Historical background information for varieties handed down from bygone days.
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August 22, 2014 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New Mexico
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Texas Pink
The manager of a local growers market where I am a vendor was raving about a wonderful tomato another vendor had "developed", and had named "Atrisco Pink". I was curious, so I went over and bought a couple of the Atrisco Pink tomatoes from the vendor.
I took the tomatoes home and took pictures and tasted them. WOW! What a magnificent tomato! I was compelled to find out more about how this tomato was developed, so this week I inquired of the vendor how he had developed the Atrisco Pink. The bottom line is that he didn't develop the tomato. He got the seeds from an elderly woman who told him it was called Texas Pink. The vendor decided to name the tomato Atrisco Pink because his farm is in the Atrisco area of Albuquerque's south valley. So much for the thought of a marvelous new tomato....however, I must say that this tomato is marvelous, and its heritage evidently is classic heirloom, from what I can gather. I don't know why it isn't more discussed because it is wonderful in appearance and taste. |
August 22, 2014 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Ontario
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It sure does look Purdy!
Linda |
August 22, 2014 | #3 |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
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It can't be better known unless folks know about it and it looks right now you are the only one who does know about it.
So if you could get more fruits from him and save the seeds you could make a seed offer here this Fall. Or you could send me some seeds that my seed producers could work with next summer for a seed offer in 2016 since someone is taking over for me, and two of my seed producers are listed SSE members, and if they like it they could SSE list it. And if they like it and I have seeds I could send it to a few seed sites I know for trial and that would get it out there as well. So think about the above options, and more than one could work out well, your choice. Carolyn
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Carolyn |
August 22, 2014 | #4 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Plantation, Florida zone 10
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August 23, 2014 | #5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: selmer, tn
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[QUOTE=Labradors2;428802]It sure does look Purdy!
No argument on that assessment! jon ] |
August 23, 2014 | #6 | |
Moderator Emeritus
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Since it's two years down the road no sense in giving details now and the fact is that he and I have to work out lots of details. What I can say is that he is retiring at the end of next June, we've exchanged information on various levels, and more importantly he wants to do it. My job will still be to find varieties new to all or most b'c I have those contacts outside the US and of course there are always folks here at TV who send me new ones when they send their SASE's for my seed offer. It's time for someone to take over since I've been making large seed offers for over 20 years now at one place or another.And for this last one I said I wasn't going to stay up half the night to send back my address and then pack up seeds ASAP, so I ended up getting e-mails from a few folks asking where their seeds were, and not all did it nicely. I retired from teaching in June of 1999 and now I'm retiring from making seed offers by myself at the end of my next seed offer next Jan. I'll no doubt put up the germination thread b'c many find that helpful,, especially when someone gets 100 % germination with a variety and someone else with the same seeds gets zero. And I'll put up the Fall feedback thread since many also find that very valuable in terms of worthy new varieties to consider for a future year. Carolyn
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August 23, 2014 | #7 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 2,052
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According to Tania's site, Texas Pink is already in SSE.
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Texas_Pink There are no pictures, but the description is pretty close to what I have. The Texas Pinks at this market are nowhere near 1 lb each. I would say they average about 1/2 lb each. That difference could be the environment, but there isn't any way I know of to confirm that the tomato I have is a true descendent of the original Texas Pink. I'll get more of them this week and save a bunch of seeds because it is a great tomato on its own merits. Charley |
August 23, 2014 | #8 | |
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Neil is one of my four regular seed producers and is also a member here at TV, but doesn't visit that often. Is there anything you would like me to ask him? Yes, in the SSE YEarbooks, to date,but not in the public catalog for both SSE and non SSE members. Carolyn
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August 23, 2014 | #9 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
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I was once standing a stallion. I nominated him for two free services for my club's fundraiser. Next year, I was shipped from OK to WA. I called the people getting discounted breedings through the club's auction to let them know that their cost didn't include collection services and shipping, which total rubs around $250, for a National Champion with some other extremely difficult to earn rankings and titles. They were both so nasty that I ended up deciding to castrate him and get out of anything to do with the stallion business. |
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August 23, 2014 | #10 | |
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The more members we have here the greater the heterogenerity of members in terms of personal traits. But I sure can understand what you posted about above. Since I do a LOT of reading these days since with the walker I can't get out and walk or tend to my gardens or drive, I do read a lot and buy LOTS of books. I have a neighbor who will walk up here and whine and whine to get one of my newer books.There are perhaps 200 books underneath the table that has my TV on and close to a thousand elsewhere here ,but no, she wants to read ones I have in a pile in the order in which I want to read them. Whatever she can get for free, with no attempts at reciprocity of any kind, is her modus operandi. And that pertains to the times I've asked if she can bring me some stuff from the Farmer's Market or two local large farm stands and also from elsewhere. And it's wearing very thin with me these days. Carolyn
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August 24, 2014 | #11 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SoCal Inland
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That's a great looking tomato Charley.
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August 24, 2014 | #12 |
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I went back up and looked at the fruits again.
Do you see that white stippling on the fruits? That's what one sees with the variety Eva Purple Ball and another one whose name I can't remember right now. Eva Purple Ball is German in origin. Many Germans settled in TX after they immigrated to the US, Worth can confirmthat if needed. So is it possible that what you have as Texas Pink is perhaps from seeds brought to the US originally by a German family? Carolyn
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August 24, 2014 | #13 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Wyoming
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Charley, as I understand it, then, the objective is to make known the merits of a marvelous tomato named Texas Pink, a known variety wickedly renamed by an Atrisco resident? (That's partly a tongue-in-cheek remark -- while I don't think that known tomatoes should be renamed, one tomato with sixteen names seems to me to be a minor problem -- while apparently unrelated tomatoes sharing the same name -- like some of the Mortgage Lifters, for example -- I see as a more serious problem.)
But spreading the word about any great tomato is always a worthy quest -- best wishes for your success! And Carolyn, I sympathize on the book-borrower problem. I also have a LOT of books -- thousands -- and I've taken to hiding any I'm not obviously reading in places from which I can exclude visitors because of people -- even relatives -- even relatives that I really like -- borrowing them and damaging and/or not returning them. I had one, for example, that a visitor began reading while here, then wanted to take home to finish. I said that it was part of a set and was a book that would be hard to replace, but he really wanted it and promised that he would mail it back in a few days -- and it *was* a relative that I like -- so I agreed. It took me two years to get the somewhat worn book back -- he'd lent it to other people, among other things -- and then I got it with a lot of complaints about what a nuisance it had been to get it returned. So my books hide from visitors like so many unsocialized kittens, now. For reliable people I may bring one or more out -- but I try not to let any aggressive borrowers see books (or tools) to avoid problems with book retrieval and blood pressure. My books aren't so much new ones I have lined up to read, as old books I value (and read) and would find difficult to replace. It doesn't really bother me if someone who does care for books borrows one and something unforeseen happens to it. I figure the purpose of books is to be read and accidents happen. What bothers me is that so many just don't value books, don't think that it is important to care for them or to return them promptly and feel ill-used if they are expected to do so. I've no objection if they feel that way about their own books, but when they have the same attitude toward books not their own . . . Last edited by JLJ_; August 24, 2014 at 02:10 PM. |
August 24, 2014 | #14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New Mexico
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I've got an EPB with green fruit right now, and hopefully there will be some ripe this week. If so, I'll do a side-by-side comparison with the Texas Pink and the Eva Purple Ball. I'll also try and find out more about the lady that the Atrisco vendor got the TP seeds from.
By the way, the Atrisco vendor is surprisingly ignorant about tomatoes. He told me he grows two 50 ft rows of Texas Pink spaced 1 to 1 1/2 ft apart, and tied up on twine between T poles. I asked him if the plant was indeterminate and he had no idea what I meant, but he said it produces fruit continuously (after I asked). I asked him if the crowding of the plants didn't cause disease and he said if a plant gets disease he just leaves it completely alone...no removing, pruning, harvesting or anything. He thinks it causes less damage to just let it die in its place. I can attest to his growing prowess because the rest of his vegetables are beautiful as is the Texas Pink. I know he had no greedy or malicious intent on renaming the tomato. He just isn't aware of the consequences of doing so. Charley |
August 24, 2014 | #15 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Wyoming
Posts: 759
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And considering the cases when it appears that great big corporations that do know better have renamed tomatoes, one can hardly blame a local grower for doing so.
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