Blush Tomatoes

[Fred Hempel]

Tom,

Did all your striped varieties start with a single striped variety?

[ChristinaJo]

I bet most people don't think about all the work it takes to develop new varieties.
Go to store, pick up plant,put in dirt,water, pick.

I will be honest, and admit, I am guilty too.....

Thanks to all the gardeners and breeders that take the time to do it.


Cooking info:

So, I have it that it's great dried, fresh, how about roasted or sauced?

[Fred Hempel]

Whenever people ask what one of our tomatoes can be used for, this song runs through my head....

Covered wagon medicine show
Take you to the place where the healing flows
Weak in spirit, we got the FRUITS
Won't save your soul, it'll shine your shoes
Treated king to kangaroo
Santa Fe to Timbuktu
Don't be fooled by imitation
This is the BLUSH that cured a nation
We took the tube and the high plains too
Never stopped long, just passing through
A drop of the laughter of the maids of France
Makes a hopeless cripple dance
It was really vile weather when we got to tarred and feathered
You could hear the six guns sound as they chased us out of town
In India we're all the rave
Discovered that it's great as aftershave
Dropped in the sea, just off Japan
Swapped 20 PINTS for an aqua-walkman
Immunity from ridicule
Improves your brains if you're a fool
And I read in the Middle East, they traded some for a hostage release
Now if you're bald it'll give you hair
If you got straight trousers it'll give you flares
Feeling up, you'll get depressed
Out of style, here's a brand new dress
The BLUSH we sell is just the best
Passing all consumer test
Days of heaven, nights of sin
Voodoo stick and sharks fin
When all around you seems like hell, just one BLUSH will make you well
Multipurpose in a TOMATO
If you ain't I'll it'll fix your TABLE
In days of yore for all bad feelings
Washing socks and stripping ceilings
Nowadays it's used medicinally for all known human malady


Lyrics from Medicine Show. Big Audio Dynamite (with a few small word changes)

[ChristinaJo]

Yes, I'd say that about covers it

[remy]

I thought I posted yesterday, but I must not of hit submit. Anyway, I'm growing Blush this year, because the last year at the Buffalo~Niagara Tomato Tastefest, it was such a hit. I really loved it. It had a lot of votes for sweetest and best though it did not win.
I still have only green fruit so I can't comment on anything else yet.
Remy

[Tom Wagner]

Did all your striped varieties start with a single striped variety?

I had played around with Tigerella for quite a few years during the fifties and sixties, I used it in breeding and I think the only line I kept growing was one I called Cherry Stripe. It did not contribute much in the way of stripe and is still hard to see on the fruit. I am increasing Cherry Stripe. This has been in limbo for the last 40 years.

I was always on the lookout for new varieties to use in breeding. Case in point.... when I walked through the gene bank/tomato seed increase field near Ames , Iowa sometime during the mid sixties I found one plant in the accessions row that was different than the same seed block. It has faint stripes and I asked the superintendent to collect a single fruit.

I grew it but it was even as good as Tigerella, but after crossing it with different lines and segregating the seed lines I was able to get better striping patterns. Seems something happened in my breeding work...I was getting wide ranges of striping patterns...5% stripes to over 80% stripes. Seems I wanted the 60% pattern most of all and many of the breeding lines I had during the early 70's were derived from one or more of these new types/mutations. Those early lines included Banana Fingers...which probably was the one renamed Banana Legs by John Swenson of The Historic Wagner Farm in Illinois...no relation....Green Nails, Green Bell, Schimmeig Stoo, Schimmeig Creg, Green Zebra, Elberta Girl and more.

I called the gene gs for green stripe and I think I called it that before I knew that the gene was officially called that. Somehow my gs lines became more pronounced either in con★★★★★★★★ with other genes on the same chromosome, I don't know exactly what. It does appear that with early trials of my tomatoes starting with 1979 and especially with the 1983 release of my Tater Mater Seed catalog....that most, if not all, of the stripes you see today are from my original strains or crosses such as Striped Roman, Black Zebra, Copi, Berkeley Tie Die, etc.

BTW, I used Blush and Roman Candle in crosses today and to each other. I noticed the foliage of both are very similar to my Banana Legs..this being an ancestor to both.

I crossed Blush to Starfire Isis today. I wonder if one of my lines is coursing throught the blood of this tomato as well....here is a picture of it..



Might make a good hybrid and/or start of new recombinations for a new OP.

[carolyn137]

Tom, you might remember that in the early 90's I trialed 22 varieties for you and sent back my comments.

I'd grown Elberta Girl and the Stoo one previously but there were three striped ones with those 22 and Casady's Folly was the best looking striped one that I'd grown to date, a long red with gold stripes. And I'd also grown the three ones that came of out of the Glasshouse Research Inst in England with Aisla Craig as one parent, and those were Tigerella, the small red striped one and Craigella and Tangella.I got all of them from John Tingsley In England/ Tigerella was called Mr Stripey thus leading to much confusion when Wayne Hilton, who used to own TT found a large beefsteak gold/red bicolor in GA, sent it to Seeds by Design in CA and they didn't know about the origianl Mr. Stripey so named that one Mr. Stripey as well/

I disliked Tigerella from the get go. The taste was too aggressive for me and not to my liking and fruits would split with the AM dew/

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Casady%27s_Folly

I know it didn't become available to others for many years.

The other two were Brandystripe, one on PL foliage and one on PL angora foliage. THe stripes were wide and bold and in many different colors, just as though you'd taken a box of Crayolas and painted the surface,but taste was lacking.

I know you backcrossed one of them to Brandywine itself to try and introduce some taste, but I looked at the following you sent to Tania and at least with this one the stripes disappeared.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/B...andy_Stripe_F1

What happened to those Brandystripes that had the most wonderful striping I've ever seen?

I can't remember all of the others with those 22 but a few still stand out in my mind. By that time I'd grown quite a few green when ripes, not yours, but Chile Verde was good and of course you know that my favorite one was Verde Claro, and still is, which I tried to get you to offer at TGS but it never happened.

Carolyn

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Carolyn, our history is intertwined in odd ways.

Brandystripe's official name on the current trade is Vintage Wine. Vintage Wine is a non woolly version. I made a cross of it (VW) with Roman Candle yesterday of all things. I have dozens of alternate Brandy Stripes...Brandystripes...I forget how to spell it. Many have been bred into other lines and will be introduced out of my Hawaii location...tomwagnerseeds.com soon. I believe many more new kinds with be offered as I am sending many breeding lines that will be part of a Brandywine collection in the future...one that will grow and grow as the lines are grown out. My cooperator, Gary, is a stickler on flavor.

My best Verde Claro is my Beyond Green Grape which is a stabilizing OP from the cross of Beyond Verde Claro and Green Grape.

Making hybrids more readily available is one of my goals. Using Brandy Stripe in hybrids works great for increasing yield and other qualities. Tania's link is a good one...
F-1 of Brandywine X Brandy Stripe




Note to self....I have a single Brandywine and a Vintage Wine...I will put it in the queue of crosses to be done. The plants are in 4 gallon pots and I will wait til new blooms grow...all available buds have been crossed to date. The hybrid will not have that fascinating half woolly look that I love but it will be an improvement over each by themselves...imho.


BTW, in order to keep this thread on track of the name BLUSH...I used pollen from it in about a dozen new crosses yesterday.

[peebee]

I grew 3 Blush plants this year, 2 in containers and 1 in-ground and the in-ground one is pumping out loads of fruit. My neighbors told me its their new favorite and I love them too, esp when they are very ripe. No cracking. Wispy foliage prone to wilting and yellowing, at least for my area, but does not affect the fruit or productivity: may not be very attractive but who cares when they are so tasty.
Thanks, Fred, for creating Blush! I will grow this again and again.

[Fred Hempel]

Tom,

That's alot of crosses. I don't know how you keep them all straight.

peebee,

Are the ones in-ground making tastier tomatoes?

[Tom Wagner]

Fred,

Keeping track of all the crosses in not the problem...growing them all out is the problem. I am on cross number 625 and that is before I head out to make more crosses tomorrow. I know many people do not believe me when I say I have about 10,000 kinds of tomato seed, mostly of my own making.

I noticed that the cross Roman Candle x Blush is forming a good start of a fruit. I should be able to have F-1 seed in six weeks or so. Both of those have my Banana Legs in the ancestry.

Terry sent me pictures of my Boxer Rebellion F-2 plants...and this one has a blush of a sort. The pedigree goes back to 1970 or so when it was a cousin to the Banana Legs.

[peebee]

Fred, I don't know if there's any difference in taste between in-ground & container Blushes, I usually pick them all and put them in a basket when harvesting. I'll try next time, but don't know how "scientific" such a test will be. I have a feeling they will all taste good. It's mainly that in-ground, the plant is of course much much larger. Seems the deeper in color they get (hence, riper), the sweeter they are. We all like the shape & the size, just right for popping in one's mouth. And pretty too.

[WhippoorwillG]

This was my first year growing Blush, and it has definitely made the mandatory grow list. It did crack a lot, but I can't judge it much considering how much rain we had. As the season has moved along, my respect and love of Blush has only grown. It continues to produce and impress.

Interestingly, early in the season, the Maglia Rosas were much more flavorful, but as the later fruits came in, it was apparent that Blush was the true winner. Blush is also my secret market weapon. If a mom comes by with a child, they are given a Blush because of the fruity taste, resulting in a near 100% conversion rate. Those customers also return week after week.

Tom, I found a very interesting cherry in your Mamognahela Epidote that looks almost exactly like the Starfire Isis pictures you posted. I grew 8 plants and had 6 very different expressions. Only one was striped, with the others red, brown, orange, yellow.

[Tom Wagner]

Tom, I found a very interesting cherry in your Mamognahela Epidote that looks almost exactly like the Starfire Isis pictures you posted. I grew 8 plants and had 6 very different expressions. Only one was striped, with the others red, brown, orange, yellow.

Mark, at least you were able to get striped, red, brown, orange, and yellow. You drew the short stick not getting a green and a bi-color. Sometimes, eight is not enough. Did you save any seed...any faves?

Sometime ago someone asked me about the spelling and how the name was to be pronounced.
Mamognahela Epidote
Mah-MOW-gnah-hela EP-i-dote
mamó = grandma / pron. [mah-mow]Gaelic
gna hela Nordic
Epidote…a many colored crystal like mineral

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/RUqGtMC.png?1[/IMG]


Here is a funny video on trying to pronounce Manongahela as in the river in Pennsylvania. I remember picking up some colorful river stones out of that river back in 1971..many colors....and getting all confused on how to say that name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fQTMtGmzrA

Mah-non-gah-hela!

I like to play around with names and spellings...duh...look at this...

Monongahela River has also been known historically as:[5]

• Malangueulé[15]
• Manaungahela River
• Me-nan-gi-hil-li
• Meh-non-au-au-ge-hel-al
• Mehmannaunringgehlau
• Mehmannauwinggehla
• Mo-hon-ga-ly River

• Mo-hon-galy River
• Mo-hon-gey-e-la River
• Mo-hong-gey-e-la River
• Mohungahala River
• Mohunghala River
• Monaung River
• Monaungahela River

• Monna River
• Monnyahela River
• Monona River
• Mononga River
• Monongahalia River
• Monongahaly River
• Monongaheley River

• Monongahelia River
• Monongalia River
• Monongalo River
• Mononguhela River
• Mononyahela River
• Muddy River

[Doug9345]

Here is a funny video on trying to pronounce Manongahela as in the river in Pennsylvania. I remember picking up some colorful river stones out of that river back in 1971..many colors....and getting all confused on how to say that name.

If I remember correctly wasn't it said in Rocky and Bullwinkle?