Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-6 Experience)
This variety turned out very tasty and seriously pretty. Didn’t quite hit the advertised 4.2 oz (120 g) mark for me, ended up closer to 1.8-2.1 oz (50-60 g). Started seeds late, so it was hard to get a fair read on overall productivity. Potato leaf foliage.
Edited January 17, 2015 by Drosera
A gorgeous and remarkably delicious variety 👍
Grew this back in 2015 right outdoors in the garden bed. Potato-leaf foliage. Topped out at around 5 ft (1.5 m). Ran late for me out in the elements.
The fruit really are eye-catching, weighing in around 3.5-4.6 oz (100-130 g). Taste was nicely sweet. Ran it again this year, but it didn’t leave much of an impression 🤔 Most likely because I had to pull the fruit green to ripen indoors. Photos are from last season.
Svetlana, what was your average fruit size on this one?
Svetlana, what was your average fruit size on this one?
Pretty much the same as Galina’s, right around 3.5-5.3 oz (100-150 g).
Indeterminate vine with potato leaf foliage, mid to mid-early maturity, and has an exceptionally long harvest window that keeps bearing straight into the fall.
One of the most unique bicolors out there because of the unusual fruit shape for a bicolor. Perfectly round, smooth, tennis-ball sized fruit, though a few will throw a subtle heart-like point. Golden-yellow with a vibrant scarlet blossom end.
Flavor is well-balanced with bright fruity notes, plenty of juice, though maybe just a notch below the absolute top-tier trophy beefsteak bicolors. Great cropper and drop-dead gorgeous. Definitely earned a permanent spot on my grow list 👍!
Full Summary: Plant Habit, Size, and Flavor
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate vine with distinct, healthy potato leaf (PL) foliage. Reaches 5-7 ft (1.5-2.1 m). Exhibits a prolific and continuous setting habit that extends production well into late autumn until frost kills the vine.
- 🍅 Fruit Size & Appearance: Round, smooth, tennis-ball sized saladette fruit ranging from 2 oz up to 5 oz (60-140 g), with occasional fruit exhibiting a slight heart tip. Ripens to a rich sunny yellow with a distinctive ruby-red starburst blush radiating up from the blossom end.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Refreshing, juicy, and sweet with tropical fruity undertones. While slightly less concentrated than massive heirloom beefsteaks like Lucky Cross, it delivers far superior flavor compared to standard commercial saladette varieties. Best allowed to vine-ripen to develop its complex sugars.
- 📈 Yield: Reliable, continuous cropper. Sets well outdoors even during cooler summers, though outdoor ripening in Zone 4 may push harvest later into the fall.
- 🌎 Grower Notes: Thrives both in open-ground garden beds and unheated tunnels across USDA Zones 4 through 6b.
Little Lucky was developed by legendary North Carolina heirloom tomato expert Craig LeHoullier (author of Epic Tomatoes). In 1997, Craig discovered a natural bumblebee cross between the pink potato-leaf heirloom Brandywine and an unknown bicolor beefsteak. From this family, he stabilized two sister varieties: Lucky Cross (a massive, late-season bicolor beefsteak) and Little Lucky (a smaller, earlier, round saladette type).
Most yellow-red bicolors in the heirloom world are notoriously late-maturing, giant 1-pound monsters that struggle to ripen in short-season areas. Little Lucky remains one of the few stable varieties that offers true bicolor flavor and potato-leaf vigor in an early to mid-season, easy-to-grow cocktail size.
