Are these tomatoes the same

[jardinlady]

Sorry this might be a dumb question but I was just wondering if Abraham Lincoln, Buckbee's Original is the same tomato as Abe lincoln. I Purchased some Abraham Lincoln seeds just yesterday from maiseeds and just wanted to make sure they were the same tomato.

Thanks

[Suze]

Carmen,

Not a dumb question at all. I don't know the answer, but maybe someone more knowledgable on the Abraham Lincoln situation can enlighten us.

What's confusing to me is that when I go to the Victory Seeds site (Mike D. at Victory has a keen interest in and knowledge of historical varieties), he is offering Abraham Lincoln, Shumway's "Original", then at the end of that listing says "We are continuing our search for the original 'Buckbee Abraham Lincoln' tomato."

...then I see Mariseeds offering
Abraham Lincoln, Buckbee's Original
These are wonderful, juicy, and excellent flavored tomatoes, averaging 6-10 oz. Interiors are deep dark red. They are neat, crack free and sweet.
Indet. 85 days

[nctomatoman]

Yes, the Abraham Lincoln situation is confusing.

As originally released by Buckbee in 1923, Abraham Lincoln was described as a large fruited (12-16 ounce) red tomato on a plant that was indeterminate and carried an odd bronzy tint to the foliage.

Over the years, as Buckbee merged with and became Shumway, they lost their original strain of Abraham Lincoln. Though they indicate in seed catalogs that they managed to "rebreed" the original strain, the truth is that the owner of Shumway searched in vain in the 1980s for anyone that had the large fruited bronzy tint foliage indeterminate version. So, pretty much everything that was/is carried in seed catalogs is what Abraham Lincoln became over the years - semi determinate, medium sized, red fruited, green foliaged.

I went back to the USDA sample in the mid 1990s and ended up with indeterminate and large fruited, but not the bronzy tinted foliage, and not very high yielding. so there are now a few different sources, and it is difficult to know exactly what people are growing with respect to Abraham Lincoln.

[jardinlady]

Thank you much. I ended up purchasing the Abraham lincoln seeds from Mariseeds, I am hoping to grow them next year, hopefully it is as productive as it states. It just gets confusing with the names. I saw some good reviews of Abe lincoln on another site and wanted to try it. I am sure this is a good tomato though. Thanks again.