Quick Summary of Chocolate Stripes (Polosatiy Shokolad)
- 🌍 Origin: A famous American variety developed in Ohio, USA by breeder John Siegel (a cross between Schimmeig Creg and a pink beefsteak). In Russia, it became incredibly popular under the translated name “Polosatiy Shokolad” (Striped Chocolate). Note: A Russian seed company even controversially trademarked this name in the state register!
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, tall, and vigorous. It typically has regular foliage, though some growers report a stable Potato Leaf (PL) segregation. It can be prone to excessive vegetative growth (nitrogen toxicity) if overfed.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, flattened round beefsteaks weighing 250-750g (8.8-26 oz). The skin is mahogany-brown with metallic green and olive stripes. Inside, the flesh is deep crimson-red.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly acclaimed. When grown with adequate sun and potassium, it is intensely sweet, complex, and rich. If overwatered or shaded, the flavor can wash out and become watery.
- ☔ Growing Quirks: Generally mid-season. It requires balanced watering, as the skin can be somewhat thick but still prone to cracking if flooded. It is known to be an indicator plant for Leaf Mold (Cladosporium), often catching it first in a greenhouse.
The bush is tall (in the greenhouse), with medium foliage. The tomatoes are round, weighing 250-350g (8.8-12 oz), burgundy-brown with green stripes, and dark red inside. Semi-meaty, good taste, didn’t crack, mid-season ripening, productive. The ripe ones store quite well (for dark-fruited varieties), but they don’t ripen well indoors if picked green.
Olenka, what does “semi-meaty” mean?
I guess I just coined a phrase there. It’s just that there are slicing varieties that you cut open, and it’s solid “meat”, with practically no juice or even seeds. But these tomatoes are not like that. They have meat, but they also have plenty of juice and seeds.
Quote from OlgaZ:
They have meat, but they also have plenty of juice and seeds.
I love this tomato. Beautiful, tasty, it looks as pretty as a toy.
My seeds were from V. Redko.
Indeterminate, my fruits were mostly around 200g (7 oz).
And here it is on the bush (also from V. Redko):
Here it is ripe and sliced open.
I want to add my photo of this tomato, they were so sweet for us, even in this rainy season.
How is the taste, and is it prone to cracking? Is the bush vigorous or average?
Did I understand correctly: Fruits up to 600g (21 oz) were grown to 1 stem in the south, and medium-sized fruits were grown on 2-3 stems in the middle latitudes?
Quote from Zulfiya:
Did I understand correctly: Fruits up to 600g were grown to 1 stem in the south…?
Mine also grew on two stems, I don’t live in the south, and I only had a single 600g fruit. The bush is weak. It cracked easily for me. I’m not the right person to ask about flavor definitions.
In terms of the tomato’s beauty – definitely, you need to plant something like this for variety. Taste-wise – it’s a good tomato, good but not excellent. But, maybe if I had fed it more ash, I would have called it awesome!!! Not a single one cracked, I picked the last ones a few days ago. Sorry, I haven’t found a separate photo yet, this photo is from yesterday.
I liked it. The taste is very good, a Beauty with a capital B. A huge plus for dark varieties — it doesn’t crack with proper watering (all my other black ones cracked no matter what). Stores reasonably well.
😊
The fruit color in all photos, except Lidiya’s, was slightly distorted by the camera (too light). Therefore, I’ll post my photos of Chocolate Stripes to confirm the beauty and rich color of the tomato.
Very tasty.
I really liked the Chocolate. I grew it to 3 stems, all fruits were uniform at 200-300g (7-10.5 oz), very smooth, without cracks or any deformities. Meaty, good taste.
Here is how it ripened.
And my Chocolates were completely non-uniform, of different sizes. Mid-late ripening time, I would say. Taste-wise – out of all the black tomatoes I’ve tried (Moor, Prince, Gypsy, Crimea), this one is the tastiest. A good tomato, meaty, juicy, beautiful, stores reasonably well (huge thanks to Marisha for it).
Here are the pics, I’m not sure if the color is rendered correctly. My camera is too smart, I can’t come to an agreement with it.
For me, out of the black ones, Chocolate Stripes is my absolute favorite.
The sweetest tomato with an extraordinary taste, it has moved in with me permanently. 👍 Marishenka, huge thanks for the seeds! 🌺🌺🌺
A favorite! A beauty. Good enough for an exhibition. To the point: Mid-early variety. Yield is below average. It didn’t set fruit in the heat, despite sitting near the greenhouse door. Prone to nitrogen toxicity/excessive vegetative growth (жирование). Height 250cm (8.2 ft). The fruits are unusually beautiful. Large. And the taste… It is wonderful!!! Sweet, meaty, aromatic. I am ready to tolerate anything from it for the taste and beauty of the fruits. Keeping it unequivocally and forever!!!
I also liked this tomato! Productive, even in our so-called summer. And tasty. And it stores for a long time!
This tomato is a miracle! Beautiful, productive, lots of fruits and they are large, even in this current difficult summer. The bush is powerful, tall, set fruit well, meaty and tasty, and oh so spectacular! I will definitely plant it. Seeds from Popenko.
🌺 And I wanted to grow Chocolate Stripes so badly!!! 🤦♂️🤦♂️….. it’s hopeless! People wrote such good things about it, but the summer………….was so-so, fruit set appeared late, the yield – hard to say… but there was some. The taste of the unripe ones is good, but the ripe ones – watery and not tasty, i.e., neutral taste, and stores poorly too. Because of the wateriness and dark color, you can’t tell if it’s rotting or just overripe.
I won’t criticize it too harshly, because you can’t judge by a single year, not only for yield but for other parameters. I’ll plant 3-4 bushes next year, and then I’ll see whether to make it a permanent resident or not. 🎩🎩
I will definitely plant it, liked it very much in appearance, yield, and taste…
I take it all the tomatoes shown here were grown in greenhouses? Did anyone plant it in open ground? How does it behave there? I really want to plant it, but I don’t have a greenhouse!
A beautiful, productive, tasty variety! 👍😋 Mid-season. Grew in the greenhouse on 2 stems, fruits up to 400g (14 oz). The fruit color in the 3rd photo was rendered poorly, turned out too light, I shot it with a flash in the evening 😜
Quote from BabushkaVesna:
Did anyone plant it in open ground? How does it behave there?
Marina, it’s a late variety, so I think there’s no point in planting it in open ground.
Oh, what a pity! Well, that’s okay, I’ll endure it for a year—by autumn, I think I’ll finally get to building my greenhouse. I keep waiting and waiting, and the list of varieties just keeps growing and growing…… But everyone keeps telling me that building the house is more important (to each their own) 😄
Quote from BabushkaVesna:
Oh, what a pity!… everyone keeps telling me that building the house is more important…
I’m going to try planting it in open ground anyway, I’m just too curious. I just need to figure out when to start the seeds. They say a greenhouse isn’t strictly necessary in our conditions anyway… but yeah, building a house comes first!
A wonderful variety, I liked it. Seeds were from Nadenka (Nadin).
