New Stokes Tomato Additions 2007

[travis]

Well, I went over to the PO and mailed off a CARE package to my daughter in Austin, and found a Stokes 2007 catalog in my box.

Under commercial type F1s:

Scarlet Red VFF: "74 days. Deep globe type with good shelf life and extra large fruit. Firm, great tasting flesh has the high crimson gene which accounts for its mature dark red color. Vigorous determinate plant provides good fruit cover and excellent yields for basket weave or row crop culture . Use as a mature green or vine ripe type. Additional tolerances to Grey leaf Spot and Alternaria stem canker. Compare to Florida 47R. (8.95 per packet 40 seeds) In the photo, this variety looks very similar to a Randy Gardner type tomato with those real thick walls and semi dry seed locules.

Under F1 plum and cherry types:

Sweet Hearts F: "60 days. Brilliant red, very firm oval grape type with excellent flavor, brix and shelf life. Outstanding tolerance to cracking. Impressive yields, full clusters, indeterminate plant. Fusarium tolerance. Pkt: 10 seeds." (4.50) This one is shown as an elongated plum shaped cherry.

Smarty VF: "65 days. Semi-determinate vigorous plants should be trimmed for increased yields. Excellent high sugar red grape type with firm fruit and long shelf life. Pkt: 10 seeds." (4.50) This one is pictured as a slightly elongated cluster cherry.

Cherry Pie: "65 days. Vigorous indeterminate plant. Ideal clusters of round, red firm fruit which average 1-1/4 in/3.2 cm in diameter. Excellent flavor and brix. Long shelf life. Tolerant to ToMV, ASC, GLS, and some Nematode tolerance. Pkt: 10 seeds. (4.50) In the photo, this one is a round red typical "ladder" truss cherry.

Stokes remains oriented to commercial F1 tomatoes that are sold in relatively expensive small count packets and huge bulk quantities along with several "garden type" F1s in reasonably priced packets of 40 seeds. They also carry a handful of open pollinated varieties for 1.75 to 2.00 a packet of about 200 seeds.

PV

[greggf]

"Scarlet Red VFF: "74 days. Deep globe type with good shelf life and extra large fruit. Firm, great tasting flesh has the high crimson gene which accounts for its mature dark red color."


Looks like they dropped "Spitfire." Scarlet Red apparently replaces Spitfire as their "high crimson gene" selection. I assume TGS still sells Spitfire.

I never got around to trying Spitfire because the few who tried it had not much good to say about it. I wonder if Scarlet Red is any better or if, as you say, it's a Randy Gardner commercial-type?

=gregg=

[carolyn137]

Got my Stokes today as well and read it through.

Surely you saw that they carried Brandywine, which is their only tip of the hat towards heirlooms.

I will not pay that kind of money for an F1 cherry tomato, no way, but no way.

But they'vcer always carried a good tasting Lebanese summer squash and the one I loved so much they don't carry anymore, but Clarita looks like a good sub for one por grown plant.

[barkeater]

"Great tasting flesh"? Who wrote that blurb, Jeffrey D??