Barlow Jap Information?

I've traded for some Barlow Jap seed for next years garden. I will grow it because of the high productivity and taste reports I have read from individual growers this year. I have searched for specific traits and haven't found much. I would like to have the following information for my data base on the variety.

History?
A family heirloom of "2ManyTomatoes" who received them from her Grandfather, Roy Barlow of Shelbyville, Kentucky. Roy received the original seed from a friend who had supposedly smuggled them from Japan at the end of WWII. The original plants were weak in growth habit, but after successive generations of replanting only the healthiest and strongest plants from the best tomatoes; they now appear to be strong growers from germination. In 2009, "2ManyTomatoes" realized the improved variety, passed down through her family; could be lost due to the limited number of seeds retained in her family. She began sharing the seed with other tomato growers to insure it's survival.

Germination traits? easy or difficult germination
High germination percentage without difficulty in good germination conditions

RL or PL?
Potato Leaf

Plant growth habit? Large, Medium, Small
4' to 5' medium

Blooms and Fruit set? Blooms and sets only in the spring or spring and summer.
Early bloomer with production into late August in zone 5A

Average fruit size?
Eight to twelve ounces, sometimes in clusters

Determinate or Indeterminate?
Indeterminate

Days to maturity?
85 / 90 days

Productivity?
Good, mid season to late season production

Fruit color?
Described as both pink and rose colored

Taste? Mild or Strong, Sweet or Acidic, Fruity, Smokey, Comparison to other known varieties
Intense, sweet, with old time tomato taste, with some comments of "the best ever tasted"

Disease resistance?
Appears to have some disease resistance specifically to bacterial speck

Fruit appearance? Oblate, Globe, Smooth, Ruffled, Cracking, Cat-facing, Skin color variations
Globe shaped, smooth; with occasional green shoulders and thin skin

Fruit characteristics? Meaty, Firm or soft when ripe, Large or small seed cells, Large or small core, High or low moisture content
Meaty, Brandywine-sort of a honey-comb or Swiss cheese appearance rather than the "wagon-wheel" appearance of the seed locules.

If someone can provide a link with the information that would be great. If no link is available, please post the information you have and I will collate it.

Thanks

Ted

[amideutch]

Here is some information that may help. From TooManyTomatoes who posts at Idigmygarden. Ami

"The Barlow Japs are my family heirloom. My PaPaw lived in Shelbyville Kentucky. He was a shop and math teacher by trade, and a gardener by ambition. He had apple and peach orchards, a small vineyard, tobacco fields, cured hams etc. What started as a summer hobby, grew into a thriving business. One of my favorite memories is the smell of his tomato hot house. Yes, he grew so many tomatoes, he needed a separate greenhouse for them. In fact, he developed his own heirloom tomatoes. The story goes like this...

As he told it, this began after WWII. A friend of his came to him and gave him some tomato seeds. The friend said he had smuggled them home from Japan, and that these were the from best tomato he had ever tasted, and he knew PaPaw could do something with them. So he planted the seeds. A month later, he had a dozen of the scraggliest, yellow, weedy tomato vines he had ever seen, and at the end of the summer, he had a couple decent tomatoes. He saved seeds from the best of these, to plant next year, and so on. Soon he had some “pretty good tomatoes”. These “Jap” tomatoes as he called them, were the main crop in his produce business.

They are a potato leafed, pink tomato, and he was right, the plants start out as the scraggliest things you've ever seen. But they improve. The tomatoes often have green shoulders, and they are thin skinned and fussy, but they truly are the best tasting tomato I've ever had. My personal story with the Japs is one of a beginner trying to decide if and how to start tomato seeds, but the fear of letting the strain die out has spurred me on. To my knowledge, only my father and I still have seeds, and I keep mine in a fireproof box. After a few years I can reliably supply the family with decent transplants, and I think the Japs are getting less fussy and adapting to life outdoors. I finally felt confident enough to share some seeds, and I'm thrilled that elkwc shared them additionally so that I will not have to worry so about keeping the legacy alive. Reading Camo's and other's taste tests prompted me to conduct my own last year. I have several favorites, usually large yellow slicers. But, I keep looking forward to each Jap ripening for my sandwiches. My descriptions are neither as scientific, nor as eloquent as Camo's. Quite simply... the Japs taste like my childhood.

PaPaw's name was Roy Barlow. Born in Pellville, (wide spot near Owensboro) and lived most of his life in Shelbyville.

They are quite disease resistant. I had a lot of trouble with bacterial speck last year. The Japs were the last to get it, and barely suffered. This year is a little worse. My one Jap plant picked it up this past week, but it has been horribly wet. 7 dry days in July, and none in August. Besides, its shoulder to shoulder with plants that are really suffering. If I moved it away, it would probably have been OK all year.

I've never timed them. This year they went in May 30th and the first one is just pinking up now. I usually expect them around the third week of August, so about 12 weeks (or at least 84 days) in zone 5a. This year it was the first plant to blossom though, at least a week before the Ananas Noir next to it. My regular Pineapple hasn't set a single fruit. I think I saw blossoms on it a couple of weeks ago, but nothing now. It has been a bum plant since the get go. I hope the Pineapple I gave my Mom produces. I love those."

There you go, Ami

[greyghost]

Ami, Thanks for sharing that info-I've never seen it before.

The young lady who first shared Barlow Jap has a beautiful blog that
can be found at www.2manytomatoes.blogspot.com. If you select
(scroll down-at the left on the page) "tomatoes", you'll find Camo's
2010 taste review, photo's of Barlow Jap (it's a rose-colored fruit.
Be sure to scroll the entire length. The whole blog is very well done
and a joy to follow (I especially enjoy the occasional photo of a grey
horse-brings back memories of my old friend, Greyghost).

My plants (all but one given away) were all healthy as "starts" from
the very beginning. I thought the cross-section looked similiar to
Brandywine-sort of a honey-comb appearance rather than the "wagon-
wheel" appearance of the seed locules.

Camo's taste tests appeared during July-August on idigmygarden.com;
2009 taste tests can be found by paging back to around Nov '09--under
the "heirloom garden forum". Not very familiar with that forum but I
don't think there's a search feature. I understood Camo to say he was
going to post the results on T'Ville when he had time. Darlene

[greyghost]

Ami, Thanks for sharing that info-I've never seen it before.

The young lady who first shared Barlow Jap has a beautiful blog that
can be found at www.2manytomatoes.blogspot.com. If you select
(scroll down-at the left on the page) "tomatoes", you'll find Camo's
2010 taste review, photo's of Barlow Jap (it's a rose-colored fruit.
Be sure to scroll the entire length. The whole blog is very well done
and a joy to follow (I especially enjoy the occasional photo of a grey
horse-brings back memories of my old friend, Greyghost).

My plants (all but one given away) were all healthy as "starts" from
the very beginning. I thought the cross-section looked similiar to
Brandywine-sort of a honey-comb appearance rather than the "wagon-
wheel" appearance of the seed locules.

Camo's taste tests appeared during July-August on idigmygarden.com;
2009 taste tests can be found by paging back to around Nov '09--under
the "heirloom garden forum". Not very familiar with that forum but I
don't think there's a search feature. I understood Camo to say he was
going to post the results on T'Ville when he had time. Darlene

[freelancer79d]

Now that is a good read. I hope that a new type can have my name on it with such a graet story....lol. Guess I need to go to South America and brave headhunters to find a new type...lol.

Ami,

I think you said in another thread you are growing the Barlow Jap this year. The last time I read you post, the tomatoes were still green on the vine. Can you provide a little information about the germination and growth you have witnessed? Did you experience a high or low germination rate? Did the plants grow well from germination or did they require special attention? Were the plants productive? What size are the fruits on your vine/vines? Did they set fruit early or late? I don't know if you have high heat like we have any Texas, but did they react well to the heat you have? Did you have any disease in your tomato garden this year that affected other plants but did or did not affect the Barlow Japs? How large are your plants? I would appreciate any information you may have basis your observations.

Thanks

Ted

[Gobig_or_Gohome_toms]

Here is a post that Ami had with pictures of ripe fruit:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ght=barlow+jap

Craig

Okay, I think I have found enough information to provide fairly accurate information on the Barlow Jap tomato. Please read my original "edited" post and furnish any corrections you may be aware of. I want the description to be as accurate as possible.

Thanks

Ted

[Gobig_or_Gohome_toms]

Only comments I had were the blog and Ami's descripson looked like the size of this one would be 8-12 oz. (250-350 grams) Also for taste I beleive I read Camo say meaty and sweet but did not have time to go back and read the blog.

Craig

[amideutch]

Ted, I think your edited post pretty much describes it in a nutshell. Here is how it is listed in the 2010 SSE Yearbook which has only one listing. Ami

2010: , 1 lb, meaty with excellent flavor, Developed by Roy Barlow, Shelbyville, KY, from seeds brought from after WWII by a friend, who said it was the best tomato he'd ever eaten. These tomatoes became the main crop for Mr. Barlow's produce business, and he called them his 'Jap' tomatoes. Seeds shared by his granddaughter, Brita Barlow.

[Alpinejs]

Barlow Jap is the last tomato on my "current" wish list for next spring.
Tatiana's site shows no vendors. Anyone know a source of Barlow Jap seeds?
Do I, also, need to smuggle them out of Japan???

Obviously, the "seedaholic" meetings haven't been helping me much. Just
ordered four more varieties earlier this evening. Shame on me.

[OtterJon]

Alpine, BlueRibbonTomatoes has them, Maria is great to buy from and is a reliable source. She has some on Ebay right now and she has them in her store I believe.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Barlow-Jap-Kentucky-Heirloom-Tomato-Seeds-/380371447981?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588fe7 b0ad

http://www.blueribbontomatoes.com/

[Alpinejs]

Thanks, OtterJoh....I got them ordered through BlueRibbon. My shopping is complete
(I hope).

[b54red]

I grew Barlow Jap for the first time this year. Germination was very good and the transplants did fairly well until my first one got hit by fusarium and died after making only a few. My second plant is still making though not many; but it is only one of 9 tomatoes out of over 100 to make it through the whole summer and still be productive in the fall. Taste is excellent but I didn't have many as large as Ami's, probably because of the intense heat down here this summer. All of my tomatoes tended to ripen before reaching there full potential in size. I'm hoping to have a slightly cooler summer next season and maybe get more large ones.
I grew mine on a trellis and it got huge and needed a bit of pruning to stop it from making too much vine and not enough tomato. It sent out a lot of suckers and the stems would fork about every foot, so if I hadn't pruned it I would have had a total mess. My sister grew one in her garden and didn't prune it and it did well early on but became an absolute jungle with only small fruit by August. Since you will be dealing with the heat and long season of Texas I would recommend limiting the number of stems to a manageable amount.

[OtterJon]

Good to hear it Alpine, You underestimate your addiction though, you WILL buy more seeds before next year...Just sayin