Meaty cherry or grape ?

[parker]

Husky Cherry Red

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by EscazuMike

I have one, a large cherry or small salad tomato, thick crunchy skin, lots of meat. I like how it tastes and the texture, like a crunchy little bell pepper. See pictures below.

Mike, that looks a lot like the terrific little tomato Selbo's Ribbed Red . . . is it that, or something else?

[WhippoorwillG]

Originally Posted by EscazuMike

I have one, a large cherry or small salad tomato, thick crunchy skin, lots of meat. I like how it tastes and the texture, like a crunchy little bell pepper. See pictures below.

I had not seen this anywhere else, but I am at F4 now with a cherry that looks exactly like that.

I always check tomato assortments in the grocery store. A couple years back, I saw a very interesting tomato with a very uniform bell pepper look to it. I saved seed and grew it out....at which point it became apparent that it was a hybrid. The fruit were all similar, but there was obvious variation across the plants and the uniform shape of the F1 was replaced by the unusual shapes like those in your photo.

I have yet to cross it, but would like to see how the shape genes interact. It is crunchy, holds well, and is prolific. Flavor is mostly absent. I want to cross it this year with a few lines and see if we can solve the flavor absence.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by JLJ_

Mike, that looks a lot like the terrific little tomato Selbo's Ribbed Red . . . is it that, or something else?

I completely agree with JLJ.

Mike Selbo had posted about this one at GW a couple of years ago, with pictures, and he distributed seeds to many who asked for them, and that included me. There were some who later commented, well here is the original thread, with pictures.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...to-that-i-grow

Right now I can't remember who first asked me, JLJ would remember, but I still had those seeds and was asked if I could distribute them to be grown out for seed production. There were three who were interested and the seeds were unfermented, just onpaper, so I had to vut those pieces of paper to distribute.

And all three returned seeds and they will be listed in my now very late 2015 seed offer which I hope to get up between the French Tennis Open in early June and Wimbledon Open in late June, I do have my priorities and besides I have much more work to do going through the seeds from past years to see what I'll still list. And then it's the attack on the WORD doc that intimidates me the most.

JLJ, didn't you say that germination was not the best or something like that? maybe that referred to the seeds Mike sent me for as I recall there was no date given,

Carolyn

[loeb]

Originally Posted by WhippoorwillG

[...] Flavor is mostly absent. I want to cross it this year with a few lines and see if we can solve the flavor absence.

Fingers crossed, it's very pretty.

[WhippoorwillG]

I found a pic of the F1 that was in the mix. Subsequent generations have been much less uniform in shape.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I completely agree with JLJ.

Mike Selbo had posted about this one at GW a couple of years ago, with pictures, and he distributed seeds to many who asked for them, and that included me. There were some who later commented, well here is the original thread, with pictures.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...to-that-i-grow

Right now I can't remember who first asked me, JLJ would remember, but I still had those seeds and was asked if I could distribute them to be grown out for seed production. There were three who were interested and the seeds were unfermented, just onpaper, so I had to vut those pieces of paper to distribute.

And all three returned seeds and they will be listed in my now very late 2015 seed offer which I hope to get up between the French Tennis Open in early June and Wimbledon Open in late June, I do have my priorities and besides I have much more work to do going through the seeds from past years to see what I'll still list. And then it's the attack on the WORD doc that intimidates me the most.

JLJ, didn't you say that germination was not the best or something like that? maybe that referred to the seeds Mike sent me for as I recall there was no date given,

Carolyn

Re germination -- when you sent the seeds you had left you thought they looked fairly questionable, but worth a try. I planted all nine and got three plants, two germinating normally and one very late little bitty, who grew up to its siblings by midsummer, one of the others planted all nine and got only one little bitty -- but it also grew up to be a big productive plant, the other person only planted three, and got one plant, which also produced.

When I tested seeds that grew here, the germination was not nearly as high as it is with most seeds grown here, that didn't have to travel -- and overall it's not a seedy fruit -- so it doesn't produce masses of good seed as many cherry tomatoes do -- but as long as there's enough . . .

My germination figures were a little better than the ones I last sent you -- I had some germinate after a delay -- one that showed up after about two months grew into a fine strong plant waiting to go to the garden -- but germination was still below most varieties -- so good to plant more than one usually would to get some plants.

Here's another thread, about a year after the one above, I think, where Mike expressed his preference for the Selbo's Ribbed Red name form -- which I think we all used in referencing this tomato, to respect the wishes of the one who has been its parent for better than 20 years.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...bed-red-cherry

I found it a particularly tasty tomato grown inside. (I wasn't growing it inside intentionally -- just trying to overwinter some cuttings.) The cuttings rooted, including cuttings after the plants has survived two months of early snow and freezing weather, inside their plastic tent, some snapped off pieces of cuttings rooted with no more help than just sticking them into their parent's pot and they grew and set cute little yummy tomato-sweet (not fruity sweet) fruit.

This is a *nice* . . . and tough . . . little tomato. (Smaller, and sweeter, perhaps, when grown in containers.)

Must run . . . or creep quickly . . . hope this is at least a little bit useful.

[loeb]

Originally Posted by WhippoorwillG

I found a pic of the F1 that was in the mix. Subsequent generations have been much less uniform in shape.

Those look like tiny apples

[EscazuMike]

This variety was my discovery some time in the mid 1990's (I'm Mike Selbo, with dreams of retiring to Escazu, a town in the San Jose area of Costa Rica ). I thought I was growing a pink cherry tomato but this popped up instead. I'm not sure if I planted a red cherry next to a variety with ribbing (I vaguely remember trying something that was sold as a Russian cherry, very flat and ribbed and nasty tasting the same year). It's bred true ever since, and I keep it going from year to year.

I agree with Carolyn, the seeds are very small, produced in such small quantities that I was never able to ferment them. I recall that the seeds I sent Carolyn were probably from fruits I picked in 2012. I've never had problems germinating them with a reasonable germination rate. I apologize if anyone had troubles growing the seeds. The seedlings do start out very small but they always grow into a decent size pretty quickly for me. And I have found that the fruit is significantly more crunchy and sweeter when I grow in containers vs. planting in the ground.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by EscazuMike

This variety was my discovery some time in the mid 1990's (I'm Mike Selbo, with dreams of retiring to Escazu, a town in the San Jose area of Costa Rica ). I thought I was growing a pink cherry tomato but this popped up instead. I'm not sure if I planted a red cherry next to a variety with ribbing (I vaguely remember trying something that was sold as a Russian cherry, very flat and ribbed and nasty tasting the same year). It's bred true ever since, and I keep it going from year to year.

I agree with Carolyn, the seeds are very small, produced in such small quantities that I was never able to ferment them. I recall that the seeds I sent Carolyn were probably from fruits I picked in 2012. I've never had problems germinating them with a reasonable germination rate. I apologize if anyone had troubles growing the seeds. The seedlings do start out very small but they always grow into a decent size pretty quickly for me. And I have found that the fruit is significantly more crunchy and sweeter when I grow in containers vs. planting in the ground.

I was hoping that was you, when I saw your earlier post.

I'm up at this absurd hour sorting the last of the seeds from last year's crop to pick out the most viable looking ones. That last picking was a "grab everything before deep winter begins, so naturally there were more immature seeds than one would normally have -- but quite a few apparently good ones, also.

I'm sure everyone joins me in being very glad you came here -- not only for yourself, but because it's much better to have you here sharing your experience with your wonderful . . . Selbo's Ribbed Red? . . tomato, than it is to try to glean your views from earlier posts elsewhere about it.

The coffee filter piece with attached seeds that I got from Carolyn last year said "Selbo's Ribbed Cherry Tomato 2012 seeds" with "Red" arrowed in after "Ribbed" and before "Cherry" -- that is, "Selbo's Ribbed Red Cherry Tomato". (I have it right here, so I'm sure.) I believe that is how you said you'd thought you'd labeled them.

Did you use any special planting medium in your pots that it might have particularly liked (that enhanced the crunch and flavor?)

I noted that someone elsewhere said it seemed to stay green longer than they expected. Did the tomatoes seem to you to take longer than you expected to ripen? I couldn't form a very clear view about it last year as the plants spent the last portion of their growing time taking refuge from early snow/freezes in a double layer plastic tent, over the mosquito netting cover they wore all summer. They bravely kept producing until serious winter began in November, though.

And thank you for preserving this tomato for over 20 years, and then sharing it with us!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by EscazuMike

This variety was my discovery some time in the mid 1990's (I'm Mike Selbo, with dreams of retiring to Escazu, a town in the San Jose area of Costa Rica ). I thought I was growing a pink cherry tomato but this popped up instead. I'm not sure if I planted a red cherry next to a variety with ribbing (I vaguely remember trying something that was sold as a Russian cherry, very flat and ribbed and nasty tasting the same year). It's bred true ever since, and I keep it going from year to year.

I agree with Carolyn, the seeds are very small, produced in such small quantities that I was never able to ferment them. I recall that the seeds I sent Carolyn were probably from fruits I picked in 2012. I've never had problems germinating them with a reasonable germination rate. I apologize if anyone had troubles growing the seeds. The seedlings do start out very small but they always grow into a decent size pretty quickly for me. And I have found that the fruit is significantly more crunchy and sweeter when I grow in containers vs. planting in the ground.

Mike, how was I or JLJ expected to know you with your new user name, and welcome, and I did link above to your original thread at Garden Web which is still good since it preceded the Hoouzze, or whatever take over.

And I will be offering seeds for it, I think in my now late 2015 seed offer which I hope to get up in early summer.

I've been calling it Selbo's Ribbed Red, just checked my data book about that,b/c I think that's what you called it when you sent me the seeds, but do you want to change that to Selbo's Red Ribbed? I also know you sent seeds to many folks who requested seeds so what you might suggest what I should call it, may not pertain to what others might call it unless we go with Selbo's Ribbed Red.

Carolyn, who notes that it was JLJ, Pattyb and Tnker ( spelling?) who did the seed production for it.

[EscazuMike]

Carolyn,

I probably created confusion via writing whatever I remembered about what we discussed on the name of that cherry, but Selbo's Ribbed Red works for me. Just remind me the next time I forget?

Oh, I did try crossing this tomato with both Joe's Pink Oxheart and Indigo Rose last summer, Joe's because I love that tomato and IR just because of the color. I didn't realize at the time what a spitter IR was - hopefully if both of the crosses were successful (and the three IR cross seedlings do look a bit blue-ish so I think that one was, too early to tell on the Joe's cross), I'll find out what genes are dominant.

Assuming water restrictions don't put an early end to this year's growing season in California, I'm going to try to plant Bosque Blue Bumblebee, Dances with Smurfs, Chocolate Stripes and perhaps Homer Fikes Yellow Oxheart, and try to cross them with this cherry. I also have seedlings of a large pear shaped tomato with ribbing I might grow and try to cross. Assuming I have to limit planting and crossing to one or two of those, any suggestions?

Mike

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by EscazuMike

Carolyn,

I probably created confusion via writing whatever I remembered about what we discussed on the name of that cherry, but Selbo's Ribbed Red works for me. Just remind me the next time I forget?

Oh, I did try crossing this tomato with both Joe's Pink Oxheart and Indigo Rose last summer, Joe's because I love that tomato and IR just because of the color. I didn't realize at the time what a spitter IR was - hopefully if both of the crosses were successful (and the three IR cross seedlings do look a bit blue-ish so I think that one was, too early to tell on the Joe's cross), I'll find out what genes are dominant.

Assuming water restrictions don't put an early end to this year's growing season in California, I'm going to try to plant Bosque Blue Bumblebee, Dances with Smurfs, Chocolate Stripes and perhaps Homer Fikes Yellow Oxheart, and try to cross them with this cherry. I also have seedlings of a large pear shaped tomato with ribbing I might grow and try to cross. Assuming I have to limit planting and crossing to one or two of those, any suggestions?

Mike

OK, when I offer the seeds in my 2015 delayed seed offer this summer I'll be sure to call them Selbo's Ribbed Red.

About your crosses. I agree staying away from Indigo anything is the way to go based on what I've seen many others post, but there are some antho ones out there that have resulted from directed crosses where more likely the original OSU or OSU P20 have been used and they've tasted better, as some have said.

You asked about any suggestions for crosses to which I'd ask you what is it you are looking for as a result before I answer that. In other words, what is your motivation, are you trying to up the taste, preserve the ribbing, etc,

And good to remember that when a large fruited variety is crossed with a small fruited variety, small size is dominant to large.

Carolyn

[tnkrer]

Nice to meet you Mike. I was one of the folks that grew Selbo's ribbed red. I had 1 out of 9 seeds germinate. But the tiny seedling did well over the season and did produce over 100 fruits from 3 stems (I pruned the rest) They were sweet and crunchy. They did not split and kept better than my other cherries. (sungold and black cherry). The skin was thicker than I would like though. While they do not produce a lot of seed, I was able to ferment the seeds just fine and I got 100% germination from my saved seeds when I tested those before sending to Carolyn.

[BigVanVader]

Oh lord now I am going to have to grow this cherry tomato, to darn cute not to.