Expensive Hybrid Seed

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

Gerardo,

Mountain Magic is not from the Netherlands. In fact, I see nothing on the Territorial website claiming that it is. Perhaps you concluded that because they describe it as "Campari-type".

It is a variety of Randy Gardners.

I don't have the original packet anymore, I ordered it along with kellogg's bfast from Territorial a while back. I remember I was admiring the foil type packaging and paying attention to the Lot #s (a bad habit I picked up in the biotech world) and it said on both "source: Netherlands" right after the LNs. But as they say in bad action movies, assumption is the mother of all....

I defer to your knowledge of the intricacies of production, distribution, and pretty much everything else in the tomato world! Mt. Magic is a great tomato, and now I know who to thank. Thank you Randy Gardner!

I'd like to walk back-withdraw some of my comments in previous posts within this thread, chief among them that "big pharma two-step" phrase.

Looking forward to growing Orange Jazz, btw.

[Fred Hempel]

Gerardo,

It is possible that the seed was produced in the Netherlands, but I think that it's probably unlikely. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that Randy Gardner got his due, for the variety.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

Gerardo,

Mountain Magic is not from the Netherlands. In fact, I see nothing on the Territorial website claiming that it is. Perhaps you concluded that because they describe it as "Campari-type".

It is a variety of Randy Gardners.

Correct, and Randy sent me a lot of seeds of Mountain Magic and Plum Regal, and I forget the third one now, all hybrids, and I made a separate offer here at Tville for all three and many folks requested them.

I think I remember he did that b/c at the time Bejo seeds was supposed to be doing the commercial seed production but had production problems so he wanted to get them out there so folks could see what they were like. I've known Randy for many years and that's why he sent them to me to distribute and subsequent to that many seed vendors offered them. Bejo is worldwide and at the time were subcontracted to do seed production for the above three and were doing that in western NYS as well as the Netherlands. That's my memory.

http://www.bejoseeds.com/

Personally I thought MM was THE best of them.Outstanding production and great taste as well.

So we agree Gerardo, on how great Mountain Magic really is.

Carolyn

[Fred Hempel]

So, it looks like the seed very well could have been produced in the Netherlands....

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

So, it looks like the seed very well could have been produced in the Netherlands....

Yes Fred, they could have been. I never saw a commercial pack to read the info b'c I had all those seeds that Randy sent me, and I think still do. He sent them in 4 X 4 inch double sealed plastic packs and those plastic packs were FULL and the seeds were just beautiful if one can refer to such a thing..

And I also remembered the third variety was Smarty F1, a grape tomato that was first listed by Johnny's Seeds.

Carolyn

[AKmark]

Many people up here use several of the expensive hybrid seeds, Trust, Jet Star, etc. My favorite large fruit hybrid is Mountain Fresh, they tasted pretty darn good to me, I will plant 50-60 of them this year for one of my market varieties.

[Gerardo]

My Mt. Magic is still going strong. Great tomato indeed.

[greenthumbomaha]

My neighbor market grower grows only JetStar, which is recommended by our county extension. He sells out of every tomato and has a loyal following.

I tried brandy boy and wasn't overly impressed by taste production or disease resistance.

- Lisa

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

My neighbor market grower grows only JetStar, which is recommended by our county extension. He sells out of every tomato and has a loyal following.

I tried brandy boy and wasn't overly impressed by taste production or disease resistance.

- Lisa

One of the first popular hybrids, along with Big Boy, Better Boy and Ramapo were the three bred by Harris seeds which are Jet Star, Supersonic and Moreton Hybrid. Until recently I grew plants of Jet Star, my fave, and also Supersonic.

I hope you rCounty agent knows that Jet Star was one of about 20 varieties that were deemed to be actually low acid, the other have disappeared, but Jet Star remains, BUT if used for canning/ salsa, etc. one needs to acidify the contents before processing,

https://www.google.com/search?q=Jet+..._AUIBigA&dpr=1

Carolyn

[greenthumbomaha]

Very good to know, Carolyn. I'll have to buy a seed pack. I have many friends that have acid reflux/ heartburn issues. I didn't buy a Jet Star to try, wish I had at the time. I was so loaded with my own tomatoes didn't it was unimaginable to BUY a tomato.

I'll pass along the canning info too as this may be news to some people . Personally I use the roast and freeze method in another thread. Better to put this in my freezer than junk that is highly processed.

- Lisa

[Cole_Robbie]

My Johnny's catalog came yesterday. I noticed Beorange F1 as another $20 seed packet candidate. I have BHN-871; I'm not sure if Beorange is $20 better. I will probable just order Marbonne.

I couldn't find Orange Blossom F1 in the paper catalog, but it is still on their web site. I hope they are not phasing out one of my favorite varieties. I may have to get started on de-hybridizing that variety if they're going to stop selling it.

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

My Johnny's catalog came yesterday. I noticed Beorange F1 as another $20 seed packet candidate. I have BHN-871; I'm not sure if Beorange is $20 better. I will probable just order Marbonne.

I couldn't find Orange Blossom F1 in the paper catalog, but it is still on their web site. I hope they are not phasing out one of my favorite varieties. I may have to get started on de-hybridizing that variety if they're going to stop selling it.

Have you tried the alternate BHN-876? Or Chef's Choice?

"Superlative" for Marbonne. It sure is a looker.

Another one of Randy Gardner's creations, Mountain Fresh, is calling to me.

[Cole_Robbie]

I haven't tried the 871 yet, taste-wise. I want to make sure it is agreeable, before trying any "improved" version. It always seems to be the commercial traits that get improved, often at the cost of flavor.

My high tunnel is going to be mostly determinants. I had Orange Blossom two years ago, and liked it. I tried to replace it with a couple OP varieties last year, but they didn't yield very well. I haven't tried Chef's Choice, but I don't know that it would be better than orange blossom.

Unless you count yellows that turn orange when they get very ripe, I am yet to find an orange tomato with that amazing of a taste. I am going to grow out some KBX this year, to see if it changes my mind.

Two years ago, I ordered a variety called "Heirloom Orange F1" from Genetic Seed & Chemical in Texas. In addition to being one of the most poorly named tomato varieties, it was also a horrible growing experience. All the fruit got BER; they were all flavorless orange rocks, anyway.

[RJGlew]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

Very good to know, Carolyn. I'll have to buy a seed pack. I have many friends that have acid reflux/ heartburn issues.

Lemon Boy F1 (Ind) and Golden Girl F1 (Det) are also low acid yellows. Both are great tomatoes and provide big yields for me.

[Gerardo]

I hear you on the rocks, I grew out Harless Creek Gold and got similar results.

Regular kellg bfast sets big fruit and has ok productivity, taste wasn't that impressive, and as stated before, grown it a few times at different times of the year. I hear the PL is more or less the same. It is on the late side.

Orange Blossom sounds excellent.

Orange Minsk Heart has great flavor. A few of them really blew me away, fairly prolific too. I've got seeds if you want to give it a shot.