Early Girl PL Associate

[travis]

This year, I found two potato leaf seedlings displayed among regular leaf Early Girl seedlings at commercial vendors.

Here are three photos of fruit and leaves off the first PL leaf plant I found back in April in a six-pack of Early Girl seedlings at a big box store ...








I found the other potato leaf seedling about two weeks later at a nursery where they start all their own seedlings. They did not have a single potato leaf variety in stock, and the second PL seedling also was in with the Early Girls.

I don't know what this is all about ... whether these PLs are F2s or whether they are from seeds mistakenly collected from a parent of Early Girl that did not cross at the breeding farm, or what.

Whatever it is ... it's "associated" with Early Girl, so I'm callin' it EG Associate PL for the time being.

I don't have pictures yet of the other plant, but it has a whole lot more tomatoes on it, not as limp foliage, but none are near ripe yet ... photos of them later.

I kept one of the regular leaf Early Girls from the same 6-pack as the tomato in these photos for comparison. It is growing in a container and is loaded with green tomatoes, but none have ripened yet. The red tomato in the photos above is the second to ripen on the PL vine and there is another ready to pick tomorrow. So the PL is several days earlier than the RL.

PV

[feldon30]

Taste?

[Sherry_AK]

I grew something similar last year. I started the seed myself, from commercial seed (Early Girl). Unimaginative as I am ... I called mine "unknown P/L." It was OK for taste, but it sure did pump out a ton of tomatoes.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

The cultivar "Visitacion Valley" (a.k.a. Visitation Valley) is supposed to be a local selection of the Early Girl Hybrid. It has the potato leaf characteristic.

My experiences with it:

Productive and reliable with fruit set in cool weather.
Round red smallish fruit.
Flavor is OK fresh, as I recall from last summer. Then I pulled some V.V. from last summer out of the freezer and tried again--Wow! Fantastic flavor! Did my taste buds not remember correctly?

GTG

[travis]

GTG,

Very interesting ... thank you for that bit of information. I'll try to get some of those for a comparison to the two PLs I have.

PV

[Colorado_west]

Papa Vic, what type of plants are they? Det or ind???? My 7 are EG F2 PL. Mine are from EG seed I saved. So mine are not the same thing. So far I have never had a PL in the EG's I have started from seed from boughten seed. Mine are good healthy plants.

[travis]

Originally Posted by Colorado_west

Papa Vic, what type of plants are they? Det or ind???? My 7 are EG F2 PL. Mine are from EG seed I saved. So mine are not the same thing. So far I have never had a PL in the EG's I have started from seed from boughten seed. Mine are good healthy plants.

C-West,

I bought both plants when I found them lurking in with other Early Girls for sale at two different places.

I have never started seed for Early Girl, and up until this year, I have never seen, or maybe just never noticed, a PL Early Girl seedling or plant.

So, I'm assuming both these PL plants are either from cross packaged seeds at the seedman, seeds carelessly mixed up during planting at the nursery, or from improperly collected seeds at the seed farm.

In the case of the first plant, the tomato and leaf in the photos are from the first plant, that plant came from an out of state nursery, so I have no idea what's up with it.

Here is a photo of the first plant. Notice the very droopy leaves. It always looks like this. Always. Never perky. It looked determinate at first, but then it started growing more like an indeterminate after the first fruit it set got up to size.



Here's a picture taken a week or so later that shows a good shot of a blossom cluster typical to both plants.



Does that look anything like your EG PLs, C-West?

In the case of the second PL plant I found, I talked with the man who planted the seeds at his family-owned nursery, and he planted no PL varieties whatsoever this year and doesn't remember ever planting any PL varieties. He is sure that the Early Girls he sold were all from seeds he purchased labled "Early Girl."

So, it would appear to me that the second plant came from either mixed seed at the seedsman or from incorrectly crossed or collected seed at the grower.

I don't have a good picture of the second plant, it's stuck in a back row near a hedge, but it never has the same droopy foliage. The leaves stand out almost perpendicular to the stems and do not get all sad and droopy like the first plant. Same pale green PL foliage, just not as droopy.

In addition, the second plant was younger than the first when I found it. It only had three sets of true leaves when I stuck it in the ground. At the same time, the first palnt had about 5 sets of true leaves.

The second plant has outgrown the first twice over and has set at least twice as much fruit. But nothing has ripened yet on the second plant. It is loaded with green fruit. The flowers look the same. Same erect blossom stems. About the same number of blossoms per truss, but more trusses and more fruit set. It appears to be indeterminate, but I will check out its growing tips closer for the next couple of weeks.

PV

[Colorado_west]

Papa Vic, my PL Early Girls do not look like that at all. Deeper green and big leaves. Just starting to bloom. All 7 the same. Standing right straight up yet. Leaves not droopy. Not regular tomato leaves that is for sure. They do not look like other PL's I have, come to think of it. They did come out of EG F2 seed I saved. Rest of the bunch look like EG okay.

[travis]

C-West,

Okay, the two tomatoes I have are definitely different. Last night I sliced one from the second plant. The seed locule pattern is totally different than the seed cell pattern in the tomato pictured above.

The second plant has tomatoes that have numerous, very small seed cells spaced irregularly out around a very large central core. There is not much gel and there are very few seeds. If it were a larger tomato, it would be a "beefsteak," but it runs small ... just a little larger than the one pictured above.

It has about the same color, but none of the tomatoes on the second plant have shown a nipple like most of the tomatoes on the first plant.

The tomatoes on the first plant taste zingy. Not necessarily tart, not sweet, not citrus, but zingy. The tomato from the second plant had a much more subtle flavor and definitely a better texture. The dense central core was nice and soft, not hard like some.

Both tomatoes are better than anything I've got from the store, but not nearly as good as the few Indian Stripes that I've picked this year so far.

I didn't have my camera at home last night, so I don't have a picture of the sliced tomato. I squeezed out the seeds and ate the fruit. I'll take some photos next time.

PV

[Colorado_west]

Papa Vic My little plants did have that shape leaves till got in garden. I checked some tomato plants that are known to be PL and they are changing to those bigger leaves. I have never grown PL's before. EG F2 PL are blooming and see one has set little tomatoes. I will save seed from these. I have some saved seed left that I started these from. 1/4 were PL. Last year had few EG volunteers that had leaves of 4 to 5 inches. So far no leaves this big yet. One EG volunteer had flatish round scalloped tomatoes. I started some of those seed and plants set out. Some where in garden. I need get my list out and see where I planted. I put stakes between kinds but foxes pulled them out a lot. I am pretty darn sure that volunteer was an EG. Only tomatoes in the garden year before was EG and Better Boy. And it was over in the EG part of garden. I am F2 and F3 for sure. I had saved seed from the scalloped one to try. I have no idea if it will do this year. Got to have some fun with all this work. Set the scalloped away from the other EG's. I will save seed again. Last year was first time I have saved seed. I have few of the scalloped left. With CTV here one never knows if they will make it. So far so good this year. Few more weeks and I think the danger will be over. I hope so anyway.

[Colorado_west]

It looks like I will have two shapes of tomatoes on my EG F2 PL. 7 plants and two seem to have Early Girl type and some others do not. Plants look a like. None ripe yet.

[moulman]

PapaVic,

I have a mixed up EG as well. The fruit looks just like that - nipple and all. Except It has BOTH RL and PL foliage.