Stick Tomato?

I was reading another thread and Carolyn137 mentioned she knew the original Mr. Gleckler of Gleckler Seeds back in the 1980's. The comment jogged my memory about a tomato described somewhere as having originated at Gleckler s many years ago named "Stick" tomato. The article I read had a photo of the plant and it looked like some kind of cactus plant you would find in the desert with the leafs growing from the main stem and very few secondary stems. The tomatoes looked very good, but the article said the plant was a "shy" producer.

I'm curious if anyone on the forum has grown the variety and if there is a seed source.

Ted

Never mind! I found the seed at Victory seed. It is also called "Curl" tomato.

I am still curious if anyone has experience with it.

Ted

[Tania]

Ted,

I grew it this year. It was a 'shy' producer but the taste was nice.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Stick

Edited to add: Other seed sources can be found at the link above.

Tania

[carolyn137]

Ted, it was Adam's father I knew a bit in the late 80's and I did talk with him a couple of times, especially when he stopped putting out a catalog.

It was Adam's granfather who started Gleckler Seedmen back in the 40's and I never knew him at all. When I moved back home from Denver in 1982 to take care of my parents I then had all the land I wanted at the old family farm and it was then that I started to grow lots of heirlooms of ALL kinds.

And I've mentioned several times that initially the only two seed sources I knew of then were Gleckler's and Seeds Blum. At the end of the 80's I became aware of SESE and Jeff McCprmack and then I found out about SSE and joined in 1989. And became aware of TGS in about 1990.

Gleckler's last catalog was the 1994 one and you can imagine how excited I was when I saw that Adam, grandson of the founder, had revived the company.

And yes, I've grown Stick. Everyone needs to grow Stick just b'c it's so weird. To me it looks like a poodle with those tufts of leaves coming off the one main stem.

But know that not every seed will give you typical Stick. That's just the way it is.

[ContainerTed]

I grew two plants in a container this past summer. They were a bit slow to grow and produce, but I finally got enough 2 inch red toms to gather some seeds.

The two little plants got to about 3 feet tall and finally went down in a high wind storm last week. The taste was "okay", but nothing special. My opinion is that it is an ornamental conversation piece, and not something grown for the table.

JMHO

Another Ted

[Barbee]

I grew Stick/Curl last year. Fun tomato to look at. Taste is decent, but tomatoes are way to small to be a mainstay in my garden.

I may have to give the Stick tomato a try next season. After I have my garden planted each year, I always find a few empty spots that need a small plant or plants to fill the space. They look very interesting.

Tania, From your site "Developed by Young, P. A., Tomato Disease Laboratory, Agricultural Experimental Station, Jacksonville, Texas. In Jour. of Hered. 46:243-244, 1955, P. A. Young describes a dominant mutant which he termed Cu or Curl and which he located in 1953 as a mutant on a plant of the Stokesdale variety."

I found this comment interesting because my wife and I used an RV park near Jacksonville as our home base traveling around for a few years after Hurricane Rita convinced us to move from deep East Texas. I always have to collect local history as I travel.

At one time, Jacksonville called itself "The tomato capitol of the world". They had huge commercial farms and they even had rail cars picking the crates up for transport around the country. They haven't had a commercial crop in Jacksonville for many years, but they still have a yearly tomato festival celebrating the past.

Near Jacksonville was Noonday, Texas where they still grow and sell "Noonday" onions. They have the Onion festival yearly where they crown a Miss Onion.

They also have the former "strawberry capitol of the world" which was named Strawberry ★★★★★★★★. They no longer have commercial strawberry crops, but they are stuck with the name of "Arp, Texas" after a railroad executive made them rename their town after him in order to keep railroad service to pick up their strawberries. (Wikipedia says Arp was named after Bill Arp who was a nationally known humorist in the 1890's. A store owner in Arp told me the government and the railroad required the local farmers to start shipping their strawberries in a standard size container which was too small to accommodate the name of "Strawberry ★★★★★★★★". They named the town after the railroad executive because "Arp" would fit nicely on the smaller containers.)

I suppose that is why an agricultural research station was located in Jacksonville where the Stick tomato was first identified.

Ted

[kygreg]

I grew Stick in a plant garden more for the decorative foliage than the tomato. Was productive for me, taste was average. If you would like some seeds pm me. I don't blossom bag but it was not close to anyother tomato plant.

[Lee]

Check out the following threads for more info/photos.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=5772