Historian at Penn St. writes on fresh tomatoes

Iochroma · June 4, 2013

Does the world need more tomato historians? Of course.
Here you go: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-histori...th-tomato.html

DRT0MAT0 · June 4, 2013

geeze- that'll put you to sleep

Tormato · June 4, 2013

Agreed. I wish I had a ripe Big Zac for a pillow.

Dr. L

ve Apple

BarbJ · June 4, 2013

Ooooh I see now. When I read the title I pictured someone writing on and actual fresh tomato, maybe when it was green and it shows up when ripe.

Actually it was kinda interesting, but I'm a history and trivia buff.

tlintx · June 4, 2013

Interesting. I had assumed Heinz and Campbell dominated the tomato market too. Didn't realize so many people grew tomatoes across the country, but that makes sense in the context of some of the older books I've been reading.

Redbaron · June 4, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRT0MAT0

geeze- that'll put you to sleep

I actually liked the link. But I have to admit, compared to our own Tomato historians, it was pretty lame. Once you had the likes of Dr. Carolyn, and Tatiana, and Tom Wagner etc etc etc the rest seem to pale in comparison!

But I have to give credit to the kid. He is on the right track. Now we just need to get him some dwarfs and a container since he has no space for growing!

feldon30 · June 4, 2013

Looked at the first picture and it looked like a mass-produced hybrid tomato. Pass.

WVTomatoMan · June 5, 2013

Interesting link, thanks for sharing. I could have used more historical information and less information about him, but that's probably just me.

There is another venue for good information that doesn't seem to be mentioned in the article and that is old seed catalogs. In the early 1900s seed companies seemed to me to be targeting 3 markets (market farmers, backyard growers and greenhouse growers). What that tells me is there was enough sales to greenhouse growers to warrant the attention. Why do you grow in a greenhouse? Off-season sales. Basically they were doing the 12 month tomato in the early 1900s.

To illustrate my points I shall include some titles and bi-lines, for lack of a better term, from page 67 of the 1916 Livingston seed catalog:

Livinston's Globe Tomato
The Greatest Shipping and Greenouse Sort

Bonny Best
Finest Bright Red Sort for Greenhouse Growing

Livingson's Magnus
One of the Finest Purple [pink] Sorts for Growing in the Greenhouse...

These offerings were on a page which included a picture on the left side of the page. The picture showed a 16' Livingston Globe plant being grown in a greenhouse.

This is just one example there are many other examples - essentially all seed companies from that time made some mention of greenhouse growing.

Randy

kurt · June 5, 2013

How much more can you elaborate on the mater business?But I did notice all the paid/sponsership ads all over the place.

June 4, 2013	#1
Iochroma Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: San Francisco Posts: 49	Historian at Penn St. writes on fresh tomatoes Does the world need more tomato historians? Of course. Here you go: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-histori...th-tomato.html

June 4, 2013	#3
Tormato Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MA Posts: 4,971	Agreed. I wish I had a ripe Big Zac for a pillow. Dr. Lve Apple

June 4, 2013	#7
feldon30 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,346	Looked at the first picture and it looked like a mass-produced hybrid tomato. Pass. __________________ [SIZE="3"]I've relaunched my gardening website -- [B]TheUnconventionalTomato.com[/B][/SIZE] * [I][SIZE="1"]*I'm not allowed to post weblinks so you'll have to copy-paste it manually.[/SIZE][/I]

June 5, 2013	#8
WVTomatoMan Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: West Virginia - Zone 6 Posts: 594	Interesting link, thanks for sharing. I could have used more historical information and less information about him, but that's probably just me. There is another venue for good information that doesn't seem to be mentioned in the article and that is old seed catalogs. In the early 1900s seed companies seemed to me to be targeting 3 markets (market farmers, backyard growers and greenhouse growers). What that tells me is there was enough sales to greenhouse growers to warrant the attention. Why do you grow in a greenhouse? Off-season sales. Basically they were doing the 12 month tomato in the early 1900s. To illustrate my points I shall include some titles and bi-lines, for lack of a better term, from page 67 of the 1916 Livingston seed catalog: Livinston's Globe Tomato The Greatest Shipping and Greenouse Sort Bonny Best Finest Bright Red Sort for Greenhouse Growing Livingson's Magnus One of the Finest Purple [pink] Sorts for Growing in the Greenhouse... These offerings were on a page which included a picture on the left side of the page. The picture showed a 16' Livingston Globe plant being grown in a greenhouse. This is just one example there are many other examples - essentially all seed companies from that time made some mention of greenhouse growing. Randy Last edited by WVTomatoMan; June 5, 2013 at 01:38 PM. Reason: Typo and clarity.

June 5, 2013	#9
kurt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Homestead,Everglades City Fl. Posts: 2,500	How much more can you elaborate on the mater business?But I did notice all the paid/sponsership ads all over the place. __________________ KURT

June 4, 2013	#2
DRT0MAT0 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: SE Michigan Posts: 21	geeze- that'll put you to sleep

June 4, 2013	#4
BarbJ Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: California, USA Posts: 154	Ooooh I see now. When I read the title I pictured someone writing on and actual fresh tomato, maybe when it was green and it shows up when ripe. Actually it was kinda interesting, but I'm a history and trivia buff.

June 4, 2013	#5
tlintx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: SeTx Posts: 881	Interesting. I had assumed Heinz and Campbell dominated the tomato market too. Didn't realize so many people grew tomatoes across the country, but that makes sense in the context of some of the older books I've been reading.