Have you tried Dr. Lyle?

[tjg911]

I really did not want any seeds in trade when I sent "Greg" in MD seeds for Earl's Faux in September 2005. I had sent him seeds for Prue in 2004 and he loved it. He told me that Dr. Lyle was one of his favorites and that I really should try it. I kept saying no, many times, but thankfully he sent me the seeds anyway! I almost skipped growing Dr. Lyle. But since he liked Prue so much that he added it to his must grow list, where he also had Dr. Lyle, well that convinced me to give it a shot.

I was totally disgusted last week when some rodent toothed creature bite into a few of my lower tomatoes on 3 plants that were getting pink and one was a huge Dr. Lyle. I immediately picked all ripening fruits and brought them inside for protection and to finish ripening. That Dr. Lyle had 4 punctures and a small hole - I knew it would be a race to get it to ripen before the rot started and spread thru the tomato ruining it. Frankly, I doubted there was enough time for it to ripen properly.

Well the good news is that it did ripen and by Saturday 7/29 it was about 85-90% ripe, the bad news is the hole was starting to show rot tho I was surprised it took so long and spread so little. So I decided to eat it, the 1st of the season other than some Sun Golds.

I did not expect much really. I think the 1st tomatoes are not as good as the ones a week or so later. Now I hadn't eaten a tomato since the 3rd week of Oct. 2005 so maybe I was delirious? OMG! Unbelievably delicious! I held off posting until I ate the other Dr. Lyle I picked the same day. That 2nd Dr. Lyle didn't have any damage, was next to the damaged fruit and was also ripening the day it was picked. It was excellent, as good as the 1st!

I have to wait a few weeks for an Earl's Faux to ripen for a side by side comparison. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought I was eating an Earl's Faux. I have just 2 top tomatoes - Prue and Earl's Faux. Dr. Lyle was creamy, smooth, sweet, just so good that I now have 3 top tomatoes.

If you haven't tried Dr. Lyle, a regular leaf pink beefsteak, do so. Greg told me they are excellent from the very 1st tomato to the last one. It's just amazing how many excellent tomatoes I've found in the past few years trading seeds.

Tom

[bully]

Ah... Dr. Lyle.

My third year growing and I wouldn't be without it.
At our DATE party 3 years ago it took 2nd or 3rd place and beat out a lot of good tomatoes.

[Grub]

Hi Tom and Bully,

Very good news on the Dr Lyle front coz I was sorting through my seed stash and found some old seeds from Dr Carolyn. Haven't grown it but promptly put the seeds on the shortlist pile. Now I look forward to sowing them abdm moreover, eating them. Is productive?

Have a good one... Grub. Hey, it's raining and I have to sort through 306 boats on a boat-show marina plus another 600 indoors where the hot chips and hamburgers are very good

[shelleybean]

I grew four plants last year that were supposed to be Dr. Lyle. Two looked like they were supposed to with huge fruit and the other two produced pink, bland, tennis ball sized fruit. After eating a few of the smaller ones, I gave them all to my SIL, who really liked them. I did like the big ones, the ones I believe to be the real Dr. Lyle, but not quite as much as German Head, which was growing a few feet away. Still a great tomato though.

[carolyn137]

I think very highly of both Dr. Lyle and Dr. Neal and feel that both of them should be grown more than they are.

Seeds for both are commercially available at Sandhill ( original seeds from me) and I probably have some recent Dr. Lyle seeds around here but just older seeds of Dr. Neal/

No, this is NOT a seed offer at this point.

I really have to decide what I'm going to do with all my seeds. I inventoried what I have on paper plates from about 2002 forward and maybe I'll decide in the Fall if I want to offer some of those in the same way I've offered others.

There's no way I can keep up with doing seed stock, especially for the ones in my book, now that I can't garden anymore, and no, even when the right hip is done nothing much will change in that regard as to the hundreds of plants I'd grow each year and the hundreds and hundreds of pounds of fruits I'd process for seed.

And as I read here and there that this and that person got seeds for this and that from this and that place and they weren't what they should be, I cringe.

All bets are off if anyone is talking about traded seeds, something I've never done and never will.

But do consider growing Dr. Neal as well as Dr. Lyle.

[tjg911]

Bully - not surprised that it placed so highly.

Grub - I have 1 plant but I'm guessing it has 10 or 12 so far. I don't think it is a heavy producer but the tomatoes are big. That 1st one could have been 18-20 oz just guessing, maybe 24 oz (?) but it was large. The 2nd was 2/3 as big.

John - I am definitely saving seeds of this one! I'll give you some if you want them.

Carolyn - Dr. Neal huh? I'll have to keep this in mind for next year. My 'problem' is I really don't want 10 plants, 6 or 7 is plenty for me and uses up plently of garden space cuz I plant 4' on center. I'm finding too many fantastic tasting tomatoes and want to grow just those. At this point, 'those' breach my max! I worry about traded seeds and often just prefer to buy them (mainly cuz I am not trying to grow 100-500 varieties) from TGS, JSS, other reputable seed companies. That said, mistakes can and are made by seed companies. I have been lucky, seeds I have gotten have been correct at least I think so. My AGG were big and gold pl, DL looks correct fruit size & color, leaf color, so I save my own seeds after that.

Tom

[giardiniere]

Prior to this thread, I had already included Dr. Lyle on my list for next year. This just reinforces my plans.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by tjg911

I have to wait a few weeks for an Earl's Faux to ripen for a side by side comparison. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought I was eating an Earl's Faux. I have just 2 top tomatoes - Prue and Earl's Faux. Dr. Lyle was creamy, smooth, sweet, just so good that I now have 3 top tomatoes.

Gee I'm glad I reread this, I forgot about Dr. Neal! But here's an update rather than starting a new thread.

I think those 1st 2 Dr. Lyle may have been better than the one I used when comparing Earl's Faux. After eating both EF and DL, I ate a small DL and it was noticeably better than the large DL I used in the test. Oh brother!

I would say based upon this one test Earl's Faux was better. If I used that smaller DL it may have been a tie but I don't think DL was better. That's high praise for both tomatoes. As the football saying goes 'on any given Sunday' so from tomato to tomato DL may beat EF and visa versa.

I have started to change my ratings on tomatoes. Rather than figure out who is #2, #3 (I know who is #1 but EF is very very close!), I think I'm going to just classify tomatoes in 3 tiers. Tier 1 is the best, Tier 2 are very good and far better than the 'average' tomato and Tier 3 would be all others. Earl's Faux and Dr. Lyle are definitely Tier 1 tomatoes.

Tom

[amideutch]

Tom, Was the coloring of the blossoms on your Dr. Lyle white to pale ivory as described in Carolyn's book. If so maybe my Dr. Lyle isn't. My plant has yellow blossoms. Thanks, Amideutch

[Tania]

Tom,

I was reading your post and really drooling all over

I have been trying to raise Dr. Lyle for the 2nd year in the row, but quite unsuccessfully - last year I believe I got the right seeds (only 4 seeds), but I never saw a ripe fruit from these plants due to late blight problems in my garden last year.

This year I got fresh seeds from another tomato friend, and grow 2 plants, which are distinctly different - one has a very dark green foliage and medium size very smooth round fruits (obviously not a Dr. Lyle), the other plant has larger beefsteaks on it, gray-green foliage, but not ivory pale blossoms as described in Carolyn's book. So it might be a wrong thing too...

I will continue my search for the correct seeds, which might mean ordering from Sandhill (and my husband is getting a bit impatient with all my seeds bills in the last couple of years, so it will not be easy )

Do your Dr. Lyle plants have the pale blossoms?

[Tomstrees]

I'm so glad others have posted about this variety,
as I want to give it a go
next season ~

Tom

[Grub]

I have old seeds that I have to soak and raise from the dead. But I can see it now; Dr Lyle rising like a mummy from the earth, sprouting limbs under the cover of darkness, furnishing me with jewels from the ancient tomb of the heirlooms.

[tjg911]

i will go look at my dr. lyle tonight. i honestly can't say the color of the flowers other than they are not the bright yellow tomato flowers normally are. that said, i don't examine my plants closely and have been surprised over time reading about the things more observant people see! they are a pale yellow not bright as i recall, white, i doubt that. i will tell you tomorrow assuming i have flowers!

tom

[tjg911]

Ok, last night I examined Dr. Lyle and a few other tomato plants. For the record, I have excellent eye sight and color vision/distinction based upon yearly eye exams. I suspect if 100 people looked at any given color we would all perceive the color slightly differently. it was bright but slightly cloudy so the lighting was perfect not harsh and direct but softer.

As far as the color of the leaves on DL they look the same as Earl's Faux, Neves Azorean Red and Big beef all growing nearby. The leaves are not bright green but are a flat green. Older leaves would be while new growth would be brighter. So as far as leaves are concerned I do not see any greyish tint to the green.

As far as flowers, I looked at newly opened flowers then older flowers and compared them to the other tomatoes nearby. My just opened DL flowers are a paler yellow than the other plants whose flowers are brighter. My DL flowers are not white they are definitely yellow just a little paler. If no one ever mentioned all this, I doubt that I would really notice the difference. I don't examine the plants closely except for tomato horn worms. Older flowers on all plants are a bit bleached out and over blossomed flowers are white but that's the same for all plants and it makes sense they would fade at that stage.

So that's what my DL flowers and leaves look like. The characteristics of my DL indicate it is in fact DL, my seeds from a reliable source via a trade. I think it is regular leaf but I'm going from memory. I did carefully look at the plants when they grew from seedlings and if they were the wrong leaf type I'd have tossed them. I have a real lot of really large tomatoes that vary from 10 oz (not many that small) up to perhaps 22-24 oz (not many that large), the average is about 13-16 oz. They are pink and taste very similar to Earl's Faux tho I think EF is just a bit better. This may vary from EF vs DL. The tomatoes are very meaty, juicy but (i edited this to add the word not) not overly so and have small locules.

Tom

[carolyn137]

I looked at the description for Dr. Lyle that I gave in my book and will stick with the gray green foliage, or flat green as Tom as described it.

As for blossoms, they are NOT the bright yellow as other blossoms and that's been confirmed here by others as well. In my book I said white to pale ivory, and I'll enlarge that to say pale ivory to pale yellow, pretty much the same difference. As to white, Well there's a variety that Craig and I got out of the USDA years ago called White Flowered Marge and those blossoms were about the same color as the Dr. Lyle blossoms, not really white but pale ivory to pale yellow. And if any of you have grown Lutescent you also know what blossom color I'm talking about for it has pale blossoms as well.

Hope that helps a bit.