OSU Blue released?

[afrance30]

I hadn't heard that OSU Blue had been released for sale to the public... has it? Hirt's is offering it on eBay also called it Smurf Tomato or P20 Blue Tomato in the listing. Legal, or not? Anyone working with this tomato aware of it's availability status?

I'm just confused

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by afrance30

I hadn't heard that OSU Blue had been released for sale to the public... has it? Hirt's is offering it on eBay also called it Smurf Tomato or P20 Blue Tomato in the listing. Legal, or not? Anyone working with this tomato aware of it's availability status?

I'm just confused

There are many websites selling OSU BLue, the P20 version of that and others.

If you do a search here you'll find that lots of folks have been working with it. The goal of the project is to get some vitamins into people by eating tomatoes and most of the individual projects initially kind of agreed that it didn't taste good at all, and with that I will agree. But there have been a lot of advances taste-wise.

Legal? Who knows, I won't get into that subject but I've not seen any final release of anything from Dr. Myer's group at OSU.

As for the Smurf reference that's a variety bred by Tom Wagner and he along with many others have worked with it. There are several varieties Tom bred, not all stable and at his website he's been selling seeds. I have no idea why Hirt's listed Smurf as an aka for OSU BLue, P20 or whatever, well, I do actually, for PR purposes b/c smurf is kinda cute. Yes?

Cute the name might be but IMO they had no right to adopt a name given to Tom's Surf one which is NOT identical to OSU, P20 or whatever.

Here's a bit more about Dancing with Smurfs;

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ighlight=smurf

Finally, I do not find Hirt's to be a reliable place in many ways and it's been that way for many many years as feedback has shown.

[Iva]

Plus, they stole my photo! The first one that has almost purple blue fruits, one of them being pretty large and the green fence behind it, was taken in my garden, with my camera. I did ask them to remove the photo twice now but still no response. Well, they sure are not getting any new customers that way

Originally Posted by afrance30

I hadn't heard that OSU Blue had been released for sale to the public... has it? Hirt's is offering it on eBay also called it Smurf Tomato or P20 Blue Tomato in the listing. Legal, or not? Anyone working with this tomato aware of it's availability status?

I'm just confused

I can tell you that is definitely NOT P-20 as those who have the real P-20 have signed a paper that makes it illegal to share.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by WillysWoodPile

I can tell you that is definitely NOT P-20 as those who have the real P-20 have signed a paper that makes it illegal to share.

However, those who received the original OSU BLue from Dr. Myers for use in their breeding projects also had to sign such a paper and those seeds still got distributed.

And then there was the lady who worked in Dr. Myers lab who distributed seeds to anyone who wanted them in a thread she started at Dave's Garden. When I asked her if it was OK to do so she just said that no one told her not to, and that was that.

[Fusion_power]

Jim Myers is supposed to release it with the name Indigo Rose. I have not spoken to him in several months but the last I checked it was held up in some internal university approval process.

The various seed offered range from the highly selected P20 line which can be almost black to others that have only a ring around the stem. All of these tomatoes as a group have poor flavor. I've been working on one that is a selection from P20 crossed to some better flavored tomatoes. The best I've had so far was about an 8 on the flavor scale. That may not sound like much, but if you consider that the original P20 was maybe a 3 or 4, you can see the level of improvement.

DarJones

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Jim Myers is supposed to release it with the name Indigo Rose. I have not spoken to him in several months but the last I checked it was held up in some internal university approval process.

The various seed offered range from the highly selected P20 line which can be almost black to others that have only a ring around the stem. All of these tomatoes as a group have poor flavor. I've been working on one that is a selection from P20 crossed to some better flavored tomatoes. The best I've had so far was about an 8 on the flavor scale. That may not sound like much, but if you consider that the original P20 was maybe a 3 or 4, you can see the level of improvement.

DarJones

I can undserstand the University hang up b'c when a faculty member gets a grant part of that grant goes to the Univesity for overhead and sometimes even the salary or part of it of the PI ( Principle Investigator) and they also have a say on what can and cannot be offered publically in terms of the percentage that goes back to the University from sales of this or that. Perhaps not all Universities do the same thing in terms of control; I can only speak to what I know of the places I've been associated with.

Indigo Rose? Hmmmm.

Darrel, do you have any idea what his Indigo Rose tastes like as I assume developed independently of you or any of the others who have been working on the same project of which there are quite a few, I mean seriously doing it not just using P20 or whatever as a novelty.

I seem to remember that some of you have been sending him what you've developed? Yes? And if so, how does that play out with his own breeding program and what he eventually releases ?

[Fusion_power]

My understanding is that Indigo Rose is a single seed selection from P20 that breeds true for all three genes that convey the blue/black color.

I sent him some early samples from a cross that was a PL version of the dark colored P20 line I grew a few years ago. Please note that P20 as I received it was segregating heavily with everything from ultra dark to stem ring coloring and everything in between. I got lucky and grew a single plant that produced tomatoes so dark they were black and it just happened to breed true. I have not heard from him if he grew them out or found any use for them.

DarJones

[Tom Wagner]

I spent a long afternoon with Dr. Myers reviewing his Indigo Rose tomatoes in his research plots near Corvallis, Oregon last July or early August.

Indigo Rose....also known as P20-3-1 is not the same as clones I received from a variety of locations...including Europe. Indigo Rose is unique...it has a clear epidermis and not the yellow epidermis which I used in breeding.

Jim Myers also has some other numbered blues and I suspect he will have new releases as time goes along. Jim was showing me crosses of the Indigo Rose with Green Zebra, Striped Roman, and Ananas Noir, however he admitted I was further along with my own segregation with those varieties.

Dr. Myers had the Indigo Rose tested for resistance to verticillium but sadly....it was deemed susceptible.

I will have to get a MTA agreement with Jim if I want to sell Indigo Rose seed, which I will sign later on, but I am not so sure I will need to do since using breeding work with his blues my new selections are not subject to licensing with OSU. I asked to get MTA's on his other selections and will grow them out but will not release them directly.

Jim has many other projects going on with other blue crosses and segregations, but he may not want me to disclose the research pending some official publications.

I was able to see the plants that Rose Marie Nichols was growing at her Albany shop...Rose Marie was not there at the time of my visit but we talked on the phone. She will carry a few seeds of Indigo Rose but I bet she will be short of seed just as another Oregon seed company is that will have the variety listed for 2012.

Jim told me which seed companies will carry the Indigo Rose for 2012, but I won't spoil the fun for them in their introduction of it.

Without a doubt, my release of many, many new blue tomato varieties this winter/spring coming up will be a unique experience for anyone wanting to try the blue tomatoes whether Indigo Rose or mine. I don't think I will run out of seed for many of my blues during the upcoming season.

Tom Wagner

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Does anyone know if the Indigo Rose is a larger fruited variety?

The majority of what I've seen of the blues have been cherry or small saladette sizes and the pictures I can find of Indigo Rose online appear about the same, but I can't find any real info. There have been a few pictures of crosses with larger fruited varieties posted by hobby breeders that look exciting.

The old chef in me likes to use as many hues as I can work into a heirloom tomato dish when it calls for an assortment. The whites are the only ones that strike people as all that unusual these days. IMO, a nice medium sized slicer in blue with good texture and just a decent taste would likely become a new darling for the trendy restaurant market.

[Gardensquare]

I purchased Indigo Rose from Park Seeds and the plants are growing better than many of the others that I started from seed-very healthy.Are the ones from Park P20-3-1? What are they a cross of? What size should they get? and deter.or interd.? & are these the ones suseptable to verticillium? anything else... "Sorry" I am just so interested in these and am happy to have them!

[Tom Wagner]

My early selections of blues from OSU...sent to me by several folks...even from Europe have been somewhat variable for plant type. I know the sales of the Indigo Blue describe it as indeterminate and/or compact indeterminate....some of my early selections were decidedly determinate. The vines are reviewed in Oregon last year were indeterminate. The fruits were salad size...not cherry and not slicers like a beefsteak.

My own breeding is allowing me all sorts of sizes..from cherry to slicers, all vine types from dwarf, determinate, and indeterminate. etc.

Which reminds me to stop now and sow about fifty kinds of blue tomatoes that are in my must sow box. In a few weeks I will have advanced filial generations of blues coming from my southern hemisphere cooperator.

[Brightmeadow]

I just bought 6 seedlings of Indigo Rose at my local nursery. They look healthy and vigorous and their stems are definitely purple too. Very pretty.

I'll let you know how they taste in a few months. )

Here is an article to cut and paste:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gar...-rose%E2%80%99

Brightmeadow

[Gardensquare]

Tom, Thanks for replying & the info.! When these blues come out, it would be great if you shared where to look for them.
Tammy, Nc

[Gardensquare]

Brightmeadow- Thanks for the link! Thats got good info. on it. I'm thinking these may be a tad sour, but lets hope not. I'll check back to see how yours fare. Sure wish I had a nursery like yours, that sold something beside the same ole, same ole. I guess I could get busy and sale some roadside-ha ha.
Tammy, Nc