Lange Ærmer and Variegated Lange Ærmer tomatoes

Lange Ærmer, F generation unknown, seeds
originally fromNew World Seeds and Tubers

Lange Ærmer a beautiful indeterminate, Green When Ripe (GWR) striped tomato bred by Tom Wagner. They make large plants and have long wispy looking leaves, the sepals are long. Fruits are very pretty, being elongated and similar in looks to Green Sausage (originally called Green Sleeves by Tom) The fruits I find delicious, firm and nicely sweet with that lovely fresh spicy taste that often goes with GWR tomatoes. They are great eaten fresh in salads and look gorgeous sliced up amongst other coloured and shaped tomatoes. They also cook well, having quite thick fleshy walls and few seeds. 

Ripe fruits, thick walls with few seeds

A line of  Lange Ærmer

A couple of years ago I found one of my Lange Ærmer seedlings showing variegated foliage. I wondered if the variegation would fade as the plant grew older, but the unusual colouration continued to be present in leaves, stem, sepal and faintly on the fruits. As this was a segregating variety I did ponder if Tom Wagner had perhaps used the variety Variegated in the breeding of this tomato but he said it hadn't been used. 

Variegated Lange Ærmer

Close up of the partial variegated striping on the fruits,
sepal and stems

Variegated Lange Ærmer fruit on the left,
Lange Ærmer on the right

I saved seed from the variegated plant which I refer to as VAL, initially not knowing much about why a tomato behaves in this way or if it is stable or transferable trait, I have continued to grow out VAL and also used it in breeding projects. So far I have found subsequent generations of VAL have all displayed the same style of variegation although this does vary a bit from plant to plant. I also sent some seed back to Tom, I don't know if he has had similar results. Happily fruits are equally tasty from both types of Lange Ærmer and I hope both of these will be stable varieties in the near future. I have noticed that in a cooler summer fruits are not as elongated. I wonder too, how much of a part cooler growing temperatures have on the variegation seen.