So, where did these Dwarf varieties come from?? More history.

[nctomatoman]

With all of the activity around the Dwarf tomato breeding project, I thought it would be a good idea to look back and dig a bit on where this relatively rare form of tomato originated, and some info on the few varieties that exist - some of which we are using as breeding material.

From the April 1938 Michigan State Special Bulletin - Tomato Varieties, by Gordon Morrison, as well as information from a number of Michgan Ag Bulletins of large tomato trials in the late 1880s to early 1890s, we get the following:

Dwarf Champion represents the group of intermediate or semi-dwarf tomatoes developed by means of crossing with other types the 18 inch dwarf form, Tomato de Laye, which originated in a garden at Chateau de Laye, France, in 1862. Vilmorin of Paris introduced, in about 1865, a variety called Tree Tomato that was very similar to Dwarf Champion. It lists it as being released in 1892, though it was included in the 1889 Ag College of Michigan trials - but not in the 1887 trials. I will have to look through my catalogs to see if I can figure out who released it, though it could be the Maule company. Fruits described as deep pink, flattened globe, 3 inches wide by 2.5 inches deep, 4 ounces.

French Upright or Tomate de Laye (aka Tree Tomato) - not described in the Morrison, but it is in the Ag College of Michigan trials - interestingly, it states that it has irregular fruit nearly as large as Trophy, flattened, scarlet red, grown in pots in France. A chance seedling in the garden of M. de Fleurieux, raised by Grenier, his gardener, 30 years ago (that would put it at 1857) at Chateau de Laye.

Station - from a cross between de Laye and Alpha (as the male parent - they seemed to be doing the same types of crosses and using the same logic of the dwarf as the female - as Patrina!) - fruits red and 1.5 - 2.5 inches in diameter, hence smaller than de Laye.

Dwarf Artistocrat - released in 1895 by Livingston - described as a red fruited version of Dwarf Champion (hence smaller fruit than Dwarf Stone) - this one under this name appears to be lost.

Quarter Century - released in 1905 by Burpee, a scarlet red fruited variety with similar fruit as but slightly smaller than and later than Dwarf Stone. It appears as though the sample of Matchless in the USDA collection was contaminated with this variety, causing great confusion (Matchless was released as an indeterminate medium sized red, similar to Stone and Paragon)

Dwarf Stone - released in 1902 by Livingston - a few days later than Dwarf Champion, with red, and slightly larger, fruit. Moore and Simon released a similar variety in 1900 named Gold Finder, now obsolete, and Buckbee released a similar variety called Prosperity in 1903. We've not used this yet in our crosses, but it would be a good way to get larger fruited dwarfs, being the second largest of the existing ones.

Dwarf Ponderosa, aka Dwarf Giant, aka New Big Dwarf - appears to be very similar varieties released by different seed companies - Henderson, Burpee and Isbell, respectively, at around the same time (1912, 1909, and some time before 1915, respectively). Dwarf Giant originated by E. C. Green of Columbus Ohio by crossing Dwarf Champion with Ponderosa - in hopes of getting larger fruit on the dwarf plant (and it succeeded - we are using this strategy in the Dwarf project and New Big Dwarf is one of our favorite female crossing partners).

Purple Dwarf - released in 1905, described as a slightly later and larger Dwarf Champion - by Livingston, but no longer known by that name.

Dwarf Yellow Prince - released in 1898 by Livingston and now obsolete - yet Burpee's Golden Dwarf Champion was released at around the same time, and we use it as a breeding partner in our crosses - in fact, we seem to get great success with this one (the various Sneezy lines).

It will be clear that from the above, the Morrison has some dates that are at odds with seed catalogs...but they are pretty close. By looking at some of my catalog scans, better info on release dates can be obtained, esp. with the Livingston varieties.

What also should be clear is how little work has actually been done on this class of tomatoes....aside from the recent Tom Wagner variety Lime Green Salad, the current undertaking in the Dwarf Project will increase the options for gardeners who must or like to grow in pots, yet don't want to stake 8 foot vines, by many factors. We have also already seen potential new varieties in our project that are far better in yield, size and flavor than the best of those described above!