16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
The only reference I could find is a video with the worst looking tomato seedlings I've ever seen where he mentioned the name .
Where did you first see the name?
When googling I found lots of stuff described as mom's big fat......well almost anything,
I didn't check any European sites since the name doesn't convince me it would be found there.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Big Fat, etc
I don't know anything about this particular tomato, BUT
Ever since the dark ages, there has been opposition to science and scientific methods. But in the long run science benefits us , the humans to have a better life, live healthier and longer.
Luckily, there are free choices. You are free like some Amish, not to take medication or have surgery, etc.
These are political statements with blurred boundaries of what constitutes "conventional" breeding, just like when I go to Whole Foods and see "Conventional" vs. "Organic". In fact, Indigo Rose was developed by "introgressing" at least three different genes from three respective species:
Solanum lycopersicoides
Solanum chilense
Solanum cheesemanii
&&&&&&
Conventional breeding to most folks, including myself, means not developing a variety by the use of the introduction of genes from another genus/ species.
Which would make it a GMO as is the one from England. All accessions used to initially develop OSU 20, then to P20 are in the family Solanaceae, genus Solanum, and that includes the wild species that were most important to developing Indigo Rose,
The most important link I have I linked to below so it is ASAP clickable. It's from Keith Mueller's website which I've linked to many times here since it a treasure in many ways. Keith got his MS from Dr. Randy Gardner from NCSU, now retired, but is still breeding tomatoes and many of you probably already know of his Mountain series and so many more.
Keth has bred some wonderful varieties such as Purple Haze F1, Liz Birt, Bear Creek, and many more that have become very popular and has been working with many projects such as what he calls Lucky Sun, an initial cross between Lucky Cross, the stable gold/red bicolor and Sungold F1.
Keith, IMO, knows more tomato genetics across the board than many such geneticists in academic positions who usually focus on just one area.
When you click on that second link below the FAQ one that I mentioned above, you'll see that there were many other parental inputs, many accessions from the TGRC at UC Davis in CA. Tomato breeders can request accessions but have to document their accomplishments to date and what they want those accessions for.
Several years ago I asked a former friend who was going to the Galapagos Islands to please bring me back seeds for S cheesmanii, she sent me whole fruits that were not cheesmanii. Since I knew the island they came from I called the TGRC and spoke with Dr. Chatelet who told me that what I had was a stable cross between a currant tomato and now I forgot the other parent.
That variety was named, not by me, Sara's Galapagos and is still one of my fave wee fruited varieties.
The TGRC is THE main source of accessions ( genes) for tomato breeders all over the world
Indigo Rose I have not tasted, but was sent fruits of P20 which I did. And hopefully someone will be able to finally introduce some decent taste into a so called blue variety with the anti-oxidants that was the reason Dr. Myers started this whole project all those many years ago.
Indigo Rose
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Development+of+Indigo+Rose+tomato
For those still interested in Idigo Rose development, in the above link no need to look at where the seeds are sold, rather,look at the OSU link as well as the Wiki link as well, etc.
Hope the above helps,
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Blue tomatoes
Sun Gold is a true "CHERRY" size. It is sweet and juicy and split if over ripe. I have other cherries too. One is red/pink and 3 times as big as SG. I have no name for it b.c I got the seeds from store bought heirloom. Another PLUS about it is that the plant is COMPACT indet and manageable.
Anyway, I like to grow different colors of tomatoes and it shows.
I just posted a long list of hearts that I like, off the top of my head, so not complete, the list,not my brain,LOL,in the thread titled What Meaty Tomatoes, above, I tried to cut and paste it tohere, but that didn't work, so if anyone is interested thay can go to that thread and read.
And I think the variety that can be most closely compared with Wes is Russian #117 which is a red double flat heart.
Carolyn
No commercial name that I know of, it's one of several under research lock and key.
The lemon basil gene used which expresses geraniol synthase is named the "GES gene" in the literature.
Transgenic tomato lines overexpressing geraniol synthase (GES), and there are many such lines under lock and key in research institutions, are called "transgenic GES tomato lines".
Similarly there is more of a gene-named alphabet soup in other targeted aroma GM tomato lines in the academic coffers such as "GPPS-SSU transgenic tomato lines" crossed with GES transgenic lines.
no fish genes made tomatoes taste better as far as I know, nor plants growing salmon sandwiches ;-)
PC
This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 13:10
If you're referring to those minor splits, what happened is that the epidermis of the fruit was at it's maximum size and any additional uptake of water, I guess from the rain you had, causes splits.
it looks to me like they are already scarring over so no worries as I see it.
Carolyn
Thanks Dave, I knew what I meant, I just couldn't type it!! Phosphorus deficiency. Bulbs are two year old fluorescent growlights. But the temperature thing is a distinct possibility. I grow them in the basement because it is cooler, and with our extended polar vortex this winter, it may have been cooler than I thought. Timing would seem to be right also, as soon as they get their first set of true leaves I turn off the heat mat, and things get much cooler. Also, I know fluorescent output is pretty highly temperature related, could my cooler temperatures have impacted light output as well? I read through the attached thread, thanks lindalana, and once again, more reasons why I really need a greenhouse!!
Steve
Something I did this year for the first time, was add Azomite to my soil. The plants responded very positively. Azomite can be hard to find in some areas. I got mine at a hydroponics store. A little goes a long way and seems to work wonders for plant health. I applied it once in early spring, just before I planted the seedlings outdoors.
Hi everyone,
Here are my tomatoes, turning red!!
There was an accident with the main pot of them falling off the roof in a storm (resulting in the tying down of everything else, and erecting of a small fence at the edge, don't worry)��"so the bulk of my crop was lost, but luckily I had accidentally swapped a few of them for cherry tomatoes, and so while their growth is stunted for being in smaller containers, I have managed to get some to harvest:
http://roofinlondon.tumblr.com/post/96792141644/the-heirloom-tomato-mylors-finally-red-ready
Carolyn, I'm not sure whether it's indeterminate or not, since the whole thing fell down right in the middle of everything growing. It looked like it might keep going forever, was almost as tall as me (5'-ish), so I assume indeterminate. But it didn't really get a fair shot.
In London we have pretty temperate weather; the hottest it gets in the summer normally is upper 80s and that's unusual, and it always cools off at night. These started turning red right during the "heat wave" of high temps for two or three weeks that we had this summer, so they seemed to like it, but it's hard keeping up with hot weather in the containers so wonder what they would do if they were in the ground.
I still have some of the original seeds, and am trying to save some seeds of this year's group as well, so happy to swap with anyone who wants to.
Also your location would help.
There are basically 3 types of "blight", all with different causes, symptoms and effects, and survival rates.
And Southern Blight which basically affects the stems.
So any idea exactly which of the first two you have? I'm guessing Early Blight since plants can recover from it to a degree and there are lots of discussions here about it - treatment, prevention, pics, etc. But Late Blight almost always kills the whole plant.
Dave
Dear poor struggling tomato enthusiast, as you wrote above,ahem, the choice is yours. Sell your computer and software to get the money to send me the book and return to you as well,and for the autograph fee, OR, go to your bank and take out a loan,
No, I do onot co-sign loans.
The choice is yours.
Please send me an e-mail at cmale@aol.com and we can work out the details once you've sold your computer or taken out a loan(smile)
BTW,at the time I was asked to write that book I'd grown about 1200 varieties,not the1000 you said,and I know how precise you insist on being.It's now over4,000 varieties.
Carolyn, who Marv, has no idea why you had to revert back to lubadub, doesn't make sense to me. Did you contact Tamara the Mod to ask about that?
LOL, Carolyn, another mortgage if only you knew how funny that is ... When can I leave this place and find my own tomato-green-acred-Shangri-La? Far from the legions of armyworms, sun shower daily sprinkling, fungal haze in the air, and 80 ðF, 98% humidity summers all night long...!!!
Don't make me look into selling future put options on 100 Heirlooms at the strike price of $1K, please be nice. I will email you. But my book doesn't have that kind of equity yet and I'd much like to put it peacefully next to my Illy's Espresso Coffee, the Science of Quality, my only other perk of the day. (smile)
"BTW,at the time I was asked to write that book I'd grown about 1200 varieties,not the1000 you said,and I know how precise you insist on being.It's now over4,000 varieties. "
I'm not insisting, would you like me to insist? I think you've confused me with the other dapper gentleperson! IâÂÂm thrilled at the numbers game and IâÂÂm on my way to #20, but still am short of growing 1/200 of what you have done!
When I said:
After growing over 1000 varieties, each special, and introducing many to home gardeners for the first time!
I only plagiarized your bio from the inner flap of 100 Heirlooms's cover, so you may scold Smith & Hawkin's graphic design department for not primly and properly updating that to 1,200 at the time, although to be fair they said âÂÂmore than 1,000âÂÂ:
Dr. Male scientifically ~ and lovingly ~ has raised more than a thousand different varieties of heirloom tomatoes in her zone 5 garden in upstate New York.
BTW, âÂÂin Upstateâ New York should be capitalized, shouldnâÂÂt it? Or was âÂÂupstate in New Yorkâ what was meant? And, do you think her zone 5 garden should be a capitalized "Zone 5" too? Yes, you need to revise and expand this book. Based on 1,200:100, now you will need to write âÂÂ333 Heirloomsâ to keep up with all those new and deserving cultivarsâ¦
PC, noting that my favorite hot-headed tennis champion of all time, John McEnroe, will be defending his honor at the US Open tonight
Yes,pictures do help, but it's also good to know that many do not have a camera,a smartphone or whatever.
The last pictures I ever took were with a throwaway Kodak back in about 1983, my good Minolta camera being stolen when I was still in Denver.
Same with all the suggestions to maintain a compost heap, mulch heavily with this or that, build a trellis, and on and on.
I'm not the only senior citizen who could not do that, even if I didn't have this walker to contend with.(smile)
Carolyn
Let me say a bit more about my decision to combine Ridomil Gold and Daconil:
Two years ago, at the time of the 2012 late blight crisis, I contacted Syngenta (maker of Ridomil) to ask about its efficacy against the disease. I got a detailed and very helpful response from a technical specialist. She said that while Ridomil could be an effective preventive to certain strains of the disease, it is not useful once the disease has set in.
However, she did suggest that I try Ridomil Gold Bravo SC, a version that includes Bravo fungicide. The active chemical ingredient in Bravo is chlorothalinol, which is also the active ingredient in, among others, Daconil. I had already paid a very large sum of money to buy the R. Gold, I was not about to shell out another $80+ for the Bravo combo. It seemed logical to me then, and still does, that Daconil would be a perfectly matched stand-in for Bravo.
I applied this mixture in 2012 (when it was too late to have any effect except on the new growth). This year, as I've said, I sprayed the R/D mix on my tomato plants in early June. And, as I have noted, it seems to be effective EXCEPT for the two Red Cherokee plants that are now infected.
It is my understanding that most garden chemicals are compatible. I have routinely combined insecticides and fungicides, to no ill effect. Most gardeners do, I believe. (Sulfur & copper, a k a "Bordeaux Mixture." Rotenone & pyrethrins.) In some cases of mis-match, the effectiveness of the individual chemical might be reduced. But the final call is whether the plant tissue is visibly damaged. This, I think, rarely happens.
1. Taste including texture & juiciness
2. Size
3. Productivity (by number of fruits)
4. Hardiness
5. Appearance
6. Smell
To me taste is above everything by far. I want a juicy tomato with a blend of sweet & acid taste that ranges from that classic tomato taste to a taste heavy on acid. Vinegar, lemon juice, and the like are among my favorite flavors so a highly acidic tomato is a good pick for me. This year I am loving Azoychka (very acidic, lemony flavor) and Radiator Charlie's mortgage lifter (classic tomato taste), but not so thrilled with Cherokee purple (too sweet without much acid--a good tomato to give away) for example.
I don't like cherry tomatoes. I prefer something big enough to slice for a sandwich. I don't find that cherry tomatoes taste better, but they are certainly less versatile. I can do anything with a bigger tomato, but it's no fun to slice cherry tomatoes for sandwiches, among other things.
If I can have those two things then I worry about productivity. More fruits is better than fewer. This year it's hard to tell what is or is not productive though. Nothing is producing well! Sigh.
Hardiness includes disease resistance, cracking, and everything else that relates to a plant being harder to kill, easier to grow or producing better or worse fruits. I don't mind babying a good tasting, productive plant with big fruits. But all else being equal, it's nice to not have to worry about killing it accidentally.
All else being equal, nice looking tomatoes with attractive fruit are nicer than ugly ones. And I just absolutely love the smell of tomato plants. Even if there is nothing to harvest, and the plants don't look happy, that taste is a great reward whenever I work on the tomatoes. Habanero peppers are my favorite crop over all, but tomatoes have the best smell. Except for maybe oregano. I can't think of any I have grown that did not have that tomato smell, but I'd be disappointed if I grew a plant and did not get that smell. If I came across one, smell might move up the list. :)
Angie
Taste is everything. My brandywines were more delicious by a long mile than any other tomatoes I grew. I got maybe a dozen but they were the best I have tasted for a long time. If I only got 2 off the plant it was still worth growing just for those two. As you can see I thoroughly enjoyed them!!!