how do I register a tomato name

[casino]

Hi Everyone, I need some help. Does anyone know how to register a new tomato name. I grow over 50 heirloom tomatoes in my garden and I have developed 3 tomatoes that I think are outstanding, everyone loves them. I picked out the names for these tomatoes but now I would like to register those names or have these names put on a list somewhere stating that I am the owner of these tomatoes and these names are registered to me. I have done an exhaustive google search on "how to register a tomato name" but somehow I am not finding what I am looking for. Any suggestions.

[strax]

Hello and congratulations on you tomatoes!

I assume that your tomatoes are open pollinated. the only way you can 'own' them is to keep them entirely to yourself.

I hope you would choose to share them with the world. If you choose to distribute them, you just pick a name that is not already in use. You could distribute them through tomatoville. That way there would be a clear record of their histories and their names.

good luck,

strax

[remy]

There's no official registry like there is for daylilies, roses, and many other types of plants. Just make sure there is no other one with the same name. Checking Tatiana's database is a good start. You could always double check here too.
Remy

[amideutch]

Roger on the no registry. Being open polinated once they are out there thats it. To make sure the line stays pure you will need to maintain it. Because once it gets out in the public domain crosses can happen especially when being traded among hobby growers or there will be seed mix ups which is usually rare but can happen.
You can list it in the SSE Yearbook which requires a yearly membership and you can sell the seeds through that listing which is available only to listed or non listed members. This way the variety integrity is assured as you are the only source. But again when a member purchases the seeds he can do with them what he see's fit whether to relist them and sell them himself or in some cases SSE members are owners of commercial seed companies such as Baker Creek and Marianna's Heirloom seeds to name a few. As they also list varieties in the Yearbook they also look for new varieties to add to their collection of seeds they sell.
Or in some cases some folks will donate new varieties to a particular seed company to sell and perpetuate the variety. Carolyn Male and Craig LeHoullier are a few who have done this and are members of Tomatoville.
And as mentioned in a previous post have Tania who is also a Tville member list them in her Tomatobase listing with info and pictures. Ami

[carolyn137]

To add to what Ami said, I've been sending the best of my new varieties, not ones I bred, rather in general new family heirlooms I acquired, to several small family seed companies for trial, where I know the owners very well and trust them and how they run their companies. If their trials work out well then they will offer them.

In the past I've sent to Pinetree as well as Shepherd's seeds and they still list some that I sent them, as well as SESE when Jeff McCormack still owned it. I no longer send to Pinetree of Shepherd's and haven't for maybe 15 years. But I recently wrote to SESE b'c I was annoyed that they chaged the name of one of the varieties I'd sent to Jeff and asked them to please change it back to the original name.

Years ago I sent what I and the person who gave me the seeds called Joe's Long to Rob at Johnny's, they loved it and called it Joe's Long Cayenne, and I sent what we'd called Joe's Round to jeff at SESE.

But more recently they changed the name to Ammazzo, which I had included in the original description which describes the nosegay appearance of the clusters of red fruits. A very nice person at SESE agreed to change the name back to what it should be but then by Googling I found that other seed sites were now calling it Ammazzo as well. I considered contacting them as well but then just said the heck with it.

Both Joe's Long and Joe's Round ( both hot peppers) are listed correctly in the SSE Public catalog but I had nothing to do with that at all, meaning, I'd listed the seeds initially in the YEarbook and no doubt sent seeds back to be stored long term, when asked to.

Most places are so far behind in trialing varieties it's getting ridiculous. Mike Dunton and family stopped by here about a month ago when Mike was attending a conference at the USDA station in Geneva, NY, and we talked about the backlog. Mike owns Victory Seeds.

Places that I currently send seeds for trial include:

TGS, where I've known Linda since about 1991, and I didn't even send her any new ones this past year b'c she is so far behind.

Sandhill Preservation, where I've known Linda and Glenn as fellow SSE members for many many years.

Marianne Jones at mariseeds whom I've also known forever as a fellow SSE member.

Victory Seeds where I've known Mike for quite a few years now

Gleckler Seedmen where Adam has revived the company started by his grandfather in the 40's and I knew Adam's father when he took over and the last catalog was in 1994. And I and so many others were so pleased to see Adam restart the company about two years ago that I posted in the Seeds Wanted Forum here and many many Tville members sent varieties to Adam for trial. And as his website becomes better known b'c he's listing lots of varieties that are rare and hard to get, he's being sent lots and lots of varieties to trial from folks not associated with Tville.

And it's also true, as Ami said above, that the owners of several commercial companies are SSE members and get some of their starts for tomato varieties, as well as other varieties, from requested to listed members.

But if your new varieties are genetically stable and that good I'd suggest that you offer some of them to others to see how they do in a variety of situations before you consider doing anything else with them.

I don't think I've ever sent a variety to any of the above places without it being grown elsewhere first. A variety should be genetically stable and to also perform well are traits that are always uppermost in the minds of those who sell OP seeds to the public commercially.

And jsut to note that the SSE YEarbook is not a seed catalog, rather, it's the mechanisk SSE set up in 1975 to help preserve OP varieties and just to note that there are about 4000 tomato varieties listed there.

Just so you have Tania's tomato base site here it is, and yes, Tania is also an SSE member and yes, Tania, like many others here have gotten seeds for me in my annual free seed offer here at Tville.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Main_Page

You can check variety names by using the alphabetical listings and you can check the individual variety pages for pictures, descriptions and seed sources, where available, of individual varieties.

Hope that helps.

[casino]

Thank you all for your kind words, this is all very interresting. I have a very limited number of seeds. After I research your reference sources to make sure I dont duplicate a named variety I will share what I have, post some pictures and ask for feedback on my OP varieties. This should be fun.