Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. "C & C's Corner" by Carolyn

15 years ago! September! at Ocracoke Island on vacation - sitting at the beach overlook with Buddy and Mocha

Here we are - embarking on the third volume. There are probably a bit over 20 articles to repost from Volume three (numbers 1-3) - then just single Volume 4 (number 1), with a handful of articles - that is when we called it quits. Yet we are about to slip into September - it looks like the OTV republish will wrap up at the end of the year. I hope those of you reading these has enjoyed them as much as I have.

Here is another of Carolyn’s introductory columns. They are always fun! There will be more fun articles in this issue - Carolyn mentions Bill Ellis (who sent me one of my favorite tomatoes, Polish), and Andrew Smith, a superb tomato historian.

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C and C’s Corner

Carolyn Male

We would appreciate it if you would read this column first because I introduce to you our articles and their authors.  Also, please remember that the masthead on page two of each issue tells you how to contact Craig and me and states the current subscription and back issue costs.

If your mailing label has 31 (Volume 3, #1) after your name it’s time to renew your subscription to Off The Vine, we hope you’ll stay with us.  I also circle in red the 31 and write below y our name in red that this is your last issue as I have done since our first issue.  Renewal notices will not be sent out so after you’ve read this issue please send your renewal, clearly marking it as a renewal, before the next issue is published (October/November ’96).  Subscription prices for three issues is $7 for US residents, $8 (US) for Canadian and Mexican residents and $9 (US) for all other foreign addresses.  If our non-US subscribers send checks, please be sure they are based on a US account or I will have to return them to you.  Canadian postal money orders in US funds are just fine for our Canadian readers.  If there is an error on your address label please let me know.

Since we have many new subscribers since the last issue I’d like to explain a bit about us and Off The Vine.  We would like to publish one issue in February/March, so you can order our F2 etc seeds, one issue in May/June and one issue in October/November.  But we do not have a rigorous publishing schedule.  Craig and I both have “day” jobs and publish Off The Vine because of our passionate interest in heirloom tomatoes.  Craig has a PhD in chemistry and works at GlaxoWellcome, a pharmaceutical company in Raleigh, NC, while I have a PhD in microbiology and am a college teacher in Albany, NY.  Neither of us has professional training in publishing.  We’ve learned a lot in the past two years and are still learning.  We both want Off The Vine to be informal and fun, and interactive.  So if you can handle a somewhat erratic publishing schedule and are comfortable with an informal style, we’re happy to have you with us!

We have two guest authors in this issue.  Dr. Bill Ellis has written an article on tomato folklore which I know you’ll enjoy.  Bill is an associate professor of English and American Studies at Penn State University, Hazleton Campus.  He is widely published on contemporary folklore and has led workshops on seed saving at meetings at the American Folklore Society and the Middle Atlantic Folklore Association.  He has been a member of the Seed Savers Exchange since 1983 and has added several varieties of tomatoes to the SSE network, including Polish, Dr. Neal, and African Beefsteak.

Andy Smith, our second guest author, is writing his second article for us.  In Volume 1, #2, he wrote an article about tomato history which derived from his book entitled “The Tomato in America; Early History, Culture and Cookery”.  This excellent book can be ordered from the University of South Carolina Press at 1-800-758-2500.  The ISBN number is 1-57003-000-6 and the cost is $24.95 plus $3.50 for shipping.  He has completed a new book about ketchup called “Pure Ketchup: A History of America’s National Condiment”, which will be published by the Univ. of South Carolina Press in September.  His article in this issue stems from research he’s doing on the sequel to his history book which is tentatively titled “The Profitable Tomato:  History, Culture and Cookery.  Time-wise it picks up where the first book stopped and will cover the time period of roughly 1860-1920.  It should be available late next year and of course I’ll give you the details when they become available.  When we decided that Andy would write about Alexander Livingston for this issue, I put him in contact with Jim Huber, an Off The Vine subscriber and SSE member who has a strong interest in all matters relating to the Livingston Seed Company.  Andy recently visited Reynoldsburg, OH, and has described that visit in his article.  He tentatively plans to speak at the Tomato Festival held there each September.

Craig and I have each written articles about our 1996 summer growouts, as we do each year.  Craig interviewed Rob Johnston of Johnny’s Selected Seeds and I wrote an article which introduced our OTV disease project.

Now for a few updates from our last issue.  Jeff Dawson, former Garden Director at Fetzer Vineyards, wrote an article about marketing heirloom tomatoes.  Due to a recent corporate decision to deemphasize and scale down the gardens, as well as to eliminate the test kitchen, Jeff has made a move to Kendall-Jackson Winery in Santa Rosa, CA, where he is now Garden Director.  His challenge is to create new gardens at Kendall-Jackson but he will still be maintaining his five acre plot in Sonoma.  It sounds like a wonderful opportunity and we wish him “blossoming” success!

I also wrote about Tom Wagner, hybridizer of Green Grape and others, and solicited input on support for his activities.  I’d like to thank those folks who responded and I’m happy to report that Tom appears to now have substantial backing to further his efforts.  As promised, he sent me 22 of his new varieties for trial; it was too late in the season to share with Craig so I have them growing in my zone 5 area to see how they do and I will report back to you in the fall issue.

And I can’t thank Pat Millard enough for processing your requests for the F2, F3, etc seeds which were offered in the February issue.  Each week he emailed a summary so I knew who requested what.  Upon review of those lists it looks like we even had some non-OTV members requesting seeds.  That’s interesting!  Forty six folks made requests, 156 packets were sent out with a total of 1195 seeds.  I am in awe of the precision of his data.  I’m the person who this year misplaced two of the three copies of the Tomato Growers Supply catalog sent to me by Linda Sapp (she knows me too well), one copy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds, one copy of Harris Seeds, and one copy each of Pine Tree and Shepherd Seeds.  You’d never understand.  I file by pile and then the piles merge and create an avalanche; it isn’t a pretty picture.  The most requested seeds, in order, were OTV Brandywine, the White Queen cross, the Yellow Oxheart cross and the Purple Perfect X Purple Price cross.  Craig would like to know about his Sungold and Cherokee Purple crosses and I really want to know if OTV Brandywine at the F5 stage is stabilized.  If so, Craig and I will introduce it in the 1997 SSE yearbook.  And I’d like to know what the White Queen did for you.  A postcard will do.  Same for Dr. John Navazio for the 12 of you who requested his varieties.

Chuck Wyatt emailed me a marvelous comment from someone on the Compuserve  Garden Forum.  The person was complaining about having trouble growing tomatoes and wanted to know where he could get “that heirloom brand” he’s heard so much about.  So what am I doing growing out 200 varieties of tomatoes when I could be growing out “the heirloom brand”!  Knowing several folks who participate on the Compuserve Gardening Forum I’m sure they gently set him straight on the heirloom brand request.  And speaking of email that brings me to the Internet and that brings me to the Web.  Neither Craig nor I have the time to do any serious public relations work for Off The Vine so we’ve decided to do a web page.  Hopefully in a month or so if you type in Off The Vine in any of the major search engines you’ll find us.  If any of you have ideas for connecting URLs please email them to me.  Thanks in advance!

Late last fall I received a phone call from a Steven Shepherd in CA who said he was writing a book about tomatoes, but it wasn’t really about tomatoes, and wanted to confirm that we were still publishing Off The Vine so he could include it in the references.  After I hung up I sat there trying to figure out what kind of book he was writing that used the tomato patch in the front yard as the focus for integration and interaction with his neighbors.  I didn’t “get it”.  And uncorrected proof of his book arrived a few weeks ago and now I’ve “got it”., and it is wonderful!  In reading the book I feel I am part of the neighborhood and now I understand how the tomatoes are the focus.  Steven is not an expert on tomatoes, he doesn’t try to be, but there are some good tidbits in there about tomatoes (his father is a plant pathologist).  When I called him to congratulate him on such a wise and good book about good people, I told him I wouldn’t grow one of those varieties he grew!  We laughed!  Please read it, it will make you feel good about life…and tomatoes.  It’s called “In Praise of Tomatoes:  A Year in the Life of a Home Tomato Grower”, by Steven L. Shepherd.  The ISBN Number is 0-06-017484-6, the probably publication date is July 1996, and the probable price is $20, and the publisher is Harper Collins.

Let’s try a question and answer column.  I think it would be fun and informative.  You ask the questions, Craig and I will provide the answers, if we can, or ask the appropriate folks for the answers.  As our regular readers know, we don’t want to get involved with tomato culture of specific diseases because there are so many fine publications that do that.  Other than those exceptions, fire away!  Please send your questions to me, and Craig and I will select a few for the next issue of Off The Vine.  And again I’m asking for your input in terms of contributing long or short articles about heirloom tomatoes and related issues.  We’ve wanted Off The Vine to be interactive from day one.  We need your perspectives.  Recently I received a letter from Kathleen McClellend who said that she was no longer publishing “The Historical Gardener” because she couldn’t get enough quality articles in a timely manner.  It was a wonderful publication and I’m so sorry to see it go.  But we share her dilemma.  Don’t be shy; some of you write very well.  Curtis S. in Texas may be able to tell us how he identifies killer bees from non-killer bees….how about it Curtis?  And I can think of several more of you who have written interesting material in letters when you send in your renewals.  Let me know what you’re thinking of writing about first and Craig and I will decide if it is something that fits in with our philosophy.

Lastly, I’d like to again thank Jeff Fleming for doing the address labels for us.  Just when I thought I had a handle on our “old way” of doing them he’s come up with a new version which I think is a terrific improvement.  Give me a year or so and I’ll eventually figure out this one also!  Folks, I am not a computer guru; I do the basic stuff and pray nothing bad happens to my computer at home.  Computer problems at work are usually easily and quickly solved by a group of gurus. 

Craig and I hope you’ll have a wonderful, productive growing season and we’ll report back in October/November.

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Another characteristic, fun read. So many names from the past - so many memories.

September 2007 - beach view at Ocracoke

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "Growing 600 Types of Tomatoes in Ethel, Missouri; population 100" - interview of Calvin Wait by Craig

A favorite bicolored portulaca on our deck as August comes to a close

I was excited to interview Calvin Wait, a fellow SSE member with a very large collection of varieties. He and I are still somewhat in touch (especially when I was on Facebook), and he gardens still.

By the way - this article brings Volume 2 to a close. The next post will bring us into Volume 3 - those three issues, then an abbreviated Volume 4 Number 1, should take us to the end of the year, and all of Off The Vine will have seen the light of day at last!

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Growing 600 Types of Tomatoes in Ethel, Missouri; Population 100 - about tomato enthusiast Calvin Wait

by Craig

We tomato enthusiasts who are avid Seed Saver Exchange members sometimes use our name codes as a kind of shorthand when referring to each other. It is easiest when the letter code is pronounceable, such as when I lived in Pennsylvania and was “PALEC”, or the co-editor of OTV, who is “NYMAC”. While there are many, many members of the SSE who offer a variety of tomato seeds each year, “MOWAC” is one of the most ambitious, with over 600 listings in the 1995 Yearbook. Carolyn and I felt it was high time to find out more about him. Oh, yes, his name is Calvin Wait, and he lives in the “city” of Ethel, Missouri, population about 100 according to the sign in town!

Calvin, like many gardeners, has to squeeze his passion for growing tomatoes and many other crops around a job. He runs a two color press for a publishing company, often working the midnight shift. I am always reminded of this when trying to telephone him, only to find that he is either asleep, or about to go to work. By the way, I did find out a little bit about Ethel. It is in the north central part of the state. The nearest place with lots of people is Columbia, which is about 90 miles away. Calvin is not much of a traveler, and has never ventured further east than Illinois. His main hobby is indeed gardening, and he also likes to listen to music, particularly rock and roll. I did not ask him if this kind of music is good for his tomato plants, however.

Last year was a gardening disaster in Ethel because of the nearly constant rain from June on. When it is not raining, Ethel seems like a good place to raise tomatoes. Calvin plants them out in nice sandy loam soil in mid-April, typically. He likes to use Wall-O’-Water devices on a few early varieties to get a jump on things, getting those in the ground in mid March. Calvin has gardened all of his life. He probably caught the gardening bug from his mother, who raised “the usual things” and canned the fruits of her labor. He recalls seeing red, orange, and yellow tomatoes as a boy, and remembers his mother growing Rutgers in her garden. Rutgers was introduced in the 1930’s and is still commonly grown. As you  can imagine, tomatoes are his favorite vegetable. He became interested in growing heirloom vegetables in the mid-1980’s. This interest started from an ad in the local newspaper for the first edition of the Seed Savers Exchange Garden Seed Inventory book. After obtaining a copy of the book, Calvin joined the SSE and decided to switch to mainly heirlooms. His first experience with really out of the ordinary seeds was with those of Glecklers seed company. They have always specialized in the unusual and unique. He bought from them tomatoes such as Giant Belgium, a large pink fruited variety. After joining the SSE and starting to acquire varieties from other seed savers, his participation in offering seeds grew with each passing year. Calvin claims that he is very open minded about the hybrid versus heirloom dilemma, and has successfully grown both in his garden. He did say that he focuses on open-pollinated tomatoes because the hybrids he has tried, except for Sun Gold orange cherry, have been very disappointing in performance and flavor. They are easily surpassed by the heirloom varieties he grows.

Calvin maintains 5 small garden plots that together total about half an acre. He plants and maintains the gardens himself. He practices as much crop rotation as he can manage. He claims that things grow with little disease problems except in summers like last year, when the excessive rain really made a mess of things. He does not own or use a greenhouse, but starts his seeds in his house on a light stand. He aims for about 80-100 different varieties of tomatoes each year. He grows more than one plant of his favorites, so that he cares for about 150 plants each summer. Calvin uses a rototiller to add granular fertilizer in the fall, and mulches with straw during the growing season. He once had a hog farm, and observes that the tomatoes grow best in the area where the hogs were kept. He uses 5 feet tall home made tomato cages, constructed from concrete reinforcing wire, to support his plants. He does not prune suckers, but sometimes thins the fruit clusters if too many tomatoes have set. This seems to keep the size of the fruit larger than if he lets all of the tomatoes on a cluster develop. Sometimes he uses a copper spray to lessen the foliage diseases if the weather is wet. Aside from tomatoes, he grows many other crops on a more limited basis. He does grow a fair number of heirloom Sweet Potatoes as well.

Of course I asked him what his favorite and not-so-favorite tomatoes were. He really did not have many on his “never grow again” list, except for some hybrids such as Supersteak (I agree!). His favorites were another matter, and we discussed them by color starting with pink tomatoes. Calvin really likes a tomato that he named Pink Italian Beefsteak. It is a selection from the hybrid Beefmaster, and he has been growing it for the past 5 years. He also really loves Honey, Stump of the World, Rose, Louisiana Pink and Purple Potato Leaf. When I asked him about many seed savers’ favorite tomato, Brandywine, he said that he likes it fine, but he does not find it better than the pink varieties described above. He also likes some of the pink heart shaped tomatoes, such as Anna Russian, but finds them tricky to grow. They are slow to get going and are weak seedlings, though they really grow and produce well once they are established. As far as the red tomatoes, Calvin mentioned Red Italian Beefsteak, which he also selected from the hybrid Beefmaster, Berwick German, Egyptian, Reisentraube, Healani, and Costoluto Genovese. Of the true bright yellow tomatoes, Calvin really enjoys growing and eating Hugh’s, Mirabell, and Transparent. He likes the orange varieties Mandarin Cross (though listed as a hybrid he finds that it grows true from saved seed) and Sunray. He is not a great fan of the flavor of the large red/yellow bicolored tomatoes, describing them as too mild or bland. He thinks that Northern Lights and Pink & Lemon are the best of that type he has grown. The only white tomato that got his vote is Great White, and the greens are represented by Garden Lime and Green Zebra. He also said that as soon as we hung up the phone he would probably either think of other favorites, or change the ones he told me about. Carolyn and I can sympathize with this! It really depends upon the day if someone asks any tomato enthusiast about their favorite tomato. Their lists change from year to year.

Calvin does not believe that he has experienced much crossing, either in seed he has saved or seed he has received from others. He does think that mix ups have occurred, and told me about the mice that often scatter seed he is drying in his house. He wondered if similar things happen when someone sends him a yellow tomato, and it comes out red. When I asked where his heirloom tomato passion is heading, he mentioned starting his own seed company. The intentions are there, but it hasn’t happened yet! As he said, ”I won’t quit my day job! If I can get to it, and it works out, great.  But if it does not, it won’t be the end of the world”. Sounds like a good philosophy to me!

Carolyn and I have been getting tomato seeds from “MOWAC” for many years now. He writes great descriptions in the SSE yearbook. The tomato enthusiasts in the SSE should order seeds from Calvin. They will receive seeds that germinate well, grow true to the description, and taste great! We wish him many, many years of seed saving and sharing. 

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I enjoyed my various phone calls with Calvin, and am pleased that he continues to garden and enjoy growing tomatoes. No longer being connected with him on Facebook, it seems a good time for a phone call - it is long overdue. Reading what I wrote above reinforces how many of us who caught the heirloom tomato bug have parallel stories. We also end up with way too many varieties on our hands!

View of the late August garden - mostly peppers and eggplant, with a few dwarf tomatoes

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "Taking Your Tomatoes to Market" by Jeff Dawson

silver spotted skipper resting on my knee on our deck

I had completely forgotten that Jeff Dawson wrote an article for our newsletter - he delved into the world of heirlooms right around the time that Carolyn and I were. He currently is on the board of the SSE, does some tomato breeding, and is a consultant to some biodynamic California vineyards. Jeff is responsible for the following tomatoes: Black Zebra, Copia, Orange Russian 117, and Dawson’s Russian Oxheart.

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Taking Your Tomatoes to Market

Jeff Dawson

Growing heirloom tomatoes for the restaurant market is a wonderful way to support a tomato enthusiast’s habit.  The dramatic colors, unique shapes and heavenly flavors which inspire us to grow these exotic varieties of tomato also appeal to the restaurant chefs who recognize these qualities, not found in commercially available tomatoes.

I started Grandview Farms on the half-acre plot of land in Sonoma County, California, located one hour north of San Francisco.  In 1988 I planted a variety of crops as a shot-gun effort to test the market for organically grown produce. 

After the first season, vine ripened tomatoes were obviously a product in demand.  Marketing to local restaurants and markets in the county proved to be a financially successful venture.

During a large produce tasting which involved many farmers from the San Francisco Bay area, I had the opportunity to taste the Green Zebra and Marvel Stripe tomatoes.  These two varieties opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities.  They were visually appealing with flavors that were completely new and exciting.  This was the beginning of my search for varieties that were not available on the commercial market.

As my farm grew to five acres in size, its production far exceeded the local demand.  I was forced to look to San Francisco restaurants, an hour drive south, as an outlet for the produce I was growing.  This market is very competitive, as there are many small to medium sized growers such as myself selling in this area.  To compete in this market, I realized I had to come up with something no one else had.

With the discovery of the Seed Savers Exchange, I found a wealth of varieties that were old, but not yet tested in the commercial market.  Over the next six years, I tested over 200 varieties of tomatoes, looking for something new and different.

Varieties to be put into production had to perform not only to my standards, but also to the standards of the chefs who would be using them.  These chefs expect a very high level of quality which forced me to work on improving my own farming techniques and the quality of my own product.  The restaurants that I worked with were a valuable resource for finding o ut which varieties could be incorporated into the many different styles of cuisine.

An early success story was when selling salad mix to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, Postrio, I had a bumper crop of roma tomatoes which I tried for weeks to get them to purchase, knowing they used them on a weekly basis.  Finally, when they agreed to a small order as a sample, the chef checking the order claimed that they were a little smaller than what they were used to.  He seemed doubtful that there would be another order.  The next morning I received a call from the same chef wanting to order 500 pounds of the same roma tomatoes twice a week for the rest of the season!  The taste and freshness of the product so impressed the chef that he needed to look no further for his supply.

The next year I tested 15 different paste varieties and discovered Amish paste, Rocky, Chinese and Jumbo Roma.  These varieties then became a part of the menu at Postrio and other restaurants.

The seasonal tomato salad is a staple on most restaurant menus during summer.  This creates a unique opportunity to supply colored slicing tomatoes.  My tests began to include the green varieties such as Evergreen, Garden Lime, Green Zebra, Green Pineapple and Aunt Ruby’s German Green; the white varieties such as Great White, Potato leaf White and Big White, Pink Stripes; and the so-called black varieties such as Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Black Prince.  I worked with yellows, oranges, bicolors and pinks, trying to find fruit which performed well in the garden and had the color and taste qualities the restaurants were seeking.

Many restaurants also used a fair quantity of red slicing tomatoes.  It is always best to plan on planting up to 10 percent of your total tomato crop to red or pink slicers.  Russian 117, Pink Sweet and hybrids such as Whopper or Celebrity have worked well for me.  These varieties can be the bread and butter for any tomato growing operation.

Different colored cherry tomatoes, picked separately or mixed together in flats, sell very well.  My favorites are Galina, Riesentraube, Green Grape and Sungold.  These flats are very colorful and are called Toy Box cherries.  It is very easy to get a chef’s attention by walking into the back of a restaurant kitchen with a case of multicolored heirloom tomatoes.  The real challenge is to maintain their attention by developing a relationship that benefits both the grower and the chef.  By planning with chefs during the offseason, desired varieties can be identified, menus can be planned, and verbal or written contracts can be made.

Retail grocery stores are also a potential market for the small tomato grower.  First, I suggest trying to sell the red slicing tomatoes and paste varieties that a produce buyer is most familiar with.  These buyers can be easily won over with a taste of a vine ripened, red heirloom tomato.   Once a grower has proven that he/she has the ability to provide a consistent supply of quality fruit, buyers become more than willing to try more unusual tomato varieties.  Care must be taken not to sell dead ripe tomatoes to a retail market as the grower must allow for some shelf time.

When calling on potential markets, restaurants or grocery stores, be sure to provide a sample which is large enough to be used or sold.  A three or four tomato sample is not adequate, this small amount is easily misplaced or forgotten.  A full case sample is enough to sell in a market and get the public’s response, or for a restaurant to prepare a dish on its menu. 

Farmers markets are also a possible outlet for the small tomato grower.  These markets have sprung up locally throughout the US.  Many growers use these markets to sell all of their production.  I know some farmers who will sell at seven different markets a week during their peak season.  This is another area where growers can receive opinions about their varieties from regular customers.

Growers should look at all their potential markets before planting tomatoes on a commercial level.  Diversity is the key to success, both in the varieties you grow and the market to which you sell.  Consider selling to a combination of restaurants, local grocery stores, and farmers markets as a means of supporting the desire to enjoy and grow more heirloom tomatoes.

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Jeff’s thinking was ahead of its time, as much of what he wrote has come true - heirloom tomatoes at farmers markets and even grocery stores and great popularity of them with creative chefs. He makes many useful points in this interesting article. It is interesting to note some of the varieties that he mentions - some continue to be my favorites even now, decades later.

One of the coleus on our flower garden

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "Seed Sources" by Carolyn

I thought I’d return to a pic from August 2019 - being reminded of what an unruly mess my driveway garden became!

Time for a Carolyn contribution - and amused she begins with an admonishment! Carolyn LOVED to send seeds to people. It is also great to read of her support for the SSE. They are approaching their 50th year anniversary - yet their exposure is not at all what it should be. There are myriad reasons for this that I won’t go in to. Though I don’t support absolutely everything they do these days, I consider their continued existence absolutely critical. This article by Carolyn is a good - but somewhat dated - read. All of the companies listed have undergone changes over the years, and one has vanished (Heirloom Seeds). Time heals wounds - but sometimes creates them as well.

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Seed Sources

by Carolyn Male

I’d first like to mention that Craig and I are not a source of tomato seeds for Off The Vine subscribers.  We both are active listed members of the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE, see below), and participate in their seed activities, but do not feel it is appropriate for us to offer seeds for sale.  I’m going to discuss both commercial sources and the special seeds we are offering through Off The Vine, but I’d first like to encourage all of you to consider membership in the SSE.  SSE is not a commercial firm and is not a seed company.  It is an organization dedicated to the preservation of heirloom vegetables, fruits and grains.  If preserving our genetic heritage is important to you, you might wish to support SSE by becoming a member.  Membership will give you access to about 3000 tomato varieties!  Almost all of the varieties mentioned in Off The Vine are available through SSE.  It is hoped that you would multiply seed obtained through SSE and reoffer it to others as a listed member although that certainly is not a requirement for membership.  It’s pretty late in the season to obtain the current seed listings in the 1996 yearbook, but by sending in $25 now, you might get it this spring.  It gets very busy at SSE in the spring and there is usually a big backlog.  They now publish a brochure which contains a few selected vegetables and flower varieties which are available to everyone, but the tomato offerings are limited.  The address is Seed Savers Exchange, 3076 North Winn Road, Decorah, IA, 52101.

The following list of commercial seed sources is not inclusive; they are companies Craig and I or others we know have dealt with and have been pleased with both the service and the seeds.  The catalog ($2 ) of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, PO Box 170, Earlysville, VA, 22936, is a treasure trove of heirloom histories and excellent open pollinated varieties.  There is a large selection of heirloom tomatoes including many that have been mentioned in Off The Vine (too many to list separately).  Vince and Linda Sapp at Tomato Growers Supply have made a large commitment to heirloom tomatoes and now carry a superb selection.  Again, many of the varieties have been mentioned here and are too numerous to mention individually.  Their catalog is free and the address is Tomato Growers Supply Company, PL Box 2237, Fort Meyers, FL 33902.  Rob Johnston of Johnny’s Selected Seeds has an excellent selection of heirloom tomatoes.  Again, many have been mentioned here in Off The Vine.  The catalog is free and the address is Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Foss Hill Road, Albion, ME  04910.  Tom Hauch has a small catalog which features many excellent heirloom tomatoes.  The catalog is $1 and the address is Heirloom Seeds, PO Box 245, West Elizabeth, PA  15088.  Totally Tomatoes, PO Box 1626, Augusta, GA, 30903 (catalog free) also has a nice selection of heirloom tomatoes.  Craig and I have been sending seed for trial to the first three companies and we are pleased that they have selected some of our varieties to offer in their catalogs.

We are also making available to you a selection of 12 very special seeds, of which you may request any six varieties.  These seeds are special because they are the result of either natural or deliberate cross pollination and the grow outs from some of these should be especially interesting.  We need to discuss a little about tomato genetics before I describe the varieties.

The fruits which result from initial cross pollination (natural or deliberate) of two parents gives seed which is referred to as F1 seed (F1 hybrid).  When planted, all the plants and fruit of F1 seed should be identical (but see comments later about Brandywine crosses).  Seed isolated from the fruits of F1 parents is referred to as F2 seed.  When this seed is planted you’ll get a variety of different plants which might vary with respect to foliage type, fruit shape and color, earliness, etc.  So if the F1 plants were potato leaf, for instance, the F2 plants may be regular leaf or potato leaf.  And if the F1 fruit were red, you could get red, orange or pink fruit, or whatever, in the F2s, depending on the parents.  If you find an F2 plant that you like, save the seeds and plant again the next year.  These F3 seeds will also segregate out different characteristics and you’ll have to select again and grow out the next year to see the F4s.  So how long does it take to genetically stabilize a variety?  Well, how does 3-10 years sound?  But it is really fun, and remember that every authentic family heirloom tomato was grown out and stabilized by someone until it came true every year!  Some of the rejects are darned good and this stabilizing game really does start to grow on you.  So if you have the room and inclination, give it a try.  We ask in return that you let the folks offering the seed know your results.  Whether or not the results are requested is listed for each seed offering. 

The first series of seeds were hybridized by Stanley Zubrowski, an amateur Canadian hybridizer who has been trying to combine flavor (Brandywine) with a variety of early season varieties.  All five F1s are potato leaved and the fruit about 4-6 ounces with a variety of fruit shapes and the color is red or pink (they should all be red because Brandywine is pink and each of the five varieties it is crossed with are red; red is dominant to pink).  These crosses are Brandywine X Stupice, Brandywine X Kotlas, Brandywine X Polish, Brandywine X Glacier, and Brandywine X Outdoor Girl.  The seed offered is the F2 seed.

Tad Smith, author of our late blight article and the hybridization article in this issue, is offering two crosses.  The first is Yellow Oxheart X Ukrainian Heart (red).  The F1 plants are wispy, as one often seeds with oxheart foliage and the fruit are large pink hearts.  Tad knows the Ukrainian Heart parent was red and is at a loss to explain the pink offspring.  Seed offered is F2 seed.  Tad’s other cross is Purple Perfect X Purple Price.  These parents have the same coloration as Cherokee Purple, as do the F1 fruit.  I happen to love Purple Perfect, the one parent, and several folks reported from last year that they got some excellent selections.  Seed offered is the F2 seed. 

I’m offering two crosses.  The first is White Queen X unknown.  White Queen is the best white I’ve ever grown, is oblate (flattened) with very good taste.  The F1 fruit are large red and bomb-shaped with excellent taste; could be some interesting ones that come out of this because I don’t know what the other parent is, other than it’s red.  Seed offered is F2 seed.  My other offering is OTV (Off The Vine) Brandywine, and this is a great tomato.  The OTV reflects the fact that this cross originated in Craig’s garden between Yellow Brandywine and unknown, and I’ve stabilized it out to the F4 generation.  While pink, yellow, and red/orange large beefsteak type fruit have appeared in the F2 and F3 generations, I’ve been selecting for the large red/orange potato leaf type and last summer seven of seven plants grew true.  I really want to know your results with this one, and you might as well make my day by including the results of the White Queen cross if you’ve selected that one.  Seeds are F4.

Craig is also offering two crosses.  His first is Cherokee Purple X unknown (red).  Instead of the clear skin that gives Cherokee Purple its dusky rose color, this F1 has yellow skin which makes the fruit brownish in color.  Seed offered is the F2 seed.  Craig’s other cross is Sungold X unknown, and the F3 he’s offering is a potato leaf variant with red/orange cherry sized fruit.  Seed offered is the F3 seed.

Lastly, 12 lucky folks may opt to grow out selections offered by Dr. John Navazio of Garden City Seeds.  The description that follows is his; “I’m happy to give readers of OTV a chance to select a potentially good flavored tomato.  The original cross was between a very good flavored heirloom from Maine called simply “Potato Leaf”, and a select high-flavored breeding line from the late Univ. of RI tomato breeder, Dr. A. E. Griffiths.  F3 plants will vary for leaf type, flavor compounds, and shape.  Each packet contains about 15 seeds; please try to grow at least 8-10 plants and only save seeds from the best ones for further stabilization of the variety.” Seed offered is F3 seed.  Each packet has a number on it which you should record and will also be recorded by Pat Millard, and each packet as Dr. Navazio’s address at Garden City Seeds.  Courtesy dictates that you send him a postcard and let him know your findings and what you plant to do with your selections; I’m sure he would appreciate that.  If your space is limited and you grow half the seeds this year and half the next, that would be fine.

Other than John Navazio’s seeds, if you are going to plant only one, two or three of the plants, please request only five seeds.  If you are going to plant more than that, which should be done to see the range and types of variation, then request ten seeds.  Send your request to Patrick Millard, 1126 Justin Ridge Way, Waynesville, Ohio  45068 and enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope with a 32 cent stamp; we would ask non-US folks to please enclose one US dollar and not put stamps on their SASE.  Again, Craig, John and I would appreciate a postcard letting us know what you get from your grow outs.  I just know you’ll have fun with these seeds.  Remember, you may request six varieties!

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I’ve absolutely no idea what happened with many of the experimental seeds that were sent out. I don’t think anything of significance came from them…well, except for Cherokee Chocolate, the brown fruited mutation of Cherokee Purple. Perhaps we will read about some of the others in future articles from this newsletter - we shall see!

We were also fostering puppies in August - here’s Koda keeping an eye on them.

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "Breeding Tomatoes in the Home Vegetable Garden" by Tad Smith

The remaining dwarfs in the mid August garden

Reading this interesting addition to our newsletter reminds me that I need to reconnect with Tad Smith. We had occasional phone conversations back in the Off The Vine days, which I always enjoyed. Chats with him help fuel my own interest in amateur breeding.

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Breeding Tomatoes in the Home Vegetable Garden

Dr. Tad Smith

Breeding tomatoes adds another dimension to the joy of growing tomatoes in the home vegetable garden.  In addition to the anticipation of tasting that first luscious fruit of the season, there is the unknown fascination about the size and taste of this “new” tomato.  If the new tomato has characteristics that please the gardener, then it may become a permanent part of the yearly planting in the home garden.  What could possibly be more satisfying than eating the fruits of one’s own handiwork?

There are several ways to breed tomatoes.  For the gardener simply interested in planting some crossed-pollinated seed, let the bees and chance play the main roles. Tomatoes are normally self-pollinating, but 5% cross-pollination from insect activity is common in the home garden.  If bees are not active or the weather is poor, cross-pollination is less likely to occur.  However, this passive method places a major limit on the choice of parental tomato varieties because a method is needed to distinguish seedlings that developed from cross-pollinated seed.

Leaf shape can be an excellent marker to pick out the hybrid seedlings.  For example, it is possible to cross a regular leaf tomato variety with a potato leaf tomato using no special skills.  This can be useful for gardeners with unsteady hands or less than perfect vision needed to cross pollinate the flowers.  Besides, botany class may have been years ago.

In the spring, plant one potato leaf tomato plant surrounded by several regular leaf plants.  During the summer and early fall, collect a large amount of seed from 10 or more tomatoes from only the potato leaf plant.  Next spring, plant all of the seed in several flats.  As soon as the first true leaves develop, examine the true leaves carefully.  Scattered throughout the flat of mostly potato leaf seedlings will be a few regular leaf seedlings.  Since all of the seed came from potato leaf fruit, any regular leaf seedlings are the results of cross pollination.  In this case, the regular leaf trait was dominant over the potato leaf trait.  By choosing the potato leaf plants as the female parents, it was easy to spot the regular leaf hybrid seedlings.

This passive method requires working with tomato varieties possessing traits that can be differentiated in the seedling stage.  Besides the potato vs regular leaf, the Woolly trait can be used.  The Woolly gene is found in the Angora variety of tomato.  If gardeners are not familiar with Angora, they should try it because it has a beautiful coat of white hairs over the entire plant surface.  The Woolly trait is dominant over plants lacking a heavy coat of hairs.  Therefore plant several Angora plants around one regular non-hairy plant. Examine seedlings derived from seed collected from the non-hairy plant for woolly seedlings.  These Woolly seedlings will be the hybrids.

Active cross pollination is a more reliable method to breed tomatoes.  There is no limitation on the parents used in the cross, except do not use hybrid plants.  The technique of cross-pollinating tomatoes is relatively easy, but it requires practice and skill.  It is well worth the effort to practice by crossing a potato leaf plant with pollen from a regular leaf plant.  Then evaluate your skill by checking the leaf type of seedlings.  If the seedling characteristics indicate that your skills are good, then attempt to cross pollinate plants that would lack visual differences at the seedling stage.

The inside method requires at least four large pots for two plants of each variety.  Grow the plants in a southern window and augment the light with a bank of fluorescent lights set for 16 hours.  Longer light regimes will damage tomato plants.  Add a source of calcium to the soil mix to eliminate any chance of blossom end rot.

Once the plants form flower buds, it is time to plan the cross pollination.  Just before or as the flower opens, remove the fused stamens from the flower that should form the future tomato.  By removing these pollen producing parts of the flower (emasculation), self pollination is prevented.  The stamens form a cone like structure around the center structure of the flower.  A jewelers micro-forceps works well for this delicate task.  The goal is to cleanly remove all of the stamens without damaging other parts of the flower.  Practice removing the stamens on tomato flowers during the summer in the vegetable garden.

Generally, the emasculated flower requires a day or two to recover from the injury and to become fully receptive to pollen from another flower.  The flowers that provide pollen should be at peak bloom, and the best time for cross pollination is around noon.  The forceps tip is used to collect pollen from the inner surface of stamens from a different tomato variety.  There are numerous grooves on stamens that contain large amounts of pollen.  Of course, there is no reason to be gentle with the pollen source flowers.  The pollen is transferred to the tip (the stigma) of the center part of the emasculated flower.  This central part contains the stigma and long style located over the ovary.  After pollination, the ovary of the flower swells and develops into a tomato.

Pollinate as many flowers as possible.  Once the fruit sets, allow only two fruits to develop from each flower cluster.  Otherwise, the weight of the fruits on plants raised inside may cause the tomatoes to pull loose from the stem.

The seeds from this cross at the F1 hybrids, and the F1 plants will be identical and express only the dominant traits of the parents.  Since they are hybrids, they may be more vigorous than either one of the parents.  Store the seed in coin envelopes that are carefully labeled and dated.  Place the envelopes inside a plastic zip-lock bag and store it in the refrigerator.  Tomato seeds stored at low temperature will be viable for decades.  One tomato will yield anywhere from 10 to 200 seeds, depending on the variety and success of the pollination technique.

The genetics of tomatoes are well known.  As a starting point, many common tomato traits are recessive.  This includes the potato leaf shape, green stripes on fruit (seen in Tigerella), yellow flesh color, determinate plant shape, and unpigmented fruit epidermis (clear skin found on pink and white tomatoes).  If any of these traits are matched with a typical red tomato variety, the dominant traits of the red tomato variety will be expressed in the F1 hybrids.

Only a few tomato traits are dominant over the characteristics of normal red tomatoes.  The Woolly trait is one example.  Another dominant trait is beta-carotene.  In this case, the tomato is orange in color because of the dominant production of beta carotene pigment in the fruit.  Caro Rich and Caro Red are two varieties with this gene.

The recessive genes do not disappear in the F1 hybrids.  They simply are not expressed.  However, these genes will be expressed in some plants of the next generation (F2) of tomatoes.  The F2 generation produces tremendous variation from plant to plant.  At this level, plant breeders start the long selection process of developing a new variety.  This is a topic for another article.

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Even though I really enjoyed reading through this article when Tad submitted it, it was still great to have info I’ve absorbed through the years reinforced. Any of you who are interested in trying to cross some tomatoes will find lots of useful things in this article.

The garden from the rear corner, under the shady pines, just before removing all of the indeterminate plants

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "Truth in Advertising?" by Craig

My set up for Tomato Day at the Hendersonville Farmers Market on August 6

I clearly decided it was time to express a big beef with increasing inaccuracies in describing or listing various heirloom tomatoes. It was clearly time for me to get it off my chest!

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Truth in Advertising?

by Craig

One thing about gardening as a hobby is its peaceful and therapeutic nature. Life itself, including our jobs, and even many other hobbies can be controversial and stressful. We gardeners do have to adjust to some challenges during the growing season, though. Dealing with mother nature as she shows herself in the unpredictability of weather comes to mind. Then there is the annual onslaught of bugs, critters and diseases. But, there is also the sense that gardening is an ethical hobby, in which there is nothing to be gained from misrepresentation and dishonesty. What you put into the ground in the spring will be matched later on by what you harvest, with no unpleasant surprises.

Alas, gardening does occasionally fall victim to those who are more concerned with profit than with truth. As a person who treats gardening with respect, and expects those involved to maintain high standards, this is the one area that has been bugging me lately. It really was not very noticeable in times past, when seed catalogs were mostly concerned with peddling the latest and greatest hybrid tomato. But, an interesting trend toward heirlooms has emerged recently, which is great news for all adventurous gardeners. Due to the success of the Seed Savers Exchange in attracting attention to the superiority of many heirloom varieties of all vegetable and fruit crops, it was only a matter of time until seed companies decided that they were missing the boat on potential profits.

I get a lot of seed catalogs in the mail each spring, but not nearly as many as I used to. That is because of the realization that there is very little, if anything, that they now carry that I either do not have, or cannot easily acquire from gardening friends, many of whom are also active members of the SSE. Also, Carolyn, myself and many others have been providing some smaller seed companies with samples of what we feel are the best of what we have grown. This has led to wider exposure and availability through inclusion into various seed catalogs. But, I still get enough catalogs to be able to show you how much more accessible heirlooms now are. For example, two of the major US seed companies, Burpee and Parks, now carry heirloom tomatoes (Parks carries one, Brandywine, and Burpee carries two, Big Rainbow and Brandywine). Stokes, though carrying 30 open pollinated tomatoes, do not sell any well known heirlooms, eliminating Bonny Best and Dwarf Champion recently. Perhaps this is because they tend to cater to professional growers, and it is widely felt that heirloom tomatoes are too fragile and risky for all but small market growers and home gardeners to grow. Nichols carries 20 open pollinated tomatoes, including a number of better known heirlooms such as Ponderosa and Oxheart. Some companies, such as Pine Tree and Gleckler, have always carried a balance of the new and the old, and continue to do so. Johnny’s Selected Seeds decided to expand their selection of heirloom tomatoes a few years ago, and now list 26 open pollinated tomatoes along with a good selection of recent hybrids. Among the heirlooms they list are such popular ones as Prudens Purple, Cherokee Purple, Great White, Yellow Brandywine, as well as the less widely known but equally excellent Giant Paste and Cuostralee. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has an outstanding collection of open pollinated tomatoes, most of which are fine heirloom varieties.  Amongst the 67 open pollinated (OP) varieties is a unique offering of tomatoes developed at the turn of the century by Alexander Livingston. Seeds Blum has a similarly large collection of heirlooms, divided into colors, sizes or uses. I have not yet received the catalog from another fine company, the Tomato Growers Supply Company, but previous years have seen the number of well, and not so well, known heirloom tomatoes on a significant increase. Two other companies that are involved with such tomatoes are Seeds of Change, which lists 35 OP tomato varieties, and Totally Tomatoes, with 144 OP listings. Seeds of Change has amongst their collection some varieties that they developed by selecting from well known hybrids , such as their Peacevine Cherry. This tomato was bred from growouts of the Sweet 100 hybrid. Totally Tomatoes, Shumway, and Vermont Bean Seed are actually the same large company, despite sending out separate catalogs. There are many other seed companies, large and small, that are out there offering various numbers of heirloom tomatoes amongst their offerings. What a change from 10 years ago! When I became deeply involved in gardening back in 1986, which was the year that I joined the SSE, the only commercial source for the out of the ordinary was Glecklers. We should all applaud the efforts of these and other seed companies that have decided to make these great heirlooms available to a wider audience.

So, why am I complaining, and what is the major reason for this article? I am thrilled to see the heirloom tomatoes widely available to the gardening public at long last. Now thousands of gardeners who have not opted to join and participate in the SSE for one reason or another can find out what we have known for a long time. There is so much to experience beyond Big Boy and Roma. Seeds from heirlooms can be saved and passed on to others. Finally, there is now a much better chance that these varieties will not become lost or forgotten. But, what about the information that is showing up in the seed catalogs? Is it accurate, or has it been distorted to attract sales? And even more troublesome, have the companies that are now offering these varieties ever even seen them growing, or tasted them? Why do many of the descriptions read the same, catalog to catalog? I feel that there is no need to attach an over the top description to heirlooms. The fact that they have been maintained for their excellence speaks for itself. And, the history of a variety should be carefully recorded, just as the genealogy of a family is maintained accurately.

It is disturbing to me to see how much misinformation is indeed being perpetuated in the seed business. Truth in advertising? There is no guarantee of that. I can deal with too much rain, or very dry periods, or the bugs. I can even forgive the deer that have recently become so fond of nearly everything green in my garden. What is offensive to me is the lack of respect that some have for their customers. There are simply too many mistakes in seed catalogs in the area of heirloom vegetables.

Some examples will be given to illustrate my points. I want to start with the tomato that has become one of the biggest mysteries so far. Abraham Lincoln was bred by the Buckbee Seed Company, and was first released to the gardening public in 1923. The original description from the 1923 seed catalog states that it is a large tomato, over a pound each, on a large plant. The drawing of the plant on the cover of the catalog shows a plant that has bronzy tinged green foliage. I have obtained this tomato from numerous sources, including numerous seed companies and home gardeners. Each time I grew short 4 foot tall green plants bearing medium sized red tomatoes. No one seems to have the real thing, yet seed company after seed company maintain the original description.

There are numerous examples of the colors of heirloom tomatoes being incorrectly given. Many pink tomatoes are listed as red, especially Dinner Plate, Wanda’s Potato Top, Jefferson Davis, and Brandywine (though there is a Red Brandywine, and it is nothing like the pink version). This probably seems like a minor point. I think it is a major issue, however. One problem with growing heirloom tomatoes and saving seeds is knowing if you have crossing. Color and leaf shape are important factors in identifying whether you have the real thing or not. Another observation is that many seed companies offer descriptions that are exactly the same as those that appeared in the old Gleckler catalogs. Or, as I said previously, some descriptions seem to be identical, company to company. You would think that it would be wise for these companies to grow the tomatoes out and see for themselves, and write their catalog descriptions from their observations. A lot of the descriptions also seem to come from the SSE Yearbook listings, which is even more risky, since a lot of crossing and inaccurate recording of information occurs in the SSE growers networks. One catalog gives lots of incorrect growth characteristics of the plants. An example is listing vigorous indeterminate varieties as growing 18 to 24 inches tall (feet, maybe!), or small 4-6 ounce fruit being 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Another catalog lists a series of Russian tomatoes with accompanying descriptions that are way over the top compared to their performance in the garden. There are also such problems as listing German Johnson, a well known North Carolina heirloom and one of the original parents of Mortgage Lifter, as a potato leaf variety, when it is really a regular leaf plant. It makes you wonder if the seed companies know what they are selling to the public, or even care.

The thing that gives me the most trouble, though, is when twisted history ends up in the catalog description. There are examples of calling such varieties as Green Grape, Green Zebra, Banana Legs, or Snow White Cherry heirloom varieties (they were actually the result of growouts from hybrid crosses made in the 1970’s and 1980’s). More disturbing is giving a tomato a completely new history! My favorite example is Cherokee Purple. I was sent this tomato in the late 1980’s by J. D. Green of Servierville, Tennessee. He told me that he received the tomato from his neighbors, whose ancestors received the strain from local Cherokee Indians there. A major seed catalog now lists the history as ”originally given by native Americans to early Appalachian settlers, making its way from Pennsylvania to Georgia”! Some catalogs list Mortgage Lifter as being an Amish heirloom from the 1800’s, when in truth it was developed in West Virginia in the mid 1920’s. There is a full history of this remarkable tomato in the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog. Then there is Mr. Stripey, which is showing up in lots of catalogs over the past 2 years as a large bicolor heirloom. In reality, Mr. Stripey is a synonym for an older English developed variety called Tigerella, which is a small red tomato with jagged gold stripes.

So, what is an avid heirloom gardener to do? My advice is to deal with seed companies that have a track record for treating heirloom tomatoes and their history with accuracy and respect. Such companies as Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Tomato Grower’s Supply Company, and  Southern Exposure Seed Exchange fit this bill, and are making a significant impact in bringing these wonderful living treasures into people’s gardens all over the country.

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I can’t say that things have changed all that much in the decades since I wrote this. One seed company joined the trusted list for sure - Victory - with highly accurate varietal descriptions. The internet has allowed many seed companies to flourish with some highly off the mark descriptions. It is always sad when I see profit winning over truth!

View of what remains of the garden from the comfy corner of the yard on August 12.

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "Growing Tomatoes Amongst the Gators and Squeeters" by Doreen Howard

As I am starting to pull dead plants, I think back to this late June view - hope, health and future tomatoes!

Here’s a guest post by Doreen Howard, whom Carolyn knew well. I think I was interviewed once by Doreen for one of her articles on tomatoes. I spent some time searching for her on line to see what she was up to, and had no luck.

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Growing Heirlooms Amongst the Gators and Squeeters

by Doreen G. Howard

Growing any tomato is a challenge in a climate that receives 72 inches of annual rainfall, averages 85% humidity year-round and boats of temperatures in the 80’s during summer nights.  Summer runs from April 15 to Thanksgiving – if we are lucky.  There are only about six weeks in the spring in which night temperatures range between 45F and 75F.  It’s no wonder that the only cash crops grown in the area (45 miles south of Houston, Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico) are rice, mosquitoes and alligators.  I jest about the last two; we endure them without profit.

Heirloom tomatoes present additional problems to tropical gardeners like me.  In addition to the disease and pests nurtured by our primordial soup and the short window of opportunity for fruit set, the heat produces misshapen blooms that prevent fertilization.  Also, tropical storms that dump 8-10 inches of rain within hours often preclude fruit set and stress the plants.  Such was the case in 1995.

I grew Abraham Lincoln, Valencia, Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, White Beauty, Tigerella, Pineapple, Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter, and Purple Calabash.  As a control, I grew a plant each of two hybrids that do well in my area – Champion and Carnival, and Green Zebra, a tasty open-pollinated variety.

All plants were set out February 25 with protection.  Nights were in the 40F range.  Each was caged, the cage wrapped in Reemay.  All were propagated according to the principles of Texas A&M’s Team Tomator, time-released plant food in the soil at planting, mulch, weekly foliar feeding and regular applications of fungicide to prevent early blight.  Heirloom varieties were not fed weekly after they reached four feet in height.  By April 20, I had huge, healthy plants loaded with flowers and small fruit.  Nightly temperatures were averaging 68F, and days were in the 85-90F range.  A week later, it hit 100F at noon, and night temperatures soared into the 80’s.  True summer had arrived and didn’t let up until Halloween.

Most of the tomatoes matured and were picked during the next 30 days.  The last fresh fruit was picked on July 4.  Of course, there was no further fruit set.  Disease began to take its toll, and the sad looking plants were pulled from the garden.  I don’t compost old tomato plants, because they are so full of fungal and viral diseases.

It was not the best year for tomatoes or any crop along the Gulf.  After five mild winters, pests and diseases were pervasive in 1995.  The stink bugs (Nezara viridula) and various virulent outbreaks (Early blight, Septoria, and Fusarium wilt) sharply reduced yields in comparison to previous years.  That included the usual hybrid big producers, Champion and Carnival.

I picked a total of 50 Carnivals that averaged 5 ounces each.  The usual output of Carnival is at least 75 fruits that averaged 10 ounces.  Pineapple performed in the same miserable manner.  1995 fruit averaged 6.5 ounces versus 1994’s average of 13.5 ounces.

Cherokee Purple was a big tomato, several fruit were larger than 10 ounces, but on average the 24 I picked were in the 6-8 ounce range.  The color was interesting, brick red interior with green shouldered, dusky pink exterior.  Valencia also had big fruit; it bore 22 in the eight-ounce range.  I didn’t like its mushy texture, though.  The biggest fruit came from Radiator Charlie; three giants weighed in at 18. 20 and 22 ounces.  There were only nine tomatoes on the plant.

Black Prince yielded 15 tomatoes; in 1994, I picked at least 78 from one plant.  White Beauty produced the least, five fruit.  But they were wonderful in flavor and perfect in appearance, chalky white skin and interior.

Green Zebra was the most prolific, 99 fruit in the four ounce range, even surpassing Tigerella, which produced 63 1.5 ounce fruit.  The best producing heirloom was Purple Calabash, with 67 tomatoes.  Of course, it was the worst tasting of the lot.  In fact, it was the worst tasting tomato I’ve ever eaten.  I grew it out of curiosity, the antiquity of it and its color fascinated me.  A dinner guest thought that Purple Calabash was the best tasting tomato she had ever eaten and took home seeds.  So, you never can really say something is the worst.

Brandywine was the only heirloom tomato that did not yield a crop.  The plant was as tall and healthy as other varieties.  It was also loaded with flowers that never produced fruit.  Sometimes a small fruit would remain after the blossom drop, but it, too, would drop.  This puzzled me all winter, so I started asking questions on the Internet newsgroups.  Gardeners in Australia and parts of Southern California reported the same phenomenon.  The answer to the puzzle came from NC State student Keith Mueller, who is a Masters candidate in the Department of Horticultural Science.  He emailed me the following information.

This is why Brandywine may not have set fruit.  Fasciated, rough shouldered or irregularly fruiting tomatoes like Brandywine tend to have irregularly shaped flowers.  The result can be a stigma which is not typically enclosed by the anther cone.  It exerts beyond the anthers.  Or, as I’ve seen in some cases, the stigma actually grows larger than the diameter of the anther cone, splitting it.  Both incidences make it difficult for pollination.  Heat can also make the style exert and push the stigma beyond the anthers in normal flowers.

Keith’s suggestion was to hand pollinate, because normal vibration pollination is not possible with irregular flowers.  I’m going to try this technique on the new crop of Brandywine I have seeded under lights now.

Another technique I will be using is popping estrogen and multivitamin pills in the planting hole of each tomato.  George and Mary Stewart of Houston, Texas used this combination in 1990 to grow huge tomatoes.  Their Carnival and Celebrity fruits averaged 1.5 pounds.  The smallest was a pound.

The victims of my 1995 experiments, including Brandywine, will be planted for the 1996 season along with White Potato Leaf, Pruden’s Purple, Hawaiian, Costoluto Genovese, Texas Wild, Black Krim, Bush Big Boy, Banana Legs, and San Marzano.  I’ll let you know the results next fall.

Incidentally, the Internet is a great source of tomato information.  Keith Mueller has an excellent web page on tomatoes including how to make crosses.  The URL is:  http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/k/kmdmuelle/public/hp.html.

Texas A&M’s Master Gardener diagnostic program for tomatoes and other vegetables can be found at:  http://leviathan/tamu.edu:70/1s/mg.  The Team Tomator project is at:  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu.

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Quite interesting article. What strikes me is that what she endured all those years ago are plaguing warm climate gardeners annually - septoria, early blight and fusarium. All three certainly paid visits to my garden this year. I certainly have better luck with Brandywine than she did - I wonder what her seed source was? One final thing - those links undoubtedly don’t work any longer, but I included them for completeness and to be faithful to the original article. I remain good friends with Keith Mueller - he is known as KC Tomato, and continues his breeding work in Kansas City.

The dreaded Fusarium wilt taking down my Lucky Cross this year

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 3. "C & C's Corner" by Carolyn

Big eggplant harvest late July 2022

Here we go, into the third issue of Volume 2. Everything is pretty much on schedule, as my guess is that it would take all year to post OTV in its entirety, article by article. I hope folks are enjoying them.

We start as usual with Carolyn’s introductory column of this and that. Let’s read together…it is, as is typical, very meaty - packed with various ideas and thoughts and plans from Carolyn. I will comment on things that surprised me after the article.

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C and C’s Corner

by Carolyn

It might be a good idea to read this column first because I introduce to you the various articles and their authors.  Also, please remember that the masthead on page two of each issue tells you how to contact Craig and me and states the current subscription and back issue coasts.

If your mailing label as 23 next to your name (23 means volume 2, #3), it’s time to renew your subscription to Off The Vine; we hope you’ll stay with us.  Renewal notices will not be sent out, so after you’ve read this issue please send your renewal, clearly marking it as a renewal, before the next issue is published, which should be in May, 1996.

Our regular subscribers know that in February of 1995 we announced that subscription prices would increase as of Volume 3.  Thus, subscription prices for both renewals and new subscribers are now $7 for US residents, $8 (US) for Canadian and Mexican residents and $9 (US) for all other foreign addresses for three issues.  I would appreciate it if non-USA subscribers would please send checks only if they are from a US based account’ if they are not, I have to return them to you.  Canadian Postal Money Orders in US funds are just fine as an alternative for our Canadian readers.

And speaking about renewals, I was pleased and surprised to get a 10 year renewal to Off The Vine from Viola Sheffield.  I can’t speak for Craig, but I simply had not thought about what I’d be doing in 2006!  I had a lovely chat with Viola, and she expressed “faith” in us but….we’ll see!

We have three guest authors for this issue.  Many of you will recognize Dr. Tad Smith’s name because Tad also is the source of two of the Ff2 seed varieties we are offering in this issue.  Tad is a Research Associate at Rohm and Hass in the Agricultural Products Research Group.  He is a talented hybridizer and has written an article to encourage the novice gardener to get involved in hybridizing heirloom tomatoes.  I think his ideas about “practicing” first will appeal to many who are put off with detailed genetic descriptions.  We expect a follow-up articles with more genetic characteristics and how to stabilize crosses in an upcoming issue (also see seed source article in this issue).

I know that some of you currently sell/trade your heirloom tomatoes and some are thinking of doing it, so I asked Jeff Dawson to write an article on selling tomatoes to the restaurant trade, which he has done for several years.  Jeff is the Garden Director for Fetzer Valley Oaks Vineyards in California, where they grow a wide variety of heirloom vegetables for study and use in their test kitchens.  Jeff has written an article on eggplants for the new Taunton Press magazine Kitchen Gardening; the article will appear this summer (ditto my article on heirloom tomatoes for the same publication).

Doreen Howard is a free-lance professional garden writer from Texas and has written an article about rigors of growing heirloom tomatoes in the semi-tropics!  I hear more complaints and anguish from folks along the gulf coast re tomato growing, than from any other area in the US!  Doreen has published articles in every major gardening magazine at one time or another.  Her most recent one, that I’m aware of, was in the Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Companion (out in mid-January, 1996) where she interviewed several folks about their one best tasting vegetable in a number of categories.  As an interviewee I was dumbfounded when she said I could name only one tomato!  Ridiculous, said I, and then laughed when I found out that Jeff McCormack and I had independently picked German Red Strawberry as our top tasting tomato!  Doreen can be contacted at Doreen@mastnet.net or (409) 849-2160.

Craig has written a timely and very important article about descriptions of heirloom tomatoes in current catalogs and has interviewed Calvin Wait as our featured “tomato” person, while I have written, as usual, this column and the Seed Source article describing selected seed companies and our seed offering for 1996.

Green Grape, Green Zebra and Banana Legs.  These varieties will be familiar to many of you.  But did you know that they were hybridized or “created” by Tom Wagner, who sold seed for them and other of his novelty tomatoes in the early 1980s, through his Tater Mater Seed Company?  Tom called me a few years ago and I knew that he was no longer putting out a catalog and selling seeds.  He called me again recently to request certain heirloom varieties to use in his breeding program.  Tom currently works as a consultant for The DiMare Co., working with hybrid tomatoes, but his first loves are his novelty tomatoes and potatoes.  Now here’s where you, our readers, area going to help solve a problem and offer some solutions!  Tom would like to offer seeds again, but he needs support and a greenhouse to continue his work.  He has some fantastic new tomatoes to offer, but can’t offer them himself.  If he sends them for trial to seed companies he will receive virtually nothing in return, just as Craig and I receive virtually nothing in return for sending seeds out for trial.  Craig and I are sending out heirloom tomatoes which really belong to everyone, but Tom has 43 years of professional breeding experience, he started at age 8, and these are his creations which he hybridized and stabilized.  So, suggest ways that Tom can realize some return from these new varieties and/or identify a source of support so he can continue his program.  Let me whey your appetite by describing a few of them.  Tangerine Zebra is tangerine with green stripes and is milder and less acid than Green Zebra.  Saucy Green is a green when ripe Roma type which can be used for salads, dips, etc.  Brandystripe is pink and yellow striped with red flesh and Angora type fully foliage.  Christmas tomato is red with green stripes; Strawberry Surprise is so shaped and sized, pink with yellow orange flesh.  Chile Verde is a long, skinny green when ripe tomato, and Cafady’s Folly is a long slender red fruit with yellow zig zag stripes.  Sounds terrific!  Craig and I will be growing out these and other of Tom’s new creations in our gardens this summer and reporting back to him and you how they do in the south (NC) and north (NY).  He has several dozen varieties ready now and potentially hundreds of varieties available.  Please call or write me with your ”solutions” and I will communicate with Tom.  And no, don’t come to our gardens this summer looking for seed.  I promised Tom that we would guard them, and if that means “confiscating” even a stray raccoon or woodchuck trying them for breakfast or lunch, so be it!

In the last issue I asked the person who sent me Mexico tomato to contact me so that I could give proper credit, and Elton Dorval did so.  He stressed that Mexico can be picked quite green and does very well ripening late.  And I want to thank the many folks who offered to send out the F2 seeds described in this issue.  Pat Millard was the first to contact me, so he “wins” so to speak.  But to have at least 12 of you offer made me feel very good.  Read more about Pat and the F2 seeds in the Seed Source article.

I’m sure many of you saw in the newspapers the recent study from Harvard which reported that eating tomato sauce at least six times a week significantly reduced the rate of prostate cancer!  I’m pleased to share with our lady readers that lycopene, a red pigment found in tomatoes, may also be of benefit to women with regard to other cancers.  Dr. John Navazio of Garden City Seeds has an active program regarding beta carotenes, which, like lycopenes, are carotenoid pigments.  He is working with tomatoes, as well as other vegetables, and hopefully will share this work with us in the future.  Be cautioned, though, because a recent study also showed a positive link between beta-carotene consumption and lung cancer, but the beta carotene levels were from supplements, not from eating vegetables.

I really look forward to your comments when you send in your renewals and I also pass some of them on to Craig.  They range from repositioning the staples (can’t- done by machine), to keep it low key (we don’t know any other way), to why you don’t have a column on tomato diseases and culture.  The answer to the latter is no.  We hope to offer you specialized information on  heirlooms.  There are many fine publications which cover diseases and culture of all tomatoes and we would refer you to those.  From time to time folks call me, usually distraught because “stuff is dying”, and I try to help out, but we’d prefer not to do a column.  So thank you for your comments when you renew, and please let us know how we are doing in terms of meeting your needs.  We are always looking for readers to contribute material for Off The Vine; just contact me before writing and submitting something.  Craig wanted to share the following paragraph with you.

“I hope you all had a nice holiday.  In NC we had a huge (for here) snowstorm in early January; 2” of snow was sandwiched around 4” of sleet.  I felt more like 20 than 40 as I sledded with my daughters and cross country skied with my wife.  Work was called off for most of the week and I got to relax at last!  Now life is busy again, things are chaotic at GlaxoWellcome, and seed catalogs are pouring in.  The next big arrival should be the 1996 SSE yearbook, followed by the onslaught of requests.  I’m now starting to think seriously about my 1996 garden, though, and it won’t be 120 different tomato plants!  My garden was much too closely planted.  Combine that error with all the rain we got and it spelled a low  yield and disease disaster.  This year I’ll probably plant 20 or so of my favorites along with 20 new ones.  My dream is a larger garden, a greenhouse, a sunnier lot…some day!  Thanks to all of you who continue to support and read our humble newsletter.  Please feel free to contribute and comment.  Also note my email address in the masthead on page 2.  I can usually be found looking for my email after 10 PM each evening.  Enjoy this issue”

Ah, youth!   I’ll be 57 in June and have arthritis; you won’t find me out there sledding!  Craig and I have been best friends for almost 8 years and I’m telling you I know him well, as he knows me.  There’s no way he’s going to plant just 40 varieties.  He’ll succumb, as I do each year, to the lure of the unknown when a new variety suddenly appears.  OK Craig, your daughters will submit affidavits to me stating you planted less than 40 plants at your residence and elsewhere; what’s at stake is wine…Stag’s Leap Petite Sirah or Opus One…your choice!  And “big 2” snowstorms?  How my heart bleeds as I remember the 3 feet we had on the level until two weeks ago.  In all fairness, Craig was raised in New England and can appreciate a good Nor’easter!  This has been a horrible winter for us northerners across the country.  As I sit here at my computers I’m dreaming of complaining about the heat!  See you in May.

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Wow - that was a lot to digest (as is always the case from Carolyn’s entries!). Some big time tomato names emerge - Doreen Howard, Tad Smith and Calvin Wait, and Tom Wagner among them. The other shocker - Carolyn noting her age as 57 - very odd as I sit here typing this at age 66! Enjoy this piece of Off The Vine, gardening world nostalgia!

These are the 15 tomatoes blind tasted with Joe Lamp’l for a module in our Growing Epic Tomatoes course. There are some real heavy hitters in this group - Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, Polish, Dwarf Sweet Sue, Hugh’s and Captain Lucky among them.

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 2. "Jeff McCormack - A Multi-faceted Seedsman" - interview by Carolyn

tomato color wheel - red, chocolate, purple, pink - clockwise from upper left.

It is wonderful to read this interview by Carolyn of one of the most respected heirloom seedsmen I know of. Jeff is brilliant, gentle, fascinating, relevant - and just a nice guy. I’ve had the good fortune of spending some time with Jeff over the years (but it is never nearly enough). I hope you enjoy reading the interview that follows. One more thing - Jeff was the one who took the chance and offered Cherokee Purple (which he received from me) in a seed catalog for the first time in 1993. The rest, of course, is history!

Jeff McCormack; A Multi-faceted Seedsman

by Carolyn

Unlike so many biographies of plant and seedspersons, Jeff did not have that little garden out back that he nurtured and cultured when he was growing up. His love of plants and seeds came much later in life. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 8, 1942 (go ahead, send him a birthday card), went to college for two years in Marietta, OH and following a “sophomore slump” he joined the Navy as a medic stationed in Chelsea, MA. Eventually he returned to college and received his B.S. degree from the U. of Colorado at Boulder with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Following graduation he aimed his car East and joined a previous Navy friend in Northampton, MA where he got a job at Smith College. There he studied flight muscles in flies and when it was discovered that the compound they found important in flies (trehalose, a sugar) was found in greater concentration in lily pollen he found himself spending lots of time in the greenhouse harvesting pollen, and liking the greenhouse atmosphere. He started a Graduate Program at Smith but then made the decision to be near his then girlfriend at Yale and transferred to the nearby U. of Connecticut where he obtained his M.S. degree in Mammalian Physiology and Biochemistry.

One summer while at Storrs he worked in the Floriculture Greenhouse and “fondly remembers” the ex marine who ran the place similar to a boot camp! Other significant (for OTV readers) activities at that time included making 55 gallons of tomato wine one year, and all this time he and his housemates had rather respectable vegetable and flower gardens. But no, this wasn’t yet the “turn on” for his later seed activities although he mentioned that in the back of his mind there probably always a strong interest in that area. For instance, while growing up he’d stay with a Great Uncle, a family doctor, who had a summer home on a river in PA and he remembers his uncle planting potatoes and peas and harvesting strawberries. But what was most significant was the absolute love his uncle had for gardening; his family nicknamed him Lord Hoe Hoe!

Jeff decided to complete a Ph.D. at Storrs and worked on the pollination ecology of Sweet Shrub. That is, what compounds or pheromones did the flower have that attracted its insect pollinators. It was also at Storrs that he met Patty, his wife, while teaching a course in Comparative Anatomy and Physiology. With his degree in hand they moved to Middlebury, VT where Jeff accepted a position as Asst. Professor of Biology at Middlebury College. During the two years they stayed there he became very interested in the subject of alternative energies (solar, etc.) and having decided that Vermont, although lovely, was not the place to “go solar,” they moved to Charlottesville, VA. There he accepted a half time position teaching at Sweet Briar College, had a brief stint at U. of Virginia Medical School doing research and then accepted a ¾ time teaching position at UVA.

It was during this time in Virginia that his thoughts started to crystallize with respect to his future goals. He and Patty designed and built a solar home on 12 acres where they tried to be self-sustaining; they grew their own fish for food, raised vegetables and kept bees. He also became an active member of the now defunct Blue Ridge Seed Savers group and shared many interesting heirlooms with them. But it was the Potato Onions that did it! He received some from a member of the Blue Ridge Seed Savers group and was intrigued with their growth habit, hardiness and yield. His research showed that they were no longer available commercially, seed companies having dropped them starting in the early 1900’s. His interest in historical seeds and plants started to “gel”. He remembered the visits to Old Sturbridge Village, a recreation of an 1825 settlement in Masschusetts, where he was fascinated with the Jacob’s Cattle Beans, the old chicken varieties kept there, and old agricultural practices in general.

Capitalizing on the Potato Onion find he co-authored an article for Organic Gardening which generated quite a bit of interest in heirloom potato onions. So he decided to make some of their favorite heirlooms available and in 1982 decided to start a seed company. In January of 1983 he issued their first catalog, which had 67 varieties, most of them obtained from the Blue Ridge Seed Savers group and most of the seed offered was grown by them in a hand dug 40x50’ garden. At one point Jeff worked with a solar builder presenting workshops on the design, construction and management of solar greenhouses; the name of the company was Southern Exposure. The name of their new seed company became Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Seed packets were hand written, they operated out of a closet and the seed operation then spread throughout the house … life was challenging! A 400 square foot addition in 1984 housed the seed office and they raised their seeds in 40 hand dug raised beds, each 20x4 feet. The seed company was heavily in debt but they decided to keep going. Jeff first met Kent Whealy of the Seed Savers Exchange in 1984 or ’85 and was very inspired both by Kent personally and the work of SSE in preservation of heirloom varieties.

In 1986 there were several very significant events. Until then Jeff had been teaching part time but the decision was made to go full time with the seed company even thought their total net profit as only $50. Also in 1986 Jeff first developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an illness which continues to play a significant role in his life. He was sick for three years and during those years Patty rant the household, kept the family together, ran the seed company and worked FULL TIME! (Patty has an M.S. in Child Development and Family Relations).

Jeff’s initial three-year battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome resulted in important changes in his personal philosophy and general outlook on life. Until that experience he says he was a judgmental person and one who fiercely guarded his and Patty’s independence and privacy; on their rural 12-acre plot they had found happiness in isolation and independence. But Jeff discovered that independence is an illusion, we are all interdependent, and he and Patty felt vulnerable in the rural area where they were. By January of 1990 he was back to good health and they moved that January to their present location in Earlysville, a place where they would have neighbors, more conveniences, and not by any means the least, a good school district for their son Timmy. The Earlysville site has about two acres and about ½ acres is devoted to trials and seeds. They still produce seed for about 40% of the 500 or so varieties in their catalog.

Running a business is the most challenging ting Jeff says he’s ever done; as a matter of fact he says he used to be somewhat anti-business. He is not motivated by money and yet by hard work and perseverance he has become a success as measured by his criteria of making a meaningful difference in people’s lives and making a living. Part of that success can be attributed to the many comments I’ve heard about him (and experienced) concerning his strong sense of morals and ethics; he attributes part of that to his father. I asked him how he perceived his role in the seed industry. He sees his primary role as that of preserving old, heirloom varieties. But his answer was more complex. Some of his major interests are history, writing, science and art and he uses his catalog to express those interests. He is especially interested in why certain varieties were developed and who developed them. He cited the example of White Surecrop Corn seed which he received from a man in Texas who said it was developed in the early 1900’s to grow on low fertility soil and compete with weeds. In a larger sense Jeff feels strongly about the interrelationship between culture and agriculture; that is, how people’s lives are interdependent with what is grown. In other words, agriculture affects our culture and the reverse is also true. For Jeff, gardening is a personal relationship with the land, an act of faith and a sacred relationship.

I asked him if he was a frustrated hybridizer, knowing that he recently introduced McCormack’s Blue Giant, a corn, and knowing that he has so little time to hybridize. He said that he had done a number of tomato crosses in the mid-80’s but had not had time to go beyond the F1 stage to grow them out he would like to do some hybridizing with corns, Brassicas like broccoli and kale, squash and salt-tolerant tomatoes.

And I had to ask the obvious; what were his favorite tomatoes. He was careful to explain that his answer might be different if he were living further north or out west, but that given taste as a first priority and disease resistance as a second priority in the humid and hot southeast, he offered the following favorites. For color he’d pick Green Zebra and Big Rainbow, a bicolor. For flavor he could well have mentioned a dozen or more, but named the following; Persimmon, Eva Purple Ball, German Red Strawberry, Ozark Pink, Green Grape, Mullens Mortgage Lifter, Druzba, German Johnson, Brandywine (pink), Arkansas Traveler and Tappy’s Finest.

When I asked him what the most “fun” thing he’d done relative to heirlooms was, he immediately responded, “eat them!” and then he remembered the tomato wine episode during his graduate years. But he concluded that perhaps the most fun thing was to observe the incredible diversity that exists amongst heirlooms and cited Green Zebra and Riesentraube, both tomatoes, as examples. When asked about the least “fun” thing, he said “impure seed,” presumably, I suppose, he meant impure seed received from others.

I then asked Jeff his views about he commercialization of heirlooms which has accelerated so greatly in the last few years. His response was given off the cuff because I hadn’t given him my questions beforehand, and I really liked his spontaneous answer. He sees three facets to commercialization and likened them to a three-legged stool. One leg is the USDA who have a huge collection but funding priorities by the Federal Government make this leg somewhat weak. A second leg is the small farmers and families who perpetuate heirlooms with a rich genetic heritage, but the weakness here is that seed saving traditions are being abandoned and loss of land restricts those traditions. A third leg is the seed companies who can distribute heirloom seeds widely, which increases the probability that they might be perpetuated, but the weakness is that supply and demand restricts the varieties that customers elect to purchase. He views SSE as the struts on this three legged stool, interconnecting between the USDA, family heirlooms and seed companies and giving stability to the total structure. He feels SSE plays an important role in the perpetuation of heirlooms but is concerned about the percentage of crossed seed that is shared between members. This is something George Gleckler mentioned in Craig’s interview of George in the last issue, and is a comment that has been made by many individuals.

Jeff’s future goals include increasing his trials and concentrating on disease resistance, acquiring more land for seed production and trials, which may mean a move at some time in the future, and doing more hybridizing, as was mentioned earlier. His development of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1986 changed his life in many ways and it has also led to a strong interest in Oriental Medicine and the associated areas of acupuncture and acupressure. He is interested in the healing aspects of herbs and wonders about some day becoming an herbologist. He practices Tai Chi, a martial art which is said to move energy fields in the body and lead to a more centered person. I can relate to Jeff’s interest in these areas. My area of academic specialty is infectious diseases and I can tell you that the exact cause for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not yet known although some researchers feel it is viral in nature. What this means is that when Jeff has months on end where he cannot live a normal, active life, there is no treatment; conventional medicine has nothing to offer him or others with the same disease. Ancient Oriental Medicine is increasingly being viewed as one alternative to conventional medicine and Jeff has had some success using those techniques.

Finally I asked him what kinds of things he would do if he had more personal time. to be in the woods, to communicate with nature was his immediate response. He recently completed a course in Apache tracking techniques for tracking animals and people; he loved it and described it as a wonderful puzzle. He “surfs” the Internet from time to time, and he’d like more time to do contra dancing, photography, stalking animals, reading and listening to music.

Although I’ve known Jeff for several years I learned much about him and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange that I’d not known before. It was a delight to interview him! Jeff and I agreed a few years ago that if either of us won a lottery (big time) his family and I would split the money, buy lots of land (I want my log cabin), grow heirloom vegetables and do all the things we don’t have time to do in the present “real world”. You never know!

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This article really speaks for itself. Carolyn teased some wonderful information from Jeff, who lived such a rich, multifaceted life. The conversation that led to this transcription by Carolyn must have been wonderful - and very fulfilling for both she and Jeff. It was so good to read this again after so many years - and it reminds me that I need to touch base with Jeff again, soon!

Elderberry!

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 2. "From Seed to Garden" by Craig

The garden on July 18, showing the effects of heat and humidity and lots of recent rain

And here I thought I never did go into detail about my seed starting technique - as you can read below, I did! The question is whether I’ve changed anything in the years since. I will comment on that at the end of the article.

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From Seed to Garden

by Craig

A frequent comment that I get when people find out about my hobby of growing many varieties of heirloom tomatoes is are there any special tricks to use? My response is often something along the lines of saying that tomatoes are nearly like weeds, in that they are easy to grow, often come up where they are not expected, and are very forgiving of growing conditions. They are also very vigorous plants that grow until killed by frost or disease. There are, though, some things that are necessary for success.

I am not a gardener who goes in for the latest expensive gimmick described in the avalanche of gardening supply magazines and flyers that are delivered amongst all of the seed catalogs. People have been growing things for as long as man has been on the earth, and prior to the availability of expensive containers, sprinklers, or fertilizers. Gardening begins with seeds; after that, you need something to plant the seeds in, a container to hold that something in, water, heat and light. Let’s take these ingredients one at a time:

1. Seeds: Seeds are what make preservation of old varieties possible. Organizations such as the Seed Saver’s Exchange were founded upon maintenance and trading of seeds that may have immigrated from foreign lands, been passed down from generation to generation, or are otherwise not widely grown. Tomato seeds are viable for a long time when they are saved properly and kept dry. Last year I had very good success germinating varieties that I saved in 1987 (that is 7 years!), which were kept in glass vials and stored in my garage, which gets cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. If I were to freeze the seed, it would keep even longer. You can never be sure that the seed that you receive from another seed saver is viable, though. Another potential problem is the genetic purity of the seed you receive, but that is another story.

2. Containers: There is no need to be fancy or expensive in choosing what to start your tomato seedlings in. I like to use the thin black plastic 4-or 6-paks that are available in garden centers in late winter. I do not like to recycle them from year to year, as I do not want to risk my seedlings acquiring diseases from previously used containers. I mentally divide the 4-paks down the center, and plant 3 seeds of each tomato variety in each half, labeling the outside of the paks. That way, I will have a maximum of 8 varieties, 24 plants total, in each 4-pak. What is most important about the container, in my opinion, is that there are holes in the bottom to allow drainage, and that the cube of growing medium with its host plant can be easily removed without having to dig out the plant and risk damage to the roots. For growing lots of varieties of tomatoes, small is better also. Tomato seedlings take up little room, and they will not be in the original germinating container for very long, anyway.

3. Growing medium: DO NOT USE POTTING SOIL OR GARDEN SOIL! This cannot be stressed enough! I suspect that many a seed has rotted and failed to germinate in these way-too-heavy substances that can also crust when dry and carry diseases. The best thing is to buy large bags of a soilless mix, like Peter’s, Pro-mix, or Jiffy Mix. It is light and fluffy, absorbs water quickly, and does not crust over when dry. It also allows good root development, and plants are easily removed from the medium without a lot of root damage. Let’s say it again. Do NOT use bags of potting soil, or soil from your garden!

4. Heat: Tomatoes are not as fussy as peppers about heat, but they will not germinate very quickly if they are in cold soil. I like to use plastic heating mats that have a heating element embedded in the plastic. I put my 4 paks of seeds directly on the mats, and I have found that my seeds take between 3 and 21 days to germinate, depending upon how fresh and vigorous the seed is. If bottom heat is not possible, then any warm place is fine, such as the top of the refrigerator.

5. Light: Light is not necessary when germinating tomato seeds. It is essential after the seedlings have emerged, however. I used to grow my seedlings in front of a south facing window. They did reach for the sun, so I turned the plants each day so that they would grow straight. Now I use fluorescent lights, which really gives much more stocky plants. I set the lights so that the growing tip of the plants is about 2 inches from the light.

Those are the main ingredients. Now I will talk you through the process that I use to go from seed to plant in the garden. This will cover the areas of watering, fertilizing, planting depth of seed or plant, use of container covers, transplanting, and germination enhancing. One thing that I did not mention yet is keeping good records of what you grow. When I start, I have an idea of which varieties that I want to plant. I write the names of the tomatoes on sticky labels, and place the labels on the outside of the containers. I fill the containers with the soilless mix, being sure to compress it a bit, since it is fluffy when dry. I then water the cells with warm water, as the mix repels cold water when it is dry. After the mix has absorbed the water, I place 3 seeds of the corresponding variety (watch the labels!) in the cell, gently press into the moist mix (watch the tips of your fingers, as moist tomato seeds tend to stick to skin!), and sprinkle about an eighth of an inch of dry mix onto the top of the seeds. I then mist the cell with warm water to moisten the covering mix, being sure to not dislodge the seed. After planting all of the cells of the 4 or 6-pak, I loosely cover the pak with cellophane, and place the tray on the heating mat. The plastic overwrap helps keep the moisture in the pack. After 3 days to a few weeks, when the seedlings begin to emerge, I make sure to remove the wrap, as it is not good to wet the stem or leaves of the seedling. One thing that can happen to newly emerged tomato seedlings is damping off disease, which is a fungus that rots the plant stem at the soil line. This can be avoided by using new containers each year, using fresh soilless mix for each cell, and allowing the surface of the soil to dry between waterings. For watering after seedling emergence, be sure to water from the bottom, which can be done by setting the pak in a tray of warm water until the surface of the soil darkens with moisture. It is also beneficial to get the new seedlings into the light as soon as possible, either south facing window, or under fluorescent lights.

I do not fertilize my seedlings until they have been transplanted into larger containers, so water will suffice for the early days of growth. It is time to transplant after the seedlings have reached a height of 2 or 3 inches, and have their first and second set of true leaves (the first leaves that emerge from the seed are not true leaves). I like to use inexpensive drinking cups, perhaps 3 inches diameter at the top and 6 inches tall. I label each cup, poke a hole in the bottom to allow drainage, and fill the cups with the soilless mix. I pop the clump of plants out of each cell, being sure not to confuse the varieties if I am growing 2 types in each cell. After gently separating the plants, I poke a hole with my finger in the mix in the cup, and place the seedling into the hole gently, being sure that most of the stem is buried. Since tomato plants form roots along stems that are in contact with soil, this will give the plant a very strong and extensive root system, which will mean less transplant shock when putting them in the garden. I then firm the soil in the cup against the stem, and water with warm water until it starts to come out the bottom. At this point, they either return to the grow lights, or sometimes, depending upon the weather outside, I start the hardening off part. As you can imagine, the outside conditions are very harsh for young tomato seedlings. The sun can scorch leaves, and they can dry out in a hurry. The wind is also tough on their slender stems, and cold another hostile enemy of young tomato seedlings. Gradual exposure to the elements is the key, so putting the plants outside for longer and longer periods of time over 2 weeks or so will result in happy plants. After they have adjusted to transplanting to cups, maybe 2 weeks or so from transplanting, I feed the plants with half strength water soluble fertilizer. Once the plants are 6 inches tall or so, and before flowers can be seen forming, it is time to get them into the ground. But, that is not what this article is about!

Some problems that pop up from time to time are poor germination, strange looking or deformed seedlings, refusal of the seed coat to drop off of the emerging seedling’s growing tip, damping off (which we already discussed), and browning of the new foliage on the tips of the leaves. Poor germination, if all is carried out as above, may simply be a sign of dead or dormant seed. One thing, though, is that you should be patient, as I have had seeds take nearly one month to emerge. Carolyn and I have been experimenting with various means of enhancing germination, such as microwaving the seeds or presoaking in solutions of potassium nitrate or gibberellic acid. While no “scientific” study has been carried out, it is clear that there is something to these seed treatments, and we plan to investigate this more in the future. Deformed seedlings occur from time to time, and often as the plant grows, the situation improves. It is often best to start the seed again, though. One frustrating phenomenon is the stubborn seed coat. It seems to be somewhat variety specific, and age of the seed may also play a role. I have found that using proper heat when germinating tomato seeds minimizes this problem. If you want to chance microsurgery on your seedling in effort to remove the seed coat yourself, be very careful, as it is very easy to snap off the growing tip. Another variety specific problem seems to be browning of the edges of leaves on the young seedling. It is most severe on the wispy, frail looking seedlings of heart-shaped tomatoes. We have found that the plant often outgrows the problem, and we have helped the situation by snipping the brown parts off of the infected leaves. Transplanting a bit sooner and getting the plants into the sun also seems to help them to overcome this problem, which seems to be a seed carried blight. by the way, one thing that is evident after looking at hundreds of heirloom tomato seedlings. There is a lot of variation evident, from stocky vigorous seedlings to frail, hopeless looking specimens, and even different shades of green. Be observant, have fun, and get all that you can out of the experience of growing heirloom tomatoes from seed!

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Wow, that was a lot of words. I have really streamlined my process since writing this - for one thing, I was not yet starting thousands of seedlings to sell, so wasn’t using the 50 cell stiff plastic plug flats yet. I also hadn’t discovered the joys of Sun Gro Metro Mix for use as seed starting and transplant medium. Finally, I was using waxed Dixie Cups to transplant into. The seeds of my current method are all listed above, but my methods have certainly gotten better with time and experience!

The first harvest of large fruited tomatoes, July 18