📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Indian Zebra
- 🌍 Origin: An American heirloom discovered by Clyde Burson. It is considered a larger, striped cousin of the famous Indian Stripe (which itself is closely related to Cherokee Purple).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Grows well outdoors, reaching around 5.5 feet (1.7 m) in open ground. Very productive.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautiful oblate beefsteaks. They are dark pinkish-purple on the bottom with green shoulders and dark green stripes running down the sides. They average around 12 oz (350 g) and are highly crack-resistant.
- 👅 Flavor: Exceptional 5-star flavor. Very sweet and meaty with very few seeds, balanced out by a perfectly mild acidic tang on the finish.
Indian Zebra (USA).
I grew this one back in 2016 using seeds from Valery Popenko. Here is his catalog description: An heirloom from Clyde Burson. Essentially, it is a larger version of the well-known Indian Stripe tomato, with fruits weighing up to 12 oz (350 g). Indeterminate. Fruits are oblate, dark pinkish-purple with green shoulders that bleed into green stripes. Excellent flavor.
My own impressions of the variety: I grew it outdoors in open ground, and the plant reached about 5.5 feet (1.7 m). It was a heavy yielder, and the fruits didn’t crack at all. The color is exactly as described – pink on the bottom and green with dark stripes on top. They are very sweet and delicious, with a faint acidic tang on the finish. I rate the flavor a solid 5+, absolutely loved it! Not many seeds inside either.
Gorgeous! What’s the days to maturity on this one, and what kind of foliage does it have – RL or PL?
It is always fascinating to see how American heirloom genetics circulate globally! Indian Stripe (a legendary strain of Cherokee Purple discovered by Clyde Burson in Arkansas) is a staple in the US. Here, we see Russian collector Valery Popenko importing the larger, striped variant (Indian Zebra) into Russia, growing it out, and distributing it to Russian gardeners like Liliya, who are raving about its crack-resistance and flavor. Also, notice how Alisa asks about the leaf type – we translated her question to “RL or PL?” (Regular Leaf or Potato Leaf) because that’s exactly how American heirloom growers ask that same question on Tomatoville!
