting plants in their permanent place, it is worth disinfecting the soil. To do this, it is enough to pour it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, prepared in a ratio of 1: 100.

Plant care

Watering is done as the soil dries up. It is usually sufficient to moisten the soil 1-2 times a week. The first watering is carried out 10 days after planting the plants in a permanent place. One hole takes 0.7 liters of water.

Hilling is done before watering. For the first time, it is made a week after the tomatoes are planted in the ground. Next, you need to spud the tomatoes every 20 days.

The first feeding is carried out one week after planting. Organic fertilizers are used for it.The composition can be prepared by taking one part manure to eight parts water. 20 g of superphosphate is added to a bucket of such a mixture.

After two weeks, the plants are fed again, but with mineral fertilizers. For 1 sq. m is taken 10 g of ammonium nitrate, 20 g of superphosphate, 15 g of potassium salt. After another 14 days, the tomatoes are fertilized with the same composition.

Striped chocolate needs a garter. Otherwise, heavy fruits will break the bush.

The plant forms into one, two or three stems. In the first case, the harvest will appear faster, and in the second and third it will be more abundant.

Grasshopping is done no more than once a week: all the shoots that have appeared under the brushes are broken off, yellow leaves are removed.

The nuances of growing

There are several subtleties that not all novice gardeners know about. Considering them, you can avoid mistakes and get healthy and productive plants.

Tips for growing tomatoes:

1. The most favorable time for watering is evening. On cloudy days, you can moisten the soil at any time.
2. Mulching will help protect the plant from pests and diseases. For mulch, you can use straw, hay, or specialty nonwovens available in stores.
3. Water the plants only with settled water. It is important to pour the liquid exclusively at the root, without affecting the greens.
4. Stealing must be done in the morning or evening. On the day of this procedure, the plants are not watered.

Diseases and pests

Reviews of gardeners indicate that striped chocolate tomato is resistant to most diseases. He rarely gets sick even late blight, which is the most common cause of crop spoilage.

To protect bushes from harmful insects, they can be sprayed with soapy water. Regular weeding and loosening of the soil will prevent bear and slugs from damaging the bushes. Inspect the bushes once a week and manually remove the pests.

Attention! If the plants are covered with spots or their leaves have dried up and twisted, the problem may lie not in diseases, but in a lack of necessary substances. In this case, make sure that the fertilizing is correct.

Features of growing in a greenhouse and open field

Tomato Striped chocolate can be grown both in the greenhouse and outdoors.

There are differences in plant care for both methods. They start already at landing. If only an earthen lump with plant roots is buried in the greenhouse, then in the open field it is recommended to plant the tomatoes in the ground half the stem, removing excess leaves. This will help the additional roots develop. The first few days after replanting plants in open ground at night, they are covered with a film.

Tomatoes can be planted in an unheated greenhouse two weeks earlier than in open ground.

Collection and application of fruits

The striped chocolate fruit ripens in mid-summer. Tomatoes can crack in hot weather, so they need to be picked as soon as they are ripe.

From one bush, you can collect 6-8 kg of fruit. All tomatoes of this variety are large, sometimes reaching 15 cm in diameter. The average weight of each fruit is 500-600 g. The weight of some specimens can reach 1 kg.

Striped chocolate tomatoes are mostly consumed fresh. They can be added to hot dishes or made into pureed preparations for the winter.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

Benefits of Striped Chocolate:

• unusual fruit color;
• sweet pronounced taste;
• resistance to many diseases;
• large-fruited;
• the possibility of growing in protected and open ground;
• unpretentious care.

Of the shortcomings, it can be noted that the immunity of the hybrid is not fully understood, and therefore is not officially confirmed. Also, on hot days, the fruits may crack.

Hybrid reviews

Farmers' reviews of Striped Chocolate are positive. Despite the fact that this variety has not yet been entered into the Russian register, it is already popular.

Yaremenko Galina, Volgograd: “Growing tomato striped chocolate in a greenhouse. Took it because of the unusual color. As it turned out, in addition to its interesting appearance, it also has a wonderful sweet taste with a pronounced tomato aroma ”.

Sharikov Vladislav, Tula: “I liked the striped chocolate very much. I was struck not only by the color and taste, but also by the mass of fruits. Some tomatoes reached 800 g. I used only mineral and organic fertilizers, did not process them against diseases. "

Conclusion

Tomato Striped chocolate is a young variety that has already gained popularity all over the world. It differs from other tomatoes in brown fruits with multi-colored stripes. In addition to their interesting color, they have a sweet taste, pleasant aroma and large size.

Despite its exotic appearance, this tomato is not difficult to care for. It can be grown both outdoors and indoors and is immune to most diseases.