This is one of the parents to our in-house tomatoes, an heirloom workhorse variety developed in Florida in the mid 1950s. It has been recognized for its productivity in very hot humid climates, like its sister variety Flora-Dade, which has a worldwide reputation for fruit-set under sub-tropical conditions. This may be related to an abnormally high chromosome number, 2n=26 vs the normal 24, that has been confirmed for Flora-Dade and other sister lines, and in both parents that produced these progeny (Walter and Florida 2153). Our outdoor conditions are neither hot nor humid in western Oregon, but the field fruit set on the 6' determinate Homestead is prodigious. Fruits are about 8 oz, with that idealized red tomato shape, a smooth slightly flattened globe, recommended for slicing and canning. Resistant to Fusarium, generally healthy and vigorous, this may be a good hoophouse or greenhouse variety that avoids heat suppression of fruit set in northern settings, as well as the humid south.

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