Cougar Red

[moulman]

OK, so I'm at my favorite local nursery, and I find these healthy, stout, little tomato seedlings. They were developed at Washington State University in Pullman (very local), especially for our local growing conditions and weather (Inland NW/ Western slope of Rockies Z 5-6 ).

They are supposed to be semi-determinate, medium sized red ( 6-8 oz) very early and cool night tolerant- and will set fruit in cooler nights ( typical local conditions in summer).

They are called Cougar Red (a tribute to WSU mascot, of course) - anyone ever hear of them? I have lived in this area for a long time, and this is the first I have seen of them. The nurseryman said they are somewhat recent - released locally 4-5 yrs ago.
A call to the WSU Extension Office only confirmed the above, with little additional info.

I have one plant, and have unsuccessfully searched locally for more. The original nursery has no more currently.

Just curious if anyone has grown these, or even heard of them - would be interested in experiences/results.


Matt

[sirtanon]

I found just a smattering of info on it.

Have a look here.. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/31226/index.html

[moulman]

Thanks. I guess it's not too popular. I'll grow some and see what happens.


Thanks

[dice]

I have a few of these started. The seeds seemed
a little out-of-date (not as quick to sprout as most
of the other cultivars that I started), but the seedlings
seem healthy enough. Not particular vigorous in
the first few weeks, but they seem to be catching
up fast as the weather warms.

I don't know if it is the cultivar or the seed vendor
that is "not too popular" (kind of under a cloud
at Garden Watchdog).

If I start any next year from this same seed packet,
I may have to resort to the HC method of starting
old seeds (described on GW a few months ago in
a thread about recreating a discontinued hybrid,
Mozark Pink or something like that; do a search for
"Glamour", one of the parent strains, and you'll
probably find it).

Edit: the GW discussion mentioned above
was about recreating Avalanche (F1 hybrid),
and HC had started some quite old Mozark
seeds (one of the parent lines of Avalanche;
Glamour was another parent of Avalanche).

I pasted his description of what worked into
a post on the end of Lakshmi's thread in the
seed starting forum at Tomatoville on
"weak tea water":

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=4785

[JRRogers]

In Washington and Idaho we are finding Cougar Red Tomato's. In CDA, ID I got 3 Quart size really nice plats at Albertsons of all places... at 3 for $10.00 They were well branched and 2 feet high... To the hothouse they go till we have 50 degrees or above at night.

[dice]

They are Stupice-sized, and fairly sweet. Kind of one dimensional
flavor, like a sweet hybrid cherry, but good enough if you like
sweet tomatoes.

[Worth1]

Sounds like the name of an exotic dancer.

Worth

[dice]

They have an unusual texture, meaty like a Roma but not dry
like most pastes.,