Chalk's Early Jewel
Heirloom tomato
- Breeding
- Heirloom
- Growth habit
- Indeterminate
- Days to maturity
- 70-75 days 1 seed catalog · basis unstated
- Fruit
- red, medium
- Weight
- -
- Bred by
- -
Grey captions say what stands behind that particular figure. Breeding, growth habit and fruit characters carry no caption because they rest on the record's sources as a whole rather than citing their own; closing that gap is ordinary outstanding work, not a finished job.
Origin & history
James Chalk of Norristown, Pennsylvania introduced this early red slicer in 1899. It gave rise to Bonny Best and, through it, to a large share of the American open-pollinated tomatoes that followed.
Measurements
| Measurement | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Days to maturity | 70-75 days | Consensus range across the cited commercial catalogs; no independent source documents it yet. |
Against the rest of the tomato database
Where this variety sits among every tomato we hold a comparable figure for. Position is not merit: earlier is not better than later, and hotter is not better than milder. Only cultivar-level figures are compared, never trial results, and maturity is only ranked against figures counted the same way.
earlier than 73% of the 258 tomatoes we hold a figure for. None of these figures state whether they are counted from sowing or from transplant, so they are ranked against each other on the assumption that suppliers use one convention, which is not something any of them says.
Traits
Disease resistance
No documented disease resistance, typical of heirlooms and older open-pollinated varieties. See tomato diseases for the cultural playbook that fills the gap.
Related varieties
- heirloom
Abraham Lincoln
77-87 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Ailsa Craig
70-80 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Bonny Best
70-75 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Costoluto Fiorentino
75-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Costoluto Genovese
78-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Druzba
75-80 days · Indeterminate
Explore all tomato varieties · compare any two · when to plant it where you are
Sources & References
Evidence: 1 source, all seed catalogs. No independent reference documents this yet.
- Victory Seeds variety histories · Victory Seed Company, Seed Catalog