Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. Craig's Interview with Dr. Charles Rick. "A 57 Year (and Counting!) Affair with Tomatoes"

Spring appearing in Hendersonville in our back yard forsythia

I didn’t fully realize at the time what an awesome opportunity this was - the chance to interview a true tomato legend, who died in 2002, about 8 years after our phone chat. This will be the first time in many years I’ve read this article. What a treat - I hope you enjoy reading it.

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Conversations with Dr. Charles Rick:  A 57 Year (and Counting!) Affair with Tomatoes

by Craig

It is always a  pleasure to chat with someone about a topic that is a mutual passion.  I recently had the great fortune of spending about 2 hours on the phone with Dr. Charles Rick, and felt that it would be interesting to share what I learned with the readers of Off The Vine.  Dr. Rick is perhaps the leading expert in tomato genetics, and his work has made a great impact on commercial tomato growing in the United States.  I asked many questions, and was humbled by his knowledge, of which a mere fraction appears below, and his warmth and wit, which were infectious.  It is always humbling to find out how much more there is to learn about something that you are quite familiar with, and that was certainly the case in our conversations.  What was reassuring was the interest that Dr. Rick showed as I described some of the wonderful and unusual tomatoes in the SSE collection.  It reinforced the notion that there will always be something new to grow, and something new to learn!

Dr. Charles Rick has been working with tomatoes since 1937, when he began carrying out research in graduate school.  Though no thesis resulted from this early work, he returned to tomatoes for good in 1942, after spending two years studying asparagus at the University of California at Davis.  His growing interest in tomatoes led to an odyssey that continues to this day, spanning over 50 years.  One of the advantages to doing research at Davis is that 90% of the tomatoes that are processed in the U. S. A.  come from California, mostly in the Central Valley.  These vast plantings provide an immediate and captive audience for field research.  Over the next 20-25 years he worked on analyzing the tomato genome.  This work is not complete, and will not be completed until all of the genes located on the chromosomes of the tomato have been identified.  The information located in these genes is responsible for all of the characteristics of a particular tomato variety, such as color, flavor, and leaf shape.  Actually, we know an awful lot about tomato genetics due to the research of Dr. Rick and others.  It is from this work that we can now begin to predict what will result when different varieties of tomatoes are crossed.  For example, red (yellow skin over red interior) is dominant over pink (clear skin).  So, if a cross is made between a pink and red tomato, seed saved from that cross, which is the first generation or F1 hybrid, will produce red tomatoes.  One extremely useful outcome of this work is the ability to breed various disease resistances into tomato varieties, the best source of which are the wild species from the Andes region of South America.  There are nine species of Lycopersicon, including L. esculentum (which includes most of the varieties that we grow in our gardens), L. pimpinellifolium (currant tomato), and other wild species, such as L. peruvianum and L. cheesmanii.  The amount of genetic variation in the wild species is vast;  in fact, according to Miller and Tanksley, more genetic variation exists in a single wild population of L. peruvianum than among all accessions of L. esculentum.  Dr. Rick has made 13 major collecting trips to the Andean region.  In the wild species, all sorts of variation is noted, such as many different growth habits, leaf shapes, colors, and hairiness of the stems, leaves, or fruit.  All the wild type fruits are cherry sized or smaller, and most are green or colorless in the ripe state.  Although not toxic, their foul taste renders them inedible.  So, the collecting trips were obviously not culinary adventures!  As a consequence, the natives consider the plants to be useless weeds.  Dr. Rick, on the other hand, considers them to be useful treasures.  Some of the obstacles that are now being studied by Dr. Rick and others are using the genetic material from these wild tomato varieties to produce edible varieties that will have insect resistance, drought tolerance, ability to set fruit and flourish under different temperature extremes, and ability to tolerate salt water conditions.

Dr. Rick, when asked to comment on the SSE, has a favorable attitude, and commented on some of the interesting accessions in the collection.  I felt that he is not aware of the remarkable and amazing variety in the SSE collection, as he seemed to feel that most, if not all, of the heirlooms are in the immense USDA collection.  On the contrary, Carolyn and I feel that there is very little overlap between the SSE and USDA collections.  In his opinion, native outcrossed crops like maize might be best for the SSE to concentrate upon.  Because they are highly variable, heirloom collections from different areas should be sought for their potential value.  Dr. Rick stated that the Davis collection contains 3,000 accessions, which overlap to a limited extent with the much larger (10,000) collection of the USDA.  The Davis collection consists mostly of wild types and genetic mutants, which are accessible for interested investigators.  What seems obvious is the remarkable resource that is now available when considering all three collections coexisting together!  In other words, a tomato researcher has at their choosing somewhere around 16,000 varieties to choose from!  He also noted the problems with the possibility of different names for the same varieties in the various collections; even with the help of analysis of the genetic material, it would be difficult to determine which varieties are distinct.  One would think that after spending over 50 years studying one particular crop, there would reach a point when you had seen it all.  Amazingly, a few years ago, David Cavagnaro sent Dr. Rick seeds of one of the SSE collection bicolor tomatoes, such as Georgia Streak.  Well, it was the first time that Charles had ever seen a bicolor tomato!  I was discussing some of the other observations that I have noted over the years, such as tomatoes with wispy, carrot-like foliage, or purplish-pink coloration.  Again, these were new to him, and he was quite interested in receiving seed from those who had something truly different and unusual.  He loves tomatoes, and plants in his own garden Caligrande and Celebrity, which are F1 hybrids that carry the needed resistance to TMV and other diseases.  Such resistances are generally unexplored in the older types introduced before 1940.

When asked about the frequency of spontaneous mutations or sports, he said that they do indeed occur, but at low frequency.  If they interfere with fruiting, their unfruitfulness leads to easy detection.  Such “bull” plants, not being held to the ground by fruit load, become large, vigorous, erect plants that are conspicuous, even at a distance.  He mentioned Honor Bright (now known as Lutescent) as most likely being a spontaneous mutation.  This variety, listed by Livingston in the late 1890’s, is currently in the SSE collection.  The foliage is a light green color that gradually fades to bright yellow as the season wears on.  The fruits also go through an interesting color change on their way to ripening (green to white to orange to red).  Regarding crossing, he feels that it is up to the regional bee population.  He observes that it is rare for bumblebees to visit L. esculentum in the fields at Davis, but they love the wild species.  Plantings are done in short rows close together, and about 1% crossing is typically observed.  The crossing, of course, is spotted by growing out the next generation.

Finally, I asked Dr. Rick about germination enhancement of dormant or stubborn tomato seed.  This is a topic that has interested Carolyn and I for a few years, as we have each had old samples of seed from this one and that one that have resisted all attempts at germination.  Dr. Rick has had good luck with using half strength chlorox for 30 minutes for stubborn seeds.  Generally, the wild types have more problems with dormancy, and some types need to go through the digestive tract to grow.  This is not to suggest that readers of Off The Vine should try this rather exotic method.  Actually, we have been experimenting with, and have had limited success with, combinations of soaking seed in dilute potassium nitrate, and/or gibberellic acid, and/or brief exposure in the microwave oven!  We will talk about this topic in more detail in a future newsletter.

Dr. Rick has been retired officially for 12 years, but continues as Director of the Davis tomato collection and conducts a limited amount of research.  He is currently studying the behavior and linkage of traits derived from crosses with wild Lycopersicon and other Solanum species. 

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The information in the article really stands on its own. I am now off to try getting some of my older seeds to germinate using half strength bleach!

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. Craig's article "Early Observations from a North Carolina Tomato Jungle"

2022 garden shaping up - seedlings getting some sun

My gardens back in the early 1990s were packed with tomato plants as I gleefully worked in as many varieties that I could fit. This article describes such a garden, from 1994, just our second garden in Raleigh, when the trees hadn’t yet blocked the sun, and disease hadn’t begun to become an issue - and the deer were yet to discover what we were doing!

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Early Observations from a North Carolina Tomato Jungle

by Craig

The theme for gardening in 1994 in Raleigh is tropical!  Nearly every day since June has edged into the 90’s, with oppressive humidity and frequent evening thunderstorms.  The rain is certainly a refreshing change from last summer’s bone dry conditions.  Somehow, I managed to squeeze 110 tomato plants into my ever-too-small garden, and the dense growth has made it hard to visit some of the plants.  My family now refuses to pick any varieties that would require them to delve into this tomato vine jungle (due, in part, to the amazing numbers and varieties of spiders that have chosen to stretch their webs between the plants).  This year’s sultry temperatures have led to massive vine growth, but the sometimes excessive moisture, when combined with his poorly draining red clay, means a lot of blossom end rot, especially on certain varieties.  I have also noted that a few types seem reluctant to produce flower clusters at all!  Blossom drop has not been a problem, however, and most of the vines are loaded.

An additional theme of my garden this year is one of surprise, in that there are about 10 varieties that are not turning out the way that they were advertised.  But, the presence of many old commercial varieties obtained from the USDA (see Lost Tomatoes  article for details) and a generous selection of old favorites are leading to a very interesting year in the tomato patch.  Just about all the varieties have ripened, and our next newsletter will contain detailed highlights, low lights, and other observations from both Carolyn's and my gardens.

Among the early standouts in my plot are Wins All (from a man in North Carolina; this is his way of spelling it, which makes more sense than the one word method used in the SSE Annual), which is providing smooth, large pink beefsteak fruit with a rich, sweet taste; Lutescent, primarily for the weirdness of seeing a bright yellow foliaged plant in the middle of the patch that has fruit going from light green to snow white to pale orange yellow to scarlet; Golden Queen, giving beautiful tomatoes that are lemon yellow on the shoulders, shading to pearly pink at the blossom end (but no pink bleeds through to the flesh), and Nicky Crain, a huge pink oxheart of delicious flavor that was sent to me by Carl Aker, Pennsylvania.  Among the many varieties obtained from the USDA collection, early standouts have been Favorite, a Livingston introduction, which produces smooth, medium sized oblate scarlet fruit, Abraham Lincoln, which, although lacking the bronzy foliaged plant, has provided large (over 1 pound) delicious fruit more in line with the catalog descriptions, and Dixie Golden Giant,  one of the largest fruited varieties seen so far this year, and very similar looking to the Gleckler  variety Goldie.

One of my all time favorite tomatoes for eating, and the only commercially produced hybrid that I allow in my garden, is Sun Gold, an orange cherry tomato that has a phenomenally rich and luscious flavor.  One of my ongoing projects continues to be growing out F2 seed saved from the fruit in effort to stabilize an open pollinated version of Sun Gold that maintains the color and, especially, flavor.  This year, I have 4 of the plants growing in his garden (I grew 3 last year), and the results have been quite interesting.  One plant yields small orange cherry tomatoes (a bit smaller than the hybrid) that are very similar in flavor to its parent; another gives large yellow orange cherry tomatoes (lighter in color and larger than the hybrid) that are a bit milder, but still delicious.  A third plant gave me large scarlet cherry tomatoes with a point on the bottom that were very mild in flavor, and finally one plant looked like an ordinary small red cherry tomato, but with a more delicious flavor.  The plants all had different looking foliage, vigor, and yield, so clearly there is a lot of interesting genetic information in the parents of Sun Gold hybrid. 

Among the crosses or mixups that are not what they are supposed to be are Yellow Beefsteak (small red rather than bicolor), Hunt Family Favorite (small red instead of large pink), Marizol Purple (medium red globes instead of large pink), Cherokee Purple (round medium pink globe instead of large oblate purple), and Acme, Queen of the Purples, and Mikado (the last three all red instead of pink).  Carolyn and I are disappointed that some of the USDA collection varieties seem to be crossed, but it may be that when things start to ripen in Carolyn’s garden, she will find that she has the “real thing”.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Sue with Betts and Koda on a March walk at DuPont

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. "Carolyn's Current Favorites"

Very first forsythia blossom seen March 7

On to an article written by Carolyn where she lays out some of her favorite heirlooms. This is a fun read. She talks about quite a few varieties she got from me, as well as some real gems that she received from the mysterious Joe Bratka. Fun read awaits!

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Carolyn’s Current Favorites

by Carolyn

In our first issue of Off the Vine I said that the three most common questions asked when folks requested seeds from me through SSE had to do with isolation distances to maintain purity, methods of saving seed and my personal favorites. The first two questions were dealt with in Volume I, #1 of Off the Vine.  Now I’m going to try the “almost impossible”… describing my current favorites. By now I must have sampled 400-500 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and it has been difficult to settle on just a few favorites. But these are the varieties I grow every year … these are the varieties I head for, for myself, when I wade into the tomato field! Remember that I’m writing this in early August and somewhere in that field of 153 varieties there’s bound to be a new favorite or two. I’ll discuss them in the following order: reds, pinks, bicolors, cherries (all colors), greens, yellows and oranges.

First, let’s talk about red tomatoes, the standard accepted color of most tomato growers. Russian #117 is a large, wedge-shaped (wide oxheart) tomato which is quite prolific and has a wonderful rich flavor. It’s one of the heaviest, not largest, tomatoes that I grow and not much is known about its background other than the fact that the seeds came from a Russian sailor. Cuostralee is another favorite: three years ago a French seed collector traded seeds with several SSE members and this variety is from him; I don’t know its true country of origin. Again, it's a large, superb-tasting tomato which is slightly oval in shape. A close runner-up to Cuostralee is Druzba, a medium sized, perfect globe-shaped tomato from Bulgaria. To be honest, I’ve never met a Bulgarian tomato that I didn’t like! I’ve always liked Red Brandywine, a deep red globe-shaped variant of Brandywine. German Red Strawberry I grew for the first time last summer and I was impressed both with taste and yield of this large pseudo-oxheart-shaped tomato. Opalka is one of my best paste tomatoes … it has long sausage-shaped fruit with very few seeds and excellent taste.

There are so many excellent pink tomatoes that I had a hard time selecting my favorites. One of them had to be Eva Purple Ball; purple in tomato language means pink, except for Purple Calabash, which really is purple and is a contorted mass of tasteless flesh! Eva is from the Black Forest region of Germany and arrived in America in the late 1800’s with the Bratka family. Many of our best heirlooms arrived here in a similar manner; they were treasured family heirlooms that were brought to America by immigrant families. Eva gives you perfect pink 6-8 oz. globes all season long. The taste is outstanding and the vines are very disease resistant. The skin has a faint mottling of white: when the fruit are completely ripe they tend to drop from the vine. Another favorite is Soldacki, a large pink beefsteak type with potato-leafed foliage. I happen to be partial to potato-leafed types because they are so beautiful and are also quite resistant to both early and late blights. Soldacki is Polish and arrived here in the early 1900’s. I obtained the seed from a colleague at work. Sandul Moldovan I obtained from a family who immigrated to Albany three years ago. It is slightly flattened, about one pound, very prolific and has a lovely sweet taste. Anna Russian, an oxheart, is another good one, in addition to Jeff Davis, a potato-leafed variety, Large Pink Bulgarian, beefsteak-shaped and Fritz,  a large very deep pink beefsteak tomato from Germany. Tad Smith, an SSE member and a gifted tomato hybridizer, hybridized Purple Perfect from two heirlooms. It has roughly the same coloration as Cherokee Purple, which is a dusky rose, and I like the taste better than the latter. Grosse Cotelee and Marizol Purple are two other pinks I regard highly. Finally I’d like to mention Ukrainian Heart (TNMUJ Strain) which is near the top of my list of favorite pinks. The problem is that it crosses easily and I’ve had a hard time keeping this variety pure … but I will grow it every year because it is so outstanding.

The most common bicolored tomatoes are gold/red, but other combinations such as gold/green and white/pink, for instance, also are known, my tow selections are gold with red radiating from the blossom end; sliced fruit show the beautiful marbling of red throughout the interior of the fruit. The first one is Marizol Gold which was also brought by the Bratka family from the Black Forest region of Germany. There currently is a town there called Maria’s Zell (place), and it would seem reasonable to suppose that Marizol might be a contraction of that name. Marizol Gold is very prolific with slightly ribbed fruit in excess of one pound. The foliage is bluish green and the main stem is like a miniature tree trunk in size. Like most bicolors is a very sweet and the reason I like it so much is because there is very little rotting at the stem end which is a problem I’ve encountered with varieties such as Pineapple, Georgia Streak, Big Rainbow and other bicolors. Regina’s Yellow is another bicolor choice. Yes, there is a Regina and she’s from Ohio. While Marizol Gold is a slightly flattened, ribbed tomato, Regina’s Yellow is in the 1-3# class and is beefsteak-shaped. Like Marizol Gold it is luscious, visually beautiful both on the vine and on the plate and is also quite resistant to cracking and rotting at the stem end.

 Yes, I know, cherry tomatoes are a dime a dozen, to coin a phrase, pun intended! Reisentraube is a very old German heirloom known to be in existence prior to 1850. The name means “large grape”, but a more apt description is “giant bunch of grapes”. Riesentraube is different from ALL OTHER tomatoes I’ve grown in that it has large sprays of blossoms which contain 200-300 flowers. You could pick the sprays as a cut flower if you wished but you’d be missing out on the 20-40 red, elongated fruit with a pointed end which subsequently develop. The taste is superb; I couldn’t rate it higher! Another choice is Galina, a potato-leafed yellow variety from Siberia. The second year I grew it I found it had crossed so I’ve been planting seed each year to see what I’d get. I have both ivory and red variants, with regular foliage, and each of them has had the same wonderful flavor. Green Grape, a cherry tomato hybridized from two heirlooms by Tom Wagner of Tater Mater Seed Co. is a third choice. This ripens to an amber yellow color and, like all other green tomatoes I’ve grown, the interior is a bright neon green. You’ll have to overcome your prejudices against green tomatoes because you’re really missing out on wonderful flavor! Amish Salad is my favorite pink oval cherry tomato, Galina (ivory mutant) my favorite white and Mini-Orange my favorite orange cherry even though it can be a bit bland, depending on growing conditions.

Live a little, try a green tomato! I must confess that being a life-long gardener of primarily red tomatoes I was hesitant to try green ones; the other colors didn’t bother me, but GREEN? It turns out that I was the loser all those years. Most folks in the “know” rate green tomatoes near the top of their list of taste favorites and I would agree. Most large green tomatoes that I’ve grown have been wonderful in taste, but severely distorted in shape. Last year I grew for the first time Aunt Ruby’s German Green, an heirloom from Tennessee. It is a normal beefsteak shape with a spicy, rich flavor that you won’t find in non-green tomatoes. Others like a green tomato called, cleverly, Green, which I will try next year; it’s also supposed to be smooth.

Next I’ll mention the yellows. Until I started growing heirlooms I found most yellow tomatoes to be bland and not worth growing. Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, from Tennessee is a potato-leafed variety with large beefsteak-shaped fruit of the most complex and delicious flavor; the consistency of the flesh is almost creamy. A few of the fruit may be misshapen, but who cares when wonderful flavor is the goal. Lillian’s ripens to a clear yellow, not a gold as do most yellow tomatoes. That’s also true of another selection called Manyel. Manyel is suggested to be of Native American origin, the name meaning “many moons”, and is a large globe shaped tomato. It too, has a terrific taste and I wouldn’t be without it. Paragon Yellow may be derived from the historical variety Paragon, and while the skin can sometimes be a bit rough Paragon Yellow is a prolific producer of large globe-shaped fruit with excellent taste. A new favorite from last summer is Dr. Wyche’s Yellow. Again, it is prolific and bears large quantities of very large beefsteak fruit which ripen to a lovely gold. My last selection is a real treasure … Jaune Negib, one of the many varieties received three years ago from Norbert Parreira of France. He requested seed trades with several SSE members and many excellent varieties from his collection have become available as the SSE members reoffer seed in the SSE Annual each year. Jaune Negib is early and bears small oblate (flattened) fruit which are often scalloped. Being early, pretty, and tasty makes it rate high in my tomato book!

I’ve grown many orange tomatoes and have found only two, so far, that I like. One is Kellogg’s Breakfast which is a very large, pale orange/gold beefsteak type. Unlike Amana Orange, which it resembles, Kellogg’s Breakfast has excellent taste; the former is too bland for me. My second choice is Flamme, another variety from France. It’s a small globe, early and tasty. For some reason I find orange tomatoes to be either too bland for me or too “strong”, and I don't’ know what I mean by the latter, but Persimmmon and Verna Orange would be examples.

These are my favorites as of August, 1994. I’m sure a new favorite(s) will appear this summer, they always do. Some of you are probably saying, “where’s Brandywine or Winsall or this one or that one”. Speaking only of Brandywine, I’ve tried four different strains and have been underwhelmed with all of them. What performs well for me may not perform well for you. If someone praises a certain tomato highly and it doesn’t perform for me the fist year, I save seed and plant it the next year. Often the tomato will adapt. One of our subscribers has been very successful doing this, especially in the arid southwest, and his article describing this adaptation will appear in an upcoming issue of Off the Vine.  The search goes on each year to find that super tomato and that’s what makes growing out new varieties so exciting. So many tomatoes … so little time!

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This is a really fascinating read. It reminds me that in some cases, Carolyn and I agreed on a tomato’s attributes. In other cases, we were miles apart. Some tomatoes that we both really loved are Opalka, Sandul Moldovan, Anna Russian, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom. Some that neither of us were particularly enamored with are Amana Orange and Verman Orange.

There are also cases when Carolyn loves varieties that I find a bit lacking. Some of these would be Cuostralee, Eva Purple Ball, Marizol Gold, Regina’s Yellow, Manyel, Dr. Wyche’s Yellow - all of which I find on the bland side. And she didn’t care for Brandywine - but I find it one of the best tomatoes I’ve tasted. Different palates, different expectations, different growing zones, different soil are among possible reasons for diverging opinions.

First time to see this Spirea bloom - we purchased it last spring when it was done blooming. Foliage will be bright yellow green

My Tomato Collection Tour resumes - Part 10. Tomato #113 - #120

Marlin keeping squirrels away from our perennial garden a few days ago

Though this is part 10, there won’t be 10 tomatoes, as the awkward numbering I used early on gets in the way. In the next installment we can resume 10 at a time, until we get to another break for using numbers for saved seeds - we will actually end on #178. Then will be a summary post, then resumption at tomato #207 - it is then clear sailing up to #300 and beyond. (that may be the most boring paragraph I’ve ever written!). Let’s dive in!

Tomato #113 - Kotlas (formerly called Sprint) - it is hard to find historical info on Sprint (a variety I remembered in Stokes catalogs from the 1980s), but Kotlas was a new name given it by Johnny’s Selected Seeds for its sister city in the old USSR. It is very similar to the tomato Matina. I purchased the seeds from Johnny’s in 1989. I never did grow Kotlas, but it is described as a rather sparsely foliaged potato leaf plant with small, saladette sized scarlet tomatoes. It is also likely very similar to Siberian, Stupice and Kimberly - all potato leaf early small scarlet tomatoes.

Tomato #114 - Gold Nugget - this tomato was also purchased from Johnny’s, in 1989. I never did get around to growing it. The variety was bred by Dr. James Baggett of the University of Oregon and released in 1983. One of the parents he used was Yellow Plum. It is unusual in being a determinate yellow colored cherry tomato, a bit oval in shape, with what is described as a mild, somewhat sweet flavor. Determinate tomatoes are good for those in short season areas that need their tomatoes in a very concentrated harvest.

Tomato #115 - Taxi - This completes my trio of purchases from Johnny’s in 1989. Unlike the other two above, this one I grew, enjoyed, and return to often. Its history seems unknown. Even when I asked Rob Johnston, he was not at all familiar with its lineage. The plant is determinate, the yield very heavy and concentrated and quite early for a tomato of its size. The bright yellow round fruit are in the 3-4 ounce range, and their flavor is actually quite good - well balanced and tasty. Since they come in pretty much all at once, they are a great early season canning tomato. Before the dwarf tomato project started releasing varieties, Taxi was one of my top recommendation for a fine tomato that is compact and would be happy in a 5 gallon container. I grew it last year and was once again amazed by the earliness, the yield, and the excellent flavor for such an early variety.

Tomato #116 - Amish Paste - acquired as a SSE transaction from Jim Donovan of California in 1989, I finally got around to growing it in 1994 - and several times through the years, though it struggled mightily with disease in the hot Raleigh summers. The tomatoes are a bit mixed in shape, from nearly round to plum to nearly hearts. The plant is wispy and straggly, but the yield of fruit is adequate. The scarlet medium sized tomatoes are very tasty and certainly not just for sauce (as the paste name indicates). They are a fine slicing, salad and sauce tomato. The history seems quite convoluted - a late 1800s Wisconsin heirloom that made its debut via a Pennsylvania seed company. Thane Earl from Wisconsin first offered it through the SSE in 1987. It is a similar tomato in shape and use to Bisignano #2, though that one can run a bit larger. I will have to give it a try in Hendersonville, where diseases may not bother it so much.

Tomato #117 - Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo Red - I love this big red tomato because it seems to define the classic scarlet red heirloom “beefsteak” type. I acquired it from SSE member CA CO A in 1989 and squeezed it into that garden, despite receiving it quite late in the season. (data from 1989). It is supposedly an old Italian tomato collected by Andrew Rahart of New York. His son, John, living in Wyoming, was responsible for it being widely distributed through the SSE. The vigorous indeterminate plant produce lots of large oblate scarlet red tomatoes that have what folks would describe as a “full, old fashioned flavor”, probably because it allows its acidity to show through a bit. It is a somewhat late variety, with first ripe fruit 87 days from transplant. I harvested 10 tomatoes at an average weight of 12 ounces, so the late start led to only 7.5 pounds of tomatoes. I grew it last year and can affirm that it is a very heavy yielding variety. I enjoyed the flavor, and rated it A-.

Tomato #118 - Believe it or Not - I received this tomato from seed saver IN SU G in 1989. It seems that the first listing in the SSE yearbook is Dorothy Beiswenger of Minnesota in 1984. I wonder if it is the tomato that was offered associated with Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Sunday inserts. I first grew it in 1989, and was amazed at the size of the oblate scarlet fruit. For the size, it was quite early, with first ripe fruit in 71 days from transplant. I ended up picking 21 fruit from the plant at an average weight of 19.2 ounces. The plant therefore provided a bit over 25 pounds of tomatoes. I really enjoyed the full, old fashioned flavor with a nice tart bite, and rated it an A-.

Tomato #119 - Big Ben - Faxon Stinnett sent me seeds of this tomato in 1989. It is associated with Ben Quisenberry, he of Brandywine fame. Ben apparently received it from Bob Dyke of Kentucky in 1967. The Big Ben I grew was a large potato leaf pink. Some say that Big Ben is the original name for Stump of the World (which Bob Dyke didn’t care for). Big Ben was also offered by Ben Q as a three pink tomato seed mix, along with Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter. So we have a bit of a mess - is potato leaf Big Ben (and potato leaf Stump of the World) actually Brandywine? I grew Big Ben in 1989, and though it was a very good potato leaf pink variety, it was not as flavorful as Brandywine or Stump of the World. I don’t have the typical detailed information for this variety because it was grown in a friend’s garden, and I wasn’t weighing and counting tomatoes from plants in that garden.

Tomato #120 - Brown’s Large Red - I received this tomato from Don Sparks of Kentucky in 1989. I didn’t grow it until 1996, which was my third garden in Raleigh, planted in the ground on the side of my house. It was a regular leaf large oblate pink, not scarlet red, variety, with very good flavor, rated an A-. It was quite a late variety, first ripe fruit in 91 days from transplant. The plant was quite spindly, similar to the larger older Ponderosa type tomatoes dating from the late 1800s. I never did regrow it.

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So, we are now into the next one hundred. The next set is not the most impressive 10 of my collection, and I only planted a few of them. But let’s leave that for the next blog in this series.

Some of my early seedlings showing the anthocyanin present in one of the parents - these are F2 generation seeds between an indeterminate and a dwarf.

It feels like spring - and it is starting to look like it too. 2022 garden update!

We didn’t plant these (thanks to the birds or squirrels!) - but we are certainly enjoying them!

All of a sudden I am incredibly busy - blogging much more frequently (I hope you are enjoying the trip through my seed collection, and the republishing of Off the Vine!), weekly office hours (live Zoom) for the Growing Epic Tomatoes course with Joe Lamp’l, answering a lot of emails, starting seeds, mowing the lawn, cleaning up the garden, writing some articles, and preparing for some Zoom garden workshops. We are also finding time to hike in Pisgah or DuPont 3 times a week with our dogs.

I’ve gotten an idea of what will be in my garden, based on germination results. Most will be in straw bales, some in grow bags.

The tomato flat a few days ago

Eggplants - Mardi Gras, Skinny Twilight, Twilight Lightning, Midnight Lightning, Green Ghost

Peppers - Pinata, White Gold, Royal Purple, Carolina Amethyst, Fire Opal, Chocolate Bell, and hopefully (because they were just seeded - no germination data yet), Shishito and Padron.

Tomatoes - Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate, Lucky Cross, Polish, Captain Lucky, Estler’s Mortgage Lifter, three new family heirlooms sent to me, a new dwarf X indeterminate hybrid - Glory (Dester X Dwarf Gloria’s Treat), some mysteries that are F2 generation from a few of the hybrids I created a few years ago, Coastal Pride, Irma’s Highland Cherry (a new chocolate colored dwarf out of Teensy that we hope is ready for release), and various other experiments and mysteries.

There will be squash and beans and sugar snap peas and some spinach and chard and lettuce, perhaps cucumbers (though they really do struggle with disease here), basils and flowers. The weather looks quite iffy over the coming weeks, with one really deep freeze possible. We hope that it doesn’t bite the buds on the flowering shrubs and trees, something that occurred last spring.

I won’t be selling seedlings this year, but sharing a few extras locally. I won’t be shipping plants any longer. I’ve completed fulfilling seed requests. What comes next is purchasing and prepping the straw bales. My target plant out date is around May 1, depending upon the night time temperatures. I expect to be doing transplanting - separating and bumping up seedlings into separate containers - in early April.

For those events that are open more broadly, I will post links here, and on Instagram (I am @nctomatoman there). I will be on the WPTF (Raleigh, NC) weekend gardener on April 16, as well as Niki Jabbour’s Weekend Gardener radio show out of Nova Scotia, Canada on May 8. You will be able to listen live to each - watch for more news as the dates approach.

Double spirea just popped into bloom yesterday

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. Craig's article "On the Trail of "Lost" Commercial Varieties - Success at Last"

Spring showing up in Hendersonville on March 4

Here is the third article from Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. It is an article I wrote that makes it very clear I was deep into hunting for lost varieties that appeared in seed catalogs between the mid 1800s and early 1900s. This is a pretty info-packed article - I am going to give it a read and have quite a reaction piece at the end.

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

by Craig

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. 

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Whew - that is indeed a LOT of information. We found out quite a bit of info in the years to follow, so I can provide some corrections and updates. As I suspect you all know, I am a real stickler for historical accuracy.

In the first paragraph I note that the large red/yellow beefsteak types never appeared in seed catalogs. The variety Ruby Gold did indeed appear in a seed catalog - it was released by the John Childs seed company in 1921.

In a future article, I talk about how all of the USDA-acquired varieties performed in my garden, so I won’t provide any comments in that regard in this blog post. Do take a look at all of the varieties we ended up locating. It was quite thrilling to realize that Magnus was sitting in the germplasm collection - a variety adorning the cover of one of my first seed catalog purchases (1900 Livingston). Growing it in my garden was just priceless!

Cell of tomato seedlings on day 4 after seeding - getting some filtered sun on a mild day

My Tomato Collection Tour - First Hundred Summary

The start to my 2022 garden - first flat of eggplant, pepper, tomato and flower seedlings getting some filtered sun - day 8 from seeding!

Well, that went by quickly - covering the first one hundred varieties of tomatoes in my way-too-large, out of control collection was really fun, and quite nostalgic. It is amazing how, when describing each variety that I grew, I could picture the garden, the plant, my joy of discovery. I found it fascinating to see what varieties ended up in my collection at the outset of my tomato obsession.

From the first 100, a few varieties really have established themselves as regulars in my garden, even after more than 30 years of first growing them. This is the list of tomatoes that made really huge impressions. 9 varieties of that first 100 - 9 percent - are among the my very favorite varieties to this day.

I do wonder if there is a factor of “discovery” that is responsible. When a hobby is new, when experiences are fresh and exciting, it could be that some of the first superstars remain so, and are hard to displace. Of the list below, a few do have a bit of a romantic element, a love of the story involved, or the letter sent with the seeds - this is the case with Tiger Tom, Mortgage Lifter, and Bisignano #2. In the case of Winsall, my love of the variety is certainly colored by the visit of the elderly man to the Raleigh Farmers Market so many years ago and his joy at being reunited with a beloved variety he thought was gone forever. For the rest, it is all about consistent excellence and flavor. Brandywine and Polish are simply among the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted.

This is the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the highlight of the first 100.

• Brandywine - in years it is happy, it could be the BEST tomato I’ve eaten

• Mortgage Lifter - great story, great tomato

• Sun Gold F1 hybrid - often the only hybrid I allow in my garden

• Nepal - a favorite in 1986, a favorite in my 2021 garden.

• Tiger Tom - for those who like them tart!

• Bisignano #2 - Great story, not flashy, but always solid (pun intended!)

• Winsall - gave me my favorite tomato story, reconnecting someone with their past

• Polish - to tell the truth, the equal of Brandywine, but more consistent

• Hugh’s - this tomato is simply so impressive in so many ways.

  With this significant milestone now elapsed, it is time to dig in to the next 200!

View from the rear - my straw bale indeterminate tomatoes in late July, 2021. Can’t wait to repeat the view this year!

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. Early American Tomato Varieties, guest post, by Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith’s republish effort of Livingston and the Tomato, and his The Tomato in America - both essential reading

Craig’s intro to this article

Carolyn and I both got to know great author and historian and friend Andrew Smith. He was responsible for ensuring that “Livingston and the Tomato” was finally back in print, and has a host of fascinating historical book on a variety of topics. We were so delighted that he penned the following article for our humble little newsletter.

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Early American Tomato Varieties

by Andrew Smith

The tomato plan originated in the coastal highlands of Peru, Ecuador and northern Chili. Of the nine species of Lycopersicon, only two, L. esculentum and L. pimpinefolium produce fruit that are edible. The fruit of wild tomato plants (L. Esculentum) are similar to today’s cherry tomato varieties. Through some unknown means the tomato migrated to Central America. Mayan and other Mesoamerican peoples domesticated the plant and used its fruit in their cookery. They capitalized upon a mutation which produced large lumpy fruit. By the 16th century, tomatoes were cultivated at least in the southern part of Mexico. The Spanish first encountered them after Hernan Cortez began his conquest of Mexico in 1519. The Spanish then introduced the tomato into the Caribbean and the Philippines. From the Philippines, its culture dispersed to Southeast Asia, and ultimately the rest of Asia. Through the Spanish, the tomato was also disseminated into Italy and Spain where it was quickly dispersed throughout Continental Europe.

 The first known reference to tomatoes in what is today the United States was published in Botanologia (London, 1710) by William Salmon, who reportedly saw them growing in “Carolina” in the late 1680’s. Within a hundred years, tomatoes were grown and consumed in all regions of the nation. They were particularly prominent in North and South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, and probably in Georgia and Alabama.

In 1793, Charles Willson Peale, a portrait painter and the creator of one of America’s first museums in Philadelphia, received “Red Tomato” seeds in a shipment of “a number of subjects of Natural Science” from France. He gave them to his twelve-year-old son, Rubens Peale, who planted them in his garden and gave seeds to Cuthbert and David Landreth. In the 1790’s, the Landreths sold fruits and vegetables from a garden stall by the side of the old Philadelphia courthouse. They sold tomatoes to the French immigrants, but there was little demand from others. By 1800, tomato seeds were also sold in Philadelphia by John Lithen and Bernard M’Mahon. In New York, they were sold in 1807 by Grant Thorburn who established a seed farm and began selling seeds shortly after the turn of the century. Seeds were sold in Baltimore by 1810 and in Boston by 1827. By the 1830’s, tomato seeds were sold throughout the country.

Specific tomato varieties were rarely listed or described in early broadsides and seed catalogs, but many different types of tomatoes were grown in the United States. For instance, Thomas Jefferson exported tomato seeds from France during the early 1780’s to America. While president (1801-9), he noted that tomatoes were sold by market gardeners in Washington. After he retired to Monticello, General John Mason sent him some “Spanish” tomato seeds, whose fruit was “very much larger than common kinds.” Jefferson also planted “dwarf” tomatoes, by which he may have been referring to cherry tomatoes. In 1824, he imported seeds from Mexico. Jefferson was not alone in the quest to explore the diversity of the tomato.

During the 1820’s, large and small varieties with red and yellow colored fruit were noted in agricultural periodicals and advertisements. During the 1830’s, currant tomatoes (L. pimpinellifolium) were found growing wild along the banks of the Mississippi river. By the mid-1830’s, the number of varieties spiraled to several types differing in size, shape and color. In 1835, self-proclaimed botanist and medical practitioner Constantine Rafinesque enumerated fourteen varieties, although, based upon his descriptions, it is difficult to determine the distinctions among many of them. In 1840, the Geneses Farmer advertised large, red, large yellow, small red cherry and Cuba or Spanish tomatoes. More varieties appeared as the decade progressed, such as pear-shaped, cluster, preserving, fig-shaped, yellow cherry and egg-shaped varieties.

Of special interest to tomato growers was a variety brought back from the South Pacific in 1841. An American Exploring Expedition had run across some tomatoes, which were dubbed “Fegee” tomatoes. A sailor had sent seeds back to a friend in Philadelphia, while Charles Wilkes, the Captain of the expedition, sent seeds to the Secretary of the Navy, James Pauling, who evidently dispersed them throughout the United States. They had no discernable effect upon tomato culture, and died out after a few years of cultivation. This variety was later incorrectly identified as the forerunner of the Fejee tomato, which became a popular variety after the Civil War. Despite its name, this later variety originated in Italy.

Several plants advertised as tomato varieties in the 1850’s were not botanically related to Lycopersicon at all, including the Tree Tomato, imported from France around 1859, and the Cape Gooseberry. This suggests that by the 1850’s the name tomato was in such high esteem that it was used to sell other plants. Despite this inflation in the number of purported tomato types, the American Agriculturist maintained that four varieties were most esteemed and cultivated. The large smooth-skinned red, an excellent variety, differed “from all other large sots, in having a smooth skin entirely free from protuberances or inequalities of any kind.” The common large red, with the fruit depressed at both ends, furrowed on the sides, and varying in circumference, from three to eighteen inches, “was a prolific bearer” and was “universally cultivated.” The pear-shaped was “much smaller than either of the preceding, very fleshy, and contained fewer seeds.” The cherry-shaped red has a beautiful little fruit, much resembling a cherry in size and appearance. While some varieties were considered oddities or curiosities, there was a nascent relationship between some varieties and their culinary usage. Red tomatoes were best for ketchup and cooking. Fig-shaped tomatoes were frequently recommended for making confectionary. Pear-shaped, cherry-shaped, yellow types, and the pink-red tomatoes were used for pickling.

Precisely what these varieties looked and tasted like is unknown. Few paintings or illustration s of specific varieties have been located. Vegetables were never a popular subject for still-life artists, and only four American paintings containing tomatoes are known to have survived. These paintings, one by Raphaelle Peale (the brother of Rubens Peale) dated to about 1795, one by an unknown artist painted about 1840, and two by Paul Lacroix painted in 1863 and 1865, show dramatic changes in the tomato’s shape. Peale’s tomato is extremely ribbed and lumpy; the next is less lumpy, but extremely large; and Lacroix’s tomatoes are much smoother and more closely resemble today’s varieties.

Tomatoes sold in the market were described as “thick-skinned, hollow subjects, which bounced like a football.” Farmers and gardeners slowly bred tomatoes with different characteristics, such as a round shape, smooth skin, solid flesh and ripeness all over. Also, American farmers consciously began breeding tomatoes which ripened earlier and yielded more abundantly. In Rochester, New York, J. Slater began saving seeds from the roundest and smoothest tomatoes he could find. His tomatoes were neither flat nor wrinkled, “but as round as an orange, and as smooth and as large as the largest Northern Spy apple.” Dr. T. J. Hand, originally from Sing Sing, New York, began crossing the small cherry tomato with larger, lumpy varieties. The benefits of these breeding efforts began to bear fruit just after the Civil War. Hand’s efforts were rewarded when he ended with a tomato with a solid mass of flesh and juice, with small seeds and smooth skin. Under the name Trophy tomato, its success was unbounded with the promotor, Colonel George Waring, who sold seeds for 25 cents apiece.

During and after the Civil War, the number of tomato varieties increased spectacularly. Fearing Burr’s Field and Garden Vegetables of America, initially published in 1863, reflected his experience as a seedsman and gardener in Massachusetts. He listed 22 tomato varieties, only one of which was not botanically within the Lycopersicon genus. His 1865 edition included two more varieties. Alexander Livingston, who, as a child, was told by his mother that tomatoes were poisonous, became one of the most important developers of tomato varieties in America. By adhering to the principle of single plant selection to clearly define demands in the tomato trade, he developed or improved thirteen major varieties from 1870 to 1893. Among the more important were paragon, acme, perfection, golden Queen, Livingston’s Favorite, Beauty and Stone tomatoes.

In 1866, Liberty Hyde Bailey located and tested seventy-six varieties sold by seedsmen. The following year he included 179 sorts from American, British, French and German seedsmen. This increase was due to several factors: the development of many new American varieties; the introduction of renamed European varieties; the tendency of seedsmen to list as distinct varieties those which differed little from already named ones; and the reluctance of seedsmen to remove duplicates from their list because of customer loyalty to particular names.

Nearly all 19th century tomato varieties were indeterminate, with the exception of “dwarf” or “tree” tomatoes such as Dwarf Champion. The plants were long and straggly, and their fruit continued to set until the frost destroyed the plant. In 1914, Bert Croft found by chance a seedling that was determinant and self-topping. It was a spontaneous mutation which occurred in a tomato plant in Florida which caused the plant “to grow in an orderly, compact, determinate fashion.” It was called the “Cooper Special” after C.D. Cooper from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, who marketed it. This mutation has benefited tomato-improvement programs ever since, and most tomato seeds available today, except for the heirloom varieties, are determinate.

Unfortunately, few of the tomato varieties cultivated in America before the Civil War have survived. The Oliver Kelly Farm in Elk River, administered by the Minnesota Historical Society, purports to grow several tomato varieties that date to the 1850’s. heirloom seeds from the latter part of the 19th century are available today through several different seed companies and organizations. (Please see article on USDA varieties in this issue of Off the Vine. Eds.) Seed Savers Exchange lists several thousand varieties, available to members, and Southern Exposure Seed Company in Earlysville, VA. documents the history of many important heirloom varieties. There are several other seed companies that carry heirloom varieties. Despite the efforts of SSE and others, large numbers of tomato varieties known to have existed during the 19th century have disappeared.

Bibliography

In the interest of space we won’t print the 11 references which accompany this article. If any of our subscribers have a particular interest in the original literature citations, Carolyn will be pleased to provide the bibliography to those folks

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Craig’s comments after reading the above for the first time in a long time

Wow, there is so much to absorb from this really entertaining, informative article. To start, I must say that the phrase at the very end - Bibliography - will remain unfulfilled. Carolyn didn’t share that list with me. I would highly recommend these books from Andrew Smith for additional info and an expansion on the above - The Tomato in America, by Andrew F Smith, published 1994, and Livingston and the Tomato, in which Andrew republished Alexander Livingston’s book with lots of additional information that follows Livingston’s text.

The main takeaway, to me, is that though we seem to have relocated quite a few of the Livingston varieties (Mike Dunton and I actually met and became friends over our individual efforts to find them), many of the very earliest varieties have indeed been lost - at least under the names they were originally called. Most varieties between 1850 and 1880 were not likely very refined, stable varieties, however, so the loss is probably not all that devastating. When I grew Early Large Red (from Oliver Kelly Farm), I feel as if I did indeed view what many of those earliest tomatoes looked like - flat, convoluted, corrugated, pleated, folded, partially hollow - and not particularly appealing!

Inside front cover of Livingston and the Tomato

So much happening - and poised to happen! Growing Epic Tomatoes - New York Times article - peppers and eggplant seeds in the flats!

Let the 2022 garden begin! Peppers, eggplants, some flowers seeded on Feb 18

Oh well, things were (relatively) slow for the last month and a half….aside from fulfilling a load of seed requests, being really active on my blog, cataloging seeds from my dwarf tomato project participants, doing some great Zooms with various garden groups.

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All of that was nothing compared with what lies just ahead. It is time to relaunch Growing Epic Tomatoes, the collaborative course between Joe Lamp’l and me that was such a wonderful experience last year. It will be different this time in that the entire 10 module course is complete! Last year our students had to adjust their pace to the real time progress of the course. This year, it will be all there, ready to be accessed at the pace of each student no matter where they are in their growing season. The Friday Office Hours will proceed as they did last year - weekly opportunities for the students to ask Joe and I their questions - live.

The key dates for the informational course webinars - free opportunities for prospective students to learn everything about the upcoming course and a chance to ask us questions - are as follows:

First - the course is now open for early enrollment at a reduced price - click this link (it is also on my website banner).

The webinar that explains the course - Five Keys to Growing Your Own Epic Tomatoes - is scheduled three times, to provide options for your convenience:

• Wednesday, February 23 at 3 PM EST

• Thursday, February 24 at 3 PM EST

• Friday, February 25 at 10 AM EST

You can choose which of these you wish to attend by signing up at this link.

Creating this course was an immense amount of fun. The feedback from our first year students has been overwhelmingly positive. Join one of the webinars and find out all about the course. I can confidently say that Growing Epic Tomatoes is the perfect way to make my book, Epic Tomatoes, come alive, strengthened by all of Joe’s gardening experiences that we’ve found blend so well together with my own. Though I am still so pleased with Epic Tomatoes and its information, it was written in 2012-2013 - I’ve learned so much more in the 9 years since publication, and all of that new knowledge is incorporated into the course.

A few uniquely wonderful features about this course:

• It is composed entirely of self-paced video modules, so students can watch us discuss the topics.

• It is entirely self-paced - each student can progress as their own season progresses.

• Course additions, bonus modules, and enhancements occur throughout the season, accessible to all students, including last year’s class.

• The weekly live Office Hours are also for all GET students, new and first year (and for all future) - there will be life time access to Joe and I to answer gardening questions throughout the season.

• All students have access to a community on the Circle platform, providing yet another way to pose questions, post pictures, and have meaningful interchange with Joe and I. I spend a lot of time in that community daily, ensuring all questions are answered - as well as providing updates from my own garden. It is free - it is NOT Facebook - and there are no ads or sales pitches.

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Speaking of Joe Lamp’l, our mutual good friend and fellow talented gardener, author and educator Margaret Roach (A Way to Garden) interviewed Joe and I about starting tomato seeds. The article is in the New York Times, and can be found here. Thanks, Margaret - the article is just lovely.

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Finally - the 2022 garden is officially begun with the planting of a selection of pepper, eggplant and flower seeds, shown in the top picture. This is a significant reduction of filled cells (30, compared with perhaps two flats of 50) in previous gardening seasons. My decisions to stop seedling sales and reduce garden size mean things will be far less hectic this spring. I am testing Metro Mix 830 as my seed starter. I will update varieties and progress in future blogs.

In the mean time, enjoy the republished Off The Vine article blogs, and my seed collection journey blogs. They will each appear weekly for months and months to come! Feel free to post comments against them!

Betts and I in Downtown Hendersonville this morning, while Sue shops!

My Tomato Collection Tour - part 9. Tomatoes 91-100.

It’s February 17, and the bulbs are saying hello (despite lots of sub-freezing nights lying ahead)

How I’ve enjoyed taking you all on a tour of my tomato collection. We’ve reached our first big milestone - the first 100, with this as the last installment on the way to that figure91.What are we waiting for? Here goes!

91. Whopper F1 hybrid - purchased from Parks Seeds in 1988 and grown that year. Whopper was actually the very first tomato I successfully grew from seed, in 1982, in our graduate student garden in West Lebanon, NH. I also grew it from seed for our first Pennsylvania garden, in Villanova, in 1984. In 1988, the first ripe fruit were picked in 73 days from transplant. I harvested 49 tomatoes at an average weight of 6.2 ounces, giving a plant yield of nearly 19 pounds. The flavor was very, very good, receiving an A-. This was the original “Whopper” - a few years after, Parks started selling “Whopper Improved”, which I never did acquire and grow.

92. Chalk’s Early Jewel - obtained from Edmund Brown, Missouri, SSE transaction, 1988 but not grown until 1991. I wasn’t all that impressed with the size or productivity; I expected a bit more than a small to small medium sized scarlet tomato that was prone to radial cracking. The history of this variety is that it was 10 years of selection work by James Chalk of Norristown, PA, after he crossed Livingston’s Perfection with Hubbard’s Curled Leaf in 1889. The variety was released by Moore and Simon of Philadelphia in 1900. It is a parent of the very popular (in its time) tomato from Stokes Seeds, Bonny Best, from 1908. I note that Mike Dunton got his sample of Chalk out of the USDA - I would like to give this a try again some day, from his seeds. It does illustrate that the favored tomato type of that time period was medium sized and scarlet red, with an emphasis on smoothness.

93. Hungarian Italian - purchased from Seeds Blum in 1988, and grown that year in our Berwyn PA garden. It was clearly determinate in growth habit and began fruit production in 78 days from transplant. We harvested but 24 tomatoes, which averaged 3.5 ounces. The total yield of 5 pounds was very low for a determinate paste type - I seem to recall it struggled with disease. The fruit were quite hollow and dry, and my flavor rating was B- (which in retrospect was generous). There seems to be no real history available for this variety.

Cover of the 1908 Stokes catalog - the introduction date and company for Bonny Best

94. Bonny Best - purchased from Pine Tree Garden Seeds in 1988. I never did get around to growing this historically important tomato. It is featured in the Stokes 1908 catalog as a real breakthrough, supposedly selected by George Middleton from a field of Chalk’s Early Jewel. From tasting notes, it seems to be for those who enjoy a more tart element to tomato flavor. I suppose this tomato deserves a spot in my garden some day, due to its historical significance.

95. Hugh’s - obtained from Archie Hook, SSE member from Indiana, in 1989 and grown that year (and many since). Everything about Hugh’s elicits a “WOW”. It is massively vigorous and tall, often setting the first cluster nearly 5 feet up the plant. It is also on the late side, first harvest coming in at 81 days. The real wow factor was the harvest of 35 tomatoes averaging 19.5 ounces - well more than one pound. The plant yield of 42.7 pounds was one of the highest of my experience. The bright yellow, oblate fruit have a delightfully mild, sweet flavor. I rated it an A-. I grew it last year with equivalent success. It isn’t quite Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom in total flavor balance and intensity, but is right up there with the very best yellow fruited tomatoes. Actually, it is highly rated no matter what the color of the tomatoes. As far as history, there is a possibility that Mr. Hook started with a large yellow variety, such as Yellow Colossal, and that Hugh’s is a superior selection of that variety. From Mr Hook’s general geographic area, the Isbell Company released a large, bright yellow tomato called Isbell’s Golden Colossal in 1915, and the Burgess Company Colossal Yellow in 1927. No matter what the history, this is a true gem of an heirloom tomato.

96. Georgia Streak - also obtained from Archie Hook and also grown in 1989. Sharing the garden with Hugh’s (described above), this vigorous indeterminate variety began to bear fruit in 68 days from transplant, which is surprisingly early for such a large tomato. I harvested 21 fruit at an average weight of one pound, giving a total plant yield of 16 pounds. The bright yellow tomatoes were swirled in and out with crimson red. I gave the flavor rating a B+, but it really is no different from the other big yellow/red tomatoes of my early gardening experiences, such as Ruby Gold, Pineapple or Mortgage Lifter, Pesta Strain. They do resemble a peach more than a tomato to my taste buds. Mr Hook received seeds from someone originally from the south. There really is no way to completely trace the history of the many named yellow/red bicolored types.

97. Square - obtained from Grace Seed company in 1988. This variety may well be cultivar VF-145, produced at UC Davis as a disease tolerant paste type that didn’t roll off the processing conveyor belt. I never did grow it, but feel like I didn’t really miss anything. I predict a typical rather dry, flavorless Roma type.

98. Tice’s Yellow Better Boy - obtained from California SSE member Jim Donovan in 1988. I grew it in 1989, and it resembled Golden Oxheart very much. The indeterminate vines began to ripen fruit in 67 days from transplant. I picked but 13 tomatoes, averaging 9.4 ounces, giving a plant yield of about 7.5 pounds, definitely on the low end of the yield spectrum. The flavor was OK - mild, sweet, B+ is the grade I gave, but far behind the similar looking Golden Oxheart. This tomato was smooth and round and a nice medium orange. There is no real history for this variety - all I know is that it is tomato #1522 in the SSE germplasm bank for tomatoes. Since I never grew it again, it didn’t make much of a lasting impression.

(99 and 100 and 101 were both used for saved seeds - Red Robin and Abraham Lincoln and Bisignano #2, respectively).

102. Pixie F1 hybrid - obtained from Burpee in 1988. I never did grow this variety, which, from reading on the web, were a hybrid form of a compact dwarf or microdwarf variety with small scarlet fruit. Burpee seems to have discontinued producing this hybrid in 2000

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This ends the first segment of the tour through my tomato varieties. We will pick up with #113 in the next blog - #103-#112 were all vial numbers used for saved seeds. Before we get into the second hundred, my next blog in this series will be an overall assessment of the first 100 - the key points, the can’t-live-without the varieties that are still important to my gardens to this day.

Our back yard flower garden. Ravaged by winter, we will see things popping up very soon!