I brought the wispy one indoors under lights.
I have more control over light and heat.

When I was growing a bunch of tomatoes, both from transplant and from seed, almost every year there was one which turned out to be a red saladette. Yellow Brandywine? Nope, red saladette. Cherokee Purple? Red saladette. Costoluto Genovese? Red saladette. I started to wonder whether I should take bets with myself on which variety would be my red saladette that year.

Torquill wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 1:11 am Oooh! One of my favorite finds was a "Mortgage Lifter" that I pulled from the flats for the Master Gardener sale because it was wispy. I took it home, and it turned into a bushy monster with 4oz red fruit. Very tasty. With a little research I figured out it was probably a stray seed of Morkovnyi, a carrot-leaf determinate similar to Silvery Fir Tree and possibly a close relative of Carrot-Like. I hope that's what you got, it's a lovely variety, and pretty early to boot.

The wispy is starting to get buds.
I will put it outside at the proper time so bees get at it.

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue Apr 12, 2022 9:29 am I always thought Hillbilly was a potato leaf and then last year most of what the feed store had listed as Hillbilly was RL. They had three or four out of 80 plants that were PL. I took two of the PL ones. They seemed true to form to the previous year’s all PL ones the feedstore offered. This year, they had zero of either.
. . .

Hillbilly is supposed to be regular leaf. Hillbilly Potato Leaf (AKA Hillbilly PL) is the PL one (and probably the more popular of the two). For some reason people call them both Hillbilly, a lot, but they really shouldn't, since they're not the same variety (notwithstanding they're similar; it's similar to the difference between Kellogg's Breakfast and KBX).

* http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Hillbilly
* http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Hill ... otato_Leaf

However, it's hard to say if the seller's varieties are the true ones, if they don't distinguish between them.

I wonder if the wispy is just a growing defect in the original mortgage lifter.
As the original plants get larger I found another specimen in the original batch of bought plants I still have in a tray.
I don't see how it escaped my notice unless it was originally a small RL plant and went all wispy on me for some reason.
I put that one indoors under lights with it's partner.

The original wispy may be sterile.
It will have a bud the size of a BB that just turns brown and drops off.
It never opens.The second wispy plant has a legit blossom and I am waiting to it to form a tomato.

Wispy # 2 with the blossom is outdoors.

wispy has 2 green tomatoes heart shape,if that rings a bell with anybody.
Outdoor exposure took it's toll,possible white fly problem.
I hope the tomatoes get ripe before the plant expires.
Indoors under lights now.

slugworth wrote: ↑Sun Jul 17, 2022 11:51 am wispy has 2 green tomatoes heart shape,if that rings a bell with anybody.
Outdoor exposure took it's toll,possible white fly problem.
I hope the tomatoes get ripe before the plant expires.
Indoors under lights now.

When you mentioned the wispy foliage I was wondering if you had mixed seed or an off-type. Hearts are known for their wispy foliage. There just are not many beefsteaks with wispy foliage and ML is not one of them. What you have there is not a ML.

Store bought plants and 2 examples of wispy foliage.
No other store bought plants in any place selling locally had wispy foliage.
One wispy outdoors was getting too hot so I brought that indoors.
One plant ML that was stuck at the cotyledon stage is still alive and has mini leaves.

stuck at cotyledon stage one started to get some sort of stem rot and I planted it deeper.
Talk about first aid and not giving up hope.

You cannot rely on store bought ML plants being of any particular variety or lineage. There was a long explantion from Carolyn at one time but apparently many people used to or maybe still do name any tomato that "pays the mortgage" as ML. There can be entirely unrelated lines of tomatoes with that name on it.

I don't think the parents had any wispy in the list- radiator charlie story anyway.

There are about 6 named ML's that all claim to be the "real" ML, all with different stories. The closest I have found is Estler's Mortgage Lifter, but time takes a toll on many histories and after all, some people are great liars, such as one well known seed saver with the initials of WWW. That one is like a politician, you can figure he is lying if his lips are moving, LOL!!!