Artisan Seeds photos

[Fred Hempel]

Green Bee tomatoes in a salad composed of our medium sized tomatoes at Sabio Restaurant (Pleasanton, California)

[Fred Hempel]

Madera

[Fred Hempel]

Tomato crosses

[Fred Hempel]

Speckled Roman -- the handiwork of John Swenson, and a tomato central to our breeding efforts over the years.

[Fred Hempel]

Fuego Verde (Green Fire) -- A new OP variety we are releasing this winter.

[Fred Hempel]

Taste and Yellow Taste -- Two new OP varieties

Both are oval saladettes

[Fred Hempel]

Shade houses housing breeding nursery -- San Juan de los Planes, Mexico

Breeding nursery

[Fred Hempel]

Hand crossing video

An explanation of one reason we are making new hybrid varieties, as well as new OP varieties.

[Fred Hempel]

Dolce di Minervino Peppers

[Fred Hempel]

Jazz tomato

[PNW_D]

Fred, you mentioned Speckled Roman in an earlier post and I came across this related post from Tom Wagner from way back in 2008 ......

Jake,you have not mixed them up. It, (Speckle Roman) does have the narrow leaf type sometimes described as wispy. I should know because I did the original breeding of the selection that was in my Long Toms Mix of 1983. One of the selections was further selected in the filial generations by John Swenson of Illinois, ultimately called by him Banana Legs, and that in turn was accidentally crossed with Antique Roman to get the Speckled Roman, Roman Candle, etc. I don't think I ever disclosed the parentage of the Banana Legs. I have the original records of the lines that went into the Mix back in 1983. Banana Legs is indeed wispy leafed.

and a link to the thread http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....79&postcount=5

[Fred Hempel]

Thanks for that link! A very interesting post indeed from Tom.

I knew that Speckled Roman was selected from an accidental cross that John Swenson stabilized (between Antique Roman and Banana Legs).

Previously Tom had told me that Banana Legs was "his tomato" and I had assumed that he distributed it as a finished OP. At the time, he wasn't specific as to what he meant by "his tomato". However, In the link that you posted he indicates that Banana Legs was selected from "Long Toms Mix" that he sold in 1883. This brings up an interesting semantical question. Did Tom breed Banana legs?

In my opinion there are typically two necessary parts to breeding a new OP variety

1. Making a cross (or recognizing that a cross has occurred naturally)

and

2. Selecting (from F2 onwards) for desired traits over multiple generations, to fix a novel combination of traits in a true-breeding line.

I don't think you have bred a tomato unless you do both of the above. So, in my opinion (if Tom's post reflects what happened), the breeding of Banana Legs was accomplished by Tom (he did the cross) and John Swenson (he selected and fixed traits). They bred Banana Legs together. Interestingly, though, it was John who finished (and named) Banana Legs (maybe).

So, I would disagree with Tom's assertion that Banana Legs is "his" tomato. Making a cross is not enough, in my opinion, to lay claim to something someone else selects from the progeny.

Similarly, I am releasing an F2 population to collaborators this year, from an exceptional F1 hybrid I made and trialed last year. My assumption, in releasing this population is that I have lost control over the population, and if someone else carefully selects a new OP, I don't have naming rights or any kind of ownership rights. It is their tomato. That doesn't mean that I won't be interested in it, or that I would not appreciate a "nod" in my direction, for doing the cross.

Now back to the origination of Banana Legs. Tatiana has a very different story at her website.

She states that One of the SSE members, Mark Reusser of Ailsa Craig, Ontario, Canada (ONT RE M), grew out Tom Wagner's Long Toms mixture and selected this tomato, which he named Banana Legs and first offered in the SSE 1988 Yearbook. This is the description that Mark Reusser supplied in his SSE listing:
"100 days - indet., banana-shaped yellow-fleshed fruit, 7-10 cm. long x 3-4 cm. dia. with orange-yellow longitudinal stripes on light-yellow background med-sized plant with very fine thin leaves, prolific, up to 100 excellently-flavored firm-fleshed fruit per plant, seed is all from one seed selected from a batch of unnamed crosses called "Mixed Long Toms" from Tater Mater in 1984."


So it seems that Mark Reusser has been put forward as the person who selected (and named) Banana Legs, and that (maybe) John Swenson got Banana Legs from him.

So we have a Canadian version of the Banana Legs story, and an American version of the Banana Legs story. I would guess that it is possible that Mark Reusser selected Banana Legs (it would seem crazy that this story was made up whole cloth) and that John Swenson got it from him (and Tom mistakenly assumed that John did the selections)

Clearly, though, it was John Swenson that selected Speckled Roman from a Banana Legs X Antique Roman cross that he observed.

Thanks again for your post, because it caused me to look a bit closer at the mysterious story of the creation of Banana Legs -- which is a "parent" of one of my favorite tomatoes -- Speckled Roman.

I truly appreciate Tom for making the original cross that produced Banana Legs (and also likely many other crosses that he did to generate the parents that he used in that cross).

I also appreciate the likely selector of Banana Legs (Mark Reusser) and the start-to-finish breeder of Speckled Roman (John Swenson).

Originally Posted by PNW_D

Fred, you mentioned Speckled Roman in an earlier post and I came across this related post from Tom Wagner from way back in 2008 ......



and a link to the thread http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....79&postcount=5

[Fred Hempel]

Aji Amarillo Grande

[Fred Hempel]

Yellow Taste

Those (Yellow) Taste are larger than I had thought. Great pics Fred, thanks for sharing!

I'm really looking forward to trying Green Bee once it's released!