Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbee
[HTML]And that's why not only am I OK with how "The Posse's" going about tomato breeding, but am an enthusiastic participant. Maybe the end result's not as good as it could have been, who knows? But we're having fun, getting our hands dirty, and eating things that we had enough passion not only to grow, but to create. And isn't that kind of the point?  [/HTML]
I'm going to address this part of your post since you are asking for opinions 
As someone who does not breed tomatoes I see no problem with what you're doing in sharing crosses with friends and discussing all the aspects of growing and breeding tomatoes. More power to ya ..and while it's not my cup of tea, I don't begrudge anyone enjoying a hobby.
Where things get sticky for me as a seed buyer is when you or anyone else sells me seed that is not stable. Since I do not breed tomatoes and have no desire to breed tomatoes, I don't want to pay my hard earned money to get 6 different tomatoes off 6 plants of the same seed. I want what is advertised so I can make an informed decision as to whether I like that variety or not.
Now mind you, I don't have a dog in this fight. I know from being a member of several boards and reading for many years several of the players in this fight.. but all I am concerned about is truth in advertising. I am putting total faith in the seed sellers I buy from that the seeds I purchase are as advertised. As I said earlier, I am not a breeder and have no desire to be a breeder, but I can just look at the photos through the eyes of an old lady that has been growing tomatoes for about 35 years that surf4girl posted and see there is a screw loose somewhere. Yes, you can get a couple of different shapes going on due to weather during a growing season, but different colors and shapes just dont cut the mustard for me.
If someone is trading seeds or sharing seeds with friends for a SASE and that kind of mess happens then its okay to say oops lets go back and try this again. If you are selling seed and the consumer gets a hot mess like that, then thats a whole different story. |
Cool. Glad for another voice in this conversation. To be clear, I agree with you about seed sellers having a responsibility to truth in advertising. What I disagree with is the asumption some people have made in this thread (which, to be frank, I suspect is based more on personal animosity rather than actual evidence) that it's impossible for some of these varieties to be stable.
I also agree with your last paragraph "If someone is trading seeds or sharing seeds with friends for a SASE and that kind of mess happens then its okay to say oops lets go back and try this again. If you are selling seed and the consumer gets a hot mess like that, then thats a whole different story."
If you carefully re-read this thread, you might note that Surf4grrl's Sweet Beverly were
GIVEN to her. She didn't buy them. Which means they were probably simply a cross. It happens. If I were her, I'd personally be psched (for the reasons I outlined in my last post), I'd have three new tomatoes to play with.
She wasn't psyched, which is ok for the same reason. But I think she's making a leap to assume that the Sweet Beverly coming from Marianna's, grown by Marianna, with an eye toward seed quality control rather than simply having seeds to give away or trade are necessilary unstable. For what it's worth the three Sweet Beverly plants I grew last year were all the same good tasting yellow pear/plums. Three plants isn't enough to definitivly say it's stable. Any more than four different plants obtained in a trade make it unstable. And as yellow cherry-types go, I liked Coyote better.
In the end, to me, we're all just growing tomatoes; and the animosity in this thread is hampering, rather than helping our little community. If you're still worried about what you're getting from the seller in question, buy somewhere else, those small sellers (also part of our community) need your $ too. For me, I've always been happy with what I've gotten there for my money and will continue as such.