Carolyn's Fall 2012 Feedback Reports

[farmall]

I only have 6 plants of Maidens Gold and all are true. I will have to check the Fish lake for I have not seeded it yet.

Carolyn
For the germination I would have to say 70% or above on all Varieties new and old. The newer ones were very good germ 90-100%. Sorry i don't count seeds when I plant but I can say I have at least 4 plants of everything you sent and some a lot more. so I would have to say very good germination being that 4-5 varieties the seed was 8 years old. All the rain this weekend has gone south of us but we got 2"s earlier in the week so good shape for now and happy to be seeding tomatoes finally. Lots to do and little time to do it.

I will update later on the ones I really like.

Adam

[retiree]

I will send the Fish Lake Oxheart seeds with the Tadesse as soon as the Tadesse

have dried properly.

Would have responded sooner but have been out of town for the day.

Neil G.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by farmall

I only have 6 plants of Maidens Gold and all are true. I will have to check the Fish lake for I have not seeded it yet.

Carolyn
For the germination I would have to say 70% or above on all Varieties new and old. The newer ones were very good germ 90-100%. Sorry i don't count seeds when I plant but I can say I have at least 4 plants of everything you sent and some a lot more. so I would have to say very good germination being that 4-5 varieties the seed was 8 years old. All the rain this weekend has gone south of us but we got 2"s earlier in the week so good shape for now and happy to be seeding tomatoes finally. Lots to do and little time to do it.

I will update later on the ones I really like.

Adam

Folks, Adam is one of my internal controls since I know he's excellent at germinating seeds. Since he said 90-100% on the newer ones and many of you reported no germination at all with some of them I'm going to list the newer ones I sent to Adam for trial and hope that Adam doesn't mind.

But I'm trying to prove a point here.

Newer Ones, all from my 2012 Seed offer;

Granny's Heart
Fish Lake Oxheart
Kukla's Portuguese Heart
Kukla's " Beefsteak
Cuore del Drago
Heshpole
Terhune
Casino
Casino Chips
Maiden's Gold ( glad yours were correct)
Hoy
Blush
Indian Stripe Potato Leaf
Wild Sweetie

....... all the above germinating at 90 to 100%

Older ones:

Red Penna, 2004
Chapman, 2004
Milka's Red Bulgarian, 2004
Don Camillo, can't remember, I think about 2008 or 2009
Geante de Hutt, same as above
Lisos Grandes, ditto
Ludmilla's Yellow Giant, ditto

...... all the above germinating at above 70%

Adam, I'm so glad I can share your germination results b'c there have been some questions about the seed viability of many of them.

And I hope I read your list correctly b'c it's not that light here near the computer.

And I'll look forward to seeing which ones you liked the best that you might consider listing at your website for 2013.

Now I can go to bed with a smile on my face even though several of my favorite tennis players lost at the US Open today.

[kath]

Originally Posted by Mark0820

I never said yours had a yellow ring on it. Some of mine went from green to yellow to pink.

Guess I read those sentences too quickly, Mark, and made the same assumption Carolyn did- sorry I misunderstood your post.

[nicky]

Finally got to taste all of mine. Thank you Carolyn for the opportunity to grow them out!

3/3 requested varieties grown to maturity this year.

BLUSH
tomato-blushcloseup.jpg

Two large, prolific plants, one grown in the Florida weave style and one in the greenhouse. Better outside than in the greenhouse. More productive & earlier outside. Doesn't seem to like to be bagged for seed collection. Stays very firm with no cracking. Excellent for salsa. Early in the year the taste was a bit bland. The later in the year we go, the better it tastes. Now one of my favourites of the 130 or so varieties that I grew this year. Taken to the Buffalo-Niagara Tomato Taste Fest & quite a few people picked it as one the sweetest - and their favourite overall! True to type.

LUCINDA
tomato-lucinda.jpg

One massive, multibranching plant with OK yields. Grown in the greenhouse. The foliage & fruit are both beautiful. Seems susceptible to BER in my garden. The taste - mmm.... It is zingy & almost sour with very tough skin. That sounds horrible but it is actually really tasty! Given 8 & 8.5 by myself & hubby. A grow again. Also grew true to type.

INDIAN STRIPE POTATO LEAF
tomato-indianstripepotatoleaf.jpg

Two medium height plants, one grown in the Florida Weave style and one sprawler. Average production. A few splits with the heavy rain this month. Very good flavour. Side by side comparision with RL Indian Stripe, was the same taste. Strong tasting, sweet yet tangy. A great balance of acid/sweet We all loved it. A third grow again! Also true to type.

[FarmerShawn]

I had:
Courtney (Kazachka) - didn't survive gray mold in greenhouse to plantout.
Green Zebra Cherry - three plants grown, it seemed true to type, and I quite liked it - better than regular green zebra, which I don't particularly care for.

Hoy - two plants made it to the garden, but it was so late maturing that I didn't get to really test a good fruit before fungal disease took it off. I saved seed from some badly cracked fruit, so will try again next year.

Neves Azorean Red - I only had one germinate, so I babied it to plantout, but had the same experience as with the hoy - late and too diseased to really give it a fair test.

Vince P1 - Grew 3. One was hit by what looked like cucumber mosaic virus- it was the only plant in the patch to have fern-like leaves and just plain looked bad- stunted and ugly. I pulled it early. The other two produced quite prolifically, but with horrible cracking even when quite green. And the fruit, when picked at the stage it looked ripe, was either tasteless, or had a "gone by" flavor. So I finally tried a "just barely unripe" one, and the flavor was sublime! One plant was decidedly better flavored than the other one, so I saved seed from that one separately, and will try it in the more controlled environment of my greenhouse next year to see if I can get crack-free fruits.

Thanks, Carolyn, for the chance to try new varieties, and i hope I have provided the feedback you wanted.

[Linda10]

Kukla's Portuguese Heart (2011): 1 of 3 germinated. Very late to produce, so I only got a few of these. Red RL heart didn't start setting until just before our "June Gloom" so what little fruit actually developed was small and average tasting. This is the usual results for late fruit in my garden. Might try again next year and try to speed up the growth to give it a fair trial.


Fish Lake Oxheart (2011): 3 of 3 germinated. Planted all 3 together in garden. This way my favorite in terms of taste of any of the 20 hearts I planted this year. Fairly early RL red heart with wonderful flavor. This will be a staple in my garden from now on.


Ludmilla's Pink Heart (2008): 3 of 3 germinated. Very large RL pink heart, vigorous, but only slightly above average in flavor.


Joe's Pink Oxheart (2011): 2 of 3 germinated. RL pink heart, large fruit, outstanding flavor (2nd only to Fish Lake Oxheart), perfect heart shapes, vigorous grower and long lasting.

It is the last of the 20 hearts to still be growing in my garden and still producing flowers and fruit. It even made it through "June Gloom" without stopping. This will be my one sure tomato every year.

I usually plant 2 or 3 hearts to a cage to support each other...that was a mistake with this one as it has a thicker stem than most of the hearts and was quite crowded in that cage. Can't say enough good things about this one.

Carolyn, the seeds will be on their way to you next week.


Vince's P1 F5 (2011): 3 of 3 germinated. These were planted next to a neighbor's fence and all fell to spider mites. Luckily I saved 2 seeds from the original pack to plant again for seed saving later.

[carolyn137]

First, thanks to all of you who have posted and most recently Nicky and Shawn. I just haven't been keeping up as I should.

Linda, I'm delighted you liked Joe's Pink Oxheart so much and Neil, who did the seed production thought it was one of the best he'd tasted as well. But since he got so few seeds, that's why I put it and the Pink Currant in the Experimental section of my Jan 2012 Seed offer and limited them to just four folks each, and of course you were one of them.

I'll be looking for the seeds and if the others who also got seeds send them then I can offer it for my 2013 seed offer and same for the pink currant seeds, now known as Ted's Pink Currant.

And since all of your Fish Lakes were red I'd love to know if I took the seeds from my A or B sources, but it's looking more and more as though those who got the wrong pink was from source B. My lips are sealed and my fingers tied.

[Mark0820]

What is the appropriate name for the pink Fish Lake Oxheart tomatoes? I liked the taste and will be planting it again next year.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Mark0820

What is the appropriate name for the pink Fish Lake Oxheart tomatoes? I liked the taste and will be planting it again next year.

Mark, I don't want the pink version renamed as I think I've said here several times. I've said that I maintained several varieties in both the pink and red versions but feel VERY strongly about NOT deliberately offering seeds of the wrong color for ANY variety/

So I would ask those with the pink version to NOT distribute seeds.

There's no difference in the red and pink versions of Fish Lake Oxheart when it comesto taste since the difference is just a mutation of the epidermis from yellow ( red) to clear ( pink)

Yes, I know that others rename varieties that have morphed to another color, the original Amana Orange being renamed to Amana Pink and I couled cite several other examples.

But I'm asking sweetly and nicely to anyone who got the pink version, and some got the correct red original version, to please not rename the pink one and to NOT distribute seeds to others.

My original seeds were from Neil G in Canada and he's already offered to send me new ones so that they can be grown out for seed production next year.

And I've already said that since Neil L had so few seeds he referred me to someone he knew who had lots of seeds, and it's those that turned out to be pink. I had some seeds that Neil L produced at the same time and those gave the correct red hearts/

Everyone, thanks so much for understanding my concern about this in advance for it really is a BIG concern of mine.

[PNW_D]

Finally able to report on Green Zebra Cherry - the latest of the cherries grown this year .... this one was 4 for 4 germination, but only room to grow one plant - these are prolific, but not as prolific as Medovaya Kaplya

Unfortunately can't report on taste for GZC - late summer cold has interfered with taste test

but I can report Medovaya Kaplya is my favourite to date .....

[gill_s]

Carolyn, I grew plants from the 4 varieties you sent in your seed offer. Hays, Dutka's Pink annd Medovaya Kaplya in the greenhouse and Blush outside.

Hays-Large, pink heart with RL foliage(not whispy!). Despite the dull. cool conditions this plant set fruit right from the start. It continued to produce very good numbers of tomatoes of excellent flavour, but with very few seeds.

Dutka's Pink-Large Pink Heart, RL foliage. Excellent flavour. The set was not good early but improved to give average productivity. In a better season I think it would do very well. Not huge numbers of seeds but some saved.

Medovaya Kaplya-Large,rampant plant with PL foliage. Excellent flavoured yellow, pear shaped cherries varied in size, probably because there were so many fruits on the trusses. The flowes did benefit from 'assisted' pollination early on. Seeds saved.

Blush-Unfortunately I lost Blush to Late Blight before any fruit matured. It did appear to be struggling to set fruit early on.

Many thanks for the opportunity to try these varieties, Carolyn.

[dinca]

All seeds planted on February 2, 2012 in Jiffy Pellets, covered and bottom-heated and given flourescent lights after germination.

I planted one example of each in my plot at the community garden, except Vince P1 which had two representatives. All my plants were pruned to a single stem and grown on a cotton string inside CRW cages. The remaining Vinces were distributed among other gardeners. One of the Casino Chips failed to prosper and was pulled early.

Casino Chips (2011)..................Planted 2, 2 sprouted 100%
Kosovo (2011)..........................Planted 2, 1 sprouted 50%
Ludmilla's Yellow Giant (2009)...Planted 2, 1 sprouted 50%
Terhune (2011).........................Planted 2, 1 sprouted 50%
Vince P1 (2011)........................Planted 10, 10 sprouted 100%

Casino Chips A bigger than bite-size red cherry on a plant more than eight feet tall. The fruit had very good taste and the production was not abundant, but OK. I'll grow it again.

Kosovo A good size pink heart with great flavor and OK production on a plant that was about six feet tall. We really looked forward to each one. I'll grow it again.

Ludmilla's Yellow Giant I don't know Ludmilla but the rest of the name - for me - was only half right. The fruit was yellow, less than 8 ounces, and sparse on a plant that was more than five feet tall. Not at all a head-turner, in fact, I was disappointed and will not plant it again as there are so many other, bigger and better yellows than this one.

Terhune Another disappointment. The total production was three mid-sized, split pink tomatoes. The plant attained at height of about six feet before died in August. It won't grace my garden again.

Vince P1 Nine of the ten plants survived. I had two side-by-side in my plot, one at six feet and the other at eight feet. The smaller plant died early this month. The remaining plants the rest were scattered around the garden in total sun to mostly shade. Most of them were unpruned in wire cages. All produced fruit which, under all sun exposures, were earlier than but very similar in appearance to Black Cherry grown under the same conditions. In all cases, the flavor was not at all like Sungold, nor was it similar to Black Cherry. In fact, no one who grew it or tasted it liked it. Most (including me) have stopped picking the fruit and let it wither on the vine. The taste was insipid and watery, almost as if the fruit had been well past its prime, but it wasn't. One of the plants produced fruit which left - get this - a bacony taste. Think of it, ten fruits and a leaf of lettuce between bread slices with mayo and you have a vegetarian BLT! Not!! I won't grow this one again.

[gill_s]

I think I should probably amend the fruit shape of Dutka's Pink to irregular beefsteak. Some of them have been quite heart shaped but the later fruit look more beefsteak shaped, so not a true heart!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by gill_s

I think I should probably amend the fruit shape of Dutka's Pink to irregular beefsteak. Some of them have been quite heart shaped but the later fruit look more beefsteak shaped, so not a true heart!

First, thanks so much to those who have posted recently.

About Dutka's Pink.

The person who sent it to me said it was a heart for her and gave me the background info on it and right now I can't even remember if I grew it in the summer of 2011 b/c my data book isn't near me, but my seed producer person said it was a heart.

Tania said she got beefsteaks at her website.

So when I have time I'll go back and read here what others have said about the fruit shape.

I'm wondering if the temperatures are involved since you said that they started out as hearts and then later were irregular beefsteaks, and I do know that some beefsteak varieties can morph into hearts. And that's where Orange Minsk Heart appeared, from some fruits that were heart shaped and when the seeds were sent to me they were hearts and I think I remember that Shoe, who is doing the seed production on that one said that this summer it was producing hearts.

We had a thread here on irregular fruit shapes in general and I'll link to that here as well for anyone interested.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24408