April 1, 2015 | #46 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Sunol, CA
Posts: 2,723
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I think there are a few snobs here who are also interested in hybrids, and some with very discriminating taste who do not need to save their own seeds.
Hybrids can be grown again, as long as there is demand and seed for sale. I like to save seed. I like OP varieties. I also like hybrids, and I would shudder to think that I had to choose one or the other. I also wonder, sometimes, why people insist on spending endless hours (and if time = money, a considerable investment) trying to dehybridize something so they don't have to pay for hybrid seed that costs a few dollars. Is it really so bad to love a hybrid? Quote:
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April 1, 2015 | #47 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: glendora ca
Posts: 2,560
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Im interested in any tomato, op or hybrid, that is amazing and unique. I know some people hate hybrids just because they are not heirlooms. You have to remember that most heirlooms were at one point a carefully bred hybrid that was grown out to be a op cultivar. It just happened × amount of years ago but none the less it happened. So unless it is a gmo tomato it will always be welcome in my garden.
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April 1, 2015 | #48 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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I think hybrids can be wonderful and very useful. Some have excellent taste and some have really good disease resistance but seldom are these two positive traits combined in one hybrid. For the first twenty years I grew nothing but hybrids recommended by the state agricultural college. I gradually became bored with the sameness of the fruits and the fairly bland taste. I found I was growing fewer and fewer tomatoes each year and eating less of them. They mostly ended up in the sauce pot or on a hamburger.
In desperation I grew a few heirlooms along with a few hybrids and once again found I loved tomatoes. The big problem was finding heirlooms that could tolerate our hot humid disease ridden climate and resist the soil borne problems long enough to produce some ripe fruit. After trying several hundred I have narrowed it down to less than 50 that I really love and have used grafting to get the disease resistance of the hybrids along with the great flavor and variety that heirlooms provide. I'm just sorry it took me 40 years to figure out a way to get what I wanted in tomatoes. Bill |
April 1, 2015 | #49 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
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Once you taste a good Cherokee Purple there's no going back. I tried eating the fresh but hybrid beefsteaks last summer from the local produce stand (we didn't have a garden since we moved in July) and my husband told me to stop wasting money on them.
I really love the variety of colors,sizes and tastes available in heirlooms/open pollinated. |
April 1, 2015 | #50 |
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I bought a Celebrity plant today just for saving seeds for F2s next time around. I have two Juliets and 3 Sungolds growing. I'm interested in saving seeds from them just out of the same curiosity. What will the F2, F3,etc. be like? Only one way to experience it. Try it.
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April 1, 2015 | #51 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3
Posts: 3,231
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Quote:
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April 1, 2015 | #52 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake
Posts: 1,244
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One of the tomatoes that I grow is an orange cherry tomato. I figure that it is probably a dehybridized Sungold.
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April 1, 2015 | #53 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Chicago
Posts: 115
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Quote:
I would agree with all of your reasons except for selling my tomatoes. I love growing tomatoes for personal reasons and not financial ones. Having said that, I can understand when someone is into growing a lot more than they can consume and might be interested in making a buck or two. I personally like heirloom tomatoes simply to be able to save the seeds for the varieties that fit my soil and my gardening style. Believe it or not, I did collect some random seeds from a community garden in my town and their seedlings are growing like crazy. The heirloom seeds I purchased are struggling to stay alive and none of them is really thriving. I wonder why? Do you have any idea as to why these nameless varieties are growing big and are thriving while the heirlooms I purchased are struggling to stay alive? |
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April 1, 2015 | #54 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Colorado
Posts: 78
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April 1, 2015 | #55 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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If Johnny's had told me Taxi was a hybrid, I would have believed them 100%, because it grows stronger and faster than just about any other OP variety I grow. Yield and fruit set are excellent.
There are OP varieties out there that will keep pace with a hybrid in production and beat it on flavor. I have very good yields from the Chinese varieties I grow, and I'm also interested in several of the old Soviet varieties. Last edited by Cole_Robbie; April 2, 2015 at 12:20 AM. |
April 1, 2015 | #56 | |
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Quote:
I've read so much about Sungold and how so many like them. I have three flowers on one plant - it's just a matter of time before I get to sample them. I can't help but wonder, "What if Sungold turns out to be a spitter for us"? I never have liked sweet tomatoes. But I'm still hoping they taste as good as others have written. |
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April 2, 2015 | #57 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3
Posts: 3,231
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Quote:
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April 2, 2015 | #58 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Finland, EU
Posts: 2,550
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I saw the most wonderful pasta sauce recipe for SunGold (it's easy to find in the net), and was kinda disappointed my plant did not have enough simultaneous production for a sauce.
Other varieties were plentiful and we had many tomato dishes, but I'm still dreaming of the legendary SUnGold sauce... |
April 2, 2015 | #59 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Northport, Alabama
Posts: 25
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The flavor is the obvious reason for growing heirlooms.. I will argue that the assumed problems with heirlooms are nowhere as dramatic as claimed. I have little problem with the heirloom varieties, but when I've tried Better Boy, Early Girl, Celebrity, etc... I've had poor results. Maybe it is just my particular growing conditions, but my favorite heirlooms outperform the hybrids without question.
The following always do well, with no disease, etc... for me: Cherokee Purple Pruden's Purple German Queen Brandywine Sudduth's Strain Eva Purple Ball Jeff Davis In addition to these, I always rotate in new heirlooms to try, and some make it the every year list. The only hybrids I bother with are Roma VF and Sweet 100 cherry, mainly at the request of people who want me to grow them for them. |
April 2, 2015 | #60 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: zone 5
Posts: 821
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Diversity is critical to species success. Monoculture is one disease epidemic away from extinction.
I love exploring the different traits of different vegetables. Yellow carrots, purple potatoes, white cucumbers, blue tomatoes, brown peppers, purple broccoli, rare parsleys and celery...they all have the slightly different traits than the most common variety of their species. But different does NOT mean inferior. In many cases different is superior in all ways except for popular opinion or perhaps shelf life. I don't grow based on either of these things. Hybrids are fine for some but far too narrow of a niche for many of us. |
Tags |
disease resistance , heirloom tomatoes , hybrid tomato , shelf life |
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