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Old February 18, 2015   #16
SummerSky
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My dad is a firm believer in hybrids, and only wants to grow them. To him, they taste just fine as long as long as care is given to growing and picking them. They are almost always large, impressive, healthy plants that produce consistently. They are the workhorses of the garden that hardly fail to produce decent fruit, despite whatever conditions. I can't argue with him over it, because his hybrids are everything he is looking for in a tomato.

I, on the other hand, find his perfectly round red tomatoes quite boring. While I will always grow a few hybrids, I'm far too curious to limit myself to them. For me, gardening is more than just producing food. I see no reason to curb my explorations because heirlooms and open pollinated varieties can be hit or miss at times. I also don't see any reason to stop growing hybrids, simply because they have a bad reputation among other growers
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Old February 18, 2015   #17
DapsSeeds
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I've grown some hybrids, but with 95% of what I'm growing being open pollinated/Heirlooms to compare with, the flavour of hybrids always lets me down. No exceptions. And I like the challenge to grow healthy Heirlooms with high yields. Last year I grew Supersweet 100 F1. It got late blight before most of my heirlooms. And yes, the yield (before it got the late blight) was a-ma-zing, but because of the lack of flavour the only ones that really enjoyed these cherries were my chickens.
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Old February 18, 2015   #18
gssgarden
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I have yet to come across a hybrid that tastes like a KBX, Cherokee Purple or Pink Berkeley Tie Dye! Flavor that overwhelmes your senses with each bite!

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Old February 18, 2015   #19
NarnianGarden
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DapsSeeds View Post
I've grown some hybrids, but with 95% of what I'm growing being open pollinated/Heirlooms to compare with, the flavour of hybrids always lets me down. No exceptions. And I like the challenge to grow healthy Heirlooms with high yields. Last year I grew Supersweet 100 F1. It got late blight before most of my heirlooms. And yes, the yield (before it got the late blight) was a-ma-zing, but because of the lack of flavour the only ones that really enjoyed these cherries were my chickens.
Sounds reasonable to me - sadly, I don't have any chickens to feed, so any tasteless hybrids would be left to me and my family to consume
Thank God all OP's I have grown have been great. SunGold F1 was tasty as well, but not fabulous enough to be included in the grow list each year.
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Old February 18, 2015   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenO View Post
As a home gardener, it's all about flavour and variety for me. I don't have much disease in my area. I also like to save OP seed and collect many different varieties. "If you have Seen one red regular leaf hybrid beefsteak, you have seen em all" All the recessive genes are what makes heirloom OP tomatoes more interesting to me.

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Word-for-word, exactly...except I don't use a "u" in flavor

I'm growing both hybrids and heirlooms and plan on saving seeds from all of them. Taste is the most important part.
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Old February 18, 2015   #21
zero244
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I don’t have any gripe against hybrids. If someone wants to hybridize some tomatoes and sell the seed that is fine. Overall the majority of OP tomatoes are going to taste better than hybrids.
The problem is we need to keep OP stains available, if for no other reason than should seeds become hard to get you can rely on your seeds that were saved from a previous grow.
This year 2015 I am going to grow one hybrid called Grandaddy and save some seeds and see if it breeds true. Everything else is going to be Heirloom or OP.
In human history many people have starved because they could not produce seeds for the next years crop.
Becoming dependant on hybrid vegetables, corporate farming or even family farms I would not like to do.
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Old February 18, 2015   #22
Worth1
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Too bad we cant cross tomatoes with peppers and okra.
We could call it topepamokra.

Sorry I'm beat, I have been grinding meat to make Knackwurst.


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Old February 18, 2015   #23
PaulF
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Does that mean you are all knackered out?
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Old February 18, 2015   #24
AlittleSalt
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Paul, that is funny
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Old February 18, 2015   #25
Starlight
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The weather is terrible outside, so I am sitting here trying to organize my tomato and pepper seeds and see what I have. The thought running through my head is that with the heirlooms, like mentioned above, folks can save seed and maybe hold off starvation at some point.

But what happens when you can't get your favorite hybrid anymore? I'm sitting here with some older hybrid seed and having to google it to see if anybody is even selling it any more.

I do grow both. Excited about the new heirlooms I plan to start, but am adding Boy-Oh-Boy a new hybrid for me to the list too.
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Old February 18, 2015   #26
Worth1
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Does that mean you are all knackered out?
Well the (((Wurst))) of its over all I have to do now is smoke it for a few hours and then start on the next half tomorrow.

I'm making about 20 pounds worth that is worth about $80 dollars for about $28 dollars at the going rate.
Not bad for a days work.

I see a big electric grinder and a sausage stuffer in my very near future my arms are killing me.

As for the question that was asked, I dont care what it is as long as it isn't store bought unless it is an heirloom store bought that you can by from the store.


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Last edited by Worth1; February 18, 2015 at 06:52 PM.
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Old February 18, 2015   #27
Cole_Robbie
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When I sell plants in the spring, I grow Big Beef as my only hybrid; the rest are heirlooms or modern OP varieties. I ask people if they are fairly new at gardening, and if so I recommend Big Beef. If they say they are experienced gardeners, then we talk about heirlooms.

The heirloom/hybrid discrepancy is not nearly as great with cherry tomatoes, at least in my opinion. Sungold is a good example.

Peppers, on the other hand, in my experience reward the buying of expensive hybrid seeds, especially with bells, and especially as a market grower looking for yield.
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Old February 18, 2015   #28
Worth1
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I tested the sausage if I didn't know better I would say it was knackwurst.
I just made the recipe up out of my head and from past experience.

Worth
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Old February 18, 2015   #29
Mojo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gssgarden View Post
I have yet to come across a hybrid that tastes like a KBX, Cherokee Purple or Pink Berkeley Tie Dye! Flavor that overwhelmes your senses with each bite!

Greg
SETTFest 2010: the taste competition was conceded to have been won by a hybrid. And to this day, I am convinced that this website's subsequent glorification of Atkinson got heeded by Bonnie's and that's when they started bringing that old market hybrid back into production.
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Old February 19, 2015   #30
DapsSeeds
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NarnianGarden View Post
Sounds reasonable to me - sadly, I don't have any chickens to feed, so any tasteless hybrids would be left to me and my family to consume
Thank God all OP's I have grown have been great. SunGold F1 was tasty as well, but not fabulous enough to be included in the grow list each year.
The saucepan is your best friend.
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