Marizol Bratka

[Grub]

These look good. What is your verdict on Marizol Bratka. Also, is the parent Brandywine the Sudduth strain? Sure sets better than that in this humid summer climate. Sara's Galapagos are Summer's favourite. Again. A must-grow for the toddlers. Candy. Best, Grubs .

[LenaBeanNZ]

Ill have to give you my verdict in a few week when they (hopefully) ripen! Yours look great though, epecially in the hands of your gorgeous little girl. I suppose her verdict was good?

Lena

[Grub]

She said: "Cut dum up, dadda. Cut dum up."
"Tomorrow," I replied, shoving another cherry in her mouth.

[nctomatoman]

Actually, it is a Joe Bratka variety (Carolyn got many of these in the early 90s from Joe) - I believe it is a stabilized OP from a Brandywine X Marizol Purple cross. I grew it many years ago...another good flavored PL pink. Nice pics!!! Always nice to see some of Tville's sprouts!!!!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Actually, it is a Joe Bratka variety (Carolyn got many of these in the early 90s from Joe) - I believe it is a stabilized OP from a Brandywine X Marizol Purple cross. I grew it many years ago...another good flavored PL pink. Nice pics!!! Always nice to see some of Tville's sprouts!!!!

It is a cross betweem Brandywine ( strain unknown) and Marizol Purple.

In trhe early 90's I got quite a few good varieties from Joe b/c he traded seeds in the now defunct National Gardening magazine as well as Organic Gardening when it had a trading column/

And I did get Eva Purple Ball and Marizol Gold and Marizol Purple from Joe, and those were authentic heirlooms.

Then I got a list from him that had Purple Brandywine on it and I called him asking what it was, and he said that since he'd found out that heirlooms were so much in demand that he was going to create them.

Well, OK, but he put fictious histories with them which was not right.

I suggested to him that he rename Purple Brandywine Marizol Bratka and he went along with that but already had distributed seeds for that so both names exist and refer to the same variety.

But then he put out Marizol Pink and Marizol Red and I think even a Marizol Black and claimed that all were family heirlooms from Germany, which was not true.

Then he did his Sarah Black, Sarah Pink and the rest of the Sarah's, again giving fictious histories for them as well.

IN between he developed Isis Candy and Snowhite and Rabbit and Ghost and there's another one with Magic as part of the name that I've forgotten now.

[Grub]

Joe sounds like he knows what he was doing with the crosses, but why he would feel the need to invent fictitious histories is beyond me. I certainly wouldn't buy a family heirloom over a created one for its history alone. Surely the quality of the tomato is the driver.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Grub

Joe sounds like he knows what he was doing with the crosses, but why he would feel the need to invent fictitious histories is beyond me. I certainly wouldn't buy a family heirloom over a created one for its history alone. Surely the quality of the tomato is the driver.

Grub, he gave fictitious histories b'c he thought that that would authenticate the varieties as being family heirlooms as in seeds being passed down within families and not manually created varieties.

Which is exactly what he told me.

[nctomatoman]

There are some complicated dynamics with fabricating histories - two of the main ones are creating interest (some of the ebay sellers we've discussed before I think fabricate histories to create business for themselves - lots of gardeners flock to the latest and greatest)....and another, perhaps mostly limited early on to the SSE, is just to create something different that people will obtain and grow on - so more of the psychological "I found this rare heirloom" thing - maybe an ego feed.

Just my two cents worth!

[Wi-sunflower]

I know what you mean about the eBay sellers fabricating things.

I used to sell on eBay myself. Mostly hot pepper seeds at the time. There was a seller (can't remember the ID) that was always giving new names to fairly common ornamental hots and then call them "rare".

The other problem with getting things on eBay was the fact that sometimes the seed was not mature at all so the germination rate was low if at all.

I'm not saying ALL eBay sellers are like that as there ARE some good sellers there. I have gotten some great seed there. But I have also gotten some real duds that were a waste of time and money.

Carol