Golden Monarch Tomato

[jmsieglaff]

Hello,

I've decided to try a few new varieties this year, one of which is Golden Monarch. The description of the flavor sounded good--sweet and tangy and our son wanted to a grow a big yellow tomato, so that's how we arrived at Golden Monarch. Does/has anyone grow this variety? Comments on taste/productivity?

Thanks!
Justin

[dpurdy]

Justin,
I've grown the Golden Queen tomato before. Sounds like a very similar tomato to the Golden Monarch that you're going to grow. The Golden Queen was a yellow tomato with a good flavor. Most yellow tomatoes that I've grown in the past tend to be a little more sweeter that other tomatoes. Another yellow, actually, a bi-color tomato you may like to try in the future, is the Big Rainbow tomato. It's an heirloom tomato that is mostly yellow with some red fused through it. It's one of my favorite tomatoes. I always grow a couple Big Rainbow plants for my wife and myself. Here's a pic of some Big Rainbows. Some of them stay more yellow than these in the picture. Your son would like the internal color when you slice them. Just a suggestion for the future. I'm sure that the Golden Monarch tomatoes will be a fine tomato to grow this year. It's also a lot of fun sharing gardening with your children. Welcome, and hope you have a good harvest this year.
dpurdy

[Wi-sunflower]

Hi Justin,

Welcome to Tomatoville from another cheesehead.

Personally I don't know the Golden Monarch variety. But there are a whole lot of good yellow / orange / bi-color varieties around.

Depending on how your pre-season goes, if you need more plants later, come spring, I sell a LARGE variety of mostly heirloom plants at the Madison farmer's market on the Capitol Square on Saturdays.

No matter if you need plants or not, stop in and say hello some Saturday. I'm near the north corner all season with plants and then produce.

Carol
from West Bend, Wi

[jmsieglaff]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

Hi Justin,

Welcome to Tomatoville from another cheesehead.

Personally I don't know the Golden Monarch variety. But there are a whole lot of good yellow / orange / bi-color varieties around.

Depending on how your pre-season goes, if you need more plants later, come spring, I sell a LARGE variety of mostly heirloom plants at the Madison farmer's market on the Capitol Square on Saturdays.

No matter if you need plants or not, stop in and say hello some Saturday. I'm near the north corner all season with plants and then produce.

Carol
from West Bend, Wi

Hi Carol,

I most certainly will stop by some time this spring--we try to make it up once a month or so. It's a great farmer's market. I've probably bought produce from you at some point in fact!

April isn't too far away!

Justin

[nctomatoman]

Golden Monarch is a variety that I dug out of the USDA in 1995, because it seemed to be an old CV that would be of interest to grow....and it is a really good one. I would have to look back at dates, but it is a release by the Buist seed company - they also released a really good pink called Monarch (similar to the the large pinks of its time - Ponderosa, Winsall, Ferris Wheel, Peak of Perfection, Brimmer, King, etc). It certainly dates back to the 1920s or earlier.

I think that Golden Monarch is similar to Livingston's Golden Queen because it may indeed be a selection if it made by the Buist company (Queen....Monarch....similes).

I've not grown it in years, but it is a really good medium sized bright yellow tomato with a faint pink blossom end blush.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Golden Monarch is a variety that I dug out of the USDA in 1995, because it seemed to be an old CV that would be of interest to grow....and it is a really good one. I would have to look back at dates, but it is a release by the Buist seed company - they also released a really good pink called Monarch (similar to the the large pinks of its time - Ponderosa, Winsall, Ferris Wheel, Peak of Perfection, Brimmer, King, etc). It certainly dates back to the 1920s or earlier.

I think that Golden Monarch is similar to Livingston's Golden Queen because it may indeed be a selection if it made by the Buist company (Queen....Monarch....similes).

I've not grown it in years, but it is a really good medium sized bright yellow tomato with a faint pink blossom end blush.

Craig, I think you shared seeds with me as both of us were doing when getting seeds out of the USDA all those years ago when it was still possible to do so, b'c a couple of weeks ago I saw the envelope with those seeds, but I don't remember if you or I ever SSE listed it, and I don't have the time right now to go back to those yearbooks to see if we did, and what you or I might have said about it, b/c I sure don't remember it.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...b=General_Info

Tania's page for it, info from you,one picture fromDenise, and just two seed sources, and I wonder about one of those sources, but not for me to say, rather, I'm not saying.

Carolyn

[nctomatoman]

Hey C - Not sure if you did (I suspect you may have) - I did for a few years - now Bill Minkey at least offers it in the SSE and I have fresh seed (relatively, anyway) from a big distribution of USDA varieties I did at Garden Web a long time ago.

I should return to it some day - it is a pretty nice tomato...though I've found many of the old CVs really struggle with disease down here in muggy Raleigh!

[retiree]

Yes Carolyn, I guess you did as I got my seed from you in 2004 and it was 1995

seed.

I really liked this one, in fact I believe I'm offering it through SSE this year.

Neil G, (Canada)

[PNW_D]

Thanks for the reminder re the pic I submitted to Tania's site ............ here is what I noted in 2005

Golden Monarch
this one improved with each tasting- first notes indicate mild, but very nice lingering aftertaste, few seeds. Later notes say - grow again - delicious much better that first taste, lovely, sweet with depth of flavour "rich" for a yellow - yum. Only problem is the plant was not that healthy and production was rather low

.

Carolyn, my seeds were from you NY MA C 04 dated '95

[nctomatoman]

Carolyn, whatever we dug out of the USDA we shared - at one time, we probably listed all of them...but they were never really requested by many, and unless they got reoffered, quite a few of them are probably no longer listed in the yearbook.

[carolyn137]

Thanks Neil and Denise for saying you got the variety from me in 1995.

I know Neil was an SSE member back then, but Denise, I don't remember if you were.

And if it wasn 't from my SSE listings at that time in the mid-90's I was doing large seed offers at Garden Web, so that's another possible source.

How thankful am I for both of you mentioning that and b/c When I read Tania's page for the variety there was no mention of either Craig or myself SSE listing it back in 1995.

OK, look to my left and piled on the floor are all my SSE Yearbooks that go back to the first in 1975. No, I wasn't a member then, I joined only in 1989, but Craig and I had offered to try and fix the errors in the tomato section of the SSE Yearbook and so each of us was sent the back ones we didn't have. All except the 1982 one which had Glenn Drowns on the cover b'c they were out of that one/ But for various reasons we weren't able to do that, somany errors arestill in the tomation secton.

This AM I just looked at those piles and said nope, I'm not going to do it, that is, look for the 95, 96, etc, and that b'c if I make one wrong move ALL those piles get unbalanced and come toppling down.

And I just decided to wait until I filled some last seed offers, all but one late one from my seed offer, but for other folks and for distributing to seed sites for trial.

And I'm glad I waited since Neil and Denise posted what I thought was true and why I did see that envelope with seeds.

Carolyn

[retiree]

Just pulled out the 1996 yearbook and shows the following:
NYMAC 80 days NSL 27597 large plant,8-10 ounce oblate fruit with pink blush on bottom,good yield. NCLEC liked it but here in Zone 5 the taste was iffy,listed by Buist
in 1946.O.S.NYMAC '96.
Craig also listed it and said outstanding flavour.
A bit of history!

[jmsieglaff]

Some good info on the Golden Monarch--thanks everyone. I look forward to tasting it this summer!

[Wi-sunflower]

Justin,

I just saw your post in the squash thread where you mention getting squash at the farmers markets. Then you most likely HAVE gotten produce from me in the past. I'm the grower that does the bu bag deals on winter squash at the Madison market. We often have a dozen or more varieties available.

Small world,
Carol

[jmsieglaff]

My Golden Monarch tomato plant is doing quite well. It is the tallest tomato in the main garden, Sungold is just a touch shorter right next to it. The plant is a vigorous grower and handled early/mid season pressures of very wet weather and associated early blight/leaf spot issues with just timely pruning. The first tomato was harvested today. The tomato was decently juicy, yet meaty with a nice acid zing/tangy flavor, moderately sweet and good tomato flavor. I look forward to more tastings, as this one was just a little bit, as the rest of the tomato was processed for seed saving. The weight was 210g (7.4 oz) and pictures of a very pretty looking tomato are below. At this point if the small taste today was any indication, I can see myself growing this again and would be a good candidate to use in some breeding projects at some point.