Experiences with F2 Kumato

[Greatgardens]

I'm interested in what others have found when planting seeds from Kumato (grocery store) fruit. I grew two plants last summer that were from a Kumato that had been saved over several generation. It didn't do well for me. The plants were severely affected by foliage diseases. So this year, I'm going to plant F2 seeds from grocery store fruit. I'm interested in how this specific F2 turns out (not F3 or above and not similar varieties) I know theses are hybrids and that the variability in the F2's is to be expected.

Have others grown the F2's? I found a thread here where MrBig46had grown them. Any other folks? How did you like them? Were they close in taste to the grocery store fruit? Any particular disease issues? How big were the plants?

Thanks,
GG

[RandyG]

I saw plants of an F2 of Kumato in a grower field several years ago and did not see a lot of variability in fruit or plant characteristics. For some hybrids, parent lines are similar in traits or may even be closely related genetically (even sister lines) with one having one or more dominant resistance genes crossed with a similar line that has other dominant resistance genes so the hybrid turns out to have multiple disease resistances with the dominant genes being heterozygous.

[ddsack]

A few years ago, I grew Kumato F2's from some decent tasting winter fruit I found at Walmart. I don't remember if I checked for the growers location on the pack. My saved seeds grew a very sprawling rambling plant with a lot of production of clusters of brown saladette tomatoes that looked just like the F1. My problem with them was that they were very late in the season for me, which surprised me given that the fruit are not that big. The taste was ok, but not nearly as good as many heirlooms I was growing, so I can't say whether the flavor deteriorated in the F2, or whether it just suffered by comparison to my other summer tomatoes. Have not grown them again.

[MrBig46]

I grow regularly every year Kumato F2. In my family it's success, , some say that this tomato tastes the most.
¨ Vladimír

[carolyn137]

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ghlight=Kumato

Please see my post #2 above for some great info.

There have been many versions of Kumato, very many indeed. It was originally an OP from Spain but when Syngenta got a hold of it, well you can read about that above.

And when introduced in the US it was given a different name,it's all in the link above.

Is it the best brown large cherry one that I've ever grown ? No, and at one time it was also called Brown/Black.

Along the way mutations have happened as well,which has changed size and taste.

OK, I just found what I was looking for in my data book and I got it from Paco in Spain as Negro de Olmeda many years ago and spread it around to others.

Carolyn

[NicolasGarcia]

How do you have the certainty that kumato is a hybrid?
I have serious doubts that it really is a hybrid. It would not be the first time something is recorded as such to protect it more. When you plant a hybrid, a lot of diversity comes out and in this case they always look the same to the parents.

Supposedly f2 would not be all the tomatoes of the same size, color and others and in the case of kumato they are all the same, I have been planting until f4 of kumato and they are identical, the truth is that I have no experience in genetics and so on. It is only an observation.
There is a thread in a Spanish tomato forum that a person was willing to do a DNA analysis to prove that kumato is not a hybrid.

[NicolasGarcia]

The curious thing is that there is no tomato variety registered as Kumato®. So how has Syngenta appropriated this right? Here begins to reveal, in part, the myth of Kumato®. In the middle of the last decade, large seed corporations began to worry about the appearance in the markets of competitors that were depleting their monopoly on vegetable seeds. Small companies and individuals were able to offer flavored tomatoes, using traditional varieties or even rescuing some variety that had been originally discarded by corporations, as happened with the Raf tomato in Almeria.

The demand for flavored tomatoes was unstoppable, so they gave guidance to their technicians to find some variety that could compete. In the case of Syngenta they finally got a small, dark-skinned tomato. This variety was duly registered in Spain and Holland under the commercial name of Olmeca.

graphic kumato
A part of the business had been saved and farmers could now be offered a flavor variety to put on the market. But the response was not as massive as expected by the multinational and in the field continued to prefer the cultivation of other flavored varieties that were well suited to the greenhouse and that already had good reputation among consumers. Above all, one of them, the Raf tomato mentioned above, that had been ingeniously renamed "Tomato pata negra" and that also has the advantage of not being a hybrid variety, so the seed can easily multiply.

Faced with this adversity, Syngenta, far from being demoralized, devised a strategy based on what is known as the "Variety Club", a sibylline and refined way of keeping tied by production contracts to farmers and deriving most of the benefits. of the cultivation towards the coffers of the corporations.

The first thing that variety clubs need is to get a high reputation among the public. Hence the invention of the word Kumato® which is not a variety of tomato, but simply the registered trademark with which Olmeca tomatoes are labeled when they are released on the market. The launch of Kumato® was initially carried out in the United Kingdom through a large deployment in the media, endorsed by journalists with prestige in the "gourmet" world and in healthy food. A success that made the doors of the European market open to him.

[Dutch]

Muchisimas gracias Nico! Estoy agradecido!
I try to keep an open mind on most matters and this is no exception. To me your explanation seems quite possible. I need to do some more research to see how all the peice of the puzzle might fit together. Again thank you for posting this info.
Dutch

[MrBig46]

I never ate another tomato with the same taste as Kumato. In the year 2014, I cultivated the Kumato F2 from the seeds that Baikal sent me. I packed one inflorescence and I removed the seeds from the fruit (F3?). In 2015, I cultivated the Kumato F2 again, and the Kumato F3 from the 2014 seeds. I will leave judgment to each of you. As for taste, it was different.
I still have a few remaining F2 seeds and each year I plant four plants - the most popular tomato among some of my family members. No research in this area anymore (I have no place). but I wonder how the Kumata F3 will be successful at others who will try.
Vladimír

[NicolasGarcia]

In my humble opinion, of all the plants that I have planted for years, none have tasted the same plant in another year, it depends on many factors, such as time, soil and many other factors, and even a plant that does not I liked one year, when I gave the second chance to another year change of flavor and the one that I did not like the second year I loved ...

[NicolasGarcia]

The seed that Mr. Baikal sent him was my seed, from that same seed I got to the f4 and frankly they were equal in taste to the f2 ... clear for my taste

[NicolasGarcia]

Is there a possibility that you have been crossed?

[Dutch]

Hi all!
I have been interested in this variety for some time now, so thank you GG for starting this thread. I also thank Randy, Dee, Vladimír, and Nico for sharing their observations of grow outs. Also thank you Carolyn for sharing your knowledge and for providing links.I hope others will share their experiences of this variety. I have much to learn. I thank you all.
Dutch

[oakley]

How many varieties are you seeing in your markets? We have at
least three, maybe four.
A mini,(cherry), a golf ball sized, and the larger one we have always
had the past few years.
I just might save seed and grow the cherry this season.
...after reading this.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Nicolas, I received some Kumato seeds from Baikal one year ago. Are they F3? F4?