Big SunGold Select

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by frogwash

Methinks that answered it all and yes I probably do mean Lifter.

Can the BSS seeds be ordered from Reinhard/Manfred. I went to this page and tried translating it but it just looks like a list. Do you happen to know how to go about doing so or do I just email Manfred?

http://tomaten.bplaced.net/tomatenhahm.html

Yes, you would e-mail Manfred off of Reinhard's webpage.

But why would you do that when you can get them here for free?

[frogwash]

Why? Because if I happen to miss the Seed Offer here and they run out then I'll be kicking myself.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by frogwash

Why? Because if I happen to miss the Seed Offer here and they run out then I'll be kicking myself.

Well, there's no one seed offer b/c starting in the Fall a lot of folks are making seed offers, some with trades wanted, some with no trades wanted. Andsince I know I sent out lots of BSS seeds in response to my seed offer I know others here will no doubt be offering it as well.

But since I hate to see someone get so worried about a spcific tomato variety please PM me and give me your address and I'll send you some seeds next week so you won't have to worry any more.

[Sherry_AK]

Picked the first Big Sungold Select today. Pictured below with some others for color and size comparison. As you can see, it's pretty small. Color is a bit hard to describe, but I would not call it orange ... or gold.

[Tania]

Mine are orange color, slightly larger than Sungold F1, firmer fruit, and more acidic taste - excellent flavor, but different from Sungold F1. All 6 plants produced orange fruits, with slight variation in fruit size, but all cherry-sized. The plants are not as big as F1, and do well in 5 gal containers.

My seeds were from Ami.

The 1st and 3rd pictures show Sungold F1 and Big Sungold Select (sliced).

Tania

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tania

Mine are orange color, slightly larger than Sungold F1, firmer fruit, and more acidic taste - excellent flavor, but different from Sungold F1. All 6 plants produced orange fruits, with slight variation in fruit size, but all cherry-sized. The plants are not as big as F1, and do well in 5 gal containers.

My seeds were from Ami.

The 1st and 3rd pictures show Sungold F1 and Big Sungold Select (sliced).

Tania

Tania, I wrote a somewha longish post but it was at the time every AM when the server is down, so I lost it all, so I'll try to recreate most of what I wrote.

First, I'm glad that you got all orange fruited plants and especially since you had 6 of them. From what Brad Gates posted at his site he says about 75% of seeds will give orange ones. So right now it seems to be a matter of statistics as to how often a non-orange plant will show up.

I'm pretty sure Ami gets his seed from Manfred, who of course gets his seed from Reinhard and then Manfred does his own seed production. My seeds were directly from Reinhard and I'm pretty sure Brand's were as well since last I knew Reinhard was still working with some of Brad's crosses, and they're probably in touch from time to time.

I would have liked to save seeds from any non-oranges that show up to see what they would give, but aside from the fact that mine were also orange, I no longer have the room to put out lots of plants for a special situation to check out seed purity/stability in that way.

When the variety Dr. Carolyn became available from time to time there would be a red fruited or pink fruited plant but for many years now that instability has stopped and only ivory colored fruits have appeared, except of course for the appearance of the mutation 5 eyars ago that led to the variety Green Doctors.

I've read in the PNW thread that it isn't a good tomato year for you either, and same here. Still many plants with just blossoms and no way are they going to give fruits before first frost. In addition, the folks in the south who are doing the seed production for me are also having problems and I now know that for manyl of my new ones that I've been so excited about there either won't be any seeds at all or too few to list or offer to others.

Maybe it's getting close to the time when I should hang up my tomato hat b'c I simply can't continue to ask others to do what I once did for so many years myself when it came to my tomato growing.

Time will tell.

[Bama mater]

Carolyn, I saved seed from what I call 3 different BigSungold Select although I only had 2 sources You and Brad.

1. small-average cherry Yellow/orange Sungold Select Y
2. small-average cherry red/orange Sungold Select R
3. approx 1"-1 1/2" round that comes to a point orange Big Sungold Select

I'll send you some of each marked accordingly.

[Tania]

Carolyn,

I am so sad to hear that it is the second year in the row that you've had bad summers for tomato growing - this is so frustrating not to get fruit set by August... I still have a few that did not set fruit, but overall my GH plants are doing OK considering the weather - I've got decent amount of green fruit on most of the plants, so hopefully I'll be in a good position to collect some seeds. Will have to re-grow about 12 varieties that I lost to late blight next year...

Back to the topic - I now have more Big Sungold Select fruit ripening, and I will leave them on the vine a bit longer to see if the color of fully matured fruit will match Sungold F1. The one I had on the pictures were a bit under-ripe, but I had to eat it all the same as it cracked after the rain.
As a seed saver, I was of course a bit disappointed to see how few seeds each Big Sungold fruit had...

Tania

[carolyn137]

I am so sad to hear that it is the second year in the row that you've had bad summers for tomato growing - this is so frustrating

****

Actually it's the THIRD year in a row b'c 2008 and 2009 were cold and rainy but at least I got some fruits and for those two years bcday I was doing seed production for me and had much better luck than I did with fruit production on all the varieties I sent to her.

This year it's been the high heat and humidity that has been the problem here as well as for the folks in NC and KY who graciously offered to do seed production for me.

Not that I remember datres or anything, but several years ago the first killing frost here was on September 7 and the very next year it was on September 9. I can only hope for later frosts this year.

One of the color differenences I saw with Sungold F1 vs BSS is that BSS is orange from the beginning while Sungold F1 fruits start out yellow and then turn to orange.

[Sherry_AK]

I left my one little BSS on the counter for a couple days to fully ripen. It is a red cherry with unremarkable taste.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Sherry_AK

I left my one little BSS on the counter for a couple days to fully ripen. It is a red cherry with unremarkable taste.

Yes, as you read above some are getting some red fruited plants. How many plants did you put out and how many gave orange and how many red fruits?

According to what Brad Gates said, which I cut and pasted above, about 75% of plants give the wanted orange fruits.

My own BSS plant gave orange fruits last year and the person who did the seed production for me, I did some,had I think three plants out and all gave orange fruits.

Thanks Sherry.

[Sherry_AK]

Carolyn, I have 4 plants. I may get fruit from three of them, but this is the only ripe one so far. Fruits on the 3 are similar in size, but that's all I know so far.

Sherry

[Sherry_AK]

I've now picked fruit from 3 of my 4 plants (the 4th one will not produce anything). All 3 of mine are red, and all 3 taste similar.

[Wi-sunflower]

Carolyn,

I have 6 plants from your seeds. I finally checked them Tuesday and unfortunately ALL 6 are full of large RED cherries. I had hoped that at least 1 plant would have been orange.

The size of them is nice. Larger than a cherry but smaller than something like Pixie or Jaunne Flamme. I guess the taste was OK as I did try it, but I'm not a red tomato fan so I don't really know. They look a lot like the pic Sherry posted just above.

I doubt I will save seeds from it as it's not right for the variety, unless others here think the taste is worth it.

Carol

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

Carolyn,

I have 6 plants from your seeds. I finally checked them Tuesday and unfortunately ALL 6 are full of large RED cherries. I had hoped that at least 1 plant would have been orange.

The size of them is nice. Larger than a cherry but smaller than something like Pixie or Jaunne Flamme. I guess the taste was OK as I did try it, but I'm not a red tomato fan so I don't really know. They look a lot like the pic Sherry posted just above.

I doubt I will save seeds from it as it's not right for the variety, unless others here think the taste is worth it.

Carol

For Carol and Sherry.

Carol, since you're commercial and should have the coorect variety pplease PM me in late Fall and I'll send you some bagged seeds for BSS,

Sherry, you too.

A few folks did get some plants with red cherries as is noted in the posts above but I think you two are the ONLY ones with all red charries.

Remember what I cut and pasted here from Brad Gates site about the variability of BSS?

Right now I don't know if it's inherent genetic instability or due to crossed seeds and the only way to find out is for me to send you two seeds from bagged blossoms.

As I said in the Jan free seed offer some seeds were from bagged blossoms and some not, and for some varieties I had both kinds of seeds.