Pritchard tomato- Anyone familiar?

[SteveP]

I have seen mention of an old heirloom variety called Pritchard. Since that is my last name I thought I might see if I can find seeds and give it a try. But first I want to see if anyone here has grown it or has knowledge about it. If it is worthwhile I will give it a try next year. I think the kids and grandkids would enjoy it as much as I would.

Any help appreciated!

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by SteveP

I have seen mention of an old heirloom variety called Pritchard. Since that is my last name I thought I might see if I can find seeds and give it a try. But first I want to see if anyone here has grown it or has knowledge about it. If it is worthwhile I will give it a try next year. I think the kids and grandkids would enjoy it as much as I would.

Any help appreciated!

Pritchard is a wonderful tomato!

Once upon a time, in the early 20th century, Fred J. Pritchard worked for the USDA. His story is long, and his tomato development adventures many, but it came to pass that he introduced Marvel, a selection he had earlier done from a French tomato called Merveille de Marches, to the very popular Livingston's Globe, and the result of that cross, stabilized after a number of generations of selection, was the famous Marglobe.

Marglobe was one of the first tomatoes to have any inbred disease resistance, and quickly became the dominant market tomato (this was in the days when commercial tomatoes were required to taste good). Documents of the era say that Marglobe saved the tomato industry in parts of the southeast -- but it was widely grown everywhere, commercially and in home gardens.

Marglobe became ancestor to many, many other varieties of tomatoes. Most famously, Rutgers, which eventually displaced it as the dominant commercial tomato, was one of Marglobe's children.

My grandmother was among those who loved Marglobe and grew it for decades, and said that none of its later selections or children came up to the Marglobe standard as a tough, workhorse, all-round great tomato -- good for eating fresh, cook for cooking, good for sauce, good for canning -- the perfect tomato, according to Grandma -- which is why I grow it, and its children, every year.

Pritchard continued his tomato development work, and (among many other crosses) crossed Marglobe with Cooper's Special, which had a property that was rare at that time -- it was "self topping" -- or what is now called determinant. The stabilized selection of this cross he named "Scarlet Topper" -- and felt it was one of his best achievements. This cross not only produced a fine tomato, with many of the best properties of its parents, it was a tomato with the self topping property -- which meant that for commercial producers they didn't have to let their crop develop three trusses, then manually crop the top of each plant to mature a lot of tomatoes all at once for convenient harvest.

Shortly after Scarlet Topper's successful release, Fred Pritchard died suddenly, and Scarlet Topper was renamed "Pritchard" in his honor.

I don't know what it might do in long season areas, but it doesn't stop growing here before frost -- but it does produce a rugged plant that generates a lot of very nice healthy delicious tomatoes.

No time for more right now -- but that will give you some idea.

And if you see a reference that 'Marvel' was a South African descendent of its French ancestor, note the mid 20th century date of that report -- the info above is the correct info on the "real" Marvel's origin, widely documented in the early 20th century. Marvel is one of Fred Pritchard's tomato children.

victoryseeds.com or sandhillpreservation.com are good places to get reliably true seeds for Pritchard tomato (and other varieties).


Here's a place you can download the USDA circular released a couple of years after Pritchard's death, about the tomato renamed for him

https://archive.org/details/pritchardtomato243port


Here's the Victory Seeds page on Pritchard tomato, with some info about it and a number of links -- among others, one to info about Fred Pritchard and one to a short historical informational publication about the Pritchard tomato.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_pritchard.htm

One note: Victory lists a 90 Days To Maturity for Pritchard -- the DTMs Victory lists are often longer than usually seen -- probably based upon time to good yield in their own fields. In general, Pritchard has about the same DTM as Marglobe -- usually listed as about 75 days -- but of course for any tomato it can be longer or shorter depending upon location, whether they count time from seeding or from transplant, if the latter, what size tomato plants they transplant, other growing conditions and whether they count time to first fruit or to main fruit.

[SteveP]

WOW! Thank you for so much information on the Pritchard tomato. Sounds like I need to plan on some of these in my garden next year. I had told my oldest son (36) there was a tomato named Pritchard and he said I definitely needed to grow some. And I agree.

Thank you again for taking the time to post such a detailed response to my question. When I posted it I really didn't have high hopes of a response, let alone one of such detail.

Should I wait until the fall to order seed to insure freshness or just go ahead and get the seed now? This will be my first time ordering seed.

[twillis2252]

Steve,
Info off Tatiana's site: http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Pritchard

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by twillis2252

Steve,
Info off Tatiana's site: http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Pritchard

Thank you! I keep forgetting about this website.

[Jonnyhat]

i love this place. I came in here to read about a tomato I never heard of and now I know the entire history; kudos

[sjamesNorway]

JLJ, how would you rate Pritchard vs Marglobe for taste?

Steve

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by SteveP

. . . Should I wait until the fall to order seed to insure freshness or just go ahead and get the seed now? This will be my first time ordering seed.

What I usually do is keep a list of seeds I want to order and, usually, order seed in the late autumn. Weather is more likely to be not too hot and not too cold, so there's less chance of damage to seeds in transit, and that way, one *may* get fresh seed from that year's crop -- but getting "packed for 2016" seed when ordering in the autumn of 2016 is common, and I've never had trouble with tomato seed ordered that way from places like victoryseeds or sandhillpreservation, that know how to care for their seeds. Tomato seed is tough, with just minor care, it lasts a number of years with good germination.

I order in autumn so I'm *sure* I'll have the seeds on hand when I want to start them after the first of the year. Sometimes the first part of the year is so hectic that even the best seed suppliers have trouble getting orders out as quickly as they would wish.

Meanwhile, it's worth taking some time to look over Victory and Sandhill's sites and reading about their operations. Both are family operations that have as a main objective preserving and distributing seed for older varieties, and both have the concern and the expertise that makes their seed likely to be true.

Victory's seed costs a bit more, but is more likely to be sent quickly if you find yourself in need of seed you forgot to order. If you read about their operations you can see why -- Sandhill's resources are more limited, so they say explicitly to order from them when you have time to wait for your order, not when you have seeds you need yesterday. But Sandhill's expertise is great -- just concentrated in fewer, very busy, people.

And there are other good sources, too -- this is a good time of year to browse websites and learn all you can about various seed suppliers.

Originally Posted by sjamesNorway

JLJ, how would you rate Pritchard vs Marglobe for taste?

Steve

Hmmm. I don't regard myself as at all an expert in tomato taste analysis or comparison. To me, a tomato "tastes like an old fashioned tomato" or "tastes OK" or "isn't one I'd probably grow again."

I think that original Marglobe (which isn't determinant, by the way) is better than any of the determinant 'Marglobes' or any of the 'improved' Marglobes or any of the Marglobe children. But I am genetically disposed to think that.

In a good year, when they are all happy and no unexpected disaster hits them, I think that Marglobe, determinant or not, its children Pritchard (Scarlet Topper), Pan America, Break O Day, and its "sister" Glovel (same parents as Marglobe, mama and papa reversed, developed to be a "pink Marglobe") . . . are all similar in taste -- all with the "old fashioned tomato taste". In most years, they aren't all disaster-free, so some years one performs a little better, another year results are different. But they all do their 'faithful workhorse' best to deliver good tomatoes.

Rutgers just hasn't performed as well for me as the other Marglobe children, though I've grown it many times, figuring that there must be something besides energetic marketing that made it so successful. But from my data alone, I'd conclude that only a great marketing campaign could make anyone who'd grown Marglobes want to grow Rutgers. I know others have had different experience with it so . . . to quote Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that".

The Rutgers-descended Atkinson has impressed me, so it's the branch of the Marglobe>Rutgers family that I grow, now.

Something that *might* be of use to you is that I find that tomato flavor is best if tomatoes are harvested before they have much exposure to temps below 50 Fahrenheit. In a cold climate, brief exposure sometimes happens even in midsummer, I don't worry about that, but when I see that temps are about to begin to really drop below that point for any length of time, I pick all the "mature green" fruit and let it ripen inside. I put them in trays where they never are in bright sunlight, or are exposed to high heat and they ripen great. Once I accidentally left them under the lights I use to start seedlings and had good results even with fruit that may not have really been mature green -- so I sometimes do that intentionally, if I can. Fruit left on the vines after temps drop sometimes matures into decent fruit -- and it has less competition because of what I've picked early, but I don't think it's as good as fruit that is never allowed to experience very cold -- even if above freezing -- temperatures.

Just a thought. YMMV.

[sjamesNorway]

Thanks for your reply JLJ, lots of good info!

[SteveP]

Thanks JLJ on ordering seeds. Something I have never done and your suggestion sounds solid. I just started my first seed list! Thank you!