Yellow Pear is an open pollinated variety. So, in the absence of a cross (rare) or mutation (even rarer) the seed will grow into plants that exactly resemble their parents.

We can this growing true to type.

Yellow Pear, btw, can be documented at least to 1750. So it's one of the oldest named varieties we have still growing. Back in those days it was used mostly for making preserves.

tm also posted this is the main tomato forum and was referred to a thread on seed saving that was on the first page at the time.

(oldest named varieties we have still growing)

Well yes Brook, but if the fruits are yellow, there you go, and if the fruit shape is a pear, there you go again, so as we know Yellow Pear, it says what it is. LOL

For most of the known pre-1800 varieties it was pretty much the same way. I grow Green Gage, not the plum as in fruit although I've grown that as well, but the tomato variety Green Gage. And why called Green Gage? B/c it's a dead ringer for the plum Green Gage.

If those folks back in the late 1700's to early 1800's ever got a look at the number of varieties we have today, and some of the names, they would be astounded. (smile)

Carolyn

>If those folks back in the late 1700's to early 1800's ever got a look at the number of varieties we have today, and some of the names, they would be astounded. To say the least!

They may not even have had names for them. If you collect heirlooms in the backcountry of America, particular in the isolated mountain regions, you find that veggies are referred to casually. A family may grow, say, two or three different tomatoes. But they refer to them as "that yaller one," or "the big striped one." I have no reason to believe that their forebears did it any other way.

One could also make a case that almost all varieties back then were landraces. If we exclude the group of Philadelphia/Virginia/North Carolina landed gentry who had a horticultural hobby, we find that most people grew the same varieties over and over again. And their near neighbors were growing the same ones.

Thus, in any particular region (however you want to define that), there were only one or two of each veggie type being grown, which, no doubt, adapted to those conditions.

Gotta be a PhD thesis in there somewhere. :>)

Gotta be a PhD thesis in there somewhere. :>)

For sure. LOL

Just last year I was sent two varieties, one named Low Acid, the other one German Non-Acid, grown by the same Amish family in WI.

David, a GW member here, had obtained them. David and I named them Amish Potato Leaf and Todd County Amish to make a bit of sense about them b'c the family didn't want their name used, they had no other information, and it seemed better to at least attach to them some idea of geographic location, Amish background, etc.

At Charlie's farm where I grow most of my tomatoes they have a dog, a large one.

And what's the dog's name? DOG. LOL That's just not right.

I can't tell you how many toamto varieties I've had to name b'c they came to me with no name.

And yes, one came to me as No Name German and the person wanted it left that way so I listed it at SSE as No Name German. LOL

Carolyn

>And what's the dog's name? DOG. LOL That's just not right. What's not right, Carolyn? I used to have a German Shepherd named Dog. I figured there are enough identity crises in the world as it is, so why add to the confusion? :>) And didn't Holly Golightly have a cat named Cat?

As to naming otherwise unnamed varieties, isn't that what Gary Ipsen did with the Julia Child? Took an unnamed pink somebody had sent him, and turned it into a memorial.

On one hand, I have no problems with that. If we're going to communicate about varieties they need to have some sort of name. But, on the other hand, I'm concerned about the proliferation of names for what may be the same variety.

Sometimes we can straighten it out, as Melody Rose did with the Uncle Mark Bagby's---which is grown in western Kentucky under at least six other names. The seed can all be traced back to one source, however.

But it's rare that the detective work _can_ be done, even if somebody is willing to do so.

If you think this is a problem with tomatoes, you should take a look at cowpeas. Not only are there numerous names for the same variety, often enough they use the same names for totally different varieties. That is, to use a made up example, Yin/Yang might be a local name for Calico (or one of its many variations). But, somewhere else, somebody is using Yin/Yang for a red pea with a white blotch.

In my collection I have at least seven cowpeas, under different names, that are indistinguishable from Calico. Are they really different varieties? Only the DNA mappers know for sure. And they ain't talking yet, not at $250/pop.

As to naming otherwise unnamed varieties, isn't that what Gary Ipsen did with the Julia Child? Took an unnamed pink somebody had sent him, and turned it into a memorial.

I don't know what Gary finally did re that Julia Child tomato.

He asked me early on if I had a great one I could send to him that he would name Julia Child and give him an exclusive on and I said yes, I had some great ones but I don't give exclusives to anyone. For me the name of the game is to share, and with me it's primarily been new ones thru my now small SSE listings.

I do know that Gary took the tomato variety Rostova from another seed source and renamed it Sunset Horizon, or whatever that new one is called.

Renaming of varieties? Absolutely, and especially rife in CA.

And there are no doubt many tomatoes in the SSE Yearbook that started life as known commercial OP's, their names were long forgotten , then they turn up with no name and are given another name.

Only DNA testing will ever straighten out that, and it isn't going to happen. Sigh. Besides, in m,anmy cases the original commercial OP's are no longer around.

Carolyn, weary from watching 2 weeks of Olympics and now 2 weeks of US Open tennis, but since I can hardly walk these days why not sit and enjoy? LOL