Atkinson...Wow!!

[gssgarden]

What a nice plant. I wish my pics can show what I see but the morning sun is tough. LOADS....and I mean loads of tomatoes on her! Doesn't seem to be bothered by the heat too much at all.
Flavor is good, around a 7 for me. Not many get a 10 for me. Nice old time flavor. Meaty as well!

Overall I would give this plant plus fruit an 8 and will come back next year for sure!

Basket pic is all from this morn except for the two yellow in the upper left.

Greg

[HudsonValley]

Very nice! Atkinson looks like a variety I would love (Marglobe is a fave). May I ask what your seed source was? I tried to grow Atkinson this year, but my seeds failed to germinate. Enjoy your bounty!

[BigVanVader]

I'm growing Marglobe but it seems really late to me. I've only picked one ripe tomato so far.

[Worth1]

Nice maters.
Red Rocket does that too.


Worth

[b54red]

Atkinson used to be one of the standard tomatoes that many of the commercial growers used to use around here before fusarium got so bad.

Bill

[Cole_Robbie]

If that tomato could talk, it would say War Eagle!.....since it is a product of Auburn University.

[gssgarden]

Hudson, seeds were from a member here jtjmartin. In his label he noted 'originally found seed'.
Just a good solid all around tomato. There's 25 in the pic, probably ate or put in sauce at least 12-15 and I counted 25 plus on the plant.
Any plant that produces that much outside of a cherry is a winner o me!

Greg

[gssgarden]

BigVan, I thought of Marglobe but asked around here for Tom's that set in heat. Atkinson and Creole were recommended. Creole is doing well too but the Atkinson numbers are far better.

Greg

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by gssgarden

Hudson, seeds were from a member here jtjmartin. In his label he noted 'originally found seed'.

Greg

They might have been from Starlight. She had a seed offer here on Tville for them a year or two ago. I think the story was that she went on a long quest for true Atkinson seeds and found an old dusty canister full of them in a shop.

I did get a generous number of these old seeds from her but have yet to try germinating any. Maybe next year now that I'm grafting.

[HudsonValley]

Thanks for letting me know about the seed source; I'll put a post in the wanted varieties thread if I can't find seeds by March or so. I know that Atkinson was bred for the South, but it might do well here in the Northeast, too.

As for Marglobe, it seems to require frequent feeding (every 7-10 days) or it tends to sit there doing nothing. Last year I gave an extra Marglobe seedling to a friend who thinks tomatoes only need a light feeding once or twice over the course of the season. Her plant produced a few dozen fruit. Mine yielded more than 200, starting in early August, and kept producing almost until frost. The previous year (which had better weather than 2016), my Marglobe put out nearly 300 tomatoes. Both years, I fed it Mater Magic if I had some, and Dr. Earth or Espoma when I didn't. This year I'm using Texas Tomato Food, and seeing lots of blossoms and greenies:

[jtjmartin]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

They might have been from Starlight. She had a seed offer here on Tville for them a year or two ago. I think the story was that she went on a long quest for true Atkinson seeds and found an old dusty canister full of them in a shop.

I did get a generous number of these old seeds from her but have yet to try germinating any. Maybe next year now that I'm grafting.

Yes! Starlight originally gave me my Atkinson seeds. Big, rugged plant; excellent taste; very good producer even in the heat. High germination rate on Starlight's seeds.

Here's the link to the story:

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...light=atkinson

"Several years back, I went on a hunt for a tomato for someone that has seemed to have disappeared. After weeks and weeks of searching, emails and letters all around the globe, I finally found an unopened, sealed canister of these seeds quite by accident in my own backyard. I bought the whole one pound, dust covered canister, not realizing that there was over 200,000 tomato seeds in it."

I have some original and many more saved seed I would be happy to give away. Just PM me.

I believe that Starlight's offer is still open too.

[BigVanVader]

I feed with TTF, but I did prune it pretty hard early. Been letting it go now and it is getting loaded. I think old seed may have been an issue as well because my germination was low and many plants were very slow growing.

[gssgarden]

Jtjmartin.... Thanks again for the seeds! Glad is was such a success!

Greg

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by HudsonValley

Very nice! Atkinson looks like a variety I would love (Marglobe is a fave). May I ask what your seed source was? I tried to grow Atkinson this year, but my seeds failed to germinate. Enjoy your bounty!

I still have plenty of seed. Think I'm down to about 70,000 seeds left from 260,000. If you'd like some send me a pm with your addy and I'll get some out to you.

Yep offer is still open to anybody who wants some.

[HudsonValley]

Originally Posted by Starlight

I still have plenty of seed. Think I'm down to about 70,000 seeds left from 260,000. If you'd like some send me a pm with your addy and I'll get some out to you.

Yep offer is still open to anybody who wants some.

Thank you for your generosity! I'll PM you.