Henderson and Richardson

[michael johnson]

Can anyone who has grown them- tell me which is generaly accepted as the biggest and best tasting between the Richardson large tomato, and the Henderson large tomato, as I am undecided which one to try next season.

[carolyn137]

I know the variety Richarson but don't know a variety named Henderson.

The Henderson Seed Co developed and released:

Ponderosa
Pink Ponderosa
Golden Ponderosa
Wins All, a selection of Pink Ponderosa.

Are you perhaps referring to Pink Ponderosa or Wins All?

I'm suggesting those two since Richardson is pink and I thought you might be comparing two pinks, but it could be one of the other Henderson varieties as well that you're referring to.

[carolyn137]

The Henderson Seed Co developed and released:

Ponderosa
Pink Ponderosa
Golden Ponderosa
Wins All, a selection of Pink Ponderosa.

Is what I posted earlier and I think I found what you mean in referring to Henderson, which I've never seen before until this afternoon when I was at the Baker Creek site and saw that Jere had listed a Henderson released by the Henderson Seed Co in 1891.

But they never called it Henderson and no Henderson has ever been listed at SSE and it quickly became apparent with that 1891 date that the variety being referred to is Ponderosa.

I made an error in my above listing, for it should have been:

Ponderosa
Red Ponderosa
Golden Ponderosa
Wins All, selection from Ponderosa.

Ponderosa is pink so I should not have listed a Pink Ponderosa in addition and should have said RED Ponderosa.

Typing faster than my brain neurons were firing.

So you're asking between Richarson and Ponderosa which is the biggest and tastiest.

I don't grow varieties for size and so that's never been a criterion for me, and while I've grown Ponderosa and Wins All both, I haven't grown Richardson, so can't answer your specific question except to say that I do think there are much better tasting large pink varieties that have appeared in more recent times

And you can read in your SSE Yearbook that while Marianne Jones, who first listed it, says Richardson is huge as does one other person, both Neil Lockhart and Bill Minkey and one other person say it's more of a typical large pink in the one pound plus range, which is about the same as Ponderosa.

So I'm not a huge fan of Ponderosa, I think Wins All is better, as far as taste goes, and I think there are many other large pinks that are pretty good as well.

I can't comment on the taste of Richardson.

[michael johnson]

Thanks Carolyn, I dont quite know which of the Henderson tomatoes I am refering to, as I just saw someone on e-bay refering to it as the henderson giant tomato of 2lbs and over, and had seen references of the henderson tomato before at various times- but I suspect it probably is the Ponderosa type they were all refering to.

I was tempted to try them as both refered to them as being huge and of excellent flavour, but now I am not so sure

[barkeater]

Maybe this is the Henderson you're thinking of:

Henderson's Crimson Cushion
"The Crimson Scarlet Brother of Ponderosa" huge size and delicious rich flesh. Said to be introduced in 1892 by Peter Henderson, the flesh is very thick and of great quality. This is probably the tomato that made red "Beefsteak" type tomatoes famous."

From Baker Creek

[carolyn137]

Barkeater,

Crimson Cushion is just one of the names that is used to describe what I listed above as Red Ponderosa.

I have a monograph that lists all the synonyms for many commercial varieties introduced before about 1940 and it's truly amazing to see the various names that have been attached to many of them.

What Micahel says is that he doesn't know which of the four Henderson introductions I listed above, as to Ponderosa, Red Ponderosa, Golden Ponderosa ( also called Yellow) and Wins ALL that's being referred to at e-bay b'c no color was apparently mentioned.

If around 2# is mentioned I do think that it's probably any of the three except for Wins All, which is slightly smaller, although who knows since when folks give sizes it depends entirely on what they got under their own conditions.