Old Virginia

[Grub]

This one is distinctive in respect of plant habit among my 60-odd plants. And RL with those finely dissected leaves that, if my memory serves me correctly, are a trait of old tomato varieties.

Seeds from Heirloom Tomatoes, Chuck's old site. Anyone grown this one? I like the look of it. Blurb makes it sounds wonderfully tasty.

Cheers Grub.

[carolyn137]

Yes Grub, I've grown Old Virginia from seeds that Chuck sent me many years ago.

if you look at my book, page 43, lower right, you'll find it mentioned there as a variety I recommend.

All of the varieties listed there are ones that I like very much but when grown out for picture taking in the summer of 1998 they didn't perform as they should, probably due to the fact that my own saved seed was crossed or gor some other reason. At this point in time I really can't remember the specific reason why each of them ended up there with no picture and inclusion in the regular pages, but I know that not ALL of those listed were troubled with crossed seed.

So it will be interesting to know what you think of it when it gets to that stage of the actual eating of it.

[Grub]

I'll be sure to report back then. At this stage, it's a bit like a tree fern. Will check out the other mentions in your book now. Thanks.

[carolyn137]

A tree fern?

Whoa, I don't remember any finely dissected foliage from Old Virginia, I remember it as a regular regular leaf variety with deep greeen foliage.

Maybe ( meaning probably I do) I still have some old seed for that variety in a vial and if I ever make one more stab at going thru all of those old seeds and find it, which is a dicey proposition, I'll for sure send some to you or you can subcontract out to Patrina, the whiz at resuscitating old seeds.

[shelleybean]

Hmm. I grew it this past summer and my foliage was just plain old RL. My seeds were from Heirloom Seeds in PA.

I never did get to taste it though. This was the first plant I had to pull out because of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus and I was really disappointed because it was loaded with green fruit.

I've noticed something about this variety and that is that some sources describe it as a large, with fruit weighing a pound or more, and others say it's just 8-12 ounces.

[Tormato]

I grew Old Virginia in 2005, seed from heirloomtomatoes.net (Chuck's). It was deep red, smooth, crack free, 10-12 oz., as often described. One of the best tasting reds, in my opinion.

Gary