On the Trail of “Lost” Commercial Varieties: Success at Last!

The tomatoes in the SSE collection, though numbering in the thousands, can be divided into three general types. First are the huge number of heirlooms that have been maintained by families or individuals. These are the ones that have been handed down over the years, finally reaching an SSE member, who grows it out and makes it available for all of us to try. Sometimes, these varieties have detailed and interesting histories attached to them, such as Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter, Viva Lindsey’s Kentucky Heirloom, or Cherokee Purple. Often, the history is sketchy at best, or even absent, or forgotten. Even more surprising to note is that in many of these cases, varieties matching the descriptions were never commercially developed, or available. The most obvious case is of the bicolored beefsteak varieties, such as Ruby Gold and Georgia Streak. Among the possible origins of these tomatoes are introduction from other countries, crosses or sports that appeared in gardens over the years, or renamings of commercial varieties by various gardeners. For example, if a particular family was growing Acme for generations, somewhere along the line it may have received a different name, such as Fritsche Family, or Hunt Family Favorite, in order to personalize it a bit. All of these reasons, and perhaps others, could conceivably have contributed to the observation that thousands of named tomato varieties exist in the various seed collections (SSE, USDA, Davis), yet far less than 500 types were commercially produced and released by seed companies.

Another group of tomatoes that are represented in the SSE collection is the newer commercial open pollinated varieties, such as Fireball and Rutgers, and some of the experimental varieties that have been generated by amateur plant breeders. Examples of these are Green Grape, Purple Perfect, and Elberta Girl. Many people are (unfortunately) also beginning to offer seeds saved from hybrids, such as Sweet 100. There has been little interest or activity in using the old fashioned methods of tomato “breeding,” such as looking for sport plants in the fields, or hybridizing for the sole purpose of stabilizing the offspring for release of new open pollinated types. A major reason is the one of profit; hybrids are big money for seed companies, since they force you to return to them each year for seed. Of course, you can save seed and grow tomatoes from hybrids, but it is any body’s guess what you will get. I am currently working with a truly fine hybrid cherry tomato, Sun Gold, growing out 4 or 5 of the F₂’s each year just to see if I can get an OP version that has the excellent qualities of the hybrid. Seed savers should be warned that it takes years of grow outs to truly stabilize varieties that originate from F₁ hybrids.

Finally, there is the small number of authentic heirloom commercial varieties that were developed between 1870 and the 1920’s. Among well-known examples of this type are Abraham Lincoln, Stone, and Marglobe. This category, in particular, has interested me for a long time, for a number of reasons. These old varieties represent the first attempts at improving the tomato in America. Growing out these varieties gives us an opportunity to see what people were growing and eating at the turn of the century. And, many of these varieties were used as breeding stock for future tomatoes. And so, one can be assured that they are growing something old and historically interesting when some of these varieties are in the garden.

In the mid 1800’s, tomatoes of various sizes and colors were being grown, having probably come to this country from Europe. It seems as though the fruits of these old varieties were quite rough and irregular, and reading the reprints of the Fearing Burr and Vilmorin books give a pretty good image of what was available back then. Early attempts at improving the tomato involved selecting the fruits on a particular plant that had the desired characteristics, such as saving seed from the largest or smoothest fruit of a particular plant. Of course, growing the saved seed gave fruit that were very similar to the parent plant, since selecting particular fruits do not lead to improvement or genetic variation. The major breakthrough occurred when Alexander Livingston of Ohio realized that identifying and selecting seed from superior plants in a particular plot of a variety would lead to the desired improvement and refinement in the tomato. Nearly all of his early releases resulted from his careful observations made in large plantings of tomatoes. We will report on his efforts in a more detailed article in the future.

It has been assumed that many of the early varieties of commercially released tomatoes are extinct. In reading Carol Deppe’s book on home plant breeding, I was alerted to the USDA tomato germplasm collection, and decided to see what they had in storage there. Much to my delight, Carolyn and I found that they had a significant number of the Livingston-bred varieties, as well as numerous other commercial OP varieties, in their collection. We requested from the USDA, and received, a large number of these old varieties, and in fact, are growing them in our gardens this year. This discovery has led to what is the most exciting garden that I have yet planted, and many of these are setting fruit as I type this article. The best information source that we have found for descriptions of commercially released varieties is the Michigan State College Special Bulletin 290, Tomato Varieties, 1938, by Gordon Morrison. Much of the information cited below is from that source.

Among the varieties we will soon be harvesting and tasting are the following Livingston-bred varieties: Acme (1875), Magnus (1900), Favorite (1883), Lutescent (probably same as Honor Bright, 1897), Beauty (1885), Dwarf Stone (1902), Paragon (1870), and Golden Queen (1882). Other old commercial varieties that we are growing are Buckbee’s Beefsteak (Buckbee, early 1900’s), Landreth (synonym for Earliana, 1900), King Humbert (similar to San Marzano, very old, from Italy), Triumph (1879), Early Large Red, Beauty of Loraine, Optimus (Ferry Morse, 1885), Queen Mary, King George (these two from the Blood collection of the 1930’s), Mikado Scarlet, Redfield Beauty (a selection from Beauty), Alpha Pink (Isbell, early 1900’s), Excelsior (1900), Mikado (Henderson, 1889), Wins All (Henderson, 1925), Geswein’s Purple Bonny Best, Early Ruby (1891), White Queen, Alpha (1882), Essex Wonder, Banana Leaf (a curiosity!), Queen of the Purples, Green Gage (1879 is listed, but much older, from Europe), Alice Roosevelt (1900), Trophy (1870), Royal Purple, and Abraham Lincoln (Buckbee, 1923). In a number of cases, the varieties growing from the USDA collection seed look very different from our previous experiences with them, such as Abraham Lincoln (larger fruit, later) and Acme (smaller, smoother fruit, off color). A number of the above, such as Trophy (the seeds of which were sold for $5.00/20, very expensive for the 1870’s), Paragon (Livingston’s first introduction, said to be the first really smooth, large tomato), and Acme (the first smooth pink by Livingston), were the breakthrough varieties of their time.

Among other old commercially developed varieties which are already in the SSE are Early Michigan (1889), Peach (1891), Dwarf Champion (1892), Stone (1891), Earliana (1900), Chalk’s Early Jewel (1905), Globe (1906), Ponderosa (1891), June Pink (1906), Early Detroit (1909), Bonny Best (1916), Gulf State Market (1921), Greater Baltimore (1925), Cooper’s Special (1926), Marglobe (1927), Break O’Day (1932), Oxheart (1932), and Pritchard’s Scarlet Topper (1932), and Rutgers.

We will be making close observations on these varieties, and then comparing this data to descriptions from the old seed catalogs. Also, we will report on our findings in the next issue of Off The Vine. And, we will be saving lots of seed from these types, in preparation for the potential high interest that the SSE members may have next year.