Carolyn's Fall 2012 Feedback Reports

[delltraveller]

Fall report

I sowed all the seeds I received for all five varieties I received: Blush, Lucinda, Natalie, Malinovyi Rog and Zolotoy Zapas.

Germination was:

Blush (2011)--1/6
Lucinda (2011)--1/5
Malinovyi Rog (2011)--1/5
Natalie (2011)--3/7 [one dead end helmet head]
Zolotoy Zapas (2011)--4/7

The Malinovyi Rog plant was culled due to signs of disease, so I have nothing more to report on that variety.

I ended up with one viable plant each from Blush, Lucinda and Natalie. I had three viable plants from Zolotoy Zapas. One Zolotoy Zapas was planted, two held in reserve in case of accidents. All varieties were planted in bags, staked and/or caged as needed. The remaining Zolotoy Zapas plants were put in the ground in late July and did have time to set green fruit before the frosts started arriving.

We had a hot, drought-dry summer here and a long period of time when nothing was setting fruit.

Blush produced the appropriate striped yellow blushed pink elongated with a nipple fruits. Plant was indeterminate regular leaf. This plant still has fruit on it and has been placed in a temporary, season extending tunnel to continue maturing fruit. If you like your fruits soft, this one isn't for you. It is sturdy and holds pretty well.

Lucinda produced small oblate fruits that ripened to green and gold striped on a fine carrot leaved plant. Every fruit produced developed BER. I grew Lucinda side by side with Silvery Fir Tree. Lucinda was a larger plant and set fruit later. The Silvery Fir tree set fruit earlier and was much more productive for me. It also set a second batch of fruit later in the season. The Lucinda results have been disappointing.

Natalie produced red slightly elongated blocky fat fruits with a slight nipple on a determinate regular leaf plant. Fruit appears in clusters and appears to have the potential to produce seven per cluster in the right conditions. Flesh is dense and there are very few seeds. Flavor improves over the season. A side branch on this plant started to grow, so I clipped off the spent original growth and got a small second wave of fruit. This plant has also been moved to the tunnel to mature the later fruits.

Zolotoy Zapas produced round, gold fruits approaching the size of a baseball, later fruit showing a nipple, on a determinate regular leaf plant. Fruit is dense and meaty, but with more seeds than the Natalie. Flesh color is bold and striking. Seems to be a good all purpose fruit for our tastes, fresh or cooked. Seems to hold well. This plant also had a side branch take off and produce a small second wave of fruits. This plant has also been moved to the tunnel to mature the later fruits. I expect to have Zolotoy Zapas back next year in an improved growing location.

[mrdoitall]

Fall Tomato report.

Hi Carolyn, Thanks again for letting me be a participant in your seed offer.

Spring Germination results as was posted in the germination tread.
Dutka’s 5 seed planted 0 germination. 0 %
Fishlake Oxheart 5 seed planted 3 germinated.60%
Hays' 5 seed planted 1 germinated.20%
Heshpole 5 seed planted 0 germination.0%
Terhune 5 seed planted 0 germinated.0%

All I can say is what a year this garden season has been for me. Not a lot to report. With only 4 plants from Carolyn's seed offer to plant. I planted them in the garden. They were growing great. With 30 days of garden growth we get hit by a hail storm for what seem like 10 minutes. It beat my garden into the ground, broke up all my 150+ tomato plants to nothing but a main stem. I thought they were all dead. They put on new growth "sucker growth" I let them grow. Now how could it get any worse for me? That right we get hit with another hail storm right after they had recovered. This time it killed the one Hays’ plant I had. The hail knocked all the new growth off the 3 Fishlake Oxheart plants. I trimmed them up best I could just to see if they would pull through. So to sum it up I had 2 Fishlake Oxheart plants make it and produce tomatoes. As I have read on the forum I see that they should have been RED. My plants produced the Pink tomatoes about 8 to 10 oz. It was fun to be a participant in this seed offer. I hope to a participant again next year.

Thanks again for all you have done over the years with tomatoes and sharing your information on the forums.
Dwight

[378j5]

All seeds planted on February 2, 2012 in Jiffy Pellets, covered and bottom-heated and given fluorescent lights after germination. Then transplanted to 4 inch pots and finally consigned to the soil.

Casino Chips (2011) - Planted 2 seeds, 2 sprouted 100%, 1 grown, a nice red cherry slightly larger than Sungold but less fruitful, on the list for next year.

Kosovo (2011) - Planted 2 seeds, 1 sprouted 50%, 1 grown, a good medium pink heart as described at http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Kosovo, will grow again and again.

Ludmilla's Yellow Giant (2009) - Planted 2 seeds, 1 sprouted 50%, 1 grown, Yellow = Yes, Ludmilla = Maybe, Giant = NO! My example was more yellow than the gold shown at http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...s_Yellow_Giant, a GIANT disappointment, not in my future.

Terhune (2011) - Planted 2 seeds, 1 sprouted 50%, 1 grown, another disappointment, very stingy with its small, misshapen red fruit, it did not fit the description at http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Terhune, no desire to plant again.

Vince P1 (2011) - Planted 10 seeds, 10 sprouted 100%, 10 grown, one died early, a rank and rangy plant purported to be a purple Sungold, not purple - more like Black Cherry, but lighter in color, insipid taste not close to Sungold, not even close to Black Cherry. All but one of the nine survivors produced similar fruit, that one had an after taste that reminded me of - are you ready? - bacon, no interest in trying again.

[lakelady]

oops please disregard, wrong thread!

[OneDahlia]

I sowed seeds for four varieties (did not grow Terhune this year as I had to cut back a bit on my original plans). I am too new and was too distracted this year -- see my "blame the baby" thread -- to try to say whether they were true to type, but here is my feedback.

Kosovo (2011), 2/4 -- 50% germination (one helmet head, so only one survived)
Moravsky Div (2008), 3/3 germinated -- 100%
Ludmilla's Pink Heart (2008), 4/5 -- 80% (one helmet head so three survived)
Fish Lake Oxheart (2011), 1/4 -- 25% germination

My lone surviving Kosovo was one of my two favorite tomatoes of the summer. Picked the first tomato from it in mid-July, which is early for me here in VA. (I planted everything toward the end of May.) Everyone who tried it loved it. Good-sized hearts with great taste and texture, and very meaty with few seeds. It produced better than most of my other plants in a year when they all received little care. Will grow several each year from now on!

I thought Moravsky Div was a really solid early tomato. The seedlings were very vigorous and strong, and the plant was just about tied with Sophie's Choice for earliest -- I picked the first Moravsky Div on July 2. Taste was good, though I prefer sweeter tomatoes. It continued to produce small (about 1.5 to 2 oz) tomatoes steadily with little care all summer. I gave four heirloom tomato plants to a friend this summer, including a Moravsky Div. Her Moravsky Div was the only one that survived and produced for her, and it pumped out ridiculous amounts of little tomatoes all summer. She loved it and I showed her how to save seeds, which she did. New seed saver converted because of this tomato!

Ludmilla's Pink Heart was also early -- picked the first on July 11. The first one was 11.2 oz and beautiful, but a bit bland and mealy. Later tomatoes from this plant had better taste and texture, but it was outshined by Kosovo.

Fish Lake Oxheart was a little later -- toward the end of July. By this time, I was hugely pregnant and could not conjure up much interest in the garden, so unfortunately I don't have too much to report. I remember that we liked it, especially my husband. I did save seeds and will try again another time when I can pay more attention. I don't have many seeds but would be happy to share the little I have with others.

Thanks so much, Carolyn!

[habitat_gardener]

Finally got to taste the Podorok Fei and Fish Lake Oxheart (pink)! My plants are still hanging on. It's hard to judge taste this late in the season, but both were ok.

[Idahowoman]

Carolyn,
This is my report for the 2012 growing season here in Idaho.

From Germination thread
Planted March 3, 2012
Vince P1 - 6 planted 1 germinate
Lucinda,- 5 planted 3 germinated
Ambrosia Red -6 planted 0 germination
Zleovo 6 seeds -2 germinated
Uralskiy Rozovy-5 planted 2 germinated

Uralskiy Rozovyi- I planted all seeds and ended up with 1 plant in the green house .
This started producing in July from a March 3 sowing. This plant produced all summer and into the fall. The taste of the tomatoes was good.
It had some cracking issues .

Lucinda - I had 2 plants of Lucinda. The taste was good and the plants were attractive .

Vince P1 F5 I had one plant of Vince which I grew in the greenhouse.
This one also had some cracking issues. It was ok flavor wise.

Zleovo, I ended up with one producing plant which died early.
I had 3 tomatoes from this plant.
I saw that I spelled the name wrong in the picture.

Thank you for the seeds.
Susan

[GunnarSK]

Carolyn,
Thank you for offering the seeds as you did every year since 2006. I requested and got 5 varieties (4 hearts and IS PL), but didn't sow or grow any. Still have the seeds though, and they will be sown now along with anything I get from your current offer. I'll also post feedback in this year's thread, and all are new and have been reoffered.
Gunnar

Fish Lake Oxheart- 1 of 7 seeds sprouted. Nice looking tomato and taste was very good. It's a keeper for sure.



Orange Minsk-

Mala Bishka-

Malinovyi Rog-

Maiden's Gold- 2 seeds, no germination.

Wild Sweetie-

Kazachka-

I will plant all seed this year and do a full growout. I will probably do a short soak in Black Tea for the "older" seed and see if that picks up the germination rate. It should do the trick. I should have double-sown the older seed but was too busy with other things last year to notice; my bad.
All in all I can't wait to get these tasty varieties going.... I'm hungry for fresh tomatoes.

[JLJ_]

Haven't posted here sooner as I didn't have much in the way of real data that I hadn't already posted in the germination thread, except a few pics. I have been trying to get the pics appropriately sized (not technically difficult, just have to sneakernet them through several machines because of the way we're set up.)

To recap germination thread info briefly, of the seeds you sent in January of 2012, all germinated at a reasonable rate except the Indian Stripe seed, which did doormat imitations.

The Black Cherry and the Indian Stripe Potato Leaf began growth into fine, strong little seedlings, made a few sets of true leaves, then perished. I am fairly sure it was bugs of some sort. I had a problem with aphids on the pepper plants, and though I couldn't catch them on the tomatoes, I suspected they -- or one of their plant chomping cousins -- were the problem. Wasn't damping off, stems stayed healthy and, particularly with the Indian Stripe potato leaf, I really thought at least some were going to make it to the garden, but alas . . . not quite.

Hopefully, this year's Indian Stripe Potato Leaf seeds will be more fortunate. And as the Black Cherry (2007) germination was pretty good I didn't use all the extra seeds you sent for them, so I'll be able to try at least a couple of plants of those again in 2013.

Assuming the problem was bugs, there must have been something about those two varieties that made them either more attractive or more vulnerable to the chomping varmints, as plants were in 16 oz cups and were moved around as they were cared for, so seedlings of those two types were surrounded by other tomato babies that were not afflicted, at least not fatally.

So of those tomatoes, only the Granny's Heart had a strong plant that made it to the garden in 2012. It stayed healthy and happy and made perhaps two to four dozen fruit by the time it froze (counting some that were still pretty small and green, but did ripen indoors). Flavor was fine, not up to Marglobe standards, but that would be asking a lot. ;]

While the Granny's Heart tomatoes were mostly nice fruit, and some early ones did resemble mammal hearts, the fruit didn't seem tomato-heart shaped. After the first few apparent products of fused blossoms, they were either flattened or round, none taller than they were wide. But when fruit matures toward the end of a season in a cool climate, I'm not sure that's a fair test of either flavor or shape, especially with fruit from a single plant. I hope for better data on "true to type" this year, with seed from the one 2012 plant and the additional 2011 seed you sent in this year's 2013 seed offer.

----------

Of the cherry tomatoes you sent for Mom, (I think only Green Doctors was part of your seed offer), multiple plants of all three, Green Doctors, Dr. Carolyn, and Dr. Carolyn Pink grew into great strong bushes and all of them did eventually produce ripe fruit.

Mom liked them all, but most important, had a lot of fun watching them grow and cheering them on. She liked the Dr. Carolyn Pink best, Dr. Carolyn next, and liked some Green Doctors and didn't like others at all -- which I suspect was a ripeness issue.

I had a number of Green Doctors on a tray on the table, watching for that amberish tint they got when really ripe. Several had reached that point, and I was going to put them with her lunch, when I suddenly realized that the ripe ones were missing. I don't know how it happened that only the ripe ones vanished, but Teddy (our tomato-loving Malamute) was standing nearby, murmuring something about it being useful to have a nose that was more than decorative.

Mom did get to eat a reasonable number of all three kinds. Green Doctors was the earliest and heaviest producer, Dr. Carolyn very close to it in both time and quantity, Dr. Carolyn Pink a little slower than the others and with less fruit -- but all three types did OK and we saved seed of all three types.

Their tomato production didn't begin until near the end of the season -- most of the summer they spent growing beautiful foliage. Possibly they just need a longer season than we have to produce well, but I'm going to try some variations this year to see if I can get them into tomato generating mode sooner.

Attached photos:

A- The first Granny's Heart after the super-fused monster-mater ones.
B- Same tomato sliced open horizontally
C- Four slightly later Granny's Hearts
D- Our sudden weather change October 6, after which of course only a few outdoor tomatoes survived, even with protection
E- Some tomatoes were able to take refuge inside. Some uninvited flea beetles took refuge with them. :\
F- Three of the indoor refugees back outside in October: L to R: Dr. Carolyn, Dr. Carolyn Pink, Green Doctors. All had much heavier foliage than shown here, I had to trim it when bringing them in.
G- Samples of fruit of all three Dr. Carolyn cousins, showing comparative size and ripe color.
H- Tomatoes that ripened when there were too many to eat and not enough to can were roasted and frozen -- has worked out well.
I- Tomato lover's conference: Mom and Teddy

[ddsack]

Love the picture of your mom and that big ol' hunk of a dog! What a sweetie! Hope you have better luck with some of your young plants this year.

[ginger2778]

Here are my comments about 3 of the 4 varieties from Carolyn's 2012 offer.
I got adventurous and decided on 2 experimentals. I grew 2 plants of each, because that is what was able to mature to fruit bearing. Those were Indian Stripe Potato leaf X Possibly Daniels, and Vince P1.
Vince P1: bad cracking issues even though water controlled by being in SIPs, The smaller purplish "black Cherry" looking one was delicious if you got it off early enough, if you waited it has a terrible mushy spitter feel and a rotten taste even though the fruit wasn't rotten at all. The larger pink fruited one has an insipid weird taste at all stages. Very prolific for both segregants, but I am not going to save seeds from either, and I am glad I only grew 2!
ISPL X Poss. Daniels- Wow what a great tomato. Both plants produced similarly. Fruit was large to huge, at least by my standards. Photo shows one that weighed in at about 22 ounces. They were all purple to brick red, as indian Stripe is, and simply scrumptious. Best BLT ever! Definitely saving seeds from both of this very special variety.
Granny's heart- Haven't gotten to ripeness yet, was slowed down by a couple of bouts with Septoria and heavy pruning after spraying, so it really is just now finally taking off. Picture is of green but about 8 oz fruit. I also got a sucker off of it that is doing well.
Fish Lake Oxheart, also got Septoria and heavy pruning, was a fairly weak plant with floppy stem that needed lots of support , and it finally has grown healthy enough to put out blooms that seem to be forming fruit, so I will post a picture when it gets to that stage. I only had one that germinated and survived to transplant of it.
-Marsha

[ginger2778]

Carolyn,
Please, what generation were the seeds from the Indian Stripe PL X possibly Daniels ?
I would like to know how close to stabilization as this is an excellent tomato in every way, from taste to shelf life to disease tolerance to plant vigor from both plants I am growing. And they both seem to be the same.
Marsha

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Carolyn,
Please, what generation were the seeds from the Indian Stripe PL X possibly Daniels ?
I would like to know how close to stabilization as this is an excellent tomato in every way, from taste to shelf life to disease tolerance to plant vigor from both plants I am growing. And they both seem to be the same.
Marsha

As was posted in the 2012 seed offer:

Indian Stripe X possibly Daniels (PL), a natural cross form Bill Jeffers growouts. My F3 seeds from Suze, who got some segregation with the F3’s, but selected this one, which is a very large deep pink, PL, and with great taste. No final variety name yet

&&&&&&&&&

The F3 seeds were then grown out for distribution in my seed offer as F4 seeds.

I don't know how close it is to stabilization and would have to read through this whole thread to see how many plants folks grew and what they got.

And then consult with Bill Jeffers about it.

Since it was an accidental cross and not a directed one it will make it more difficult to determine when it is stable, but I would assume at the F5 to F7 depending on the results andmy prior experince ingrowingout a few accidental crosses such as OTV Brandywine, the final name thatCraig andI gave to it.

Carolyn

[ginger2778]

Thank you Carolyn. I will certainly be growing it out for the next several seasons. Hope
to get stable. Very excited about it.
Marsha