Is this not Aunt Gertie's Gold?

[honu]

Where can I find the real Aunt Gerties Gold? I don't see it in any of the catalogs I normally shop, except for Mariseeds, but their website says out of stock for 2007.
I don't know if it's just my climate or poor growing conditions (7 gallon pot), but my AGG (received in a trade) does not match the descriptions I have been reading.
My AGG has tangerine orange colored fruit, no BER, not much splitting despite heavy rains, and ripe fruits that won't let go of the vine despite me tugging and twisting, so I had to cut them off. The first 2 fruits were rather bland, but extremely juicy, but hopefully that was just first fruit syndrome. The 3rd fruit to ripen had some tartness and a nice complex, lingering aftertaste that I liked, but I would not consider it sweet.

I'm hoping future fruit will have even better taste and more sweetness.

[shelleybean]

You say tangerine color but the color I see in your first picture doesn't look that way to me. It looks like the same color as my AGG, more of a gold. The picture of the sliced one does look more orange. The flavor of mine was not sweet either. I don't hear many people describe it as sweet though. It has a more tomatoey flavor than other yellow/gold/orange tomatoes. I got my seed from Mariseeds in 2005 and I believe it to be correct. I'm leaning toward saying you already have the correct seed. I don't think you should be expecting particulary sweet flavor with AGG. I have already given all my seed away so I don't have any from Mariseeds to offer you. What I do have is from trades but I have not grown any of those yet to see how they turn out. Let's see what a few others have to say. Lots of us have grown AGG and maybe somebody else can shed more light here.

[Earl]

Here's what my AG looks liked sliced.

[feldon30]

TomatoGrowers.com has Aunt Gertie's Gold new this year for 2007.

[Rena]

My fruit looked like Earl's. I do not believe you have the deal. I will have seed at the end of the season, Please pm me if you want some.

[PNW_D]

Sure doesn’t look like what I grew as Aunt Gertie’s Gold in 2003:



My notes indicate 11 oz. 4”across 2.5” in depth (oblate) yellow skin – creamy, soft taste; not a lot of depth, but tasty, juicy, rich – less sweet
late, low production

[carolyn137]

Honu, I love AGG for the reason that it isn't sweet.

And while it is far from being a beautiful fruit, note the pictures you've been shown, I find the taste to be absolutely outstanding.

I see it's PL, so so far so good, but those fruits look far too regular and I'm not that happy with the color.

Heaven's forbid that you got the seeds from me in my seed offer here, but at this point I can't even remember if I did offer it here at Tville, probably not b'c I'm still listing it in the SSE Yearbook.

Can I assume you got it in trade from someone?

Take a good look at those fruits, I see one there that has mnore of the shape I understnd, just to the left in the last picture and see if you don't get something that looks different from the somewhat globular ones that you showed.

I'm not yet willing to say you don't have AGG but the color you show and the unblemished nature of the fruits are not what I would expect.

[korney19]

Here's 2004 & 2006 AGG pics... I don't think I have any pics of sliced fruits...

[shelleybean]

Mine were the color of Earl's picture and the shape was more oblate than yours. The flavor you describe in the third tomato you ate is also sounds like what I had, on the tart side. Mine were not the prettiest fruit in the patch that year but certainly not the ugliest either. I didn't have many probems with blemishes on mine.

[Tomstrees]

Looks like so many different tomatoes ...
I got mine from Suze - so far they are PL ~ LOL ~

Tom

ps. she has some great pics of it - maybe she will post ~

[Ruth_10]

Hnnh. Aunt Gertie's Gold is not in the TGS print catalog but is, as Feldon points out, in the online version.

[honu]

Thank you everyone for your replies!
I really appreciate the photos and descriptions for comparison. Now I'm really curious what the real AGG tastes like.
After reading all the praise for AGG, I was hoping for a stonger, more intense flavor than what I tasted. While the 3rd tomato was way better than the first 2, it did not wow me (like say, Sungold did).
But maybe this is still early fruit syndrome? Can fruit shape also be different in early fruit?

Shelleybean, Perhaps my monitor shows a different color from yours, but my AGG color really looks like the orange on tangerines or Sunkist naval oranges... not golden.

Earl, PNW D, and Korney, thanks for the photos and descriptions! Earl's definitely looks gold, not the same color as mine. But Korney's color looks similar to mine.
Earl's locule patterns also look different from mine. My smooth globe shaped fruit is definitely way off from those photos.

Feldon & Ruth, Thanks for pointing out AGG is available in TGS's on-line catalog, which I didn't realize, since I ordered off their print catalog, which is easier for me to look at. I already received my 2007 TGS order. I didn't even think to check the on-line catalog for differences... sigh!

Imisscolo, I think you are right.

Heaven's forbid that you got the seeds from me in my seed offer here, but at this point I can't even remember if I did offer it here at Tville, probably not b'c I'm still listing it in the SSE Yearbook.

Can I assume you got it in trade from someone?

Carolyn, Thanks for your comments. You assume correctly. I got the seeds in a trade from someone. Not from you.

Take a good look at those fruits, I see one there that has mnore of the shape I understnd, just to the left in the last picture and see if you don't get something that looks different from the somewhat globular ones that you showed.

Are you referring to the ridges on the young green fruit? The young fruit of the ones I showed above also had ridges, but they smoothed out as they ripened. Result of too much rain here? They were really really juicy. Below shows what those first 2 fruit looked like about a month prior to ripening.


Also, I thought it was unusual that I could NOT simply twist the ripe fruit off the vine. It would not let go. Is that a characteristic of AGG?

Tom, Agree, Suze has great slice photos, and hope she has some AGG whole fruit photos as well.

[carolyn137]

Honu,

If you're saying a real ORANGE and there are doubts about whether you do have AGG, please PM me with your address and I'll get some AGG seeds out to you this week for the next time you want to try it.

And I was referring to the wee small fruits to the left in that third picture.

Somehow, knowing that AGG is far from cosmetically beautiful, , I wouldn't expect rain to plump out ridges, and your fruits look just too perfect for my satisfaction.

I see no black stiching, which is commen, I see no lobed fruits, which can be common at times, and well, if the taste doesn't seem to you just plain superior, then if I were you I'd take me up on my seed offer.

[Earl]

These are from 04 and 05. Those wires are 6 inches across. If I could only grow 2 tomatoes AGG would be one of them. I've passed around a lot of AGG seed in the past few years, maybe someone else will post pictures.




Click for Larger Size

[Earl]