📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): White Zebra
- 🌍 Origin: A novelty striped variety (originally developed by Tom Wagner in the US, widely circulated in Eastern Europe).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Highly reliable. Growers report excellent fruit set even in bad weather years when other varieties drop their blossoms.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Small-to-medium round salad/cocktail tomatoes. When unripe, they are green with distinct stripes. As they ripen, they turn a creamy ivory/pale-yellow color, and the stripes fade to white, becoming barely visible. When fully overripe, they may develop a slight pink blush at the blossom end.
- 👅 Flavor: Typical for white varieties: mild, sweet, but somewhat bland (lacking acidic punch) for some growers’ tastes.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-season to mid-late season.
Indeterminate variety, mid-season, grew it in the greenhouse. It set all of its trusses perfectly (which is notable because I had major issues with blossom drop and fruit set on other plants this year). Heavy yielder.
The stripes are very clearly visible when the fruits are green, but once ripe, they are barely noticeable. The ripe tomatoes are a creamy ivory color. The flavor for me was sweet, but somewhat bland (lacking that tomato punch).
Irochka, have you ever grown Huan U (Yellow Perfection)? It seems to me they are incredibly similar. Almost no difference at all…
No, Verunya, I haven’t grown that one. Actually, I originally bought these seeds under the name Northern Lights (Severnoye Siyanie). But other growers told me it was definitely an off-type, and that I was actually growing White Zebra.
Quote from IrinaA:
Actually, I originally bought these seeds under the name Northern Lights. But other growers told me it was an off-type, and that I was actually growing White Zebra.
Wow, I finally identified my mystery tomato! It turns out it’s White Zebra! 🙌 I’ve been trying to identify it, but nobody could tell me what it was.
I also planted seeds labeled Northern Lights. The plant grew and grew, and then the fruits started ripening and turning this pale light color. I was so confused 😲 because I read that Northern Lights is supposed to be a yellow/red bicolor or a striped plum.
This variety is highly productive; it set absolutely every single truss outdoors in open ground (I counted no less than 16 trusses!). Mid-season or mid-late. The taste is sweet with a nice acidic tang.
The color is a very, very pale yellow, and when completely overripe, a slight pinkish blush appears. At that point, the green stripes turn white and become practically invisible.
