Stick

[JLJ_]

A few thoughts that might interest some regarding Curl or CU (name given by finder-breeder 1953) / Stick (name given by Gleckler-seller 1959?) / Poodle (poetic descriptor by nctomatoman- date? ) . . .

The Curly Stick Poodle has diverse reports regarding flavor. Considering that healthy foliage to fruit ratio may be related to flavor, and that this critter's foliage is somewhat limited, it might be interesting if anyone growing a number of these has already or does try removing some fruit from one or more plants to see if they detect difference in fruit quality?

For those interested in but not familiar with its ancestry, which might be particularly relevant regarding the quality or potential quality of its fruit, the Curly Stick Poodle is a mutated/selected/improved Chalk's Early Jewel . . . sort of.

At the beginning of the 20th century George Middleton found an atypical plant in a field of Chalk's Early Jewel, grew seeds descended from it, selecting for earliness and fruit quality and ended up with what was considered a highly desirable tomato that was named Bonny Best. It was introduced by Stokes in 1908.

Selection to improve Bonny Best continued over the years, but in 1933 Stokes found a single unusual plant in a field of Bonny Best (presumably their own, now many generation selected, "Super-Standard Bonny Best") They described this 1st Stokesdale as being either a single plant mutation of Bonny Best or a cross between Bonny Best and Marglobe. Probably their own 8th generation (at the time the Stokesdale ancestral plant appeared) "Stokes Master Marglobe".

In 1953, P.A. Young reported a dominant mutation found in a field of Stokesdale and called it Curl or CU which was later called Stick, and still later, the Poodle tomato.

For anyone interested, this 1936 publication by Stokes, when they introduced Stokesdale, briefly discussed some of their methods and standards, and described a few other tomatoes they had developed and a few that they just apparently liked (and sold).

http://ia800402.us.archive.org/25/it...ow1936fran.pdf
Stokes brochure "Stokes for Tomato We Present Stokesdale a new tomato of unusual promise"

One thing that might be significant about that ancestry is that when Pritchard was doing the research regarding disease resistance he found very little resistance in Bonny Best but the reason for the success of his Marglobe creation was its disease resistance. It produced some plants apparently completely unaffected when exposed to wilt and nail head infected environments and a larger number that showed some disease effects, even if only under microscopic examination of plant parts, but still survived long enough to produce a good crop. (In descriptions like that Pritchard did distinguish between apparent immunity and what's sometimes now called tolerance, but that's another story -- resistance was the term of choice.)

So the Curly Stick Poodle's ancestry was Chalk's Early Jewel (mutation? & selection) > Bonny Best (mutation or Marglobe cross & selection) > Stokesdale (mutation & selection) > Curly Stick Poodle.

If, in comparisons between Bonny Best, Marglobe, and the Curly Stick Poodle, the latter's ability to survive disease proved to be more like Marglobe than like Bonny Best that *might* give a little evidence toward a Marglobe element in its ancestry -- though just a little, as intentional and accidental selection for ability to survive disease exposure could have changed the performance of any or all of these over the decades.

As many here could guess, the possibility of the Curly Stick Poodle being a Marglobe grandchild immediately causes my antennae to vibrate favorably . . . though Marglobe ancestry probably can never be more than a possibility so the Curly Stick Poodle's cute appearance combined with possibly good fruit is a greater appeal, even to me.

Curly Stick Poodle seems to grow long single vines. Would it be interesting if someone made a roughly dog shaped cage or other support and trained the vines on that?

Another 2010 thread on this tomato that I don't believe has been mentioned here is

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=16059