Maiden's Gold - which seeds to use?

[tam91]

I've mentioned this a bit on Carolyn's thread, but didn't want to distract from her thread too much.

Ted was kind enough to share some seeds of Maiden's Gold with me last year. I had difficulty getting healthy seedlings, but did finally get one to grow. The tomatoes were delicious. I did not succeed in getting a fruit to form in the bag, but saved seed anyway.

This year, I got seed from Carolyn, and also started my some of my saved seed. I ended up with 1 plant from each. Neither are very big or vigorous plants.

The plant from my saved (unbagged) seed is very small (less than half the size of my other plants). It did produce some tomatoes finally. They are quite small, but have the same excellent taste and color. So I'm thinking these probably weren't crossed, just not a real healthy plant - does that seem right?

The plant from Carolyn's seed also is small (but my home garden didn't do well this year, so can't blame the plant here necessarily). Again, the fruit in the bag didn't form. It does have fruit that isn't ripe yet. So, presuming this one seems true...

Which is my best bet to keep this variety alive here, and correct? (all seed not bagged)

More of my seed from last year?
Seed from the plant grown from the above (but plant and fruit are small)?
Seed from the plant from Carolyn's seed?

It is a very nice variety, well worth the effort.

[ddsack]

Tracy, I got my seeds from Carolyn's offer this year. I had three seeds germinate, but two did not survive severe helmethood, so I only had one plant to set out, so too small a sample to generalize. But my plant was not large, kind of slow growing and has topped out at about 5'5". However, the tomatoes themselves are large, the first three were all over 1 lb, and the rest should be just under a pound. Nice production for it's moderate size. I guess Ted would be the expert on what the plant's height should average.

If it were me, I would use the seed from last year as the prime source, and keep the seed from this year's runt as back up, and grow plants of each next year to see if the runt was just a fluke weak plant.

They are very nice tomatoes, yes.

[tam91]

My plant is probably only 3 feet tall, if that. And the tomatoes are maybe 3" in diameter (sorry haven't weighed them). But much smaller than any others.

Kind of what I was thinking, going back to last years. I'll see how the tomato turns out from the plant from Carolyn's seed also, but it too looks small.

[ContainerTed]

Here's a few pictures to remind everyone what the fruit should look like. The plant should be about a 6 footer with regular leaf foliage. It will be mid season and should produce 8 to 15 pounds of fruit per plant. Generally, the first few fruits will be the largest with size tapering off toward season end.

[dustdevil]

tam91, if you look at Ted's third photo, it appears there is a seedless varient also

[tam91]

Haha at the seedless.

Mine are basically that, just much smaller this year. Half size plant, half size tomatoes.