Beautiful Tomatoes From Double Helix Farms

[doublehelix]

I thought Tomatoville might want to see some of the tomatoes I am working on. It has been a very productive year and I am seeing lots of really pretty tomatoes.

I am quite ruthless in my culling. If they don't taste good, they don't move on to the next generation. It is that simple.

Being pretty isn't enough and breeding "novelty" tomatoes doesn't really interest me. I love tomatoes, eating them, that is.

This first one is a striped heart. Good production and of course taste.

[doublehelix]

This was my personal favorite this year. It was also in my top 10 overall favorite for taste. Perfect complex blend of strong tomato and sweet.

[Patihum]

If those taste as good as they look they'll be real winners!

[FILMNET]

Nice work look like Brad Gates new ones

[kath]

They're beautiful, Steve- I'm looking forward to hearing more about them when the time comes.

kath

[carolyn137]

I'll take some seeds for the striped heart, heart lover that I am,when it's stable and ready to go.

Please keep showing some of your new ones and don't forget you can always send me some crosses to put in my annual seed offer if you want to.

Most folks don't have the room to put out that many plants of a single cross,but when I put up the performance thread in theFall,I'm hoping that some will report back what they got/

Carolyn

[Ed of Somis]

what was the variety of your second pic (personal favorite) ? it looks nice

[doublehelix]

Thanks everyone.

Ed, it just has a number right now and has not been named. It still has a ways to go before it is released.

Carolyn I have several hearts in development.

Here is one with Anthocyanin. It is much prettier than the picture.

I also have a few more with stripes, and a few big blocky type hearts.

[doublehelix]

Here is real oddball. This tomato was fully ripe when the picture was taken. A little over ripe actually. Not quite what I would call a green when ripe or just a striped tomato but something in between. This came out of one of my "heart" lines and sort of surprised me. Very good flavor too.

[NarnianGarden]

Looks like a little jewel - I have some Chinese 'heirloom' seeds and the seed bag has really cute pictures.... there is one just like that!

[clara]

Really beauties! I'd like to have them all in my garden next year, if the taste is as good as they are looking! Very well done!

[livinonfaith]

Those are all just beautiful! How large are they?

I have enough of the small salad ones but might think about trying something in the mid size range. Maybe the 6-12 oz. range?

[FaithHopeLove]

I love the looks of these! When will they be available on your website? It would be cool if you had a naming contest! Whoever "picks" the name(s) out could win something? Just an idea

[doublehelix]

Again, Thanks. I have all kinds of sizes, from cherry to big beefsteaks. These range from 1 to 5 years before release. A naming contest was sort of in the works for one last year but I just ran out of time. It will for sure happen in the future.

Would you believe one of the best tasting tomatoes I have bred is a red? I know we don't talk about "red" on Tomatoville much, but red tomatoes are my best sellers. At my live plant sale in the spring red will outsell all other colors 10 to 1. The growers want red and the restaurants want red. So, I have been working on several great tasting reds.

This one was the best.

[doublehelix]

The first tomato came out of one of my "heat set" lines. It is a stunning bi-color and tough as nails. It is just F2 and I am hoping to collect that bi-color again in the next generation. Bi-colored tomatoes can be tricky.

The second tomato is interesting because so many yellows are called "mild" which just means they have no flavor. This one had a very strong flavor, almost what I would call acidic. I kept it not necessarily to stand on its own, but as a breeding line.

The third and fourth pictures are more "heat set" tomatoes that have a complex parentage and are the offspring of two hybrids I created and then bred together. Cherokee Purple lurks in there somewhere. The flavor was as good as it gets.