Carolyn's Fall 2011 Feedback Data For Seeds Sent

[carolyn137]

When folks read my initial 2011 seed offer in January they saw that I said that I'd start two threads about the seeds sent out. The first one was about seed germination and that was very helpful since there were seeds for several varieties that were low germinating b'c they'd been cooked b/c of fermenations being done in too high heat. Most of those are being regrown again this summer but I haven't had the time to coordinate who did and who didn't get good seeds.

And it's time for me to again thank Craig L for raising my plants for me and Shoe, Lee and Craig in NC for doing seed production and Neil in IL doing the same.

In this thread I'd like to have you give me some feedback on how the plants from the seed I sent you turned out. That is, did they give you the leaf form and fruit shape and color that you expected and how did you like the varieties overall.

This kind of data lets me know if there were any stray or crossed seeds although in the past several years I know of only one instance where someone got one wrong plant for Pervaya Lyubov. And if there's a real problem with any variety then I won't offer it again.

If you alread listed such data elsewhere at Tville please cut and paste the info to this thread so everything will be in one thread. it's hard knowing when to put up this thread since some in the south had results weeks ago and some of us in the north are still staring at our greenies.

Tormato (Gary) and I agreed last Spring that it would be best if he put up a separate thread just for results for Kardia Karpos seeds since there are no named varieties there, just hopefully some interesting hearts and as he said, whatever. And I just confirmed that with him yesterday.

He thought I'd wait until the US Open was done, which isn't until tomorrow at at 4 PM EST with the men's final, but I decided to do it tonight, so it's all yours for your thread Gary when ever you want to start that thread here in the General discussion area. I sent out quite a lot of Kardia Karpos seeds so I hope we get some interesting results. And I'm sure he'll also post that if anyone has already reported on their Kardia Karpos results it would be best if those results were posted in his thread so that all will be in the same thread.

Thanks ever so much.

[kath]

I grew all new-to-me varieties to find the winners for taste alone and because of space restrictions, all plants were closely planted and pruned to a single vine. I hope that this feedback may still be of use.

Fish Lake Oxheart- a definite winner for me this year! The plant was regular leaf, fruit was red and in the 3 to 7 oz. range. Fruits began ripening on 7/20 from a 5/13 plant out and got positive reviews in taste tests from the beginning to the end of the season. Yield was good from a single vine.

Green Zebra Cherry- leaf form and fruits were as described and produced lots of large cherries from 1.1 to 1.7 oz. Pretty in a salad, but not one I enjoyed munching as a snack because of its larger size (messy) and my sweet tooth. Nice flavor, though, and milder than I expected. This one got Septoria fairly early though.

Hay's- if pressed to name one favorite this year, Hay's would be IT! That goes double, because my neighbor feels the same way. The RL plant stayed healthy longer than many and produced too few 6 to 20 oz. fruits that were pink but showed a gorgeous dark interior color when sliced. Seeds are small and few and the core it tiny. Yummy! I'm hoping I get more fruits next year when I allow it more room and there WILL be several of these planted!

Medovaya Kapla- This was a good sized PL plant that pumped out plenty of these adorable little yellow fruits- perfect as a slightly larger and better tasting replacement for Yellow Pear. The aphids loved mine and EB hit a bit earlier than most but it lasted quite a while in the garden. Another great salad tomato or pretty in a mix of cherries or smalls, but not my cup of tea for snacking. YMMV.

Ste. Columbe- This was a large RL plant that produced nicely shaped pink beefsteaks when most others were catfaced, which is good, but we only got 3 fruits (from one plant pruned to a single vine) that weighed 14, 15 and 22.2 oz. This was a very wet tomato having large locules and loose gel. It had EB by 7/8. Maybe our crazy weather played a role.

Kardia Karpos was also grown but I'll wait for the other thread.

Thanks once again for sharing these seeds, Carolyn. I will definitely be growing 2 out of these 5 again next year, and growing at least 2 or 3 plants of each and giving them room to grow as large as they like.

kath

[Barbee]

I grew out one Amish Potato Leaf plant. It is a monster that has just this past week collapsed a texas tomato cage. Wonderful big fruit..most right at a pound or so. Several fruit in the 2nd flush had a pointed end like a heart. I figure that's weather related since the 1st flush was round. Got good reviews at the Choptag tasting.
Thanks so much for the seed. I'll be growing this one again!

[maf]

All my plants grew true to type for leaf shape and fruit type, as far as I can tell.

Pervaya Lyubov - (2 grown) The earliest tomato in its size range this year, Potato Leaf, good tasting pink tomatoes up to maybe 12 oz, most in the 6-9 oz range. Definite re-grow for next year, good choice for UK climate.

Tsar Kolokol - (3 grown) The leaves were somewhat droopy and thin-lobed, but not overly skinny, the vines were robust. Very productive and pretty early, especially for such a large tomato. Pink hearts, some pointed, some blunt (on same plant), fleshy tomato with good flavour. Several weighed a pound or more, and there is one green one out in the garden that is noticeably bigger still, will likely be one and a half pounds at least. Definite re-grow for next year, good choice for UK climate.

Burning Spear - (1 grown) Very thin vine and super skinny droopy leaves. Got off to a slow start, doesn't seem to like the cool British summer too much. Has now set several fruit of the correct shape, but none have ripened yet.

[ContainerTed]

Prue (2004) - Foliage correct and shapes and sizes showed some variance as expected. Larger on average than many paste types like San Marzano. Wonderful flavor and above average production. DW says it may be our best paste for sauces.

Sara's Galapagos - Added to the grow every year list. Only half of the several hundred very sweet cherries made it back to the house. I even caught my brother sneaking into the garden to help himself to a few (he still doesn't know I caught him. I'll show him the picture one day.).

Just in case, the germination on these were as follows:

Sara's Galapagos - 2 of 3 seeds sown ended in plants in the garden. The other one germinated, but was a "Mule".

Prue (2004) - 3 of 5 germinated - two plants in the garden - one plant given away.

Thanks again for these, Carolyn.

[tam91]

I had three Milka's Red Bulgarian (one here, and two with friends). All grew out correctly, as far as I can tell. Very nice tomato, thank you again.

[fortyonenorth]

Burning Spear - Initial sowing yield 1/3. A subsequent sowing yield 2/3. Transplanted one and it grew true-to-type. 87 DTM, average yield of roma-shaped tomatoes with a sweet, fruity flavor. Better keeping qualities compared to others I'm growing this year. The plant is empty now, so I assume that fruit-set was poor to non-existent during the heat wave of late July.

Perito Italian - Initial sowing yielded 4/6. Transplanted one which grew true to type. 93 days, very good yield of 4-8 oz. plums - all of which matured within a week or so. Second crop is maturing now and hopefully will beat the first frost.

Fish Lake Oxheart - No germination from 6 seeds.

Tony's Italian - on grow-out list for 2012.

Tsar of Bells. 4/4 germination, transplanted one. 80 DTM, excellent yield of big pink hearts. The first "big" tomato to ripen this year. Very good taste and excellent for sauce/salsa.

[Mark0820]

As far as I can tell, all of mine grew true to type.

Danko (grew 4): regular leaf, red heart. The plants are in the 3 - 4 ft. range. They produced fruit in early / mid Summer and have set a second crop for late Summer / early Fall. Excellent taste and good production. I will definitely grow this variety again.

Couilles de Taureau (grew 1): regular leaf, red tomato (I would call it a beefsteak type, but I'm not very good with descriptions). It didn't like the rain we had early in the season and dropped a lot of blossoms. Currently, it has a fairly heavy set of fruit. Excellent taste and it appears to be a good producer under better weather conditions. I will definitely grow this variety again.

Wes (grew 1): regular leaf, red heart. Has only produced one tomato so far. This plant definitely did not like the weather we had this year. The flavor of the one tomato was excellent (very intense tomato flavor; one of the best I have ever tasted). I will definitely grow again and hope for better weather conditions.

Sarnowski Polish Plum (grew 2): regular leaf with only green tomatoes so far. Like Wes, these plants did not fair well in the weather this year. They dropped blossoms during heavy rain and hot weather. They just began setting fruit in August, but BER is a major problem now (not on just these plants) so I don't know if I will get a ripe tomato or not. I will definitely grow again, and hope for better weather conditions.

Kardia Karpos: will wait for the appropriate thread.

Carolyn, thanks for sharing such great tomato varieties.

[clara]

First, we had a lousy summer here in Germany and second, I had some health problems (had to use crutches and wheelchair, not the best thing for gardening...)

Fish Lake Oxheart: no germination from all seeds
Kardia Karpos: all seeds germinated; more in the other thread
Kazachka: 3 of 6 seeds germinated. No ripe fruits yet, all greenies look like little beefsteaks
Orange Minsk: all seeds germinated. Was killed by late blight, didn't get one single ripe fruit.
Zleovo: no germination from all seeds

Thank you again, Carolyn, for the seed offer! Hope to have a better 2012! clara

[Tania]

Burning Spear: only 1 seed germinated (out of 6). The plant was killed by the late blight in early July, before it even set fruit.

Dr. Neal (1997) - 7 out of 20 sprouted. Looks like I may be able to see at least 3 ripe fruits from the plants that were badly affected by the blight

Black from Tula (1997) - 0 germination
Chris Ukrainian (2003) - 0 germination
Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red (1994) - 0 germination

I am glad I did not plant the others, as with the blight I had this year they would not have had a good chance anyway.

I hope hoping for much better result in 2012.

Tania

[b54red]

Fish Lake Oxheart was my favorite of the three you sent me. It's a good thing I do staggered plantings because I had very poor germination with the first few but the next two plantings did good. A very early plant that produced wonderful tasting red hearts of medium size. Much juicier and more flavorful than is typical for hearts. Another bonus was its' ability to set fruit in very high heat.

Hays only produced one plant that made it to the mature fruit stage and it was a very tasty tomato but died very quickly for me.

Coulles de Taureau germinated okay but the first two plants only produced a couple of fruits. I have one small one growing now; but don't know if it will fruit before frost.

Thanks for the seed and in particular for Fish Lake Oxheart which is a new favorite of mine.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tania

Burning Spear: only 1 seed germinated (out of 6). The plant was killed by the late blight in early July, before it even set fruit.

Dr. Neal (1997) - 7 out of 20 sprouted. Looks like I may be able to see at least 3 ripe fruits from the plants that were badly affected by the blight

Black from Tula (1997) - 0 germination
Chris Ukrainian (2003) - 0 germination
Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red (1994) - 0 germination

I am glad I did not plant the others, as with the blight I had this year they would not have had a good chance anyway.

I hope hoping for much better result in 2012.

Tania

Tania, I don't know about the Burning Spear as in where from, but from your e-mail what you requested from my 2011 seed offer were:

Mala Bishka
Zleovo
Ste. Colombe
Hays
Irish Pink

And when you said you were glad you didn't sow seeds for the others I think you were referring to those above.

You had previously sent me a list of older varieties, separate from any seed offer, that you hoped I still had b'c you wanted to try growing those as closely to the original source as you could.

I sent you the 5 you requested for 2011 and added the Chris Ukranian b'c I had instant access to that one and shared with you that I'd have to go through my vials to find the older ones.

And I did and they included the Andrew Rahart's, Dr. Neal, Black From Tula that you listed above, but not from my seed offer. There were I think a couple of those older ones where I either didn't save seeds or couldn't find the seeds, I know Basinga and maybe Debbie were two of them. Just going from probably bad memory here.

I'm sorry the germination was not good on those older ones.

I just wanted to clarify for others where some of those varieties with ancient seed ages came from.

Of those older ones if you need more seeds perhaps I do have some more, I can't remember. And I was ever so hopeful since Mark ( frogsleap) was able to wake up some 1993 seeds I sent him for the variety Dourne D' Hiver which might be uselful for his breeding projects since it's a nor/rin inedible variety but one of the most beautiful fruits I've ever seen. But one has to take a hammer to the fruits to get at the seeds.

[Tracydr]

Not to get too far off topic but what is nor/rin?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Not to get too far off topic but what is nor/rin?

Two genes that are involved with non or delayed ripening of tomato fruits and have been used in the breeding of what's called longkeeper varieties in terms of long storage.

There are some other traits that go with them as well, but I'd have too look them up but the main trait is non/delayed ripening.

[Tracydr]

Thanks, Carolyn. Your explanations are always so useful to me and I really enjoy genetics. I'm more experienced with animal breeding than plants but I love learning.