2012 Tatiana's tomatoes

[augiedog55]

Tania, I got a question. I see you had several tomatoes weren't true to type. This is my question. I bought alot of seeds from suggested seed vendures on this site to try next yr. What % of these seeds should I expect not to be true to variety. You have me wondering.

[Tania]

Originally Posted by augiedog55

Tania, I got a question. I see you had several tomatoes weren't true to type. This is my question. I bought alot of seeds from suggested seed vendures on this site to try next yr. What % of these seeds should I expect not to be true to variety. You have me wondering.

I think if you grow every single seed that you purchased from commercial sources, you may get less than 3% of a chance cross. This is a pretty good record, in my opinion.

Seed from SSE Yearbook and individual seed savers are crossed/mixed more often, in my experience. I get about 10-15% of these not correct. The reason being when seed trades are done, lots of different seeds are being packaged at the same time, and a chance of mix or mislabeling is higher than in a commercial packaging environment, when 1 variety is packaged at a time. Also individuals grow many plants of different varieties (and often only 1 plant of a specific variety), and hence chances of crosses are higher than in large commercial fields.

Sometimes a cross is not fully stabilized when seeds are released, and this brings more offtypes.

Also it is not uncommon for a person to be saving seeds for a variety that did not grow true to type (and they did not know enough about the variety to see it) - when they share/trade these seeds, the wrong one propagates further.

So in my opinion, commercial seeds are more 'reliable'. Mistakes happen there too, there is no absolute guarantee, but it happens much less frequently.

EDITED TO ADD: I consistently notice that the seeds that I am getting from folks in the southern states are much more frequently crossed compared with the seeds I am getting from the northern folks (which are almost never crossed). It may have to do with pollinator activity patterns during fruit set.

[augiedog55]

Tania, Thank you so much for your insight. This will be my first yr starting from seeds. I'm excited

[Tania]

augiedog, you are very welcome - and good luck with your seed starting! It is a very exciting adventure, and I think once you start it, there is no way back .

[lakelady]

Tania thanks for the photo gallery! I love looking at the photos and reading the descriptions. I'm so happy you've gotten a good harvest this year compared to last year!

Cheers for the 2012 season !

[Tania]

Thank you Antoniette! I am so happy too. Keeping my fingers crossed for a little bit more dry weather here. The nights are getting quite cold by now.

[Tania]

This one is ripening to red, and I thought it should be pink. I looked at ami's pictures again, and it looks reddish on his pictures - this makes me wonder, as my seed source was from Germany. I also have another Big Ben growing from a different seed source, no ripe fruits yet, so it is too early to conclude about its color.

[Tania]

This is as sister to Indigo Rose. I planted both on the same day, in the same bed, and Blueberry ripened earlier. I am still waiting for ripe Indigo Rose. Also, it is a bit larger than Indigo Rose.

I have not tasted it yet, waiting for the red bottom to reach full color. Perhaps tomorrow! By now many people who visited my place commented on this tomato - they have never seen anything like that before. It is very stunning.

[Tania]

Another stunningly beautiful small red tomato, I just love its shape! Excellent sweetish flavor. It has been taking its time to ripen, but now I am getting a dozen of fruits from the plants every day, it really started to turn. Very productive.

[Tania]

Bill sent me some seeds hoping this would be a pink tomato without stripes. It was derived from Berkeley's Tie Dye Pink. I was not too lucky, and all my plants produced dark striped version, just like the original Berkeley Tie-Dye Pink. Beautiful maroon, green stripes turning to metallic when left on the counter. Excellent flavor.

[Tania]

I had to pick all these tomatoes (still green) from one plant in my container garden that got affected by late blight. Well, they actually ripened very nicely in storage, and I was surprised with their good taste and good looks. I like the meaty flesh very much, they hold in salads very well, and I think they should be great for canning whole.

I have another plant under cover that also started to turn red by now.

[Tania]

I did not expect to get these beautiful yellow hearts - they really look like rooster's combs. Juicy, exquisite flavor with some lemony zing. Some double hearts are pretty heavy, I think they can reach 1 lb.

The Russian name translates 'Rooster'.

[Tania]

We love the flavor! The fruits are larger than in 2010, so it continues to segregate, but the flavor is great.

I got green oblate small fruits on another plant, so it is getting very interesting

Something I would like to continue stabilizing in the future.

[Tania]

The plants got caught in a cold spell back in April, and took a long time to recover. Now they are covered in green fruits, and some started to turn. Small red tomatoes, much smaller than advertized, I got them around 1 oz. Very good flavor, I liked it.

[Tania]

This is a segregation line that I was hoping for! Orange cherries. F4, SunGold F1 X Mom's cross.