Kumato seeds

[kforbs126]

Today I received some kumato seeds and immediately planted them. How is this variety? Does anyone know the germination time? Any info on these would be great.

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by kforbs126

Today I received some kumato seeds and immediately planted them. How is this variety? Does anyone know the germination time? Any info on these would be great.

I have three plants growing in the outdoor garden now (28 May 2013). The seeds were obtained from Supermarket tomatoes and collected in the proper manner. They were very slow growing, but seem healthy and are about six inches high and healthy now.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?BNJPI 12 April 2013 Kumato Tomato Seedlings
The seeds were obtained from a package of tomatoes purchased in the supermarket. The seeds were treated as one would in saving tomato seeds. Germination and growth was slow, but now they appear to be doing just fine. This is my first introduction to this tomato.

[travis]

The results should be very similar to the F1 since both parent lines are very similar to one another. The few differences are that one parent line's fruit is slightly more elongated and one is more rounded, and the foliage is more erect on one parent line than the other, whose foliage hangs somewhat more horizontal.

The big difference you may see between the supermarket F1 and what you will grow is the fruit quality. Unless you are growing in optimum greenhouse conditions, you probably will get cuticle cracking (weather check) leading to concentric cracks and some fruit rot on the shoulders in hot, humid conditions in open gardening.

[kurt]

Lot of posts and threads in the search section.I grow them every year.Dark green foilage.Slow germ starter.In our heat seedlings do not like it at first.My seeds came from store that was from a Canadian grower.Some stores carry Mexican stock.Great shelf life.Sweet when not as ripe and sweeter when ripe.Good looking mater on vine.Dark bronze,green shoulders.AKA Russo Bruno.Controversial history about origin and company that developed them.I myself love them.I get 1 1/2-2 1/2 inch,4-6 on a bunch,50-70maters per 8-10 foot plant.Grows like a cherry.They have a small cherry variety also for sale.

[Delerium]

Was it me who sent them out to you ?

[kforbs126]

Originally Posted by Delerium

Was it me who sent them out to you ?

I think it was haha

[Delerium]

Mine all Germinated so will see how they turn out. I will usually post updates on my fb page. Have fun with it i plant to use some Kumato's for some test grafting rootstocks. Hope you keep us updated.

[bejustice]

I have some Kumatos. They are all over Spain. You can buy the regular club variety at big grocery stores, and save seeds from those, or you can look for them loose, unpackaged at neighborhood grocery stores. I am growing a variety that I found unpackaged sold as Kumato which is very common to see. My seeds came from bruised and dents. I am seeing no difference in the tomato shape. The few that got fruit worms are turning redder than they should. It is still too early to say if they will ripen up true to form but they look like they will. I think looking for them unpackaged gets you a jump on finding finding your own sugold select 2 version of Kumato. It would be nice to have some true seed to compare it to. I am really excited about Kumato, I think it will be a success here in and out of the club. It is a great little tomato. The Kumatos at TJ's are about half the size of the Kumatos at Mercadona. They bought different sized packaging for the same variety. This to me is interesting. Maybe the variety at TJ's is the cherry, it is too big to be called a cherry.

[travis]

Bejustice: yes it would be nice to obtain F1 seeds for Kumato so that you can compare F1 fruit to F2, F3, etc. However, it's my understanding that the only way to obtain F1 seeds is to obtain exclusive growing rights for your area, agree to grow them under specific growing conditions, and market them in a specific manner in specific packaging.

I find it a bit unusual that Kumatos are being sold in bulk, or that seconds and culls are being sold in an open marketplace. It seems those may be something other than F1 fruit from a grower under agreement with the breeder.

As far as some fruit being significantly smaller than other fruit, and the packaging being sized accordingly, yes I have seen some Kumatos that were a bit different in sizing, but not significantly to the point of some being large cherries and others being say twice that size.

However, Kumatos (even the F2, F3, etc.) grow fruit on trusses with the fruit at the farthest end of the truss being smaller than fruit at the base of the truss closest to the shoot. So, there is that insignificant to maybe 25% difference in size between the largest and smallest fruit.

I've also seen a bit of difference in the shape of Kumatos with some fruit being flatter globes and other being more elongated globes, but with F2s and F3s this seems to be more a result of environmental conditions than anything else ... in spite of the fact that one parent in fact makes more elongated fruit than the other parent.

If you are buying Kumatos in neighborhood markets in Spain and seeing big differences in sizes, shapes, and fruit quality, especially if you are buying seconds, I suspect someone is growing F2s, F3s, etc., or someone with a license to grow F1s (or possibly an employee of such a person) is selling fruit in violation of a signed agreement with the breeder.

[bejustice]

I was finding them loose all over the place. Not in mercados, or supermarkets, but in mom in pop grocery stores which Spain still has. Some mercados have Carrefours or another supermarket attached, cool idea, maybe thats why, probably not though.

What interests me about Kumatos here in the states is that the ones being sold at trader joe's are much smaller. Whoever is packaging them bought the packaging smaller, much smaller diameter tube. It seems like they are growing another smaller version of Kumato. To me they are not Kumatos at that size. The Kumatos at Mercadona are twice the size than the Kumatos at Trader Joe's, both sealed in tubes with a cardboard tray. It is interesting.

[kurt]

Here in Miami they do market a smaller cherry Kumato.They tend to be really firm and somewhat tasteless at times.We get crops grown from Mexico and Canada but at different time spans during our summer.These come only in the cardboard sleeves and not loose.