Mikado

[bully]

Anybody else growing it ?

Mine had a black leaf spot early on, curled leaves, early blight and something funky that made one of the fruits so gross that I had to remove it.

I seriously thought about pulling the plant. I worked hard on this plant, regular daconil, removing diseased leaves and compost/rabbit manure tea....the hard work has paid off and the plant is starting to come around.

I haven't picked a ripe one yet but I'll let you know what I think when I do.

[nctomatoman]

Want the long story on Mikado? What was your seed source?

In 1994, when I was scouring the USDA collection to plug the gaps in known commercial varieties, they had two accessions named Mikado. Since Mikado is a rather legendary tomato - released by Henderson in the late 1880s as a large fruited potato leaf (the description matches the Brandywine and Stump of the World types of heirlooms we know today) - I figured it would be great to get the accessions and have them end up being very similar to Brandywine - or at least, ending up with a valuable old CV that matches the catalog descriptions.

So, I got the two accessions and they were both quite a mess- mix of reg and potato leaf, with some red and some pink fruited (it took a few years to find all of the combinations) - so obviously we had crossed or mixed up accessions in the USDA.

I grew out the pink potato leaf a few times and it was nothing but bad luck - deer one year, disease another - I managed to get a few fruit and seed saved...sent it to Patrina who had some luck with it - she sent some back to me but I've yet to retry it.

So there is your story - it is well worth coddling since it is quite rare and historic.

[bully]

What was your seed source?

You were, you sent me something like 1 seed
and wrote that it was rare, so I have been taking care of it.

My potato leafs were hit the hardest
Aunt Gerties Gold
Bwine sud
russian apple tree
yellow bwine (sunshine strain)
Aunt Ginny's
Amish Potato leaf
Summer Cider
Liv favorite

They're all doing much better, Aunt Gerts the worst off, if I pull it it will be the second year in a row that it was the only plant pulled...groan
maybe I would have been better off had I never tried one from Earl two years ago..best tomato I ever had..period.

I don't think I'll get much of a harvest from my potato leafs this year but my reg leafs are kicking butt.

[bully]

[pbud]

So what's it taste like, Bully?

[carolyn137]

I also grew the mixed up accessions Craig referred to above and didn't see anything at all re taste from any of them, pink or red, PL or RL.

I understand Patrina has a decent sized Mikado, seeds from Craig, but my memory is not perfect.

And I've still got some vials labelled Mikado floating around somewhere.

[bully]

That may be my only one so I'm saving it for seeds.

I'll see if I can't sneak a nibble in.

[bully]

( Fast Forward to 2007 )


I think the d_mn thing is cursed!

Last year it was one malady after another till finally a large tree branch flew off a neighboring tree, fell butt end down like a dart and made a perfect bullseye in one of 60+ texas tomato cages. Smashed the poor thing to a pulp.
It looked like I planted a 12ft maple tree in the garden.
I never did taste it.

This year everything seems fine, nice big healthy plant, lots of tomatoes set, regular leaf, staked and caged properly...wait a second regular leaf

I swears to ya ..that seedling was potato leaf when I planted it..now I've been incredibly busy of late..hardly a chance to catch my breath..but I would have caught that.

look at the leafs at the bottom..especially that one in the middle on the right. That's how they all looked when I planted the cursed thing.


Here is what they look like at the top


Here and there you can make out a potato leaf but for the most part they are serrated....what's going on with this thing?...groan

[spkfero]

hey bully
the mikado plant i rec. from you are doing great
thay are loaded with tom.

gene

[Andrey_BY]

Here in CIS we know another Mikado originally came to Russian Far East from Japan. Indeterminate PL plant with large heart shaped pink 200-900 g fruits... The name sounds very Japanese for me

[nctomatoman]

Mikado is actually a historic Henderson variety - I think that they claim to have gotten it from a truck farmer and named it for the Gilbert and Sullivan opera - the yellow version that they got as a mutant they named Shah. They are from the late 1800's - so completely different from any that would have come from Europe or Asia. According to the descriptions in the catalogs, Mikado and Shah would look very much like Brandywine and Yellow Brandywine that we know today.

[spkfero]

Here is my Mikado plant the i recieved from 'Bully'.




.

[eyolf]

I believe Craig's version of the story...that Mikado was named by Henderson. Yet, we've all run across allusions to the other "Mikado", with some variation in description...even in USDA and European lists.

What gives?

Mikado, as a name, refers to what many outsiders called the Japanese sovreign, in a general sense (roughly equivalent to referring to "the king" or "the president") and so fits with modern commercial naming conventions. I believe one USDA version of this particular tomatoe came from a French donation, some time before the SSE, before folks like Ben Q. started getting the rest of us interested.

I wish that the old USDA "gopher" searchable site was still up...unless it is just my memory fading away! It sure seems like a lot of info is missing or unavailable to civilians now...

I grew one variety so named a few years ago and was not impressed...I chalked it up to being a poor choice for my area. I apparently did not have the heart-shaped type, as I do not remember any but convoluted beefsteak types. There aren't many heart-shaped PL types around, so I think I would have remembered that.

[Patrina_Pepperina]

Yes, I grew a PL plant from Craig's Mikado seeds and it was a powerhouse of oblate pink fruits, but I can't recall what size they ended up From memory they were around medium large.

http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fou...68.jpg&.src=ph

PP

[bully]

Well your Spkfero your plant looks great and more importantly looks to be potato leaf.

keep me informed please.

bully