Tomato trials for 2008, Need help or info

[americangardener]

Hey everyone.. i've just been going thru my seed trades in prep. for getting these tomato seeds into my flats. I've just discovered that i have a few(hundred) more than i will probably be able to trial myself this year. I'm planning to do a thousand, but i have considerably more than that to sort thru. What i was wondering is if any of you could help me select which ones i should start next week. I could start by listing the varieties i have, and i could put a couple hundred or so probably in each message until i've listed em all.

What i am hoping to trial next season are the yellow and bi-colored ones mostly. Then the ones from Ernie Kerrs releases. Then whatever room is left I'd like to do whatever large indeterminate plants with the largest tomatoes possible.

If anyone is interested in going thru my lists and helping me select, or would like to take some of them off my hands and do a trial of em yourself let me know. Otherwise i won't bother to go thru the time it takes to start listing em.

Dave

[PapaVic]

Well, Dave, why don't you start with the Ernie Kerr releases. I'd be very interested in those first.

Bill

[americangardener]

PapaVic

Ok sure.. Here's the Kerr varieties.

These i plan to grow out all of them.. But i'll list em here so maybe i can get some help with info. There are a couple where Dan & Val sent me way too many seeds of that i could spare some for anyone else who wants to help trial em. Those i'll mark with an *.

BASKETVEE
BENEWAH
CAMBELL
FIREBALL *
FIRESTEEL
GOLDEN DELIGHT
GOLDEN QUEEN
HIGH CRIMSON
INDIAN RIVER
LATAH
NOVA *
ODESSA
ORANGE QUEEN
RED ROCK *
SALAD MASTER
SCORESBY DWARF
VALIANT *
VENDOR V_F

Those are the ones from Dan& Val.. so i'm hoping they'll have more info on them than i do right now. I haven't gotten to their seed list online to check it though and see if these are listed. If so then i'll have details for those.

Some of the rest i've collected so far are:
Alaska
Allround
Allround M. R.
Anti-mold A
Atom
Auroroa
Bonner
Carrick
Coldset
Cold Set
Early stokesdale no.4
Early Sub-arctic
Farthest North
Flora-Dade
Firesteel 4364
Globelle
Improve Garden State
Indiana
Knox
Marietta #1
Moneymaker
Moscow
Moscow V.R.
Ontario
pearson
Pearson A-1
Pearson VF-6
Pearson VF-36
Pearson Improved
Pritchard
Puck
Purdue 1796
Rhode Island Early
Rubyvee
Shoshone
Silver Tuckqueen
Sterling Castle
StokesAlaska
Sub Arctic
Sub Arctic Cherry
Sub Arctic Delight
Sub Arctic Mida (most likely a missprint)
Sub Arctic Mini
Sub Arctic Midi
Sub Arctic Maxi
Sub Arctic Plenty
Swift
Tempo
Tiny Tim
Trellis 22
TuckQueen
Vendor
Victor
V.R. Red Cheif
V. R. Wisconsin 55
Wisconsin Chief

Now those are the ones I'm pretty sure are at least released from the Vineland Station. Here's a couple of others i have that I'm just guessing at... they seem to me to sound like names that would have come from there.
North, Northerner, Ontario pink 774, Ontario Red 775, Ottawa 6, 30, 31, 32, 45 & 50; Old Moscow subburb, Precocibec, Red Cap, Red Head, Red Giant, Red Jaquet, Red Whoppa, Scarlet du Canada, Usabec, Valenciano, and White beauty of Canada.

I'm just wondering on that last set.. i haven't really had time to do any checking to find any of my varieties origins. I was hoping someone else would recognize some of em first. All of the bottom ones after Dan&Vals list, i have plenty of leftover seeds for.. i got probably around 200-300 seeds of each of those if anyone wants to trial any along with me. I'm sure i could spare a few, seeing's i'll probably only use 15 or so.

Anyways.. If anyone wants to help out LMK I got about a thousand more varieties where those came from.

Dave

[PapaVic]

Hmmm ... seems like I've seen some of those attributed to another breeder. I'd have to do a few searches before posting anything though.

Right now, I've gotta get going to a Master Gardeners meeting. Meanwhile, peruse through this link and see if there are some references you can use. (For example, there's a paragraph in there starting "Using the high crimson gene, Professor Graham developed High Crimson ...")

www.seeds.ca/proj/tomato/cdntomatoes.php

pv

[americangardener]

Great info in that link PapaVic.. that'll take me all nite to read up on some of Kerrs releases. And to see how many of these varieties i can find info about... Whether or not they're from Kerr.. there seemed to be a big interest in any of the canadian varieties when i was trading this last year. So, I'm still planning to start at least most all of these ones next week... just so i can have em for trading next year.

Hey if you know of any of these being from other breeders, that's something i'd love to know too. For what it's worth i just made up a list of varieties that were contributed to the Canadian gene bank that were listed under his name. I haven't really checked to find out more about who actually bred them. Good info is hard to find sometimes.

Have fun at your meeting...

DAve

[grungy]

Dave,
I may be way off base, but I thought I heard the the Sub-Artic series came out of Beaverlodge Research station, when they were trying to get short season tomatoes during the war for the troops.
Cheers,
Val

[Earl]

Looking good Dave....I have these planted, waiting on sprouts.

First group of new-

Druzba
Boxcar Willie
Pruden's Purple
Grushkova
Black
Manitoba
Soldaki
Manyel
Oregon Spring
Hillbilly
Caspian Pink
Crimson Sprinter
Gregori's Altai
Arkansas Traveler
Thessolonika
Watermelon Beefsteak
ML-Estlers
Mule
Abraham Lincoln
Amish Salad
Black Cherry
BW Black
Bloody Butcher
Bison
Black Pear
Bear Claw
Beaverlodge
NAR
Scotia
Ding Wall Scotty
Kellogg's Breakfast
Soldaki

Another set:
Amana Orange
Aunt Ruby's
Big Rainbow
Black Zebra
BW Yellow
Cherokee Purple
Depp's
Earl's Faux
Garden Peach
Lillian's Yellow
Liz Birt

......TONS more to follow.

I am letting the kids in a local church do the early ones, I set them up with my stand that has two sets of 48 lights.
edit that to read 48 INCH lights

[americangardener]

Oh geez.. Val... i just wrote a nice long reply to ya and then i find out i forgot to hit Post reply after i got sidetracked with something else.

Just to recap a little of what i said.. you're right about the Beaverlodge RS having developed the Sub arctic series. From Pappa's link i found this: " Dr. Harris was in charge of the tomato program but John Wallace did most of the crossing and selecting. Six small-fruited, short-season cultivars were released. Professor T. Graham of Guelph, using Beaverlodge material introduced Sub-Arctic Delight in the early 1970’s. Shortly thereafter Dr. Harris released Sub-Arctic Early, Sub-Arctic Midi, Sub-Arctic Plenty. Then in 1976 he released Sub-Arctic Maxi and Sub-Arctic Cherry."

So, apparently 5 of the 6 were Harris' releases and the SA Delight was from the Ontario Agricultural College. If i understand that last statement correctly.

Apparently alot of that list are attributed to several other breeders. I'm still gonna grow em out though. I like anything that's from Canadian origins... not just Kerrs work. Kerr is just the only one i've been familiar with over the last 40 years or so, from being a lifelong Stokes customer.

They're still all going into my trials this year. I don't care so much for the smaller sized tomatoes, but there does seem to be a big interest in the Sub Arctic Series from alot of the people i've been trading with this year. Maybe i'll even try a couple of crosses with something larger sized, and try and develop something with the earliness and cold tolerance of the SA's

Now, i just need to find out the important info on all my varieties.. Like how tall, what size tomatoes, what color, etc.. etc. You know the stuff i'll need for planning my garden layout.

Earl.. where'd ya get your Oregon Spring from? I got some from Nichols garden Nursery catalog year before last and they were definately not early, nor nearly seedless, nor even the right size... nothing even close to their catalog description. So, I'm hoping this year i'll get the right one.

Dave

[Earl]

I got the Oregon from two separate trades....I'll get back with you

[pugs]

Here is Oregon Spring's description from Nichols:

"Oregon Spring is a compact plant. These early tomatoes are fleshy, frequently seedless and exceptionally fine flavored. Enjoy their full flavored succulence in July, when tomatoes of this size and quality are not available from any other variety. Oregon Spring and Santiam have been trialed with Northwest home gardeners with highly favorable results. This exciting tomato is a cross between Russian Severianin and Starshot that is earlier than either parent. Bred and developed by Dr. James R. Baggett, it is a release from Oregon State University. Open pollinated Determinate Verticillium resistant. 60 days."

Here is the description from Victory Seeds:

"Oregon Spring
85 days, determinate — Bred and introduced by Dr. James R. Baggett of Oregon State University in 1984. Early, large, red, nearly seedless fruit. Sets under cool temperature conditions of the Maritime Northwest. Verticillium wilt race 1 resistant."

and here is the description from Territorial Seeds:

"Oregon Spring Tomato
75–80 days. This now-famous determinate, slicing variety was developed at Oregon State University. Their research shows that Oregon Spring will produce incredibly early yields of 4 inch oval tomatoes when planted outside a month before your last frost date and given no protection except on frosty nights. Parthenocarpic. V."

The key to the seedless is Parthenocarpic. Tomatoes need a minimum night time temp to have successful pollination. Parthenocarpic allows fruit to set at lower temps, but without seed. Depending on where you live, you may not have the seedless tomatoes.

Also note the different number of days listed from each vendor. I don't know what Dr. Baggett listed the number of days as, but I do know that for many tomatoes the days vary depending on what part of the country you are in.

Pugs

[americangardener]

Thanks Pugs..

That'll be usefull to compare the plants to when i try them again this year. I got some from some of the trades i made this past season, and i still want to try em. I have no idea where the person i traded with got their seeds but i sure hope it wasn't Nichols. The seeds i got from them two years ago were definately not Oregon Spring. I haven't used Nichols since...

Not only did they send the wrong seeds for oregon spring.. there was another variety i had ordered called Siletz which wasn't what they described in their catalog either.. and on top of that there were several others that had NO germination what so ever.. not a single seed that would sprout! And on top of that they didn't care.. I called em about it and all they'd do was send another order.. for More money! Got the second "replacement" order.. still no germination! Needless to say i will never use them again.

Their information seems to match up with Victory and Territorial with the exception of the DTM though, I wonder where they copied it from. Now, I'd tend to put more faith in the last 2 a lot more since I know Nichols dosen't even know what they're selling.

Thanks for the input Pugs..

[pugs]

Dave,

PM me your address and I'll send you some Oregon Spring, Siletz, Legend, Saucey and Oregon Star seed to you from Territorial seeds if you like. I think all of these were developed by Dr. Baggett.

I bought the seed this year. If you want to experiment, I've got a bunch of seed of Legend I saved myself a few years ago. I bought the plant from a nursery so I don't know where they got their seed from. I didn't study the plant enough to know if it was true to the description or not.

I'm sitting here thinking how people who aren't from Oregon pronounce Siletz. Sorry we Oregonians have a warped sense of humor. We give things names that no one else knows how to pronounce.

Pugs

[sammyqc]

Okay, so how do you pronounce it?

[pugs]

Well, I'm not good with the pronouncation metasymbols, so

say 'sill' (like in windowsill) and 'lets'. The accent goes on the 'lets' part.

If you want real challenges we go next to Or-y-gun then to Will-am-ett.

But if you want a good laugh, hear me try and say any thing in French or Spanish, so I guess I shouldn't complain much.

Pugs

[americangardener]

OK everyone..

I'm trying to put together a spreadsheet on google.. here's what i've done so far. If anyone wants to check and see if this link works for them LMK.

I think this spreadsheet is only showing 999 varieties yet on my spreadsheet that i'm working on it's up to 1117 varieties. Guess i haven't quite figured this spreadsheet stuff out yet. And yes i know i need to finish cleaning out the ones i have duplicates of.

Dan.. maybe if you can tell me how to work this darn thing, i'll have an easier time of it.

spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pWtDheex3Pv1j3D3e_mCoLA

Dave