Sgt. Peppers

[KarenO]

I wrote about this in another thread but decided to start a new thread on the subject.
I am growing out a Sgt. Peppers plant from seed I recieved from the generous Marsha. My plant seems to have more Antho in it than is Normal with the whole plant having a wispy and very dark appearance. The stems nearly black with pigment giving it a very strange look.
Now that it is setting fruit, As opposed to the immature green hearts with antho shoulders that should be expected, the fruit are all antho blue at this point.
I know it is a fairly new tomato and therefore likely still a tiny bit unstable. Wondering if others who have grown it have found variation in the amount of antho pigment expressed
KarenO

[KarenO]

even the oddly long sepals look black they are so dark.
All over dark antho hearts on a wispy black plant.

[gssgarden]

VERY interesting. Attractive too!!

Can't wait for more pics on the entire plant, full sized fruit and what it looks like cut!

And of course the taste results!

Greg

[imp]

What a striking plant and fruit.

I must be confused because I thought the Sgt. Pepper's was also a longer pepper shaped fruited plant, like Snickers/Deep Space??? I may be lost, LOL!!!!

[dmforcier]

Appropriate that is thread - and the pictured tom - should be started so close to the 50th anniversary of the album.

[FarmerShawn]

I have two growing this year, but it's still too early for fruit; it's just blooming now. I have noticed, though, that the wispy vine is decidedly purple.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[carolyn137]

I have one plant out now and Rob,who raises my seedlings for me sent me several extras which I distributed locally, so I'll be able to make some comparisons throughout the summer.

When I started this post, and lost it, I said I didn't know where my seeds came from, so I went agoogling and came up with this thread, and Karen, this may be the other thread you were referring to.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=37095&page=3

Towards the end where Sgt Pepper was discussed.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

It was driving me nuts not remembering where I got my Sgt Pepper seeds from but I was able to do a fancy e-mail search via my mail system and this is what I found.

And yes,Tollie sent me the seeds.

(I packaged an envelope and put it in the mail this Saturday morning. You should get the envelope during this next week. Inside the envelope are seeds for Sgt. Pepper’s tomato and also Bammer’s Luck tomato. Both of these tomatoes should be pretty well stable. I do not foresee any continued segregation with either variety. Please feel free to trail these and send them out to whomever might be interested in making them available to people. If you like, I can send you some new varieties each year to trail and distribute. I enjoy the process of growing, breeding, making selections, and sharing seeds.)

Carolyn,who knows she will sleep better tonight having solved this problem,so onward she goes to the next problem to be solved.




Please keep in touch. If you ever see a tomato of mine that you would like to grow, let me know and I will send you seeds. Any seeds that I send to you are welcomed to be shared and distributed so long as I am confident that they are stable. I’ll let you know about stability of each when I send seeds. I do have a lot of stuff that is mostly stable. After growing some things this year, I should have a few to send you for next year that I feel confident about.

[KarenO]

I presume the above is a quote from a message or email to you from the breeder Jason Hanes Carolyn.
Mine looks nothing like those shown on his website so
clearly it is still segregating, not surprising as It was released at F5 I believe.
KarenO

[ddsack]

Karen, I am not growing any Sgt Peppers this year, but I did grow them the last two years. I'm guessing I started 6-8 seeds each time, and both years I had one plant that came up a plain pink heart with no antho in leaves or fruit. So I do believe it still is segregating, though all my antho fruit were very uniform and correct. What I don't remember is if I used my saved seeds or the original seeds from Jason the second year. I did not see any plants as dark as yours! Great find!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by KarenO

I presume the above is a quote from a message or email to you from the breeder Jason Hanes Carolyn.
Mine looks nothing like those shown on his website so
clearly it is still segregating, not surprising as It was released at F5 I believe.
KarenO

Karen, the above is from an e-mail that Tollie,aka Jason Haynes, sent me in 2013.At his site he said to look for updates,but that never happened, so what you see today at his website was from 2013.

The fact that folks see differences in the antho shoulders should not be a surprise to anyone IMO since that is determined by exposure to sun as it is for all antho varieties.

Tollie was at one time a registered member here at Tville but he and a few others were banned since they all were connected at one place or another to someone else who I will not name.No,I didn't ban any of them, and actually thought that some of then should never have been banned.

Tollie participated at several message sites and others got their seeds for not just Sgt Pepper but also for Bammer's Luck and Sailer's Luck from him.

Since Tollie said that further genetic segregation was not expected,then we have to look at what folks today are saying about it.

First, from Mariseeds,new for 2016

https://www.mariannasheirloomseeds.c...16-detail.html

Next, Karen Golden at Michigan Heirlooms who sells only plants, just scroll down to Sgt Pepper

http://www.michiganheirlooms.com/TomatoBEEFSTEAK.html

Next, Neil,who is a longtime SSE listed member and a friend of mine and also a seed production member in the 2017 worthless,stupid SSE 2017 Yearbook ,my choice of words, and now I have to copy what Neil said in his listing of it.

85 days, indet, RL, with blue green leaves and stems, with a good yield of 6-12 oz pink oxheart fruit with purple shoulders, high anthocyanin, very good flavor.

So I don't see any indication of genetic instability,what I see is what we see with many varieties, that is, different folks growing the same variety in different years and different seasons depending on weather,soil,what zone and so many other variables can and do see differences sometimes.

Carolyn, who said earlier in this thread that she distributed seeds to a few local folks, as well as the one in the backyard in a large pot,so will keep in touch with them thru the summer to see what differences might show up.

[KarenO]

Anybody who is growing it, please post a photo of your fruit and your plant. The point of my thread is to show that my plant is different than what is typical of this variety. If there is a "typical" in an unstable tomato.
KarenO

[ginger2778]

Karen, this is a very different plant and fruit than what I grew, and this is my second year growing it, because like Dee above, my first year I got a pink heart with no antho at all,(if it doesn't have antho, it ain't Sgt. Peppers) seeds from Jason himself, so they are clearly not stable as yet. Mine last year had the typical antho shoulders, pink under.
Yours has more antho than I have ever seen in any Sgt. Peppers.(Sorry Carolyn but it is true) I wonder if it will be pink under all that antho when it ripened. I sincerely doubt that it is due only to bright sunlight, especially since it is far bluer than just the shoulders.

[Alaine13]

Here are some current photos from my sgt pepper's.

[Labradors2]

My Sgt Peppers was grown from seeds from a swap marked F6 2015. The stems are dark like the picture that Alaine posted above. The fruit is small and all green.

I LOVE your Dark, dark, dark plant KarenO. If it's a good one, please save seeds!

Linda