Beefsteak tomato Copia is an organically grown tomato variety. With lots of deliciously sweet flesh. Beefsteak tomato Copia is a cross between Green Zebra and Marvel Stripe. This tomato is named after Copia, the American centre for food, wine and art in Napa California. With its beautiful and unusual appearance and deliciously sweet flavour, this beefsteak tomato is fast becoming one of America's favourites. This large beefsteak tomato ripens from green to pink with yellow-green - yellow-gold flamed stripes. The slightly ribbed tomatoes can weigh as much as 200 - 400 grams each and have a diameter of 10 cm. These beautiful tomatoes already look very pretty and spectacular on the outside, but they are even more beautiful on the inside. The golden flesh is interspersed with red, orange, yellow and pink stripes. The deliciously juicy and firm flesh has a distinctive sweet tomato flavour with a slight acidity. The plants have unlimited growth. Reasonably late variety that ripens after about 85 days.
Tomatoes are high in vitamin C and lycopene. This is best absorbed into the body if the tomatoes have been heated. Use the firm flesh on sandwiches, in salads, in soups, sauces, pasta sauces, wok dishes, casseroles, stews and in all Italian dishes. It can also be used in all other dishes with tomatoes. This rather late variety ripens in about 85 - 90 days. Non hardy annual. Height: 350 - 400 cm.
Indoor sowing: February - April
Germination: 6 - 14 days
Germination temp: 20 - 25 °C
Sowing depth: 2 - 3 mm
Transplanting: when the seedlings are about 20 cm tall
Transplanting in garden: in May, after the last night frosts
Plant spacing: 45 - 50 cm
Planting position: sunny - sheltered (greenhouse)
Days till harvest: 60 - 90
Sow indoors from February on in trays filled with moist pottingsoil. Sow shallow and press the seeds gently in the soil, don't cover them with soil, because tomatoes are light germinators. Put the trays away somewhere warm at 20 - 25 °C and cover them with clingfilm or a lid. Keep the temperature as even as possible and don't let the temperature drop during the night. Keep moist, but not to wet to prevent rotting of the seeds. Remove the clingfilm or lid when the seedlings emerge. Transplant the seedlings to seperate pots approx. 10 days after emerging. Put them away a bit cooler at approx. 18 - 20 °C.
Harden the tomatoes of, from the middle of May, when there's no longer any danger of nightfrosts. Put the pots at a temperature of 15 - 18 °C for a week and reduce the amount of water for this week. Put the plants outdoors after this week on a sunny and sheltered plot with well draining soil or put them in a greenhouse. Make sure that there is no longer any nightfrost.
Tomatoes need some maintenance to ensure a good harvest. Give the plants a sturdy support with some sturdy and large bamboo sticks. Remove all suckers that will form in the axils of your plants. Remove all the leaves below the lowest hanging fruits by the end of July till the beginning of August. Remove all the leaves of all plants together with the tops of all plants from the end of August till the beginning of September to ensure the ripening of most of the green tomatoes. Harvest the tomatoes by cutting them with scissors. Tomatoes can't be kept for a long period. Don't keep your harvested tomatoes in the fridge. So use them a soon as possible after harvesting. Tomatoes used in sauces can be kept frozen to store.
