It doesn't seem like anyone grows it, I wonder why. What little I can find about it on the internet states that it is supposed to be very flavorful for a yellow tomato.

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I've never heard of it before. I Googled it and found nothing other than a link indicating that tomato carotinoids have been used to study the pigmentation of egg yolk.

And it isn't listed in the SSE Yearbook, which was just another place I looked.

Could you please tell us more about it in terms of where you got the seeds and is Egg Yolk the name of the variety?

Carolyn

This link is one of the few references I have been able to find on Egg Yolk on the web. It is really hard to research this variety because most of what I get are recipies for tomatoes that involve egg yolk.

...... is what the blurb at Baker Creek says and since it's from a sport it doesn't seem to me that it would be an heirloom variety.

I kinda thought your source might be Baker Creek, only b/c some other varieties you're growing are also from Baker Creek.

But it looks like you didn't get the seeds there yourself.

Carolyn, and since it's anew variety at Baker Creek I think that explains why you haven't seen many others growing it. Yours is the first mention that I've seen. Maybe I missed in the Baker Creek catalog and maybe it's one they added to the website after the 2007 catalog was sent out.

Can a variety originating from a sport become an "heirloom" tomato at some point in time, or does originating from a sport automatically disqualify a tomato from "heirloom" status?

Do any of the tomatoes discussed in "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden" originate from sports?

Bill

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Looks like I missed it in scanning the tomato section.

(Can a variety originating from a sport become an "heirloom" tomato at some point in time, or does originating from a sport automatically disqualify a tomato from "heirloom" status?)

You know the answer to that Bill. Sure a variety originating from a sport, which to me means a known genetic mutation ( either a seed DNA or cellular DNA one), can become an heirloom variety in time. No automatic disqualification as far as I'm concerned. And in those cases where the mutation didn't really change the variety that much I don't know as there ewven has to be a time requirement.

Heck, no one does, and no one will, b'c there is no one leading authority, individual or organizational, on such decisions.

(Do any of the tomatoes discussed in "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden" originate from sports?

I dunno. Let me take a look at the index right now.

Bill, the only one I see listed that I know arose from a mutation is Cherokee Chocolate where there was an epidermis mutation from clear ( Cherokee Purple) to yellow, according to Craig.

Carolyn

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I guess so Bill, as in maybe, possibly, and who knows. LOL

I just don't have a good handle on this.

I've repeated what I saw someone else say, and that's that about 95% of all NEW varieties came/come from cross pollination and subsequent genetic dehybridization to the OP state, leaving about 5% that arose by genetic mutation alone.

I think I'd have to go digging to find those mutational ones to be more sure of myself in answering your question. As in, how did the mutation from the original change it? Enough to call it something new, or call it a strain of the original. Did it deserve a new name or not?

Carolyn

IS there a definition of Heirloom out there?

If Dr. Carolyn 'doesn't have a good handle on this' is there any hope for the rest of us?? :)

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I saved seed from Galina's Yellow and the next year when I sowed those seeds I got plants with salmon, pink, yellow, red and ivory fruits and all the plants were RL. Galina is PL. The ivory colroed one was far and away the best both in terms of taste and plant vigor, and I saved those seeds and wrote mutant on the vial. To this day I have no idea what kind of muation it could have been.

A sport can refer to a mutation of the DNA in the seed or to a mutation in the cell of a plant, which are called somatic mutations. When a somatic mutation occurs one can have one wrong colored fruit on a plant with all correct colored fruits, and it was a somatic mutation that led to Yellow Riesentraube. Also with a port ( somatic) mutation one can find one branch with differently colored fruits or a branch with altered shape of fruits. I've had two somatic mutations of that type.

At the same time a good friend in Utah, Steve Draper, had had the same thing happen and asked if I'd send him all my different colored ones. I did, and he also thought the ivory one was the best. Without telling me he listed it in the SSE Yearbook as Dr. Carolyn and was I ever surprised.

It has some of the genes from Galina's which almost everyone says is a great cherry variety, and I agree.

(IS there a definition of Heirloom out there?)

There are several definitions of heirloom out there but no one accepted definition.

Carolyn

Egg yolk did well for me. It is very yellow, and perfectly round. A little bit bigger than a regular cherry tomato. I found the flavor to be good for a yellow tomato, as I often find the yellows to be bland. It had a quite thick skin, probably among the thickest I have encountered on a tomato. Of course with that skin, it didn't crack!

I didn't see a start of it for sale this year at the place I buy my plants, so I didn't get a chance to try it again.