Variety - High Crimson

[Raymondo]

Does anyone know anything about High Crimson? I have a plant from seed originally from Sand Hill I believe but they don't list it in their catalogue. Many thanks.

[carolyn137]

Craig and I got it out of the USDA and both listed it in the SSE Yearbook in 1996. NSL 32835.

Large indet plant with about 4-6 oz globes, deep red interior, about 70-75 days, mild flavor.

And I seem to remember that it had something special about the petals but I'd have to Google to remember what that was.

All I know is that several folks knew I had it and I sent out seeds to those folks and that was many years ago. I suppose I still have a vial with some seeds somewhere.

I think more of historical interest than a great tomato variety.

[cdntomato]

Ernie Kerr was working on a whole breeding line of high lycopene stuff, High Crimson being just one result. I got it and others in the line out of the Cdn genebank a few years back and shared some south of the border. Good productive, more semi than in-determinate, mid season, red 'n round globes. Flavour a bit insipid even if a beautiful fruit aesthetically.

Yes, Carolyn, of historical interest, at least to Canucks like
me, but also extremely useful for breeding for a number of reasons. Kerr's forte was commercial breeding (gov programmes then Stokes for years), but he built really solid foundations that stand well even today (as per the Stoke Catalogue)

More later, must fly to work.

Jennifer

[cdntomato]

Kanatto (sometimes spelled Kannato) is Italian, according to my notes and was 'selected' by Lowden along with New Sidor. I was going from memory, now you have me really intrigued to verify data. I do know for sure that Ernie did the high lycopene breeding lines. I've spoken to his grad students about it.

Dave, where are you getting your info from. GooU directly?

[cdntomato]

Dave, no need to respond. Found your exact quotation from Seeds of Diversity Canada, written by Jim Ternier and 'his' Canadian Tomato project.

Jennifer, laughing hysterically
(yes, Carolyn and Ray, I will bite my tongue and bite my tongue and bite my tongue and...)

And Dave, no offense was intended. You were trying to help and that is appreciated. There's history here of which you would not be aware. Thanks.

[Tania]

Originally Posted by cdntomato

Dave, no need to respond. Found your exact quotation from Seeds of Diversity Canada, written by Jim Ternier and 'his' Canadian Tomato project.

Jennifer, laughing hysterically
(yes, Carolyn and Ray, I will bite my tongue and bite my tongue and bite my tongue and...)

And Dave, no offense was intended. You were trying to help and that is appreciated. There's history here of which you would not be aware. Thanks.

Jennifer,

so what's the real story?

[cdntomato]

Tania, I'm going to dot my eyes and cross my tees by doing the homework. When I've got irrefutable citations for you, I'll log them into your database.

For now, I've grown High Crimson (as above) as well as 2 gov versions (PGRC and USDA) of Kannato/Kanatto as well as that Filipino one called Nacarlang (various spellings) used in breeding by GooU. Believe me, Kanatto does not grow as one would expect a variety from the Philipines to do, whereas Nacarlang does.

From Economic Botany:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=DH1m...rs3b_qCc&hl=en

All for now,
Jennifer

[cdntomato]

Dave, thanks for being so gracious.

I'm excited that you're into Ernie's work. I'll pull together a list of 'his' varieties. Most of them are F1s though, but still listed at Stokes.

I've got contact information for him as well. He's in a nursing home but still alert from what I hear. Will keep you posted. Am also investigating the location of his research archives pre-Stokes.

Jennifer

[Raymondo]

Well, glad I posted. It sparked off a bit of data checking. Always a good thing IMHO.
So, is that verified, that High Crimson has the crimson gene? Mine were late due to a very cool summer. I must say I didn't think the interior colour was all that intense but by the time they were ripening the Queensland Fruit Fly were out in force so I was picking at the first blush of colour.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Raymondo

Well, glad I posted. It sparked off a bit of data checking. Always a good thing IMHO.
So, is that verified, that High Crimson has the crimson gene? Mine were late due to a very cool summer. I must say I didn't think the interior colour was all that intense but by the time they were ripening the Queensland Fruit Fly were out in force so I was picking at the first blush of colour.

Yes Ray, it does have the crimson gene.

Craig and I got it out of the USDA and listed it in the 1996 SSE Yearbook and both of us commented on the deep red color of those medium sized globes.

There's also something else it has which I can't remember but I think it was something about the petals having something gold. Bad memory here. Sorry. Taste was not exceptional, which is a nice way of putting it.