1994 Tomato Harvest Report

 

Confusion, Surprises, and Lots of Seed!

 

 

            We are getting to the end of the line now, with October knocking at the door, the evenings crisp and cool, and just a few stragglers left in the tomato section of the garden.  As I catch my breath and think back over a busy year of gardening, I think of how overwhelming it was to grow, taste, and save seeds from over 100 varieties of tomatoes.  It does become a blur after a while, and some varieties will always get “lost in the sauce” (no pun intended!), and maybe overlooked.  Just as readily, an especially good early variety, or one that is historically significant, or particularly attractive, may be rated a bit higher than it should be.  But, be that as it may, I will attempt to share the hi and low lights, the thrills and chills, of what was growing in my garden this year.

 

            The tomatoes that I chose to grow this year fit into several categories.  The most significant is the group to varieties that were obtained from the USDA; most of these are historically important, and are described in the older seed catalogs or mentioned in the Michigan State Bulletin of 1938.  Some of the USDA varieties have intriguing names, and were included despite their anonymous background or history.  A second category forms the core of my garden each year - a selection of time tested favorites.  These tend to change a bit each year, with some new discoveries added, a few under performers dropped, but a very few will be in my garden forever.  Third are SSE varieties that need to be grown out for seed; included in this group are old varieties that people have sent me that are not yet in the SSE collection.  Fourth are the oddities and miscellaneous, such as amateur-produced hybrids, growouts of F2’s and F3’s from seed saved originally from good hybrid varieties. 

 

            In category one is found the following:  Lutescent, Beauty of Loraine, Alpha, Banana Leaf, Essex Wonder, Green Gage, Early Ruby, Redfield Beauty, Buckbee’s Beefsteak, Triumph, Landreth, Royal Purple, Livingston’s Main Crop Pink, Queen Mary, King George, Excelsior, Optimus, White Flowered Marge, White Flowered Marglobe, White Queen, Golden Queen, Geswein’s Purple Bonny Best, Magnus, Favorite, Paragon, Acme, Trophy, Dixie Golden Giant, Queen of the Purples, Early Large Red, Alpha Pink, Abraham Lincoln, Mikado, Mikado Scarlet, and Beauty.  Carolyn also grew Alice Roosevelt, King Humbert, Winsall, and Livingston’s Oxheart.

 

            The list of annual favorites include Mortgage Lifter, Sun Gold (the lone commercial hybrid), Tiger Tom, Bisignano #2, Hugh’s, Brandywine (perhaps the one indispensable variety!), Stump of the World, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Brandywine, Opalka, Green, Anna Russian, and Eva Purple Ball.

 

            In the “need the seed” category are Marizol Purple, Ukrainian Heart, Big Yellow, A. C. Red, Mary Robinson German Bicolor, Ice, German Red Strawberry, Aker’s Plum, Wins All, Tyrell County Heirloom, Hunt Family Favorite, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Reif Italian Red Heart, Nicky Crain, Cuostralee, Great White, Marizol Bratka, Reisentraub, Yellow Beefsteak, Gallo Plum, Believe it or Not, Djena Lee’s Golden Girl, Lillian’s Red, Yellow White, Purple Top, Verna Orange, Sochulak, Dinner Plate, Amish Paste, Tice’ Yellow Better Boy, Persimmon, and Georgia Streak.

 

            Finally, we come to the curiosities and miscellaneous stuff.  In my garden were Orange Brandywine, potato leaf and regular leaf selections; Yellow Oxheart X Russian Heart, Fuzzy Beefsteak, Price’s Purple X Purple Perfect (the latter three are Tad Smith created hybrids), Brandywine X Stupice, Brandywine X Kotlas (both Stanley Zubrowski hybrids that were sent to me by Bill Minkey), Cherry Belle F1 (from a seed saver in Austria), Potato Leaf Hillbilly, Magnus (regular leaf selection), Mikado (regular leaf selections), Oak, Azure, Lemmony, Carrot Like, Raspberry Colored, Amber Colored, Black Plum, Black from Tula (varieties not yet in the SSE Annual , but sent to be by David Cavagnaro), and some grow outs of F2 seed collected from Sun Gold and Tigerette Cherry F1 fruit.

 

Brief descriptions follow:

 

Lutescent:  probably same as Honor Bright, a Livingston variety from the 1890’s.    Unique yellow foliage, whitish flowers, smooth 4 ounce globes ripen pale green            to white to yellow to red.  Fair flavor, quite firm.  More of an interesting curiosity          than a great tomato!

 

Beauty of Loraine:  Flattish, lobed medium sized red, partially hollow with seeds in a         cluster in the center of the fruit.  Mild to bland.

 

Alpha:  Short potato leaf plant, early, small round red fruit, crack prone, fair taste.

 

Banana Leaf:  Interesting potato leaf type (distinctive, like a banana leaf), lanky plant,          small oblate red fruit, very firm, fair taste.  

 

Essex Wonder, Early Ruby, Excelsior, Landreth, Early Large Red, Triumph, Optimus:  All similar-spindly plants, early, small to medium red fruit, some partially    hollow,  crack prone.  Probably similar to or synonymous with Earliana or Bonny           Best.  Landreth had the best taste, Triumph and Early Ruby the blandest.        Optimus, Early Large Red, and Landreth deserve another chance due to late             ripening or bad garden location.

 

Green Gage:  Vigorous productive plant, small plum shaped yellow fruit, good flavor.  a       very old variety.  This one went down with disease early, and didn’t do nearly as             well as I suspect it should.

 

Redfield Beauty, Beauty:  Beauty is one of the most significant old commercial      varieties, by Livingston.  Medium sized, smooth slightly oblate pink fruit, no           green shoulders, some cracking.  Very juicy and lots of seeds, good flavor.           Geswein’s Purple Bonny Best and Royal Purple looked very similar.

 

Buckbee’s Beefsteak:  Looked like a typical irregular, large red beefsteak type.  Very       vigorous vine, fruit often folded and cat faced, but very good flavor.

 

Livingston’s Main Crop Pink.  Medium to almost large, smooth pink oblate fruit of             good flavor.  Very productive.

 

Queen Mary, King George:  Both very healthy and productive, small to medium globes      in clusters, scarlet, good storage quality, mild flavor.  Queen Mary a bit larger.

 

White Flowered Marge, White Flowered Marglobe:  Very similar, nearly whitish   flowers, otherwise an ordinary medium sized scarlet globe tomato, good flavor,          crack prone.

 

White Queen:  Very vigorous and productive, medium to very large nearly pure white           fruit, ribbed shoulders, some cat facing, solid and with good flavor.  One of the       better whites.

 

Golden Queen:  A true oldie, from Livingston in the 1880’s.  Smooth medium to large         lemon yellow fruit, globe to slightly oblate, with a pearly pink blush on the     blossom end, nice flavor.

 

Dixie Golden Giant:  Large to huge pale golden (not yellow) fruit,  very tall and          vigorous plant, nice mild flavor.  Similar to Gleckler’s Goldie.

 

Magnus:  Potato Leaf plant, from Livingston, 1900; very low seed germination (got one       regular leaf and 2 potato leaf plants from 100 seeds.  Medium sized pink.              (Theregular leaf plant was a large red).

 

Favorite:  Another significant Livingston variety from the late 1800’s.  Very smooth, regular, medium sized oblate red fruit, excellent flavor with tartness not often      found in the larger beefsteak types.  Very much worth keeping going!

 

Alpha Pink:  An Isbell variety from 1915.  Delicate but vigorous and early plant, good           set of medium sized pink fruits, very nice flavor.  Probably similar to the older   Acme.

 

Trophy:  If this is the real thing, very old (1870’s), and the first relatively smooth tomato.       This one was medium to large, somewhat flat, deep red, some cat facing, very rich   “old fashioned” flavor.  This one was crowded in my garden and deserved a better       spot; maybe next year.

 

Paragon:  Another of the true old timers, from Livingston in the 1870’s.  Mine had lots          of blossom end rot.  Looked to be a medium sized, relatively smooth, slightly     oblate red, OK flavor.  Needs another chance next year.

 

Mikado:  From the 1880’s and described to be a large pink potato leaf type.  We got the     right foliage and size, but the color was red (pink is recessive, so perhaps there             was crossing over the years).  Large oblate beefsteak type, with lots of   misshapes.  Very fine rich flavor, and quite productive.

 

Queen of the Purples:  Another case of crossing it seems.  We got a medium sized red    nondescript fruit, OK flavor.  Was probably supposed to be pink.

 

Abraham Lincoln:  The foliage was not “bronzy green”, but the size was large, and met      the description in the 1923 Buckbee catalog.  Mine grew over a pound, were        scarlet and slightly oblate, but smooth, and of excellent flavor.

 

Acme:  And once more, the color was wrong.  This one grow red instead of pink, and was   not very distinctive-just an ordinary medium sized red tomato that tasted good.

 

Mikado Scarlet: 

 

King Humbert

 

Alice Roosevelt:

 

Dwarf Stone: