Question about numbered (but not named) varieties in SS Yearbook

[brokenbar]

I noticed that one listed Seed Saver Yearbook member (from Iowa) was offering about 200 unnamed but numbered varieties from other countries (Tomatoes Red, page 384 forward) My question is, will these varieties eventually be given names other than a number? The lister has them all as HAS so I am presuming they are stabilized? Or am I assuming too much? I see at the end of each individual listing there is "SSE TOMATO NO.____" I am probably just being dense but I am not quite clear on the status of these numbered varieties. I would appreciate it if one of the tomato gurus here can enlighten me.

[carolyn137]

The same question was asked, I think in the SSE YEarbook thread.

The member is IA SSE HF( Heritage Farm), which you'll find the address for at the front of the book under the Iowa listings as in Decorah, IA and the IPK is short for the German Seed Bank name ( in German) in Gatersleben, Germany and in that other thread I gave a link to that just to show where it is.

IPK's have always been listed just by number, yes, they are stable and when you see "pole" as the plant habit that means an indet as we discussed in that other thread and of course you get the country of origin.

You'll see that a few of them have been relisted, with the same IPK number for these are not varieties to be named by indivciduals who grow them.

Hope that helps.

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Thanks Carolyn, I understood the state designation, etc but I just always wondered about just a number and not a name. Poor things...just like convicts, a number and no name!

[Andrey_BY]

IPK in Gatersleben has got thousands of seed samples of really interesting vegetable varieites from the former Soviet Union. They got these seeds during Soviet and Warsaw Pact era while having intensive seed exchanges with a lot of Soviet Agricultural Instritutes, especially with Vavilov's Institute (VIR) with their famous huge seed sample collection from over the world and from VNIISSOK.