Wrong tomato

[GaryStPaul]

As sometimes happens, I grew out a seed that I thought was one variety—in this case Prudens Purple—but that turned out to be something quite different, in this case the huge yellow tomato pictured. Any suggestions about what this alien might be?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by GaryStPaul

As sometimes happens, I grew out a seed that I thought was one variety—in this case Prudens Purple—but that turned out to be something quite different, in this case the huge yellow tomato pictured. Any suggestions about what this alien might be?

I don't have a clue Gary b'c there must be, actually are, several hundreds of yellow ones that look like that.

How many plants did you put out and did all give you the same fruits? Just thinking of a possible stray seed.

Did you get it via a trade and if so have you contacted the person you traded with.

If it was purchased commercially and all the seeds gave plants not true to type have you contacted them or even sent them a picture and asked if they listed anything like that, and then they will check their computer records to see when and what you did order.

Just thinking of one person who had a scheme going where he would e-mail a company and say what he got was not right for the variety and asking for replacement seeds for variety X, seeds he wanted but didn't have. It was Tom Hauch's computer savvy son who caught on.

Carolyn

[Gardeneer]

For some reason the "quote" did not work.

Gary, There are two possibilities, I think;

1) you sowed your own saved seeds:
In this case probably there was just a human error in labeling the seeds OR taking seeds from the wrong packet.
If this was the case then you should know what kind of yellow variety seeds you had in hand.
I made a similar mistake myself. A seedling labeled CP ended up being large red cherry.
I grew both last year and save seeds from them. I know that I made a labeling error because my other CP are true.

2) you germinated purchased seeds from a vendor. So you got the wrong seeds.
Then there is no sure way to ID it. It could be a strayed seed in the package or the whole packet was mislabeled.

Gardeneer

[ContainerTed]

This is why I never, never, ever, never, never pass seed along until I have grown it and verified that it matches the description of the named variety.

On the plus side, I am always receptive to any tomato that tastes good. I'll grow it and eat it until I detemine what it is or until it has a bad season, whichever comes first.

[KarenO]

tomatoes don't need a name to taste good. Sometimes the mistake can be as good or better than the expected variety. Names only matter if you are selling or trading seeds under the wrong names. To grow it for yourself you can label it "big yellow surprise" and enjoy it for what it is a good tomato.
KarenO

[Tormato]

Can any experts chime in on the possibly of a color mutation?

Looking at the three tomatoes, two roundish beefsteaks and one somewhat boat-shaped beefsteak, well that's what Prudens Purple generally produces for me, except that PP is a deep pink color.

[seaeagle]

Was it potato leaf?I wouldn't care what color Pruden's Purple was. It is one of the most amazing tomato plants I have ever grown.Both of mine are about 9 feet tall with no pruning and hardly any leaf discoloration, even at the bottom.Huge beefstakes, all just about perfect and tasty too.It also is extremely productive.I counted 50 green tomatoes between the two of them about a week ago, just wished I had counted what I had already picked.

Edit to say I have the two Puden's growing between 4 stakes about 12 feet high, almost looks like one huge plant, but the foliage is not that thick so it works out well

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tormato

Can any experts chime in on the possibly of a color mutation?

Looking at the three tomatoes, two roundish beefsteaks and one somewhat boat-shaped beefsteak, well that's what Prudens Purple generally produces for me, except that PP is a deep pink color.

There are those here who know far more tomato genetics than I do that one might call experts, I'm not all that bad in that respect so will comment.

When I have grown ANY beefsteak variety not all the fruits have the exact same shape, point one.

No, I don't think it's a color mutation from dark pink to light yellow based on what I know. There's no single mutation that can change both external AND internal color at the same time.

Epidermis mutations that can change a fruit from pink to red or the reverse, yes, very well known.

There's Amana Orange and also an Amana Pink, and other similar variations, but no doubt they come from accidental cross pollinations, selections made from saved seed and then taking a selection out to genetic purity.

And here's another way that a wrongly named variety can come about.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Amana_Pink

In this case it was seeds for Amana Orange that I sent Jeff and subsequent seeds showed no segregation, so the fault was mine in apparently sending him a different variety, who knows what, that turned out to be a pink heart.

Summary? No, I don't think it was a mutation that was involved viz Prudens Purple. If I were to pull up Tania's list of yellow/orange varieties there would be actually hundreds to choose from as potential candidates. Stray seeds and X pollinations , etc, have led to many wrongly named varieties.

Here's one of them:

First Orange Strawberry

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...nge_Strawberry

A stray seed and now Pineapple

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Pineapple

What really bothered me was that Majorie was the one who sent me seeds for German Red Strawberry, her name for a family heirloom from Germany.

So someone, bless him or her then started calling Orange Strawberry GERMAN Orange Strawberry, which was NOT an heirloom and from a stray seed.

There are so many stories of renaming varieties for no reason that it just blows my mind. Joe bratka had first SSE listed Eva Purple Ball, actually I colisted it with him. And Eva turned into Eva's which was not correct, minor I know, but not correct. Andrey in Belarus had introduced Orange-1, yes, I grew it and was so surprised to find a seed site offering the renamed Belarus Orange.

OK, I'm almost through with my semi-rant, I think, but why this renaming goes on I don't know, well I do, b'c someone, some seed site wants to have something they can call exclusive. The same thing happened with what was introduced in England as Apricot Brandywine which was really just Yellow brandywine,

Carolyn

[TightenUp]

Originally Posted by KarenO

tomatoes don't need a name to taste good. Sometimes the mistake can be as good or better than the expected variety. Names only matter if you are selling or trading seeds under the wrong names. To grow it for yourself you can label it "big yellow surprise" and enjoy it for what it is a good tomato.
KarenO

Love it! well said. I bought grafted plants this year. I'm pretty meticulous with my labeling and keeping track of plants. two of the grafted plants were not even close to what i had ordered. A cherry turned into a huge yellow and a brandywine red turned into a ribbed saladette. I didn't even order anything resembling these. none the less the huge yellow is as productive and tasty as they come. I do wish I had the brandywine red though