A fantastic tasting high-lycopene paste tomato; sweet with the right balance of tang.
Veepro has an exceptionally deep red interior and solid thick walls. Fruits are square and small sized (40g to 80g/1.5oz to 3oz). It’s early to mid-season, and productive right up until the first frost. Veepro has a compact, sprawling nature that is easy to care for.
Unlike the expensive, F1, high-lycopene tomato varieties released today, Veepro and the other high-lycopene tomatoes in our collection are open-pollinated. Almost nobody is breeding open pollinated high-lycopene tomatoes today, which makes these Canadian bred tomatoes pretty special. Thank you Dr Kerr and the other scientists of the Canadian tomato breeding program of years past for making these high-quality, nutrient-dense tomatoes available to home gardeners.
A bit of history:
Veepro was released in 1977, by Dr Ernie Kerr, a master tomato breeder at the Horticultural Experiment Station in Simcoe, Ontario. Veepro was one of the first high-lycopene paste tomatoes released by the Canadian tomato breeding program. Its parentage includes High Crimson, the og tomato that was the backbone of the high-lycopene breeding program. Veepro’s full ancestry is: Romavf/3/H1350/4/High Crimson//ST 8/Florida 1339D3.
Kerr & Cook (1981) report that Veepro has excellent cold germination ability and is resistant to fusarium wilt.
How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Keep moist. When true leaves appear, transplant to a larger container if needed. Transplant outside after the danger of frost has passed/later spring.
