Lambert's General Grant

[Tania]

It looks like the first mention of oblate (not heart) shape appears in 1996 when Chuck Wyatt offered it in the SSE Yearbook, his seed was from CV Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

Then in 1998 Neil Lockhart echoes the description saying 'globes', his seed is also from CV Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Pretty much after that most of the SSE listings are referring to it as 'globes' or not giving any shape description at all.

Now, that's interesting... I am growing Jefferson Giant this year, my seed came in a trade, and originally they were obtained from Neil Lockhart around 2005. Only 1 seed germinated, so I do not have lots of plants to compare, but the baby tomatoes I am seeing on this plant are certainly heart-shaped.

In 2007 SSE Yearbook another SSE member mentions heart shape, seeds from Chuck Wyatt!

Which gives two possibilities:
1. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange offered seed of Jefferson Giant that were either mixed up or crossed - that's why Chuck and Neil observed globes, and not hearts.
2. Chuck's and Neil's description were erroneous, and they actually had hearts not globes.

Tania

Edit: in 2010 SSE Yearbook there is only 1 listing, that of Neil and he describes it as globes. CV Southern Exposure Seed Exchange does not offer this tomato anymore.

[velikipop]

I too have a Jefferson Giant that is a heart, bur not very large.

Back to LGG. There is no doubt that WWW misnamed whatever variety he had and that there are some variances in description recently, however, might there be a possibility that the original LGG did survive and that the seed being sold by Heritage Harvest is true to type? Do the pictures I posted help in any way towards answering that question?

Alex

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Bama mater

Thanks Carolyn, I'll give it a look see in the yearbook and see if someone like Neil L offers it.

Neil is the only one listing it in the 2010 Yearbook but alas, he's listing the wrong globe shaped one , seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, as also noted at Tania's website. I didn't bother to look at earlier Yearbooks to see how long Neil has been listing that globe one.

I just scooped up the 2007 Yearbook and both Neil and someone from CT had listed the wrong globe one and a third person had listed the correct one, seeds from Chuck Wyatt and no date noted and I'll bet that Chuck got those seeds from me back in the late 90's b/c he wanted all the varieties in my book that he didn't have at the time. Or he could have gotten it from Heirloom Seeds himself. Chuck passed on in June of 2002.

I really should tell Neil about it, and should call him to chat anyway, as we do from time to time.

SESE is no longer offering the variety and earlier listings for Jefferson Giant noted seeds from Heirloom Seeds per the blurb I posted above.

[carolyn137]

Alex and Tania, I had written the post above when neither of your posts were there, and then Freda came and I had to go out to the back room to label the few tomatoes she brought in, came back here after she left and then posted.

You'll see I answered some of your questions in my post and no, I don't think that the seeds offered at Heritage Harvest are Lambert's General Grant for all of the reasons that have been discussed before.

From some of the tomato descriptions at HH it's clear to me that the person there is an SSE member and no doubt got the initial seeds via an SSE member who had listed the LGG in the Yearbook. And that would have been the LGG that WWW named from an unnamed large pink and that doesn't speak to me of knowing it was LGG at all.

Stupid tomatoes out there look like straggly pine trees with little foliage, very high winds, Freda found several fruits on the ground and we have no idea what they are, so I'll just have to eat them and not even try to save seed.

The one good thing is that the Kukla's Portuguese Heart really is a heart, and a big one at that, indet with PL foliage. Nada from the two other Portuguese ones, a paste and a beef. Craig was doing seed production for all three of these new Portuguese ones and ALL of his plants got wiped out with Septoria. Yes, I have ONE of the hearts and Freda says there's only one more small one.

OK. back to tennis watching.