In recent years, the Lubera® breeding programmes have also been steadily expanded in the direction of vegetables. The first breeding programme is now bearing fruit, literally. We are pleased to present our Open Sky® outdoor tomatoes. Our Open Sky® tomatoes are designed to simplify cultivation in the home garden. By strictly selecting the healthiest plants, we have developed varieties that can be grown in the garden without further weather protection in Central Europe and they are also high-yielding.
Open Sky® outdoor tomatoes
But why tomatoes of all things? This question is bound to come up sooner or later. The answer is quite simple: growing tomatoes in the home garden, even with the healthiest varieties available, is hardly feasible without weather protection. And certainly not with such a summer like we had in 2021. Besides, the tomato is the most popular vegetable in Germany. Apart from potatoes, which are in a category of their own, the tomato ranks first in per capita consumption in the vegetable category with over 28 kg per capita and year. The carrot is in second place but already very far behind with a good 11 kg per capita and year.
Tomatoes are therefore one of, if not the most popular vegetable in Germany. And with our resistant Open Sky® tomatoes, we want to enable every willing hobby grower to grow their own tomatoes without having to invest a lot of effort in weather protection.
Open Sky® Tomatoes – the benefits at a glance
- Resistant to late blight (Phytophthora)
- Uniform tomato young plants, since vegetatively propagated
- Easy cultivation in the home garden
- No weather protection necessary
- Variety of fruit colours
Open Sky® Tomatoes – the innovative tomato young plants
But what makes the Lubera® breeding programme and our tomato young plants innovative? This question is also easy to answer. Instead of relying on the costly hybrid breeding or reaching only eight generations (equivalent to eight years) of selfing and the associated open-pollinated characteristics, we and Lubera® rely from the beginning on vegetatively propagated tomato young plants. This allows us to present the breeding results to the market much faster. At the same time, however, we are continuing the breeding lines in order to be able to offer a seed-resistant variety in the future.
In the following, we present our first Open Sky® tomato young plant assortment in more detail. Let yourself be inspired and ask for the first test quantities right after reading this.
Open Sky® Happyblack®
Open Sky® Happyblack® is the first black and at the same time Phytophthora-resistant outdoor tomato on the market; due to its moderately vigorous to vigorous growth character, the variety is very well suited for training two shoots.
Picture: outdoor tomato Open Sky® Happyblack® - the first resisant black tomato
Short description:
- Type: stake tomato, outdoor tomato, bicolour cherry tomato
- Growth/training: medium to strong growing, train as a stake tomato with 1-2 shoots, pinch out and remove the leaves that are below 40-50 cm
- Health/resistance: resistant to late blight (Phytophthora) and Alternaria, can be grown outdoors without weather protection; until September 25, 80% of the leaves are still healthy and green, all fruits ripen
- Fruits: large, cherry-like fruits, rather short panicles, from the fruit set 30-50% are black, then dark red, burst-resistant, dark red under the skin, high anthocyanin content
- Taste: thin skin, easily edible; when eaten, first very juicy with mild sweetness, then comes the tomato spiciness together with the umami flavour typical of black tomatoes; at the end there is a refreshing acidity, but it is not as accentuated as in other black tomatoes
Open Sky® Morningsun®
With the variety Open Sky® Morningsun® we also have a yellow cherry tomato in our range. The plant is vigorous growing and should be trained with two shoots. Due to the higher yield, the growth is somewhat reduced.
Picture: outdoor tomato Open Sky® Morningsun®
Short description:
- Type: stake tomato, outdoor tomato, yellow, large, cherry tomato
- Growth/training: vigorous growing, train as a stake tomato with two main shoots, pinch out and remove the leaves that are below 40-50 cm
- Health/resistance: resistant to late blight (Phytophthora) and Alternaria, can be grown outdoors without weather protection; up to 25 September, 70% of the leaves are still healthy and green, all fruits ripen
- Fruits: light yellow, but with warm tones, a cherry tomato with relatively large fruits on medium-long panicles, good burst resistance
- Taste: refreshing tomato flavour; slight sweetness with good acidity, ideal for complementing salads
Open Sky® Sugared®
With the red cherry tomato Open Sky® Sugared® we have completed the colour palette in the small-fruited tomato varieties. This variety is also the sweetest of all Open Sky® tomato young plants.
Picture: outdoor tomato Open Sky® Sugared® - the sweet cherry tomato
Short description:
- Type: stake tomato, outdoor tomato, red cherry tomato
- Growth/training: medium to strong growing, train as a stake tomato with 1 to 2 main shoots, pinch out and remove the leaves that are below 40-50 cm
- Health/resistance: resistant to late blight (Phytophthora) and Alternaria, can be grown outdoors without weather protection; up to 25 September, 80% of the leaves are still healthy and green, all fruits ripen
- Fruits: typical orange-red cherry tomato on medium-long panicles, extremely burst-resistant; very high fruitfulness
- Taste: very crisp with a wonderful bite, but the firmness does not have a negative effect, just tangy and crisp; then follows the most intense sweetness of all current Open Sky® outdoor tomato young plants, yet underpinned by a good freshness and acidity. A true tomato delight!
Open Sky® Tombonne
The variety Open Sky® Tombonne® is the vine tomato or salad tomato in our assortment. This variety bears much larger fruit than the other varieties. However, it is not as sweet as the cherry tomatoes and has a higher flesh content. It is also the variety with the most reduced growth.
Picture: outdoor tomato Open Sky® Tombonne® - the bigger vine tomato
Short description:
- Type: stake tomato, outdoor tomato, red salad tomato/vine tomato.
- Growth/training: relatively compact, bushy growth, but can reach 170-200 cm with one shoot, train as a stake tomato with one main shoot, consistent pinching out, remove the leaves that are below 40-50 cm on the main shoot
- Health/resistance: resistant to late blight (Phytophthora) and Alternaria, can be grown outdoors without weather protection; until September 25, 80% of the leaves are still healthy and green, all fruits ripen
- Fruits: a salad/vine tomato with medium-length panicles; when the panicles grow out and continue to bloom, the continuation can be removed to promote uniform ripening
- Taste: juicy and fruity; yet higher flesh content; good tomato flavour with umami notes (the 5th flavour besides sweet, sour, salty and bitter; is a kind of pleasant, meaty flavour and could also be described as savoury/meaty/spicy)
Open Sky® tomato breeding at Lubera®
The Open Sky® tomato breeding programme at Lubera® is designed to combine colour with resistance. Especially with the variety Open Sky® Happyblack® this has been achieved very well. It is the first truly resistant variety with black fruit. The initial crosses are made under greenhouse conditions, but only because the non-resistant varieties would not survive otherwise and hardly any crossbreeding attempt would be successful. The actual selection work in the following years takes place exclusively under field conditions. This is the only way to ensure that the varieties we bring to market are definitely resistant.
Read our article about tomato breeding at Lubera® here.
