Production for me was on the low side, maybe 8 on the one plant I grew, whereas 4 feet away Olive Hill had 25-30 large fruits, and McKinley 3ft over had 20-25.

1) yes

2) they were selected with only one concern in mind - taste. not production. There were more productive GOS sibling lines but they didn't taste as good. Dora and Bear Creek are sibling lines where the compromise of flavor vs production was made. There were better tasting Dora sibling lines but they produced far less (the fruit were bigger too). There were also more productive Dora siblings but they didnt taste as good. Each line's selection was made for specific reasons to honor and represent who they were named after.

BD, your experience is not normal however. The only place I havent heard a report from is the SouthWest (San Diego being an exception to that). All other areas from British Columbia to Florida (Au and NZ) have gotten better production than what you stated. Here GOS is actually surprising early for a large tomato but if I recall you are in the midwest too and the midwest has just had a really odd weather pattern this year. Your plant habit in particular seems off. I actually find the growth a little too vigorous so short plants are odd. I never saw that even in sibling lines. I am not sure what could be off but I can get you seed through the cantankerous old coot in Evansville.

based on what Korney has repeatedly posted about his methods of growing in the past, I suspect his issue is cultural for that variety. It's probably over-fertilized which it does not like. Some varieties liking more and some varieties doing better with less is something Dr Gardner taught me when going out to observe different growers fields.

I am restrictive with fertilizers on tomatoes. So things I select probably do better with less fertilizer (though I have never bothered to directly test that).

Actually, I never got my fertilizer injector hooked up that year so they never got fertilized regularly. I think if I did, I'd probably have had 50 Olive Hills and 500 Cherokee Green Grapes that year! I don't overfertilize, I just use high P & K ferts at a very weak rate.

Bigdaddyj, you in the midwest? I thought you were in MD or VA or DE.

Thanx to you both. I am in Delaware. Some say it's East. Some say it's South. I say it's Mid-Atlantic....:)

Like I said, I hope this year is an anomaly. I really love this Gary O'Sena. I got the seeds from a fellow on another site. When I get my next ripe one I'll take a pic. But they are a dark pink with a green/brown shoulder. Two were about a pound the other two half that. Big ones were gravy boat shape.

Thank you for the seed offer. After I post pics and we're sure I have Gary O'Sena I won't have to take you up on it. I already saved about 100 seeds. Fermenting now. But this is one DELICIOUS tomato!

A quick correction on the name, which is Gary'O rather than O'Sena

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Gary'O_Sena

Thanks for the correction spiced_ham. I wanted to say something but didn't. Good ol' Gary'O. On the top of next years list. The one I set out for fall perished in the mean SW desert heat.

OK, here's some pics. The fruit are about 2 or 3 days from total ripe. They will get darker and the shoulders will get more brown than green. The two plants featured are about 15 to 20% smaller than most of my other varieties. One just hit the top of the 6' tall Texas cage and the other is about 5 inches from the top. You can see a SunGold behind them that's like 10 feet tall now.

One of the two plants is starting to have a little disease issue at the bottom but really minor. The other is fine. If all the green fruit on the plants now ripen before frost added to the ones I already picked I will end up with about 9 to 10 fruit per plant.

A quick correction on the name, which is Gary'O rather than O'Sena
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Gary'O_Sena

*****

You don't even need to go to Tania's site. Just ask mulio who posted above what he named it b'c he's the one who bred it. ( smile)

And below I've linked to mulio's site, which is a treasure house of information about all aspects of tomatoes, from breeding them, how segregation works and much more.

You can even see mulio at tomato work at the top of the link where his releases are pictured and discussed.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Gary, Dora, Liz and PH

Hoping mulio or anyone sees this and responds as to whether my plants and fruit are consistent with Gary'O_Sena.

And thanx for the spelling correction.

Here's one pic I have of one of the 8:

{{gwi:1377567}}

Hope this helps.