2020 Garden Year in Review - Indeterminate tomatoes, part 3

Let’s get into the more esoteric of my tomato plantings for 2020 - on to Indeterminate Tomato Update, part 3. This is a pretty motley crew of all sorts of tomatoes, and picture taking wasn’t as disciplined. Still, it was an interesting set of varieties, in some cases more for what the future will hold from saved seeds. Unlike my previous 24 indeterminate choices, these are not flavor favorites or newly received family heirlooms. They are all projects or mysteries, and were a lot of fun to explore. Seeds from many of these are available for the asking if you want to join in on various types of projects.

The small, round scarlet fruit of Cherokee Purple X Fuzzy hybrid

Cherokee Purple X Fuzzy F1 - Last year a cross onto the very unusual tomato Fuzzy seemed to have taken - I am quite sure it was Cherokee Purple as the male, though it could also have been Lillian’s Yellow (my record keeping could have been better). Fuzzy is a mix created by Tim Peters years ago, and seed was shared with me by Tien Chiu in California. Fuzzy is not a flavor winner, but has the greyest, fuzziest foliage I’ve seen, on a rather short determinate plant. I crossed pollen onto either 6627 or 6628, resulting in a tomato whose F1 seed was saved as T19-130. I planted seeds of T19-130 and the seedlings were indeterminate. The foliage was not quite normal, but just slightly greyish/fuzzy. The golf ball sized fruit formed in clusters, very heavily yielding, and ripened medium scarlet - the quality of the fruit (flavor-wise, which was just OK) is not really of consequence, since hybrids don’t always show the flavor of the component parents. Seed was saved as T20-25. A test planting showed a lot of diversity of plant type, but I didn’t have enough of the season remaining to grow them to maturity. This is not part of the Dwarf Tomato Project (no dwarf was used in the cross), but rather to play with the fuzzy foliage gene and plant form. Among the hoped for results when grown out next year are determinate fuzzy plants with different colored, better flavored, larger tomatoes. Another great option would be a very fuzzy indeterminate plant with large tomatoes. This is simply fun in the garden!

Small, round, very lightly striped fruit of Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X a striped fruited Microdwarf hybrid

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Striped Micro F - This is another example of fun in the garden, and not part of the Dwarf Tomato Project. In 2019 I successfully crossed either Cherokee Purple or Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom onto a microdwarf sent to me by my pal Dan Follett. The microdwarf had large purple cherry sized fruit with green stripes. I grew two microdwarfs, so the cross was on either 6650 or 6651. The seed was saved as T19-129. The cross was proven to work because the seedlings were normal looking - not microdwarfs. I grew one plant this year, and seed is saved as T20-26. The plant ended up as a determinate growth habit, quite unexpected. The tomatoes were very numerous, golf ball sized, scarlet red with very faint gold stripes; this was not unexpected, as the stripe gene partially expresses in hybrids. I saved loads of seeds. In a test planting this fall, there is great diversity of plant type. Among fun possibilities are larger fruited microdwarfs with various colors. Lots of fun can be had with this one.

Peach Blow Sutton X Dwarf Sweet Sue F1

Peach Blow Sutton X Dwarf Sweet Sue F1 - This is indeed part of the Dwarf Tomato Project, and is my effort to work fuzzy skinned, peach fuzz type fruit into some of our dwarfs. Last year I took pollen from Peach Blow Sutton (a variety I found in the USDA collection some time ago, obtained a sample and grew out - it is from 1900, and produces peach-sized, fuzzy skinned mostly pink fruit with a trace of yellow in the flesh, and crossed it onto a flower on Dwarf Sweet Sue. Seed in the presumed hybrid was saved as T19-132 - a test planting last year showed indeterminate, regular leaf plants, indicating a successful cross. The resulting plant grown this year from T19-132 was indeed regular leaf and indeterminate. The tomatoes were of good size - 6 ounces on average - and abundant. The color was interesting, ending up mostly pink but with significant yellow areas in the flesh, as can be seen in the above picture, on the left. The flavor was quite good, and I saved lots of seed, as T20-28. I did a test planting of saved seed this fall and there is the expected diversity of plant type - regular and potato leaf indeterminate and dwarf specimens. The season was not long enough to grow them to maturity, so this will provide some fun for next year.

Honor Bright X Dwarf Blazing Beauty

Honor Bright X Dwarf Blazing Beauty F1 - Pictured above, the right hand tomato, is the scarlet red fruit from the hybrid I created by crossing the very odd Livingston variety Honor Bright (yellow foliage, white flowers, fruit ripening green to white to orange to red) with our Dwarf Blazing Beauty, a real favorite with snappy tasting orange fruit on a potato leaf dwarf plant. The cross, made last year, was saved as T19-131. A test planting showed the cross to be a success, as the seedlings were indeterminate and regular leaf. My planting of T19-131 yielded an indeterminate plant with regular leaf foliage that produced lots of oblate 6-8 ounce good flavored scarlet tomatoes, with seeds saved as T20-29. I test planting in the fall of saved seeds showed all sorts of diversity, including some of the hoped for yellow foliaged selections. In this one, the goal is to get potato leaf yellow foliaged dwarfs with orange tomatoes. Next year will, again, be fun!

Blue’s Bling, unsuccessful F1 cross with Blue P20

Blue’s Bling X Oregon P20 F1 - There are no pictures of this one because my cross didn’t take. Last year I attempted to cross pollen from the original antho variety, Oregon P20, onto a more short growing specimen of the variegated variety Blue’s Bling. Seed was saved as T19-133. This is not part of the dwarf tomato project, but just some fun crossing a variegated variety with an antho fruited variety. I grew a number of seedlings from T19-133, but aside from one plant, all showed variegation, meaning an unlikely cross. I did grow out one plant that lacked variegation, but, alas, the tomatoes were simply the type expected with Blue’s Bling - medium to large oblate purple tomatoes. A successful cross would have produced smaller, rounder red tomatoes. I did save seed as T20-27, but it is a dead end, though a nice tomato, very Cherokee Purple-like.

Bright yellow flesh of Ferris Wheel potato leaf yellow

Ferris Wheel yellow potato leaf seedling - I described the origin of yellow fruited Ferris Wheel in my Indeterminate Review part 2. The regular leaf seedling that I planted was highlighted in that blog; I thought I’d plant the potato leaf seedling I germinated from that seed lot as well. I was quite delighted to find that it was very similar - nice sized, smooth medium large bright yellow, delicious tomatoes. Seeds are saved as T20-30.

Cherokee Chocolate red plum from 2019 - Last year, I gave a Cherokee Chocolate seedling grown from T17-8 or 9, to our neighbor Kim. Much to both of our surprises, instead of oblate chocolate colored tomatoes, Kim harvested firm red long plum tomatoes with pretty good flavor for its type. Thinking it was a hybrid, I saved some seeds from one fruit and planted them this year, seed lot T19-135. The seedling I grew to maturity was indeterminate and produced Roma-shaped red tomatoes that were a bit smaller and differently shaped than last year’s find. Flavor was fair. It had few seeds, and they were very small. I saved some as T20-31. Looking back on my garden map, the Cherokee Chocolate seed that contained an unexpected hybrid was near the following possible crossing candidates -

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Zluta Kytice F2 potato leaf selection

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one a friend in Europe crossed the two varieties and sent me F1 seed, which is 6741. I grew out the indeterminate regular leaf plant last year and enjoyed the small - golf ball size - bright yellow fruit with a slight pink blush. Seed, saved as T19-110, was grown this year, providing a mix of regular and potato leaf plants, as expected. I opted to grow out one of the potato leaf seedlings. It didn’t blow me away, but was a nice large yellow cherry tomato…seed saved as T20-32.

Left fruit is the deeper yellow colored yellow from the Comstock Ferry packet sent to me by my friend Walk Swokla

richer yellow flesh color of Toni’s Yellow Saver

Yellow fruited from Comstock Ferre sent to me by Walt Swokla - Walt (he of Cancelmo Family Heirloom) sent me seeds of a yellow tomato originally purchased as a seedling for his mom (called “low acid yellow) from Comstock Ferre in the late 1970s. She last saved seeds from them in 2002. He wants to name it Toni’s Yellow Saver. I received the seed late in the spring, it is number 7260, and I managed to get some to germinate and the single seedling I put in a grow bag did well and ripened tomatoes. As you can see from the above pic, it is a yellow skinned, yellow fleshed variety, unlike the paler colored clear skin pale yellow flesh types such as Lillian’s Yellow. I liked the flavor, and saw the potential as a nice, medium sized deep yellow slicing tomato. Seeds are saved as T20-33. Thinking of the timing, I wonder if this is a variant of Jubilee or Golden Queen.

Blue’s Bling dwarf? from 2019 plant - I grew a seedling from what was sent to me as Blue’s Bling Dwarf, saved last year as T19-71. The plant and fruit were indistinguishable from indeterminate Blue’s Bling. Seed was saved as T20-34. I don’t have a picture of the plant or fruit

Ugly, catfaced, huge - but delicious - Capri Show Stopper

Capri Show Stopper, indeterminate seedling - Capri Show Stopper was selected and named by Patrina from the Pesty family in 2012, as a medium large, oblate fruited pink dwarf of good flavor. Seed 3499 was grown out by Bill Minkey, and also by Mike Dunton and Shawn Conant. Surprisingly, it now appears to be an indeterminate variety. Two colors have been obtained - pink, and in my garden this year (as shown above), yellow/red swirled bicolor. This is not surprising to me, since the parents of Pesty are New Big Dwarf (pink), and Mortgage Lifter Pesta Strain (large yellow/red). It actually did very well for me, despite not showing a dwarf growth habit, and has a flavor similar to other large bicolors (sweet, mild and fruity). Seed is saved as T20-35.

Tim Nolan’s family heirloom - regular leaf, smaller red heart

Nolan Family Heirloom, regular leaf seedling - I described Tim’s family heirloom in part 2 of my indeterminate tomato updates. I decided to grow out the single regular leaf seedling that germinated. I suspect that it is a hybrid, based on the firm flesh and scarlet red color. The heart shaped fruit were not nearly as large as the potato leaf, pink, authentic variety, and the flavor inferior. Since it is likely a hybrid, saved seed would give a range of outcomes - and is saves as T20-36.

Mary’s family heirloom - Mary Miller of Ohio contacted Southern Exposure Seed Exchange about a locally grown heirloom tomato. She graciously shared seeds with me, and I grew out a plant. The seed she sent me is 7261. The potato leaf seedling produced lots of large, mainly smooth tasty beefsteak tomatoes in the one pound range. Seed is saved as T20-70. The fruit were similar to, but not quite the same as, my other pink potato leaf varieties (Brandywine, Polish, Stump of the World), and the flavor was not quite as good - certainly a solid 7.5. I will share some seeds with Mike at Victory and ensure that Mary and Mike are connected, as this is a tomato well worth exploring and becoming more widely available.

Ann’s Dusky Rose Plum, indeterminate seedling - I grew out 6893, which surprised me in giving an indeterminate seedling. The seed was from a Raleigh Dwarf Project volunteer. Since I rarely grow out Dwarf Project indeterminates, I figured “why not”. What I ended up with were golf ball sized perfectly round, smooth pink tomatoes, seed saved as T20-70, not a hint of antho, and with good, not great flavor - a solid 7.5. Many of them ended up in our canning mixes.

Cherokee Chocolate 2011 seed, fine leaf seedling - This is quite the mystery. I always like to go back and grow out some older seeds of my favorite varieties. It was clear upon germination that Cherokee Chocolate T11-13 was very atypical, having foliage resembling paste or heart types (very limp and floppy). Lo and behold, the young fruit were pepper shaped and showed stripes. The variety ripened as fat pepper shapes, scarlet red with gold stripes, very similar if not the same as Speckled Roman. When things like this happen, I assume I made an error - grabbed the wrong packet - or it was a seed mix up when saving seed that year. The only thing to do is grow some saved seed out in case I grew an unanticipated F1 hybrid. Saved seed is T20-88. I didn’t take a picture of the fruit. Looking back at my garden set up in 2011, it is not evident where a striped variant would come from.

Various cherry tomato volunteers from Raleigh gardens over the years - With all of this new garden space in our yard I thought it would be fun to start looking through some of the volunteers and surprises obtained in my gardens, grow bags and containers over the years. I grew out one plant each of the following orange fruited volunteers: T19-128, T19-149, red tiny volunteer T18-96 (it was hard to determine the color when I grew it in 2018 - red or orange), T16-137 (poor record keeping on this one - so a real mystery), T19-157 (a real oddity - a small oval to pear shaped tomato that slowly ripened orange to scarlet with antho shoulders - I grew two of these), and a red grape shape that one of Sue’s quilt friends gave to me as one small unripe tomato (which I let ripen as best I could and saved seeds - T19-154).

My picture taking of these varieties was not good at all, but I have tasting notes. T19-128 provided lots of nice tasting (7.5 out of 10) orange cherry tomatoes, saved as T20-112. T19-149 similarly gave me orange good flavored (7.5) cherry tomatoes, saved as T20-116. The tiny red or gold pea sized tomato from T18-96 ended up looking exactly like Mexico Midget, saved as T20-120. The two from T19-157 were pretty odd, not setting fruit until quite late, then really taking off. They both ripened red, with some antho on the shoulders, a bit firm, flavor 7.5, seeds saved as T20-83 and T20-121. I suspect they are offspring of some of the Anthy work I did that year (one of our dwarf families that included the antho gene). T19-154 was a strange plant, when young seedlings very prone to damping off, when growing vigorously with widely spaced blossom clusters and leaf branches. My assumption is that it was an offspring of one of the Grape tomatoes - the fruits did ripen to look like the classic grocery store Grape variety, red, firm, and fairly good flavored - seed saved as T20-115. As for mystery T16-137, germination was poor and I ended up with one potato leaf indeterminate seedling. It was the first tomato to ripen, and I picked it too young, thinking it was a yellow, red or green mottled variety. Given time, it ripened to red, and the size and flavor and plant habit lead me to think it is related to the variety Kimberly. Seed is saved as T20-119. A few other volunteers appeared in my grow pots (brought here from Raleigh), two of them clearly Mexico Midget (T20-129 and T20-130, another larger and orange, perhaps a Sungold offspring, and one that was larger than Mexico Midget and ripened red - T20-154.

I am not sure of the fate of any of the above cherry volunteers, but there is saved seed that will be good for years, and anyone who reads this that is curious and wants to try any of them can certainly ask, and I will send them some seeds.

Sungold F2 - I don’t have pictures of the two Sungold F2 that I grew out, from planting seed saved from the hybrid last year, T19-20. One was grown in the dirt adjacent to the rear of my house, the other in a large container in my driveway. Both produced orange cherry tomatoes of good but not outstanding flavor - certainly not on the level of Sungold itself. The fact that I ended up with two orange tomatoes is one further thing that makes me wonder if Sungold hybrid has changed over the years. Long ago I grew out a selection of saved seed and got red, yellow, pink and orange tomatoes. To have gone 2 for 2 with orange, and the fact that the hybrid didn’t taste as good to us this year, makes me suspicious that something is different about Sungold hybrid these days. Seeds for the two F2 from this year are designated T20-53 (container grown, not quite as good), and T20-113, quite good especially when dead ripe.

Volunteer seedling growing in my gravel driveway is a pink, tasty cherry tomato. It is something I’ve never grown….thanks to a bird, perhaps, or a garden grown at this house in past years?

Volunteers from this yard - It was really exciting watching a brand new set of gardens in a new house come alive. There were some unexpected surprises along the way, such as a couple of tomato seedlings appearing that must have been the result of gardens of past inhabitants of this house (or perhaps birds flying overhead with some well aimed bombs!). I first noted a surprise tomato seedling in our main flower garden in the spring. I gave it the name Bumont Surprise and grew it on. It is an indeterminate variety producing heavy yields of pretty standard looking deep red scarlet cherry tomatoes with a very good flavor. It is saved as T20-114, and is undoubtedly a volunteer from a former home owner-grown cherry tomato, likely a hybrid. I also noted, a few weeks later when doing one of my Friday Instagram Live shows, a small seedling emerging from between the rocks in our gravel driveway. That one is pictured above - it is also a cherry tomato, but I like the flavor better (it is sweeter, more complex), and the round cherry tomatoes are bright pink - very unusual. That is saved as T20-55. A third driveway volunteer appeared in a different part of the gravel, near where I park my truck. That one is probably due to my garden efforts this year, as it grew to be exactly like Mexico Midget - pea sized red tomatoes. It is T20-129.

Tiny little Mexico Midgets - huge in flavor and productivity

Mexico Midget - I planted it in a rather poor location, counting on it’s weed-like stamina and strength for success. Saved this year as T-20-128, it was from a planting of T19-21, which was a volunteer seedling. I’ve grown it may times, first sent it by Barney Laman from California in 1990, and designated tomato #251. I’ve grown it many times since then - first saved as T91-77, it has graced my garden 18 different seasons. One peculiarity is that it is not easy to germinate, often taking up to a month, though a very few many pop up quite quickly. I think I’ve found the solution. If during fermentation I add some actively fermenting juice from another variety and give it a few days, seeds isolated and saved from that modified method germinate well and quickly. I’ve only tried it a few times, but it seems to do the trick. This would be great news, because no seed company to date can sell the variety (any sold as Mexico Midget are of a crossed selection, growing much larger fruit) because it fails germination standards. The tiny, literally pea sized fruit have an intense, full flavor. I’ve made cherry tomato pesto with it (Trapanese) and it works fine, though it takes a lot to do it. Best use, for us, is garden snacking, and adding to pizzas and omelets.

Fruity - perhaps the best flavored of the cherry tomatoes I grew this year

Fruity - What a wonderful mystery - and surprise - this small, unassuming scarlet red cherry is! I originally got the Fruity seed from a California friend, Tien Chiu - the seeds go back to a breeder named Tim Peters, and is supposedly a mix of colors (yellow, red, pink and orange). I’ve only seen the scarlet red version; this is the second year I’ve grown it, and it is the closest tomato in flavor to Sungold I’ve had. Tien sent me seed that is 6648 - I grew it for the first time last year, saved as T19-27. This year it was saved as T-20-125. It is a very tall lanky plant, clusters not as packed as other cherry tomatoes and on the small side. The scarlet color it ripens to is on the pale size. But…my, that intense flavor!

Ripe Egg Yolk showing its slightly larger size and occasionally slightly oval shape

Egg Yolk - I really like this large bright yellow cherry tomato, and my wife absolutely loves it. It is a particularly juicy variety, and has sufficient meatiness to make it more versatile than many other cherry types. For this year’s plant, I seeded T19-11, which came from T18-15, which came from T17-15, which was from T16-135, which was from 15-42, from 14-69, from 13-110, from 3672, the seed sent to me by SSE . It did very well, producing loads of sweet, balanced flavored fruits on a vigorous healthy plant. My first experience with Egg Yolk was at the annual SSE tomato tasting in 2012. It was one of the top scorers, and upon request I was sent some seeds. I grew it myself in 2013, and it has been in my gardens every year since. Egg Yolk originated in the garden of Larry Pierce in Missouri as a plant growing among his Moldovan Green variety. It is unclear if it is a sport (mutation), seed mix up, or result of a cross. It is clearly a stable variety now, and has been consistent each year I’ve grown it. Seed from this year is saved as T20-126.

A ripe cluster of Black Cherry growing over our deck railing

Black Cherry - it’s been quite a few years since this variety has graced my garden. My seed source was a SSE packet. My first experience was back when it was released by the company that created it, Tomato Growers Supply, a creation of Vince Sapp, husband of Linda Sapp, founder and long time owner of the company. I really loved it that year, with its dark, Bing cherry-like appearance and rich flavor. It doesn’t yield quite as heavily as typical cherry tomatoes, and can suffer cracking prior to full coloring. Since that first time in 2003, I’ve grown it 3 other times prior to its return this year. It is a popular variety and I always sell lots of seedlings of Black Cherry when I decide to offer it as an option. My plant this year grew well, but the yield was typically disappointing, with the flower clusters quite widely spaced along the stem. The flavor was fine - it didn’t shine, but didn’t disappoint, either. Seed was saved as T20-127.

Sungold F1 growing up and over our deck railing

Sungold F1 was, for the first time since I started growing it in the late 1980s, a slight disappointment. I planted seed lot 5237, which I purchased in 2015 from Tomato Growrs Supply. My wife and I both agreed that the flavor just wasn’t there - it was very good, but lacked the unique intensity that I always associate with Sungold. I just purchased new seeds from Johnny’s this year, my original source and the first to sell the variety in the US. Maybe last year was just an off-year for the variety, or our palates were slightly off, or expectations too high. We’ll give it another try this coming year with Johnny’s sourced seeds.

A Short Blog! News Items - Seed Collection Experience, New Dwarf Varieties, and About Seeds

Garlic, lettuce, kale and collards - my winter garden

Before I get into the next in my series of garden reviews (which will be Indeterminate Tomatoes from the 2020 garden, part 3), here are a few important news items.

Please consider trying one of the Seed Collection Experiences this year! I am very excited to have been asked by Seedlinked to select three different tomato collections for you to purchase and participate in. Follow the link to find out more - the collections are listed as well as a full description of the background, benefits and process. You can choose to grow three slicing tomatoes, three paste type tomatoes, or three cherry tomatoes, all of which were chosen by me for reasons explained in each collection. I spent some time talking through this fun opportunity on my most recent Instagram Live (you can find it by looking at my Instagram page and checking the latest video on my IG TV page - my user name there is @nctomatoman).

Victory Seeds is in the process of listing our latest set of Dwarf Tomato Project releases. I’ve still got to get the OSSI paperwork completed. Among those listings are a few really nice striped hearts and the first of our variegated varieties. Check out the page at the link - please let me know if you took part in one of the new offerings but I forgot to provide your name to Mike Dunton as a contributor; that can be quickly remedied.

By the way, I’ve finally gotten around to entering the returned seed samples from many of you into my numbering system. If you’ve sent me seeds, thank you so much. I’ve received seeds from Tonya Pepper, Deborah Loeb, Karen Rexrode, Gwen Galvin, Deb Kennedy, John Cook, Charlie Hughes, Sara Smith, Tom Martucci, Debra Suran, Marcia Dillon, Geny Laroche, Heide Dolan, Marcia Eisenberg, Maurice Fasenfest, Cindy Taczak, Darrel Jones, Gene McCall, Kevin Campbell and Bill Minkey - that’s 20 of you! If you have seeds from our project that you’ve yet to send, please do so. If you’ve sent seeds and are not listed among the 20 names, please let me know and I will search the boxes where incoming mail ends up. I will probably be contacting a few of you for a bit more information.

Marlin and Koda enjoying a frolic during an October hike on the Daniels Ridge trail in Pisgah Forest

A Products Review blog - 3 wonderful Gardeners Supply projects truly enhanced our first garden in Hendersonville NC

With Christmas not far off, here are some gift ideas for the gardeners in your life. I hope you enjoy reading about (and seeing the results of) my 2020 test of three fine products generously sent to me by Gardeners Supply for rigorous testing.

Building a garden (and first, a garden strategy) from scratch is challenging, interesting, and if done well, rewarding. My long experience with Raleigh weather (Zone 8), and driveway-mandated (due to sun exposure) gardening was swapped for a very different set of conditions (Zone 7a) and garden space possibilities. Our first growing season here was such fun, and largely very successful (many of you watched it all happen on my weekly Instagram Live shows).

When taking first views of the yard, watching the pattern of the sun, and matching it with my garden goals, a few things came to mind. First, the presence of a fence next to a garden suitable area brought the possibility of climbing crops to mind, as the fence provides a perfect backbone for a trellis system.

The fact that a septic tank and leach field takes up much of our back yard means that a big, hang dug or tilled garden is out of the question. Raised beds, straw bales, and containers were the solution to that challenge.

Our first Hendersonville garden was significant enhanced by three wonderful products sent to me for a real world, hands-on test by the Gardeners Supply company.

I tested the following (sincere thanks to Gardeners Supply for the opportunity to test each of these useful, attractive products)

Vertex Wall Trellis on an existing fence for a brand new gardening area. My plan was to start early and grow flowering sweet peas, and follow them up with scarlet runner bean painted lady.

Copper Capped Cedar Raised Bed. I wanted to use this for a spring through winter rotation of crops, including bush green beans, lettuce, beets, watermelon, Swiss chard, Kale, Collards and Garlic.

Elevated Cedar Planter. My plants for this convenient, attractive planting bed were spinach, Swiss chard, and carrots, followed by kale, collards, lettuce and garlic.

I am going to take these one at a time and include pictures of their use throughout the season

Copper Capped Cedar Raised Bed

Assembly was straightforward, with clear directions. Materials are high quality. I positioned the raised bed on a flat surface, directly on the lawn, in an area that I estimated would receive direct sun for about 6 hours by the middle of summer.

Raised bed positioned after assembly, March 2020

I filled the raised bed with a locally produced natural material consisting of composted leaves and grass clippings, augmented with some bagged commercial soil less mix, filling to within about 3 inches of the top of the bed. After a light watering, I planted various seedlings of greens and lettuce that accompanied us on our move from Raleigh to Hendersonville, NC.

Raised bed, filled with planting mix and then lettuces and greens, early April 2020

Regular feeding and watering led to a nice harvest. These plants were then removed, making room for beet, lettuce and some rare bush green bean seedlings.

Beets (front), lettuce (middle rows), bush beans (rear), mid May

Harvests of all three crops were outstanding. The ease of planting, harvest and care were notable, plants were healthy and grew quickly, and quality of the produce was superb.

Beets harvested in July

Here are in November and the raised bed now contains garlic, lettuce, kale and collards. I plan on growing these over the winter for spring 2021 harvests.

Garlic (front), lettuce (center left), and collards and kale (center to the right edge) happily growing in November.

Elevated Cedar Planter

I was sent this kit to test in 2019, but realizing we would be moving, I elected to not assemble it until we were in our new home. Again, as with the Cedar capped raised bed, directions were clear and assembly was straightforward, with clearly high quality materials.

Just after assembly, positioning and filling with planting mix. Spinach seedlings and carrot seeds, March.

I used the same combination of locally produced composted organic materials and commercial, bagged soil less mix. Into the lightly watered planter went spinach seedlings and carrot seeds.

May, showing vigorous growth of the carrots (front), with frequently picked spinach in the rear.

I loved the convenience of working with plantings at waist level. The spinach was outstanding, and the carrots germinated well and filled in thickly.

June harvest, a rainbow of carrot colors

After the spinach was finished, I worked Swiss chard seedlings into the planter, which grew well as the carrots matured. I was delighted with a very heavy harvest of straight, perfect carrots. Those finished, I worked in more chard, and some compact hot pepper plants.

The view in November, echoing the mix of plants that are in the copper capped raised bed - garlic, lettuce, collards and kale.

With the peppers and chard done, I planted the same sort of mix in the raised planter for growing fall, over winter, and into spring 2021 - garlic, lettuce, collards and kale. As you can see from my pictures, both raised beds provided great flexibility, production and value, as I moved different plant types in and out throughout the season.

Vertex Wall Trellis

I had high hopes for this easy to assemble, interesting looking trellis. I noted a perfect location for installation, on to an existing fence, at the bottom of which I created a new garden.

Trellis installed onto a tall fence, with a new garden at the bottom

My plan for the trellis was to start with colorful vining Sweet Peas, then switching to equally colorful scarlet runner beans in the summer. The picture shows shorter growing bush type snap peas already germinated, with the sweet peas too short at this point to see.

Finally, a few blossoms!

Alas, the sweet peas grew too slowly and once the days warmed, the plants did not thrive to the level that was hoped for. The picture above shows a few blossoms, but the plants never reached more than a few feet tall, which didn’t give a very good test for the trellis. Next year I plan to grow vining type sugar snap peas on the trellis as a first crop.

Scarlet runner beans were a more successful crop on the trellis

I was much more pleased with the scarlet runner bean outcome, shown above. I didn’t plant them thickly enough to provide full coverage of the trellis, but as a first test, it went well. Next year I will plant a wax pole bean, focusing on use of the trellis as more of a means to produce something we really love to eat.

In summary, I highly recommend all three of these fine products. Each enhanced my gardening enjoyment and success, looked great, and helped me to create a more flexible set of options for my garden.

2020 Garden Year in Review - Indeterminate Tomatoes, part 2.

Late August picked tomatoes awaiting tasting, using, seed saving and/or canning

It has been a few months since my first 2020 garden report, and I finally got part 2 finished. I am so sorry for the delay. Blogs will come more frequently from now on (yes, you’ve heard that before from me, but this time I mean it!).

These review posts are like mini-books, or at least a magazine article. They are fun to write, and a bit of work, opening up a number of spreadsheets and notebooks to get at the genealogical data. In fact, there has been quite a lapse between part 1 an part 2…but better late than never! Hopefully, they are worth it - I hope you all find value in them; I surely do, as they are a great way to consolidate my experiences and data.

Let’s carry on - this is the other grouping of indeterminate varieties grown in straw bales (there are 24 plants in all - the first 12 were described in part 1).

Cherokee Chocolate, front left

Cherokee Chocolate - saved as T20-13, which was from vial T18-6, which came from T17-8, which was from T16-120, which was from T03-21, which goes back to the original selection, T95-47, a skin color mutation of Cherokee Purple that occurred in my Raleigh garden. I’ve grown it loads of times and it never disappoints. In comparison to Cherokee Purple, it seems to be an indeterminate that "stretches” upward and outward a bit more, a tiny bit larger (on average) and more oblate - but equals it in quality, beauty, and productivity.

Pretty much everything I’ve said in part 1 about Cherokee Purple applies to Cherokee Chocolate. It is simply one of my favorite tomatoes, one to grow every year. The flavor just defines perfection in tomatoes for me. Fortunately, it is quite widely available from various seed companies.

Casey’s Pure Yellow, top

Casey’s Pure Yellow, saved as T20-14, planted T19-7, which came from T11-78, which is from T09-24, which came from a tomato sent to me by Susan Anderson of Texas that year. The variety was first sent to me by he who discovered and named it, Jeff Casey, of Canada. Jeff found it when growing out Green Giant, and it has bred true (so could have been a flesh color mutation).

Casey’s Pure yellow is, to me, an option for Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom when that variety doesn’t do well in a given climate/zone. It is a potato leaf plant with medium to large bright yellow tomatoes possessing a wonderful, rich intense flavor. It is, in all respects equal to Green Giant - it is simply a bright yellow alternative. Small seed locules, heavy yield, good ability to tolerate common tomato diseases - what’s not to love!

Cancelmo Family Heirloom

Cancelmo Family Heirloom, saved as T20-15, planted T17-13, which was from T16-98, which is from #5557, a family heirloom sent to me in 2016. The story of this tomato is told in the Victory Seed Catalog, which introduced it after I made introductions between a gardening friend, Walt Swokla, and Mike Dunton.

I simply love this tomato, and feel quite honored to play my part in ensuring that this tomato lives on and is available to gardeners everywhere. It grew well in Raleigh, but was one of my best performers here in Hendersonville, clearly happy in a straw bale. The lanky, tall, vigorously suckering plant sets fruit early, and heavily. The smooth, perfect pink hearts range from 8 to more than 16 ounces. Unlike many pink heart varieties (typified by Oxheart), which to my palate are dry and somewhat flavorless, Cancelmo Family is simply delicious as well as versatile, its meatiness lending itself to sauce preparations but perfect as a slicing tomato as well.

I saved lots of seeds and will ensure that local gardeners will have an opportunity to give it a try in their gardens next year.

Brandywine (on the right, showing smooth shoulders

Brandywine - saved as T20-16, planted T18-4, which came from T17-25, which is from T16-106, which is from T11-60, which is from T01-5, which is from T97-27, which is from T93-58, which is from T88-9, which is from vial #29 - shared with me in an SSE trade with Roger Wentling. Roger obtained the seed from Ben Quisenberry himself in the early 1980s. This, therefore, is the real deal - THE Brandywine that in flavor stands perhaps above all others.

Brandywine can give gardeners fits with its erratic performance year to year, but it really loved growing in the straw bale in my Hendersonville yard. The vigorous potato leaf plants set loads of smooth shouldered, pink, oblate tomatoes in the 12-16 ounce range.

A perfectly ripe Brandywine is the essence of perfectly balanced, intense tomato flavor. I fell in love with it in 1988, and now, in 2020, 32 years later, it still ranks as the best large tomato I’ve eaten.

Shackelford Family Heirloom - HUGE!

Shackelford Family Heirloom - saved as T20-17, planted 7062. This family heirloom was shared with me by Philip Shackelford. Phil indicated that they could have been German in origin, and his family has grown them for three generations. I planted one seed - got one plant, and it took over its straw bale. It produced the largest tomatoes of my 2020 garden, and is right up there with the largest tomatoes I’ve ever grown, approaching 2 lbs.

The shape is irregular, fruit set came on late, and early set tomatoes were among the few that had some blossom end rot. The vines were simply enormous, taking the term “indeterminate” to a whole new level. The tomatoes were medium pink (red flesh, clear skin) irregular in shape, some oblate, some nearly heart shaped, some oblate. The flavor, for such a huge tomato, was just fine - on the sweet side, very pleasant. As with other monster types I’ve grown, the flesh is very meaty, with few seeds.

I will definitely be sharing this with Mike Dunton in hoping that it winds up in his seed catalog before too long. It is truly something to behold.

Pic from 2019 - didn’t take a good picture of the variety this year

Little Lucky - saved as T20-18, planted T17-2, which was from T16-68, which was from T13-10, which was from T12-9, which was from T11-20, which was from T03-26, which is from T02-54, which is from T01-23, which is from T00-23, which is from T99-46, which is from T98-66, which is from T97-21, which is from Brandywine T93-58. T97-21 is the Brandywine X Tad hybrid that set off the Lucky Cross and Little Lucky work - T98-66 was the F2 selection with the Little Lucky sized tomatoes.

Along with the large fruited sister tomato Lucky Cross, Little Lucky is the best flavored of the yellow/red bicolor types. Little Lucky sets fruit better, is heavier yielding, but just as tasty - its smaller size may render it a bit less attractive for some tomato enthusiasts. It is perfect for salads and canning and grilling, however.

Gerald’s Mystery

Gerald’s Mystery - saved as T20-19, planted T19-136, seeds from a tomato given to me by a Raleigh area tomato friend Gerald Adams. The tomato he gave me was purple with green stripes. Look what I got from growing out the saved seeds!

My feeling is that the tomato was crossed, and that I am growing out a new F1 hybrid. The regular leaf indeterminate plant was wildly prolific, with seemingly endless supply of medium sized, smooth bright yellow tomatoes with a bright red center in most fruit. It was somewhat firm, with a very good flavor but the texture making it just short of excellent. No matter - the most interesting part will be in seeing what saved seed produces next year. I hope to entice a few tomato friends to give it a try and report back on what they get.

Green Giant - lower left - perfectly ripe (note barely a hint of color change from an unripe tomato)

Green Giant - saved as T20-20, planted T19-6, which is from T14-11, which is from T07-13, which is from T05-13, which is from #1488, seed sent to me in 2004 by Reinhard Kraft, in Germany. I was perusing his web pages when I noted what appeared to be a green fruited potato leaf tomato. I asked, he sent (he actually has sent me loads of great tomatoes over the years). Reinhard indicated it arose in a different regular leaf green variety.

Several characteristics set this wonderful tomato apart from many others. It is unusual in being a green fleshed when ripe variety in that the skin color is clear, not yellow. Deciding when they are ripe takes a bit of practice, but I find that the blossom end typically shows a pale pink blush. The tomatoes are very meaty, with small seed locules. Fruit set is excellent, yield is excellent, but…the flavor! It is definitely top 10 material - intense, rich, simply outstanding.

I’ve grown it often and it has become quite widely available. I find that it in a way resembles Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom in shape, internal structure, and flavor. It truly belongs in every tomato lover’s garden. Its performance in a straw bale in my 2020 garden was superb.

Ferris Wheel, regular leaf, bright yellow - right

Ferris Wheel, yellow, regular leaf - saved as T20-21, planted 7154, which is seed shared with me by gardening friend Melissa Plank. I sent her seeds of Ferris Wheel, a large pink regular leaf tomato. She got one of the correct, and one that had bright yellow tomatoes on a regular leaf plant - seeds from that are designated #7154, which I planted this spring.

I got some potato leaf seedlings, regular leaf seedlings, and dwarf seedlings. I chose to grow out one regular leaf plant (this one - in a straw bale), and one potato leaf plant (in a grow bag - part of my next update). I was delighted to see bright yellow, medium large tomatoes (pictured above) with a full, delicious flavor from the regular leaf plant.

My assumption is that the Ferris Wheel I sent to Melissa was crossed with a yellow variety - perhaps a yellow potato leaf variety - perhaps a dwarf (such as Dwarf Sweet Sue or Summer Sweet Gold). The seed saved this year - T20-21 - will likely not be stable yet, so when that seed is planted I may still get potato leaf, regular leaf and dwarf seedlings. Additional work will be needed to ensure it is stable and its merit - does it deserve to be named and released? I will probably be sharing seeds with a few interested people who want to participate in untangling this most delightful tomato mystery!

Caitlin’s Lucky Stripe, two tomatoes on the right

Caitlin’s Lucky Stripe - saved as T20-22, planted 6074, which came from Bill Minkey’s grow out of T16-74, which came from 4392 (also from Bill), which came from T09-44, which is from T08-155, and this is where the unusual striped version of Little Lucky appeared, in a plant growing on Coon Rock Farm from a plant they purchased from me that came from T05-50.

This variety is actually somewhat of a mystery. The fruit that gave seed T08-155 was a medium sized round yellow tomato with very thin pink stripes. Over the years and grow outs, we now have a medium to medium small round tomato that is pink with greenish/golden stripes and pink flesh. Victory Seeds sells the variety. The medium sized mostly round tomatoes are quite delicious, with a very rich flavor and a perfect size for salads and canning.

I would love to find the yellow with light pink/red striped selection again, but I no longer have seed stock T08-155. One possibility would be to return to Little Lucky T05-50, the other to grow out some of the samples Bill Minkey sent me over the years. The Lanky potato leaf plant is a tomato machine, and the smaller fruit sets well even in hot, humid conditions. I underrate tomatoes of this size in my love of the really large varieties, but this is a great tomato, named for my daughter Caitlin.

Nolan’s Family Heirloom - meaty pink heart, bottom

Nolan’s Family Heirloom - saved as T20-23 , planted 6888. This tomato was sent to me in 2019 by Tim Nolan. I planted two seeds - one came up regular leaf (checking with Tim that was not the correct one) - the other potato leaf. It was that plant that had a home in one of my straw bales. It is a variety that Tim’s father got from an Italian neighbor more than 50 years ago.

Potato leaf, heart shaped tomatoes are quite rare. This particular one was quite unique in so many ways. The plant itself was very spindly, with the large potato plant-shaped leaves quite “floppy” and weak looking (the plant itself turned into a monster…the relative limpness is quite indicative of heart shaped varieties in general). The tomatoes ranged from medium large to huge, approaching 2 pounds, with a shape like a top; more of a “fat” variation of heart shaped tomatoes when compared to those that are more typical, such as Cancelmo Family Heirloom. Fruit set and yield were excellent. The ripe color is a lovely medium pink (light red flesh, clear skin).

Another attribute that sets this variety apart is the excellent flavor and texture for one so dense and meaty. Seed count is quite low. The flavor is delightfully balanced, slightly leaning toward the sweet side, and it, along with Cancelmo, are among my very favorite heart shaped varieties. I suspect that within a few years it will be available commercially, via Victory Seeds (Mike will get a sample of seeds and will get in contact with Tim to flesh out the back story). Tim’s suggestion is that this be called Joe’s Jubilee.

Blue’s Bling, on the way to ripening, showing the variegation in unripe fruit

Blue’s Bling - saved as T20-24, planted T19-48, which came from 6094. This is a variety shared with me by a gardening friend, Blue Dingman, someone I communicated with on Facebook, and now on Instagram. This variety appeared in their garden out of Cherokee Purple, and there was some thought it was a dwarf. The plant that T19-48 was saved from is definite ly indeterminate.

It certainly is a beautiful plant, with strong variegation of its regular leaf foliage. The growth characteristics are quite like Cherokee Purple, with initial flower clusters containing lots of flowers, and a bit more compact growth than most heirloom indeterminate types. The fruit size ranges from 6 to well over 16 ounces, and immature tomatoes show distinctive stripes (as shown in the picture above). The striping goes away as the tomatoes ripen, resulting in gorgeous dusky rose fruit that make for Cherokee Purple look-alikes in terms of color. The flavor is also excellent, and internal structure is that which I enjoy, with small seed locules.

Mike at Victory Seeds could very well be introducing it on their website this year. I think people will really love it, with the biggest difference from Cherokee Purple being the distinct green and white foliage, making it quite ornamental. I also used it in a few crosses, as working the good fruit set and yield, large fruit size, fruit color and foliage color into new varieties will be worth exploring. I am not sure it will be something that I grow every year, but I am pleased that it is in my collection.

2020 Garden Year in Review - Indeterminate tomatoes, part 1.

The mid August tomato attack, which led to a scramble to find canning supplies!

Has there ever been a year as unusual as 2020?

I am sure each one of us will have our own take on that question. As I sit here on this long, long overdue blog, my next birthday being age 65, I certainly can’t think of one quite like this in my lifetime. What makes this year particularly unique is that it began with our big move from Raleigh to Hendersonville in mid-January. Soon after - and with only two of my scheduled garden-related trips checked off (Oregon and Connecticut, in February), COVID swooped in and completely changed my plans for the year (as well as everyone else’s, of course). All of my speaking trips were cancelled, I started to get requests to do Zoom webinars, and my Friday Instagram Live sessions were launched to provide a way to share my gardening activities more widely and answer questions posed on the spot.

Though on one level I feel like I’ve communicated quite a bit about what went on in my fledgling Hendersonville garden, my blogging frequency completely fell off the radar, and for that I apologize. With so many modes of communication these days, I feel the need to make an effort to be more disciplined in my newsletters and blogs. And so, for those who don’t do the Instagram thing, many apologies. Now that the active gardening effort is significantly reduced (the tomato plants vanished in late August), I will be spending more time on writing - be it the blogs, newsletters, or my long delayed future books. I also want to get my own webinar series off the ground at last. Stay tuned - it will all happen in good time!

With that off my chest, this will be the first in a series of blogs that go into depth on my 2020 garden - the varieties and rationale for planting, and the results. With over 130 plants this year, I will break the garden review into digestible pieces…otherwise, each blog could end up being a small book!

First comes a bit about my overall rationale for my 2020 tomato choices. First and foremost, I grow tomatoes to provide Sue and I with outstanding specimens to eat and cook with. A selection of our flavor favorites is a top priority. Beyond that, new gardening friends shared some special varieties with me - either recent unexpected discoveries, or family heirlooms that they were so generous to share with me. The dwarf tomato project has held a prominent place in my gardens since its inception, in 2006. I wanted to grow out some of my favorite releases, some recent releases I’d yet to try, and plenty of research and development varieties.

Late June pic of tomato alley - a look down the center of my 12 straw bales, which held 24 indeterminate tomato plants

As to how the tomatoes would be grown, the presence of our septic leech field in our back yard meant that a mixture of containers and straw bales would provide a garden that meant no need to dig a garden bed. The exception was an area near our deck where a selection of our favorite cherry tomatoes were planted. I took a guess as to the best sun exposure when placing the bales and containers (this turned out to be a bit off the mark, as some of the grow bag dwarf tomatoes suffered from a less than optimal location).

With all of the above setting the stage for an in-depth discussion of the varieties I grew and how they performed, let’s begin! What follows is part 1 of my 2020 Indeterminate tomato variety review. All of the tomatoes described below were grown in prepared straw bales, two plants per bale. Each plant was tied to an 8 foot stake. The initial goal of removing all but 3 or 4 suckers was abandoned, and the plants were allowed to do what they would do. (this led to the need for multiple staking, use of chairs, ladders and saw horses to keep some of them reasonably upright, and eventual breakage of many of the stakes!).

Perfectly ripe Don’s Double Delight

Don’s Double Delight - I chose to grow this tomato because it is beautiful, has wonderful flavor and it has been far too long between grow outs. I planted seed lot T13-109 on March 13, and germination occurred 4 days later, on March 17. T13-109 came from T12-24, which came from T11-176. Seeds T11-176 were saved from a tomato given to me by Lee Newman of Raleigh - he discovered and named the variety as a selection from some still segregating material from my Lucky Cross work (Brandywine X a neighboring, unstable striped variety growing next to it in my 1993 garden). Lee named the tomato for his dad, Don. The aim is for a potato leaf, indeterminate plant producing large, smooth oblate tomatoes that were prominently striped scarlet and gold, in the 12-16 ounce range.

This was one of the stars of my 2020 garden, producing numerous tomatoes with the target appearance and weight. My guess is that the plant produced over 30 lbs of tomatoes. This variety is best used as soon as it is 75% colored up, with some green remaining. It has very soft, tender flesh and is one of the more perishable tomatoes I’ve grown. The flesh is on the pale side of pink, and the flavor is balanced and outstanding. Seeds of Don’s Double Delight were saved as T20-1, which is 3 generations removed from the fruit Lee provided to me for seed saving back in 2011. I highly recommend this variety, which is a solid 8 minimum out of 10 for flavor, for its taste, yield and appearance. It is really too recent to be called an heirloom - it is an open pollinated, colorful, delicious variety that should be far more widely grown and enjoyed. I will ensure that Mike Dunton at Victory Seeds receives a sample in hopes of him offering it in his catalog.

I’ve grown Don’s Double Delight only 4 times since the tomato that Lee gave me back in 2011. Based on this year’s yield, flavor and beauty, that needs to be remedied.

Roman Figun

Roman Figun - I chose to grow this variety this year because of its excellence in my 2019 garden, excelling despite being grown in a small container with only 2 gallons of planting mix; I wanted to see what it would do if given half of a straw bale. Seed lot T19-121 was planted on March 2, and germinated 3 days later, on March 5. I first grew this family heirloom last year from seed sent to me by Roman Figun - which I logged as lot 6633. Last year it was one of the stars of my garden, producing tomatoes of up to 24 ounces, oblate in shape, quite smooth, pink in color and will a wonderful full flavor.

For whatever reason, it was one of the few varieties that underwhelmed me when my expectations were considered. The plant was always battling a foliage disease that wasn’t quite what I’ve observed for Alternaria (Early Blight). Despite deep and frequent watering and regular feeding, it was one of the few varieties that experienced a good amount of blossom end rot. Better shaped tomatoes came along later in the season, and they were in the 12-16 ounce range, pink, and very flavorful. The best tomatoes ripened along with many other varieties and I suspect that I didn’t end up paying enough attention to its specific attributes. I did send a sample to Mike at Victory last year, and await his opinion and the chance of it appearing in future catalogs. To me, this variety is very much like the old tomato Ponderosa, from the late 1800s. There are a lot of regular leaf, large pink oblate delicious tomatoes, and it would take significant DNA testing to determine how genetically alike or dissimilar they are from each other. Seeds from this year were saved as T20-2. My overall opinion on Roman Figun is that it is a fine flavored, worthwhile tomato to grow for those that like them large and pink and with a nicely balanced flavor. It deserves another chance in my garden at some point in the future. It may not end up being a variety that graces every year’s garden, but I will return to it soon to give it another chance to shine in Hendersonville.

Dester, showing the ideal interior structure of a great tomato

Dester - Dester has become a regular in my gardens since first acquiring it, so including it in my 2020 garden for a prime eating tomato was an easy decision. Seeds of T18-2 were planted on March 2, and germinated 4 days later, on March 6. T18-2 came from T16-172, which came from T15-70, which came from T13-134, which came from T12-19, which came from 3506, sent to me in 2012 by the Seed Savers Exchange. I was fortunate to have attended the SSE tomato tasting in 2011, and Dester to me was the best tasting tomato there. It originated with the Dester family in Germany, a family that moved to the US, and seed was sent by housekeeper Anna to Larry Pierce, a grower for Baker Creek. It is a variety that has yet to fail to be outstanding.

Dester in my 2012 garden was saved as T20-3. The plant was absolutely knock out prolific, pumping out at least 25 lbs of 16 ounce average fairly smooth, regular, oblate pink tomatoes. The flavor was superb, with the tomatoes varying between 8 and 9 out of 10 on my flavor scale. The interior structure showed my ideal for a slicing tomato, meaty with small seed cavities spread throughout the slices. Dester is a tomato that has perfect flavor balance between sweet and tart, along with intensity - it is a tomato for those who love the flavor of tomatoes. It also shows a good ability to tolerate the common tomato afflictions.

Though Dester is only a fairly recent addition to my tomato collection, I’ve now grown it 6 times since obtaining it in 2012. I can certainly see this being a regular in my gardens.

A perfectly representative Lucky Cross

Lucky Cross - From the beginning of my heirloom tomato obsession, the large bicolor beefsteak types (Old German, Pineapple, Ruby Gold and so many others) frustrated me. They were beautiful to look at, impressive in size, but, alas, didn’t “do it” for my taste buds, being too mild, too sweet - in essence, too bland.

In 1997, in growing out a cell of Brandywine saved from my 1993 garden (T93-58), I noted a few regular leaf seedlings among the potato leaf plants. This was my first foray into “growing out the unexpected”, and did I get lucky. The regular leaf plant produced medium large, oblate pink tomatoes with golden stripes, the appearance unique in my experiences. Looking at my 1993 growing log, Brandywine was sitting next to a striped variety called Tad. Tad was a work in progress of a tomato friend at the time, Tad Smith, working to get tomatoes with striped exteriors and bicolored interiors. This explained the unusual Brandywine hybrid, so the bees are responsible for creating the Brandywine X Tad cross.

The seed from the striped hybrid was saved as T97-21. I grew out various seedlings from seed saved from that 1993 inadvertent cross, finding the expected mixture of regular and potato leaf seedlings. One of the potato leaf plants completely blew me away, producing smooth medium sized, yellow tomatoes with red swirls and the delicious, complete flavor of Brandywine. Seeds were saved as T98-66, and thus began the work to create both Lucy Cross and Little Lucky. At that same time, a local professor at Duke, Larry Bohs, learned of my work on this new promising tomato line and offered to help grow out seeds and do selections. I noted quite early on that there were two distinct types of tomatoes emerging. One tended to be round, with medium sized tomatoes, which I ended up naming Little Lucky (another favorite - see my next blog for details from my grow out this year).

The star of this work, however, was a tomato that was like Brandywine in every way - vigorous potato leaf plant, smooth shouldered oblate fruit in the 12-16 ounce plus range, intense, delicious flavor with a nice edge of sharpness or tartness - except it was a yellow/red bicolor, with each fruit showing varying amounts of intense red in and out. This selection was named Lucky Cross, and we felt it reached genetic stability in 2002. It is the only large fruited yellow/red bicolor I crave as an eating tomato, and the combination of beauty and flavor make it quite special and unique.

Lucky Cross in my 2020 garden did not disappoint, and in fact, produced an overwhelming number of 16 ounce plus tomatoes with the lovely red/yellow swirling and superb flavor. Seed has been saved as T20-4. I grew it from T19-10, which was grown from either T11-14, 11-19 or 11-21 (record keeping error), all F9 generation.

T11-14 came from T02-55, which came from a sample selected by Larry, reference number 1185. Tomato 1185 came from 1141, which came from 1118, which came from T99-46, which came from T98-66 - the original lead from growing out the hybrid.

T11-19 came from T02-62, which came from T01-30, which came from T00-24, which came from 1118, which came from T99-46, which came from T98-66.

T11-21 came from T02-57, which came from T01-59, which came from T00-24 - from 1118 - from 99-46 - from 98-66. So, my confusion in record keeping notwithstanding, there is a common ancestry, a testament that we were seeing pretty good genetic stability by the time we were at Tomato 1118, an F5 selection from the year 2000.

Since naming Lucky Cross in 2000, it is amazing to consider how many plants have graced my gardens - at least 40. It is now considered a can’t-do-without variety in my garden.

Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel - It’s hard to believe that Ferris Wheel is in my collection - indeed, is known to anyone these days - because it had a curious, kind of funny name. I remember sifting through the GRIN database on a laptop, using a number search and seeing which tomato varieties were among the oldest in the collection. There was really no description, just a note that it originated from the Salzer Seed Company and was collected from that company in the 1940s. I later found out that Ferris Wheel was released in 1894, so is a truly historic variety that grew in many gardens over the years.

I requested a sample, USDA designation NSL 27341, in 1999, which ended up in vial 1107 using my numbering system. I first grew it in 2001 in a large container in my driveway and was enchanted with the sweet, full flavored large pink tomatoes, seeds saved as T01-50. For my garden this year, I used seed lot T18-5, a spectacular year for the variety, grown in a straw bale in my driveway. T18-5 originated from T14-24, and that from T13-9 (I grew it for photography for my book, Epic Tomatoes, those two years). T13-9 came from the seed from the very first time I grew it, T01-50.

Ferris Wheel performed splendidly this year, the healthy, vigorous plant producing loads of 16 ounce average slightly oblate pink tomatoes with a very special, full, balanced flavor. Seed was saved as T20-5, and that seed is 6 grow outs removed from the original USDA seed sample from 1999.

I’ve grown Ferris Wheel 11 times since obtaining it in 1999, and I now consider it a foundational variety in my annual tomato garden.

Striped Sweetheart from 2019 - correct color, not sufficiently heart shaped

Striped Sweetheart - The Brandywine X Tad tomato cluster produces another winner, Striped Sweetheart. Another find of Lee Newman (see Don’s Double Delight, above), this added a nice, good sized heart shaped variety into the mix. The presence of heart shape in the family is a bit of a mystery, but occasionally shows itself in some selections of Little Lucky. Anna Russian was growing near Brandywine in 1993, and it could be that the bees mixed pollen from two types into the Brandywine flower that led to such diversity in these lines.

Sadly, I didn’t take a picture of Striped Sweetheart this year, but found a pic from 2019, above. My version this year wasn’t as large as I expected or as heart shaped. It also looked to be a pink tomato with gold, whereas my expectations were for a scarlet red tomato with gold stripes. It looked very much like a slightly heart shaped Caitlin’s Lucky Stripe.

I used T19-110 for my source seed for this year’s plant. That originated from T12-185, which itself was from T11-175. That came from a fruit given to me by Lee Newman. I have several vials of seed from Lee and others to return to if I want to do a reselection to confirm the heart shape and color.

I enjoyed the tomatoes harvested from my Striped Sweetheart this year. As with essentially all offspring from the Lucky Cross line/family, the flavor is balanced, yet intense with a jolt of sweetness. Seeds were saved as T20-6. The plant got off to a rocky start, suffering from foliage disease early on. It fought valiantly, and with leaf pruning, ended up growing and yielding just as well as all of my other bale-grown indeterminate varieties.

I’ve only grown Striped Sweetheart 4 times, with varying success. It may grace my garden on occasion, but at this point is not a must-grow variety for me.

Another perfect interior structure - Polish

Polish - This is my first favorite heirloom tomato obtained via a Seed Savers Exchange trade. Back in 1988, from just my second SSE yearbook, I was enticed by the description of the variety as offered by Bill Ellis of Pennsylvania. I requested a seed sample, and it is tomato #89 in my collection (which now is beyond #7000). Prior to growing Polish, it was Nepal, acquired from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in 1986, that started me on my love affair with open pollinated varieties (prior to that I was a Better Boy or Whopper grower, two hybrids).

Polish was a star of my 1989 garden, with very high productivity and absolutely supreme flavor. The vigorous potato leaf plant was very distinct even as a very young seedling, with leaves that were more broad than other potato leaf varieties of my experience. The plant shows significant early vigor as well. The one pound average tomatoes are clear pink in color, the slices meaty, with small seed cavities, and the flavor complex, full and aggressive, yet very well balanced.

Polish did not disappoint in my garden this year, providing a very heavy yield of lovely, delicious tomatoes. I planted seed lot T18-14, and saved seed from this year is in vial T20-7. T18-14 came from T12-21, which came from T01-45, which was from T90-8, originating with the SSE sample #89. This was the 14th year that I’ve grown the variety, and it has now reestablished itself as a must-grow type every year.

Somewhat irregular (but delicious) Cherokee Green showing off its amber colored skin

Cherokee Green - Oh, how I love this tomato, and feel particularly lucky that it showed up in a planting of Cherokee Chocolate in my 1997 Raleigh, NC garden. Cherokee Green has slightly lighter green foliage and the plant “stretches” upward and outward more than Cherokee Purple. For a large tomato, it sets and ripens tomatoes quite early. The variety resists common foliage diseases very well and yields very heavily. It really enjoyed growing in my Hendersonville garden.

The origin of Cherokee Green was one plant of Cherokee Chocolate. An early seed sample of Cherokee Chocolate (from 1995 or 1996) was sent to Darrell Merrill, and he returned saved seed to me in 1997 as #1039. I grew several plants from 1039 in 1997 and one plant produced green fleshed (when ripe), yellow skinned, large delicious tomatoes - equal in quality to Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Chocolate. Seeds were saved as T97-10. Subsequent grow outs indicated that the variety was essentially already stable (if it was indeed a cross, or lingering instability from Cherokee Chocolate).

Seed from my wonderful 2020 result is saved as T20-8. That originated as T19-17, which came from T18-7. I grew that plant from a packet of seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, the first company to carry the variety commercially. I’ve grown Cherokee Green many times, am never disappointed, and it is a fixture in my garden. I’ve grown it more than 25 times since it popped up in my 1997 garden, and is a must grow, annual star.

Ho hum….just another superb big pink tomato, Peak of Perfection. So many great tomatoes seem to be pink!

Peak of Perfection - Yet another wonderful find in the USDA GRIN seed collection, identified when matching my old seed catalog collection with some of their rare accessions. It turns out that Peak of Perfection is a Salzer variety released in 1927 - the birth date of my parents. I requested a seed sample in 1995 and it ended up as tomato #963 in my collection. I grew it that year and saved seed is T95-38.

This year, it was an incredibly vigorous plant that took over its strawbale, produced heavily, yielding consistently large (12-16 ounce) slightly oblate delicious pink tomatoes, with seed saved as T20-9. For this year’s seedlings I planted T13-24. That came from T02-58, which originated with T95-38, the first year I grew the variety from the USDA seed sample.

I find it interesting to ponder the big pink Salzer tomatoes, Ferris Wheel (1894) and Peak of Perfection (1927). Often, older seed companies released their “version” of well known tomatoes of the time. Ferris Wheel was very likely Salzer’s selection of the Henderson variety Ponderosa. Peak of Perfection could be Salzer’s selection of Henderson’s Winsall, or perhaps, their reselection of their own variety Ferris Wheel. DNA testing would help answer these types of questions.

Though this is only the 8th time I’ve grown it, the variety did so well here in Hendersonville that it will become a reasonably regular part of my garden. The competition for large pink varieties is pretty intense.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, on the right - next to an experimental dwarf from the Fancy family

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - I’ve been growing this variety for 30 years and no yellow tomato has yet to touch it in sheer excellence of flavor. It is late, it is temperamental, but is essential. Still unique in being a large fruited pale yellow variety, Lillian’s holds a most special place in my tomato collection. Just after Epic Tomatoes came out, during an episode of The Splendid Table, Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s last question for me was the “Desert Island” query; if I were to be stranded on a desert island, which three tomato varieties would I bring with me? My choices were Sungold, Cherokee Purple - and Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom was sent to me as “Lillian’s Yellow Tomato #1” by Robert Richardson of New York, a Seed Savers Exchange member, back in 1989 - it is cataloged as tomato #163. Robert received it from Lillian Bruce of Manchester, Tennessee. Her sons often attended local fairs or markets and brought Lillian interesting specimens of tomatoes to save seeds from and grow. They really hit the jack pot with this unique beauty.

What is most special about Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom (my name for it, given in 1990) is that the bright yellow flesh is intensely flavored but so well balanced. The texture is perfection, having very small seed cavities with very few seeds. Though it can be late, be stubborn to set fruit, and grow into a monster of a plant, it is worth any trouble to include it in your garden.

For my 2020 grow out I used my sample T19-1. That came from T12-15, which originated with T07-9. That came from T96-60, which was from T90-14, which came from my sample #212, a second packet of seeds sent to me by Robert Richardson. Seed from this year’s crop is saved as T20-10.

All in all, more than 25 plants of Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom have graced my gardens, and it is a centerpiece of every year’s garden. My wife and I can identify it with just one bite, and it is a true tomato treasure, one of the very greatest tomatoes that I am aware of.

Cherokee Purple, right, next to Cherokee Green. Dynamic Duo!

Cherokee Purple - In a way, I owe my current career as a writer/educator/tomato researcher to John D Green and his decision to share seeds of this tomato with me in 1990. There really isn’t much more to say about this fine variety. One thing that showed clearly this year is the relatively compact growth habit when compared to all of my other indeterminate varieties.

The state of Cherokee Purple “out there in the seed world” is a good case study of the growth of heirloom gardening, seed saving and sharing, and proliferation of smaller seed companies. Looking at various postings of pictures of the variety growing in gardens shows the impact of inadvertent crossings, mix ups, or mislabeling. Often, when seeing the tomatoes sold at Farmers Markets, it is clear something is amiss - sometimes the variety is Black Krim, but clearly not Cherokee Purple.

Seed from my 2020, Hendersonville-grown Cherokee Purple is designated T20-11. It was grown from T19-3, which originated with T17-6 or T17-7 (poor record keeping!). Each came from T16-104, which was grown from a really old sample, T02-3 (thankfully, it germinated). T02-3 came from another old sample, T91-27, which came from the seed sent to me unnamed by J. D. Green in 1990 and is vial #287. This means that the Cherokee Purple I grew this year was only 6 grow outs removed from the original seed. To my eyes, it is unchanged - the performance this year (color, size, flavor) match my memory of what the tomato that gave seed T91-27 resulted in.

I’ve grown Cherokee Purple many, many times since first receiving the seed from Mr. Green in 1990, nearly 60 plants having graced my gardens over the years. Of course it is a mainstay in my garden, showing up each and every year and providing delight to Sue and I.

A magnificent specimen of Stump of the World

Stump of the World - Certainly one of the oddest names for a tomato, this is also simply one of the finest flavored varieties of my decades of tomato growing and tasting. Comparing this with Polish and Brandywine (the other two large fruited pink potato leaf varieties in this year’s garden), Stump of the World was the most oblate and the shoulders were more prominently ribbed or ridged (Polish was a bit less oblate and had less prominent ribbing, and Brandywine was the smoothest shouldered). All three are superb in flavor.

My seed start for my 2020 effort, which is saved as T20-12, was T19-4. That originated with T14-28, which I grew from T11-15. Tracing back, that came from T02-27, which came from T95-101, which was grown from T91-87 - the first year I grew the variety, from #135, which was from a Seed Savers Exchange with James Donovan in California in 1989. All told, I’ve grown - and been delighted with - Stump of the World 13 times.

The history of Stump of the World dates back to Ben Quisenberry, and the history is quite fuzzy, with associations with Brandywine and Big Ben. Though I’ve always known Stump of the World as potato leaf, a relative of Ben claims that it was originally regular leaf, and that he didn’t care for the name so changed it to Big Ben (which has also always been potato leaf for me). Ben used to correspond with Ken Ettlinger of Long Island Seed and Plant, and another piece of this puzzle is that seeds of all of these were included in the same packet, with instructions to separate them by leaf type.

We will likely never be able to untangle this bit of tomato history. By any name, the tomato I received as Stump of the World in 1989, a large fruited, oblate, pink potato leaf variety, is simply one of the best, more reliable in productivity year to year than Brandywine, a bit more oblate, shoulders more ridged, but simply wonderful to eat. It may not be a resident in every garden I grow, but will show up often enough to make our palates happy.

I love these old seed catalog images - here is the debut of Peak of Perfection!

Well, there it is - the first of a series of 2020 garden reports, starting with tomatoes. Within a week, I hope to do indeterminate tomatoes part 2, then part 3. I will probably then split the dwarf varieties in half, posting them in two parts. I hope you enjoy this first part of the walk through my 2020 tomato garden. There is something for everyone in these updates - from the aesthetic to the truly nerdy!

Being a bee - my 2020 new tomato hybrids - part 2 (a bit on tomato genetics, and my projects)

Successful cross on Dwarf Moby’s Cherry

As I look at the pad on which I’ve written the crosses I am attempting, it strikes me that I am just a bit crazy. When Patrina and I started the Dwarf Tomato Project back in 2004, she made less than 10 crosses and that set us off on years of work. If all of my 2020 crosses take (and as of today, it seems as though at least 18 of my 30 attempts appear to have resulted in a tomato, which may indicate success - but can’t be confirmed until later on….I will get to that below). However, about half of of what I am playing with this year is something new to me - crossing indeterminate heirlooms.

Part 1 of this series (of at least 2 parts) of blogs covered the parts of a tomato flower, the mechanics of doing a cross, and evidence that the cross worked, as evidenced by swelling of the ovary - the future tomato that hopefully contain the F1 hybrid seeds. (F1 means first filial generation, but don’t worry - I will keep the genetics basic and understandable).

Hopeful recent cross attempt on Perfect Harmony

I noted in part 1 that I liked to use as a female a variety that has a clear recessive gene expression. There is a useful reason for doing so. As an example, let’s discuss a cross between a regular leaf and a potato leaf variety. Regular leaf is the dominant leaf form, potato leaf is recessive. By using pollen from the regular leaf variety and applying to the emasculated flower on the potato leaf plant, it becomes possible to confirm the success of the cross much more quickly. Once the ovary swells, the tomato reaches full size and ripens, and seeds are saved and then the new hoped for hybrid seeds planted, if the seedlings are regular leaf, you can pop the champagne; you have clear evidence that the cross worked, as you ended up with regular leaf seedlings from a fruit plucked from a potato leaf plant. In the Dwarf Tomato Project, we took advantage of the recessive nature of the dwarf growth habit when compared with indeterminate growth. Pollen from indeterminate varieties was applied to flowers on dwarf varieties. Saved seed from the resulting tomato are grown, and if the seedlings are indeterminate, a successful cross was realized.

The following is a limited but useful list of traits, with dominant listed first, recessive next.

• Indeterminate growth habit is dominant to determinate and dwarf growth habits

• Regular leaf foliage is dominant to potato leaf foliage or carrot leaf foliage

• Green leaf color is dominant to variegated and yellow leaf color

• Small fruit is dominant to large fruit

• Oblate or round fruit is dominant to heart shaped or paste shaped fruit

• Yellow skin color is dominant to clear skin color

• Red flesh is dominant to other tomato colors, such as yellow, green, orange, white and bicolor

• Striped skin seems to have some partial dominance, interestingly

• Regular colored flesh is dominant to deeper colored flesh, such as in Cherokee Purple

• Regular skin color is dominant to anthocyanin skin color expression

• I’ve yet to confirm dominance when crosses are made between non-red fleshed fruit - the relative dominance of yellow, orange, green, red/yellow swirled flesh, etc. I am sure that the outcomes of the dwarf tomato project will tell me a bit about this if I go back and review the data.

• Microdwarf genetics seems to be a bit more complex; I crossed a micro with an indeterminate and the hybrid is determinate, a totally unexpected result!

The above list is by no means complete, but should provide enough information to be able to make some decisions about what crosses you may wish to make. You will note I didn’t discuss flavor. Because flavor is something you can’t “see”, it is one of the trickier traits to stabilize. It also means that breeding projects mean lots of tomato tastings. There isn’t anything to complain about with that activity!

Successful cross on Don’s Double Delight

Predicting the attributes of the hybrid

Using the trait list above, a good guess can be made as to what the hybrid will look like, as the hybrid will show all of the dominant traits exhibited by the two parents. Here’s an example - I crossed Cancelmo Family Heirloom with Dwarf Moby’s Cherry. Cancelmo is a regular leaf indeterminate with large pink hearts. Dwarf Moby’s Cherry is a regular leaf dwarf with round, large yellow saladette tomatoes. The dominant traits are indeterminate (Cancelmo), regular leaf (both parents), smaller fruit size (Moby’s Cherry), red flesh (Cancelmo), round (Moby’s Cherry), and yellow skin (Moby’s Cherry). Given that list, I would expect the hybrid - let’s call it Moby Cancelmo just for now - to be a regular leaf, indeterminate plant with medium small, round red tomatoes (pretty boring, I suppose).

What happens next - F2 and beyond

Now the fun begins. Save lots of seed from your new hybrid, because the more F2 plants that you grow out, the more interesting combinations you may find. This is where the recessive traits start to show up. This is also where the tool many of us learned in school - the Punnett Square - comes into play, but not for this discussion (it is the origin of the 3:1 ratio that starts to show itself with the growouts and various traits).

Let’s return to Moby Cancelmo. If you plant 25 seeds, you will note that roughly 75% will be indeterminate, 25% dwarf. You can grow some of the indeterminates to see what you get - there should be red, pink, pale and deep yellow colors (at least). You may get great variation in fruit size, cherry to large, and shape, round to heart. Flavors could be all over the map. The dwarf seedlings will show the same sort of variations and combinations. If you find something you like and save seeds from the fruit on just that particular plant, you are on your way to a new variety, but there are generations of work left to do. Each time you select for something you like and save seeds, you will approach more uniformity. It can often take to the 8th, 9th or 10th generation to produce a new, stable variety - an open pollinated variety - that will breed true each season from saved seeds.

Successful cross on Dwarf Speckled Heart

My crosses for 2020 - apparent successes - predicted attributes of the hybrid (there are often surprises, though!). (Some are listed as pink or red, as it depends upon the skin color of the yellow parent. If it is clear skin, hybrid will be pink; if yellow skin, red).

• Cherokee Purple X Casey’s Pure Yellow - indeterminate regular leaf large red

• Blue’s Bling X Little Lucky - indeterminate regular leaf medium red

• Blue’s Bling X Brandywine - indeterminate regular leaf large pink

• Blue’s Bling X Polish - indeterminate regular leaf large pink

• Cancelmo Family Heirloom X Don’s Double Delight - indeterminate regular leaf large red, faint stripes

• Cancelmo Family Heirloom X Green Giant - indeterminate regular leaf large pink

• Cancelmo Family Heirloom X Lucky Cross - indeterminate regular leaf large red

• Cherokee Chocolate X Stump of the World - indeterminate regular leaf large red

• Ferris Wheel X Striped Sweetheart - indeterminate regular leaf medium red, faint stripes

• Cherokee Green X Caitlin’s Lucky Stripe - indeterminate regular leaf medium small red, faint stripes

• Blue’s Bling X Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry - indeterminate regular leaf small pink

• Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry - indeterminate regular leaf small red

• Lucky Cross X Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry - indeterminate regular leaf small red

• Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Speckled Heart - indeterminate regular leaf medium red, faint stripes

• Lucky Cross X Dwarf Buddy’s Heart - indeterminate regular leaf medium red

• Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Hearty selection - indeterminate regular leaf medium large red, faint stripes

• Cancelmo Family Heirloom X Dwarf Moby’s Cherry - indeterminate regular leaf medium small red

• Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - indeterminate regular leaf large red

Crosses attempted, results pending

• Lucky Cross X Hearty selection

• Blue’s Bling X Lucky Cross

• Dwarf Sweet Sue X Dwarf Liz’s Teardrop

• Cherokee Green X Gloria’s Treat

• Don’s Double Delight X Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry

• Green Giant X Perfect Harmony

• Teensy Pink X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom

• Teensy Pink X Striped Sweetheart

• Teensy Pink X Don’s Double Delight

• Teensy Pink X Green Giant

• Blue’s Bling X Scotty yellow potato leaf selection

• Blue’s Bling X Teensy Pink

What’s next?

I am going to leave this as a two part blog at the moment. As the tomatoes resulting from my crosses ripen I will save seeds, and hopefully plant some. The first observation of leaf shape will confirm that the cross took. If time allows, I will grow the new hybrids, report on the fruit (and compare to my predictions), then save seeds. I’d love to then see if anyone wants to play along and grow out some saved seeds to start to explore the possibilities going forward. We may also find that some of the new hybrids are pretty great varieties. Lots of fun lies ahead, that’s for sure.

Successful cross (and my wayward finger) on Polish

Being a bee - my 2020 tomato hybridization adventures and some background on how this works - part 1

Between 1856 and 1863, Moravian Augustinian friar and scientist Gregor Mendel decided to “play in the garden with peas”. He looked at a set of basic, easily observable traits such as the shape and color of the pods, peas, and flowers, made some crosses, grew out and observed the results, and essentially founded the science of genetics.

In 2004, Patrina Nuske Small and I started discussing the principles of our Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, essentially carrying out the kind of experiments that Mendel did. We’ve learned so much about traits in tomatoes, and in doing so (along with over 700 volunteers the world over), put more than 120 new dwarf growing, stable varieties into various seed catalogs (especially the Victory Seed Company catalog; I am indebted greatly to my friend, Mike Dunton, for taking our project under his wing).

The project continues, albeit on a smaller scale. It is an incredibly fun sandbox to play in (especially for nerdy/geeky gardeners that love mysteries, surprises, and data collection and analysis - hand raised here!). This year I decided to expand tomato crossing efforts into areas I’ve yet to explore - crossing indeterminate heirlooms, in addition to some indeterminate X Dwarf crosses.

This will be a multi-part blog. Part 1 - this part - will be more of an overview/introduction to what we’ve been doing in our project. It will cover the basics of making a tomato cross, using some pictures - for a few videos of how this works, you can check out my recent Instagram Live programs (just follow me on Instagram - @nctomatoman - and look at my library of IG TV videos, each about 45 minutes. The latest crossing demo is in the show from July 3).

Crossing tomato varieties is not difficult, but is aided with some basic tools, favorable weather (clear day of low humidity is ideal), an idea of what you want to investigate (see the following paragraph), and a steady hand. Persistence and patience helps as well. The equipment I use is: a vibrating device such as a Vegi Bee, or electric toothbrush, a collecting tool (I like to use the shiny black plastic spoon, as it makes it easy to see the pollen); a pair of tweezers, some 3-4 inch pieces of twisty ties, a pair of scissors, and a stool or chair to sit on.

tools of the trade

Any two tomatoes can be crossed, but I find that wide crosses (each parent being quite distinct from each other), use of a parent with an easily identifiable recessive trait (which makes it easier to see if the cross worked sooner), and an idea of an objective are all useful things to ponder. I will cover basic tomato genetics in part 2, but I will describe the value of using the recessive trait as a quick identifier in this part.

A tomato flower contains both male and female parts. For a good description with diagrams and pictures, see my friend KC Tomato’s web page on this topic. Starting from the outside, the slender green “petals” are the sepals. Next comes the yellow body, containing the anther cone and the yellow petals - the pollen is on the anthers, inside the cone - this is the “male” part of the flower. The anther cone surrounds the slender style (which is connected to what will become the tomato if the pollination is successful - the ovary, at the base of the flower). The very tip of the style is the pistil, which is the tube through which the pollen will move to result in pollination. The pistil, style and ovary are the “female” parts of the flower. Most often, flower pollination happens as the flower opens, when the anthers brush against the pistil. What we are trying to do is interrupt this process by removing the anther cone before the pollen flows to the pistil.

Open tomato flower

I like to use a variety with an easily observed recessive trait as the female - either a potato leaf indeterminate, or a tomato with a recessive growth habit, such as dwarf. I choose a flower that is just opening, and not quite a full, deep yellow yet. Using tweezers, I grab the base of the anther cone and gently tug it off of the flower - sometimes just a few anthers dislodge, sometimes the entire cone pops off. The key is to not damage the style, so contact between it and the tweezers should be avoided (hence the value of a steady hand).

flower with anther cone removed, ready for application of pollen

Once the style is exposed, all that should remain on the blossom are the sepals, the tiny ovary, and the style. I use a twistie tie and twist it around the base of the particular blossom cluster that holds the newly emasculated flower. I then use scissors to carefully trim the sepals so that the style is well exposed.

I then go hunting for open flowers on the male pollen donor. Positioning the spoon beneath an open flower, I hold the tip of the vibrating device against the flower stem, hoping to dislodge the fine, pale yellow pollen into the spoon. It does not take much pollen, and often one flower’s worth suffices.

pollen collected in the spoon by vibrating the open blossom

Pollen collected, I return to the emasculated flower and gently nudge the style (very tip of the pistil) into the collected pollen. Some should adhere, but if the flower is not quite ready, it is recommended to repeat this step daily for a few days, until the style dries up and falls off. If the flower stays put and the ovary begins to enlarge, you may have a successful cross; you’ve created a hybrid between the two varieties. Sometimes it just doesn’t work and the flower dries up and falls off. No worries; just use another flower and give it another try. In Raleigh, with frequent high humidity, my success rate was 20-30%. Here in much cooler, drier Hendersonville, I am approaching 90% on my successes.

In the next part I will describe how to choose parents and what to expect, as well as provide a list of my new hybrids - each of which could become significant projects - and what I think I may see when I grow them out.

How embarrassing...no blog since early May? So sorry....here's what I've been up to and why the blog took a back seat

early July view down “tomato alley”

What can I say? I love to share my gardening exploits with you through my blog, but I also feel so drawn to my days in the garden that I can’t seem to sit still with my laptop - hence, the big blog gap. There is actually another reason - in a way, I’ve moved my updates from this blog to my Instagram feed, and, most recently, my regular weekly Friday Instagram Live “shows”. So, a big mea culpa from me to you. I will work to keep this blog current and interesting starting tonight. Goodness knows, there is certainly enough going on out there to share.

some of the dwarf tomato project plants

It is remarkable to realize all that has transpired since that early May blog. Just looking at the pictures drives home how very different things are now out in my yard vs then. The picture of the just-planted straw bales is a perfect example. The bales are now totally obscured by vigorous growth. The lettuce grew, provided countless great salads, and bolted. The raised bed still contains bush beans and beets, but also watermelon and muskmelon plants. The elevated raised bed gave us a wonderful crop of carrots and spinach, and is now planted with chard and hot peppers. The straw bale indeterminate tomatoes are 4-5 feet tall and loaded with green fruit. We are nearing the end of the green bean crop - it was spectacular - and I am about to pull the plants and replant with some different bush bean varieties. The sugar snap and pod peas were a success (but there are never enough of them) - that bed is now planted with flowers and pole beans. Seedling sales are long completed.

Bush Bean bale

The main garden tasks at the moment are regular tying, watering, feeding of tomato, pepper and eggplant plants. I am removing lower foliage showing signs of fungal diseases (septoria, early blight), and starting to find a few hornworms and stink bugs. I’ve made a lot of tomato crosses, and the vast majority seem to have taken. It is all terribly exciting and engaging and keeps me busy hours each day.

A gardening friend suggested that I use a blog to discuss a bit about crossing tomatoes, some elemental tomato genetics, and fill in some of the information that my Instagram Live sessions can only touch briefly upon. I will get to that very soon as a follow on from this blog - but I really wanted to get my feet wet again and get things rolling here once more.

To end with some news items, I’ve decided to retire from the road. All future gardening workshops (except for very local ones) will be done using Zoom or equivalent technology, upon invitation. (I’ve had wonderful webinar experiences with groups in Oregon, Missouri, Florida, Wisconsin and North Carolina - there are more to come). I am also getting ready to launch my own webinar series that you will be able to sign up to attend - watch for coming details. Finally, please do tune in to my Friday, 3 PM (Eastern time) Instagram Live shows - I am @nctomatoman there - they run for 45 minutes, and I will answer questions that you can ask live. They are fun for me to do, and I hope provide value for those that take the time to watch. You can find them on my Instagram IG TV area.

Last words from me in this blog - tomatoes are on the cusp of ripening. There are 129 plants, all different varieties, and once they start to ripen, it is going to be great fun tasting them and sharing my impressions. The best is definitely yet to come!

summer squash bales

Where did the month go? It is PAST time for a blog. Garden progress, seedling sales, various news...

One of the last garden mysteries to be revealed in our new yard is this stunning true red rhododendron, just beginning to open

Well here we are in the first week of May. I hope all of my blog readers - my gardening friends - are staying safe and well. It certainly is a uniquely unusual time for us all.

I just read my April blog and can’t believe how much has developed in the garden and with my seedlings. The weather here in Hendersonville NC has been quite delightful, a true spring with mild days and mostly cool nights, with no shortage of breezes and just enough rain. We actually have a frost threat on the way on Friday and Saturday night. I am hoping that the forecast changes to warmer overnight temps, but will do what I have to do to keep things alive. Particularly vulnerable will be the plants in straw bales, in the ground, in self watering containers, and the driveway full of seedlings. I can see some plant relocation and lots of covering up happening during the day on Friday.

A view of seedlings, planted self watering containers, raised bed, and bean, squash/cukes, and tomato straw bales, all planted and growing well

We continue to harvest and enjoy the greens that were shared with me by my friend Ralph last fall, and made the trip with us after repotting (various kale, collards, bok choy, lettuce and chard). Some of the lettuce is bolting, and it has been replaced with plants started from seed here in early spring. A double row of beets also reside in the raised bed pictured above.

Recently planted lettuce in the new raised bed

We purchased two 4-paks of spinach from the wonderful gardening shop at the WNC Farmers Market, and it is really spectacular. I seeded a rainbow color mix of carrots alongside the spinach, and they look great too. This is a real difference already noted between my Raleigh gardens (so hot, so soon) and the long cooler weather here.

Raised planter with carrots and spinach

There are 24 indeterminate tomatoes growing happily in 12 straw bales, and an additional 5 in the ground near our back deck (the cherry tomatoes, in a very convenient spot for snacking). The self watering containers are planted with sweet peppers or eggplants.

Indeterminate tomatoes happy in their straw bale, with the typical show of mushrooms

The double quartet of bales that were prepped and topped with potting mix are up and growing. One set is for bush beans, and the other for summer squash and cucumbers.

The bean garden - Marbel, Maxibell, Jade and (just planted down the center) Fowler

I am just about to plant the rest of the tomatoes - some small pot indeterminate just for seed saving and pollen, and lots of dwarf varieties - some releases, and some project selections of works in progress. I will then turn to planting chard, basil, and annual flowers started from seed. Rather than my typical gardens - either a large side yard rectangle, or the driveway area - gardening here will be more of a foodscaping principle - planting food crops and flower crops here and there, throughout our yard and gardens, for more flexibility and interest.

Sugar Snap peas starting their climb, with Wando bush snap peas in front.

Now for some news items:

Weekly Instagram Live - Friday, 3 PM EST, for 45 minutes. @nctomatoman is my user name. These are proving useful as a vehicle for me to share garden progress and to answer gardening questions. Please check them out - and I am also beginning to go live on Instagram spontaneously, as something worth sharing arises.

For the most part, my speaking engagements from this year that were cancelled due to COVID-19 are being rescheduled for next year. Watch my speaking page for revised dates.

Local seedling sales - Hendersonville/Asheville area - are underway. I’ve got a nice selection of tomatoes, and a limited selection of peppers and eggplants. Please email me to get a Word doc that has all of the details. I expect to have plants throughout May. I will probably not get into shipping plants this year.

Seedlings ready for new homes

I am also starting to be contacted for providing some workshops using video technology. Watch my newsletter, future blogs, and Instagram for updates. If you are a member of a master gardening group or garden club and are interested in me providing such a workshop, please get in touch with me.

I am just loving my new garden playground/laboratory!

Finally, I am in communication with Joe Lamp’l about appearing on a new episode of his wonderful Growing a Greener World TV show. Stay tuned for more.

I think that gets us all caught up. The above certainly represents a good month of progress! As always, thanks for reading.

Koda and Marlin…best buddies!

2020 Garden Progress Report - staying safe and sane in these unusual days

A very happy spinach plant, one of 8, in a raised planter

Today was my second in what will likely be a weekly Instagram Live Q and A session. At this point, the day and time are Fridays at 3 PM EST, and they run for about 45 minutes. Today’s involved a “show and tell” demo of my transplanting process, followed by a lightning round response to the many questions that flowed in. I love doing them and hope more and more people find them and join. Just go to Instagram and look for the live stream from me - @nctomatoman - on Fridays at 3 PM. I will also pop in live do some ad hoc live Instagrams when the mood hits or there is something particularly interesting I want to show and discuss.

The weather is becoming pretty spectacular, and our gardening activities are taking up big swaths of our days. We are flitting about doing a variety of things - weeding our flower beds, hunting dandelions in the lawn, relocating various flowers and shrubs and spending time improving the flower gardens.

My domain is the vegetable department, of course. I’ve now purchased and am in the process of preparing 20 straw bales, spread out in our back yard. 12 of the bales are in a double row and will contain indeterminate tomatoes. The rest of the bales are in two groups of four, and beans, squash and cucumbers will eventually reside in them (I will put a layer of planting mix on each group and direct seed the crops).

the bales are positioned and prepping is underway

I hope to tuck tomatoes, eggplants and peppers here and there throughout our yard, in edge flower beds, and in containers of various sizes. My Raleigh driveway garden was highly concentrated and quite limited in crop type. The garden here will range all over our yard and some crops I’ve not planted in years are in progress.

The new pea bed is doing great - the sugar snap and sweet peas (flowering types, not edible - climbing) are nearly ready to start twining up their supports. The rest of the bed is planted with the sweet shelling pea Wando, and they are up and growing as well. There is one area remaining with strings, and I will plant pole bean Fowler there tomorrow (the soil has warmed sufficiently for beans).

three types of peas are up - Sugar Snap, flowering Sweet Peas, and Wando bush pod sweet pea

The raised bed planter which contains the spinach plants (purchased at the nursery at the Asheville Farmers Market) also has a nice set of germinating rainbow mix carrots. The new raised bed contains all of the greens that we dug and took from Raleigh - a nice mixture of lettuces, bok choi, kales and collard and chard. We are already enjoying cooking with them and making salads.

Spinach and tiny just germinating carrots

A very special bush bean - Marbel - which I grew decades ago, but is now no longer listed in any seed catalog, has an interesting story. I reached out to Johnny’s Selected Seeds and the Seed Savers Exchange. Both had old samples, but were unsure if they would germinate. The great news is that the SSE sample germinated rapidly, and a few of the Johnny’s seeds are popping as well. I hope to grow as much of this bean as I can and save seeds and see if I can get a company interested in carrying it again.

As for tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, transplanting into 3.5 inch pots is underway. With the pandemic situation, it is unclear if or how I will distribute seedlings, but we shall see…I hope to be creative and find a way to sell some locally. The plants really look great - carrying out my annual processes in Hendersonville seem to be working just fine.

it’s transplanting time!