📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Dwarf Chocolate Lightning
- 🌍 Origin: A fantastic release from the international Dwarf Tomato Project. It was developed from a cross between ‘Beauty King’ and ‘Dwarf Wild Fred’.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Tree-type dwarf. A very vigorous plant with dark green rugose (crinkled) foliage and thick, sturdy central stems. Indoors or in a greenhouse, it can easily exceed 1 meter (3.3 feet). Due to the heavy fruit load, it requires strong staking.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Medium to large oblate beefsteaks. They are exceptionally beautiful — dark crimson/chocolate in color, adorned with striking copper-green metallic stripes over the shoulders. Weights range from 150g up to a massive 300g (5.3 – 10.5 oz).
- 👅 Flavor: Intense, rich, and juicy with an excellent balance of sweetness and tang. Growers note it retains its superb flavor even if picked green and ripened indoors off the vine.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-season. Suitable for both open ground and greenhouse growing.
Dwarf Chocolate Lightning.
A vigorous dwarf, a strong plant with rugose foliage and sturdy shoots. In a greenhouse (closed ground), it can grow to over 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall. The fruits are large, reaching 250-300g (8.8-10.5 oz) or more. They have a chocolate color with copper-green stripes over the top. Very juicy, with a pleasant, well-balanced taste.
I recommend pruning the plants into 2-3 main stems, and tying each one securely to a support is absolutely mandatory.
A wonderful variety from the Dwarf Tomato Project. It’s a mid-height plant (around 1 meter / 3.3 ft), with a mid-season ripening time. The fruits are absolutely beautiful—dark red with striping, oblate (flat-round) shape, weighing up to 300 grams (10.5 oz). Excellent taste, very sweet.
I also really liked this dwarf. Beautiful, very tasty, sweet, and highly productive. The tomatoes reached up to 300g (10.5 oz). The bushes grew to about a meter (3.3 ft) in height. I grew it outdoors in open ground. Thanks to Natalia Pavlovna for the seeds!
Dwarf Chocolate Lightning
It grew outdoors in open ground and shot up well over a meter (3.3 ft). It didn’t have time to ripen on the vine before the cold set in, so I had to harvest all the fruits while they were still green.
I tried the tomatoes after they ripened indoors off the vine. And they turned out to be unexpectedly delicious! Even ripened indoors, they were tasty! It has a good, balanced flavor with a very pleasant aftertaste. I liked it.
Thanks to Lyubasha (@Vesennyaya) for the seeds.
