Tomato, RuBee Prize Hybrid 

didnt get a tomato one off of it

We received eleven RuBee Prize seeds and planted them in early March. One little plant popped up in four days. After another 14 days, another seven sprouted. Despite being in a warm room with an all-day southern exposure, the eight little plants grew very slowly and stayed very small, with only three sets of leaves by the end of May. At that point, we were somewhat disappointed in the plants and even discussed potentially buying replacements at the local nursery if these continued doing poorly outside.

Then, we put the RuBee Prize seedlings outside in 20-gallon containers -- and they took off. I have never seen tomato plants grow so quickly and robustly. They added inches each day and within two/three weeks were more than a foot tall with thick stems and branching. The interesting thing was how neat and uniform the plants stayed. They made beautiful container plants. By the end of August, they were all about 40" tall and were covered in tomatoes.

From late July until the end of October, we picked 50-60 tomatoes from the eight plants. And, while the plants were very uniform, the tomatoes were not. The earliest tomatoes were huge and globe shaped. Their flavor was a bit muted. Later tomatoes were smaller and more heart-shaped with an outstanding sweet and tangy flavor. The plants continued to bloom and set fruit right until we pulled them at the end of October.

From a slow start, RuBee Prize turned into a wonderful performer with the added bonus of being a beautiful patio plant.