Silvery Fir Tree

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Iva

I know 'Angora' and 'Velvet Red' are not the same. But what about 'Velvet Red' and 'Angora Super Sweet'? I always thought those two were synonyms for the same variety...

I received seeds from Joe Bratka for Velvet Red in 1996 and first listed it in the SSE YEarbook in 1997. This was not one that Joe bred himself. At that time he was getting a lot of varieties from seed offers in National Gardening and elsewhere.

Then all of a sudden this Angora Super Sweet appears, as offered by Joe and I wasn't the only one who saw that it was probably the same as Velvet Red and the Supersweet one was listed in the SSE public catalog. So I contacted them and told them that it should be Velvet Red and suggested that Joe had changed the name as he did from time to time.

Both have the same angora foliage and small red fruits, but there are those who say that one or the other has slightly fuzzy fruits. The original Angora didn't have fuzzy fruits and I spent some time this AM looking at the seed sources and in my YEarbooks seeing if anyone still describes fuzzy fruits.

The majority of folks say no fuzzy fruits for either Velvet Red OR Angora Super Sweet.

In the 2011 SSE YEarbook quite a few list Velvet Red, but no one lists Angora Super Sweet.

And having grown both I do consider them to be the same. At her site Tania suggests they could be different strains of the same variety, that's possible, but it all comes down to a possible difference of slightly fuzzy fruits and the same as to slightly fuzzy fruits has been said for both by some folks at different times and places.

Somehow I think some folks want something with angora in the name to HAVE fuzzy fruits, but that's just me saying that. When I just pulled out my 2005 Yearbook there are nine folks who list the variety Angora and not one of them mentions fuzzy fruits.

And then, of course there's Fuzzy Bomb, created by Tad Smith, with much larger fruits in the about 12 oz range, PL and angora leaved.No listing for Fuzzy Bomb in the current YEarbook and only Tomatofest appears to lsit it and I don't know what the blurb for it there is so I'll just let tha tone go.

Oh how I wish I was still in touch with Tad, he who sent me the seeds for a triple cross he'd done from which I was able to find what he wanted, which was the variety Tad ( I called it), which was one of the parents of Lucky Cross and Little Lucky and many of the selections that came from that initial cross. And Tad also bred Pale Perfect Purple and Snowstorm and I can't remember what else. Several times he just bred some varieties and sent Craig, who he was also good friends with, and myself F1 seeds of this or that, but when those F1 seeds were gone, that was that. One was a large heart. Craig may remember that one, as to a name, or a description, I don't, but I know I loved it.

Last I knew he headed up the Late Blight potato section at a large firm near Philly, I think Craig would remember the name of that place. Tad has a Ph.D in plant breeding and at one time was doing peanut work in GA and wanted to get out of that project ASAP b'c he was on his knees in the hot GA sun all the time and wanted out.