The long Island seed project

[Jim]

I just went to their site and did quite a bit of reading. Way cool. I can't wait to see their 2008 list.

[Alan]

They will re-start their distribution sometime in 2008 im sure, they don't really sell seed, they just ask for a donation per variety. Ken is a great guy and does some really great work and it's great to support what he does, not enough guys and gals like that in the world willing to "mix things up" a bit.

Keep checking back, i'm sure it will be up soon.

-Alan

[Jim]

LI seed is distributing again. I was just on their site. It's pricey but cool.

[PapaVic]

In 2006, I grew about 20 dwarf plants from a seed mix that Ken Ettlinger sent me called Dwarf Champion Mix. It was supposed to have a red, a green, a yellow, a gold and a pink cherry to saladette size tomatoes. He still has a Web page explaining the mix in his "Ramblings" I think.

Anyway, I got good examples of each kind of those colors except no green-when-ripe showed up. I still have a few seeds from the original mix ... so maybe the green-when-ripe is still in the bag. I grew all 20 of those plants in a sprawl in 2006, so I had no idea how tall they would grow in a wire basket.


But I did get something totally unexpected ... a little red bullet shaped tomato, about 2 inches long and one inch in diameter, on a bushy little dwarf plant about 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide.
Well, in 2007, I grew about 5 plants from the little red bullet seeds saved just from that one off-beat plant. I sent some seeds back to Ken who said he'd never seen that particular shape show up in the mix. Three of my plants in containers got about 2.5 to 3.0 feet tall when supported by those cheapo wire cones you buy from Wal*Mart, and the fruit got quite a bit larger than in 2006. The tomatoes were about 4 inches long and up to 2.5 inches wide ... some variation in shapes from elongated, pointed tomatoes like Opalka (but without the nipples) to more stubby, fatter heart shapes. Two of the plants in the ground continued to be about 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide like before.

I just went to Ken Ettlinger's site and see he grew out the little red bullet and got similar results. He's listing it as Red Bullet. The ones I saved from the bigger fruited plants in 2007, I'm calling Dwarf Red Heart. Either way, the plants I grew in 2007 were extremely healthy, staying green and bearing fruit continuously until frost.

Here's what Ken has to say in the listings at Long Island Seed Project:

"SELECT- RED BULLET: an outcross selected and named by Bill Jeffers from Dwarf Champion Mix. Bill sent us some seed which we grew out and found that the fruit is variable from distict cone-shape to oval. The photo shows the characteristic foliage of Dwarf Patio Tomatoes. Red Bullet is a prolific bearer. They began producing in July and are still going in October. That is quite unusual for this kind of tomato. Available 2008 (10 seeds)"

If you want to try a really cool, healthy container dwarf, give that one a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Bill

[Alan]

I'm glad you guys posted that they had updated, it looks like Ken has greatly expanded his seed offerings this year and I'll have to give it a good look over sometime in the next few days to see what new "toys" I want to play with. His winter squash offerings are usually really great and something that's a lot of fun to toy around with so I know I'll be ordering some of those, I also saw that he has done some expanded SE breeding work with Rainbow Inca sweet corn which I might add to Astronomy Domine and it looks like he is finally offering his currant crosses mix which is something I'd like to play with along with my currant crosses and the L. Cheesmani crosses I plan on making this year.

-Alan

[flowerpower]

Bill kindly sent me seeds for the Dwarf Mix last yr. The gold and pink did great. Lots of fruit on short plants. But all the plants were healthy. I would definitely recommend them.

I grew out 3 of the "Red Bullet" with similar results. Both heart shaped and bullet shapes on the same plants. I saved the seeds separately. So I will see what I get this yr. Plus I still have some of the 2006 seed from Bill.

Bill could you put a link to the pics for us? Thank you.

[PapaVic]

Sure, Flower ...

The first links are to various LISP Dwarf Champion Mix results in 2006:

Gold:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-007S-4.jpg

Pink:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-005S-6.jpg

Yellow:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-018S-5.jpg

Here's a photo of the little Red Bullet plant that showed up in 2006:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-009S.jpg

Here's my 2006 seed garden with the 18 or so little dwarf plants sprawled in the front:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-001S-2.jpg

Now in 2007, the little Red Bullet made some bigger fruit. Ken Ettlinger apparently saw the same thing.
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-005S-13.jpg

And like Ken said, the shapes were variable. Here's a little Red Bullet that grew up fat like me:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-018S-11.jpg

s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-020S-8.jpg

But you gotta love variability ... it leads to improvements sometimes.

So, in 2007, one little Red Bullet did the best and made tomatoes that looked like this:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-020S-9.jpg

s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-022S-5.jpg

And so I saved seeds from those tomatoes and now I'm selecting that line to follow, calling it Dwarf Red Heart. It makes a very healthy plant about 2.5 - 3.0 feet tall with 100% healthy foliage right up 'til frost. Beautiful plant.

Here's another selection that seems a bit of a mix between the yellow and the gold. It showed up in 2007 from the yellow seed and was a very prolific, healthy plant I'm temporarily calling Goldilox:
s65.photobucket.com/albums/h212/PapaVic1948/?action=view¤t=MVC-022S-4.jpg

I also grew the pink again in 2007, it was the best, sweetest tasting of the mix, but it has some foliage problems and the tomatoes tend to split like cherries do. That Goldilox has the zingiest flavor and has healthy foliage with loads of fruit that don't split.

If any of you have room for dwarves or like patio type tomatoes and believe like I do that they provide folks with limited space an opportunity to enjoy growing tomatoes ... the Long Island Seed Project Dwarf Champion Mix has a boatload of genetic potential. Besides, it's FUN!

Bill

[Jim]

Bill,

That's awesome. I think Flowerpower hooked me up with the little red bullet seed. I'll be growing it out this year in containers. I love the variations in the other stuff..it's really interesting.

[Alan]

Ken has all kinds of interesting stuff going on, he's really a genious when it comes to plant breeding and in my opinion some of his varieties will be the "must haves" of the future. If you guys think those tomatoes are neat give some of his other material a chance to impress you, we grew out a great deal of his stuff last year and it was all highly impressive.

Bill, it's great that Ken decided to introduce the segragate that you found, he really is a good guy like that and definetly into the sharing of genetics with everyone.

I am making my list to send off to Ken for some of his new material right now, there is so much on that list that I would absolutley love to play with.
-Alan

[Jim]

Alan I got 5 different packets of his tomato blends coming. I can share.

[flowerpower]

Bill, I had no probs with cracking on the pink. I grew one of the red bullets in a container on the deck. It did very well.

[Jim]

There is other stuff on his site that i'd like to buy but I know that I'm out of planting space for this coming year....

[flowerpower]

Actually, I grew some of the dwarf mix at my friend's house. (She is originally from LI.) And the soil was unprepared. I planted one pink in the flower bed. And they still did pretty good after a very late planting.

Bill, was there also a mini-peach? I could have sworn you mentioned that type to me. Or I am just wishing there is one?

[PapaVic]

Flower,

There is a little peach looking tomato, but it was not from Long Island Seed Project. It was from a fellow at Garden Web back about 2005. He called it Pixie Peach. When I grew it, the plant got about 3 feet tall, wasn't really your typical dwarf structure or leaf type, and put on a load of little tomatoes about the size, shape, color and skin texture of an apricot. It has a problem that if you grow it in a sprawl, the plant will spread open with the weight of all the little tomatoes and the fruit will get sunburnt. Grown in a 3-foot wire cone, it does real nicely. I'll post a picture later today ... gotta get ready for work right now.

Bill

[Alan]

I just finished putting in my '08 order with Liseeds. I can't wait to grow some of this stuff out there is so much genetic variability in all of Kens selections that would be great to develop your own plant lines out of not to mention a number of genes present in his mixes that would be nice to have "banked" for future breeding use, I really had a hard time making selections based on what I could realistically do this year from his material as well as working with the material that I already have.