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Old April 22, 2012   #1
tjg911
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Default fish lake oxheart part II

zabby has a thread and here's another. why is there no info on this tomato? i searched thru pages of google and bing searches. all i find is grow lists. even tatiana's database has virtually no info. all i know is it is rl, red and heart shaped. i've got several under lights, giving away 3 and growing 1, but i'd like to know about it. anyone point me to info on it?

tom
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Old April 22, 2012   #2
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I grew several last year and really liked it. It is a medium to large red heart with few seeds. It was extremely early for me with one plant giving ripe fruit in only 55 days and the slowest of the six FLO plants that I set out produced fruit in 61 days though I'm sure in a cooler climate the dtm would be longer. Like most hearts it is fairly meaty yet unlike most hearts it is juicy. The taste is more of a full rich tomato flavor as opposed to the very mild sweet flavor of many hearts I have grown. The vine is not as large as some like Linnie's or Wes and it is not overly wispy as some hearts are. I would call it a moderate producer. It tolerates high heat very well or it did last year.

I hope this helps Tom.

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Old April 22, 2012   #3
carolyn137
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http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...h_Lake_Oxheart

Tom, perhaps little info on it b'c it's so new. Neil G in Canada sent it to me, and no doubt some others as well, and with time it will become more well known and I'm sure offered at several seed sites.

I know I sent it for trial to several sites, so we shall see.


I agree with B4 that it has a more complex taste than many hearts, as does Danko, in my opinion, and a few more, and all I can tell you is that I like it very very much and am indebted to Neil for introducing this variety.

I'm listing it in the 2012 SSE YEarbook, I think I listed it in the previous one as well, have sent out a boatload of seeds from SSE requests and also offered it last year and this year in my seed offer here at Tville.

Seeds offered last year didn't germinate well, so new 2011 seeds were offered this year.

For more reports you might want to check out the thread I put up in the Fall of 2011 which is a feedback thread on performance of the varieties I offered here in Jan of 2011.
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Old April 22, 2012   #4
tjg911
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thanks b4 and carolyn.

i saw the writeup on tatianna's database, it was the only place i found any real info and yet there was next to nothing about flo there.

is there no story like brandywine sudduth's or cherokee purple et al? where's it from? who found it? maybe i'm spoiled reading the history of these tomatoes. earl of edgecombe, one of a few new varieties i'm growing this year, reads like a novel compared to the little info on flo!

i love hearts and really am looking forwards to tasting flo, i sacrificed growing wes this year for flo and that's a real sacrifice!

tom
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Old April 22, 2012   #5
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Originally Posted by tjg911 View Post
thanks b4 and carolyn.

i saw the writeup on tatianna's database, it was the only place i found any real info and yet there was next to nothing about flo there.

is there no story like brandywine sudduth's or cherokee purple et al? where's it from? who found it? maybe i'm spoiled reading the history of these tomatoes. earl of edgecombe, one of a few new varieties i'm growing this year, reads like a novel compared to the little info on flo!

i love hearts and really am looking forwards to tasting flo, i sacrificed growing wes this year for flo and that's a real sacrifice!

tom
Tom, Neil G.has already answered your question about history, there is none, in this thread from the Legacy Forum;

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...003#post269003
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Old April 22, 2012   #6
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Tom I think you will be very happy with your substitution unless you are just looking for numbers. In my experience so far FLO doesn't produce as much as Wes; but for me the taste is far superior.
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Old April 22, 2012   #7
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Default Fish Lake Oxheart

Tom, if you Google Fish Lake Garlic Man, you can read all about Ted Maczka of Prince Edward County in Ontario.
I think you would find it interesting even if there is no mention of tomatoes.
I'm guessing he named it, and he is the original source as far as I know. He is getting on in years and lives in a retirement home now.
Neil G.
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Old April 23, 2012   #8
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Tom,

If you read my thread, you saw that it was sent to Seed Savers' Exchange from Ted Maczka of Prince Edward County in Ontario, and if you found no other info that's because his offering it through SSE was the first time it was widely available. Info about a tomato doesn't just appear on the Internet, after all---people who know about the tomato have to post it there!

With due respect to Carolyn, that doesn't NECESSARILY mean it's "new." This county has been a farming area for 250 years, and it's possible it's an old tomato that has been around here for generations. That's why I asked about it on the "legacy" thread. Or it's possible that Ted bred it himself (he has bred strains of garlic). I was hoping Neil's letter would answer the question but apparently Ted told Neil he didn't remember where he got it.

I suppose if we want to know the next step would be for me to try to talk to Ted, which I will try to do sometime this summer. There is another local organic veggie grower whose family has been here a long time (I am a newcomer, only seven years here) and who sells seedlings about several local varieties and she might know something, too.

I'll share any thing I find out here.

Z
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Old April 23, 2012   #9
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Tom,

If you read my thread, you saw that it was sent to Seed Savers' Exchange from Ted Maczka of Prince Edward County in Ontario, and if you found no other info that's because his offering it through SSE was the first time it was widely available. Info about a tomato doesn't just appear on the Internet, after all---people who know about the tomato have to post it there!

With due respect to Carolyn, that doesn't NECESSARILY mean it's "new." This county has been a farming area for 250 years, and it's possible it's an old tomato that has been around here for generations. That's why I asked about it on the "legacy" thread. Or it's possible that Ted bred it himself (he has bred strains of garlic). I was hoping Neil's letter would answer the question but apparently Ted told Neil he didn't remember where he got it.

I suppose if we want to know the next step would be for me to try to talk to Ted, which I will try to do sometime this summer. There is another local organic veggie grower whose family has been here a long time (I am a newcomer, only seven years here) and who sells seedlings about several local varieties and she might know something, too.

I'll share any thing I find out here.

Z
Zabby, if I may, please.

When I say new I'm mean newly available to the public and in this instance the original listihng by Neil G was the first time it became available to not the public at large, but SSE members.

If Ted told Neil he didn't remember where he got it, it doesn't sound like he bred it, etc.

So see what you can find out and remember that for access to this variety to the public at large I've offered it at Tville in my last two seed offers, and more to the point I'm the only one listing it in the 201 2 SSE YEarbook.

And while I sent it to several commercial seeds sites for trial it takes time for them to work up seed production.

So never fear, Fish lake Oxheart has not only become a fave of many here at Tville and there were a few who requested it from my SSE listing, I'm sure in the future it will be found at several seed sites, and that indeed is great since that helps preserve a variety as I see it.
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Old April 23, 2012   #10
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>> Zabby, if I may, please.

But of course!

>> When I say new I'm mean newly available to the public

Thanks for clarifying!

>> If Ted told Neil he didn't remember where he got it, it doesn't sound like he bred it, etc.

It doesn't, does it? You would think a person would remember breeding a tomato variety.

Though, you never know. Maybe Ted's mind is so full of garlic he forgot. He really is quite the local character---I've seen him around town driving his pickup truck with a giant garlic bulb on its cab roof, walking about with a baseball cap that has dried garlic bulbs on it.

>> So see what you can find out and remember that for access to this variety to the public at large I've offered it at Tville in my last two seed offers, and more to the point I'm the only one listing it in the 201 2 SSE YEarbook.

Well, I'll see if he will meet with me and if he can remember any more, or if any other local growers know about it. If I find out anything, then as the number-one spreader of the seed perhaps you can help to spread the information as well!

>> So never fear, Fish lake Oxheart has not only become a fave of many here at Tville and there were a few who requested it from my SSE listing, I'm sure in the future it will be found at several seed sites, and that indeed is great since that helps preserve a variety as I see it.

Yep. Though if we can preserve some history of the variety too, so much the better!

Thanks, Carolyn.

Zabby
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Old April 23, 2012   #11
tjg911
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Originally Posted by b54red View Post
Tom I think you will be very happy with your substitution unless you are just looking for numbers. In my experience so far FLO doesn't produce as much as Wes; but for me the taste is far superior.
taste far superior to wes? can't imagine that! prue and wes are my favorite tomatoes, both so good it's a virtual tie and nothing is even close to these 2, i like prue's flavor just a tiny bit more. everyone's soil, climate and taste are different. if flo tastes almost as good as wes it'll be added to my top favorite list!

the fish lake garlic man sounds like quite a character.

tom
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Old April 24, 2012   #12
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Originally Posted by tjg911 View Post

the fish lake garlic man sounds like quite a character.

tom
He is indeed---in the best way. I have spoken with him once or twice, and he was delightful and, not surprisingly, VERY knowledgeable and enthusiastic about garlic.

Too bad I didn't read about the Fish Lake Oxheart just a little earlier, in time to track down and start some seed for this season. Well, there's next year!

Zabby
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Old April 24, 2012   #13
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Too bad I didn't read about the Fish Lake Oxheart just a little earlier, in time to track down and start some seed for this season
Zabby,

If you really want to grow it this year I have a spare seedling.

Or I can send you seeds at the end of the season. (but you'll have to remind)
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Old April 24, 2012   #14
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Full Moon,

Really? I'm going to be in Montreal this weekend!
Where are you in the city? Do you want to PM me?

Thanks,

Z
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Old April 24, 2012   #15
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Of course really.

Yeah pm me to discuss how we can get this baby back "home".
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