Kozulas
 

Some folks may know, but I am trying to collect and try out as many of the tomatoes that female Polish Breeder Anna Kozula created.

Thank you to people who sent seeds to MMMM. Gary did a great job as usual. I am always on the lookout for more :)

Information about the crosses, pictures and the seeds are somewhat difficult to find. Just thought others may want to see what the 5 varieties I grew this year looked like. All were true to the descriptions I located.

If anyone has any information about this breeder or sources they have used to obtain her work I would definitely be interested. These were sure fun to grow, compare and contrast.
Heide

Heide, very interested to know you are growing these out now. I have a lot of admiration for the lady that created them. She seemed to be ahead of her time. There was a lot of interest in her work about ?10 years ago and more of her seeds being traded. I was never sure if all of them were supposed to be stable. I have Kozula 127, 128 and 136, but have never grown them out, and the seeds are 7 years old. Thanks for posting the pictures, I should put the Kozulas on my grow list for next year. How was the flavor on 136?

Kozula was her screen name on European garden forums rather like this one.
Her real name is Anna Jankowski and she was a market gardener and beeeder in Poland.
Many of her tomatoes were released unstable and quickly snapped up by other amateur breeders some more honest than others.
I think she did a lot of interesting crosses and I also think a number of tomatoes have been released under other names by amateur breeders that originated from these without any credit to their origins.
I guess she probably knew that would happen when she sent them out unstable though.
I am interested in her work and wish I had space to grow some. I do have some seeds of some in my collection I may grow someday.
Heide, if there are specific ones you are looking for I may have some or may know where you can find them
KarenO

@KarenO Thank you so much for your info and clarifications. I admire how many crosses she did and just want to explore them, so there is not any specific one I am looking for. I hope she did anticipate some may use her unstable crosses....
Through my grow outs I hope to bring more visibility to her work, save seeds and spread them around a bit. I guess I was lucky all five of the ones I grew this year were true to the descriptions!

Heide, your Kozulas are beautiful. :)

When Kozula made her crosses she was a member and a moderator of one of the Polish gardening forums. In November 2009 she had sent all her seeds to one of the forum members, to send the seeds to people who wanted to grow her tomatoes and select them. From this moment seeds were exchanged during forum swaps and nobody organized or coordinated the process of selection. Until now, those seeds are circulating between gardening forums members, some of them are sold by Polish and foreign online shops. After years some of those varieties disapeared, some of them do not have one "propper" version. There may be problems with accidental crossings too. But I love Kozulas, this year I had K/10, K/113 and no-K/141 (pink beefsteak, instead of red-yellow zebra).

Two years ago some of my forum members looked for seeds with low F numbers and started selection from the beginning.
Here is a link to Kozula's post containg first list of her crosses and her information about parent varieties. Numbers 1-11 she gave tomato varieties, they are not her crosses. Kozula's crosses start from number 12.

[url]https://forumogrodnicze.info/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=30312&start=0[/url]

Full list of Kozula's crosses :
[url]http://forumogrodniczeoaza.pl/index.php/forum/5-warzywnik/126745-pomidory-krzyzowki-ani-kozuli[/url]

I have several of her varieties I got back then from seeds I got from Dean. 9 of them are listed here on my web site. [url]http://knapps-fresh-vegies.com/A.html[/url]

Here is my save as a pdf of the thread on a now defunct forum about the various varieties back then. I would be open to trades as I was also very interested in these special varieties.

Carol

Like I said.
KarenO

@Dorota-Thanks so much for the information and the link to the forum. i did not know of its existence. i have lots of happy reading to do through Google translate and I will surely find out much info!

@wi-sunflower thanks for sharing. I will DM you. Do you know if GunnarSK is still active?

My Kozulas from last year, K13 and K15 in low F2 version - both varieties will be with me this season as well as their F3 versions.
In addition to them, this season I will have K12 F2 and K14 F2 megagron. Both varieties are cherry. The latter is a cherry of the multiflora type - an abundance of fruit in a cluster.

Below are photos from the early cultivation - I don't have any later photos.

K13_F2 - nice cherry variety, small fruit, tasty and crunchy, oblong cluster in the upper parts separating into 2 or 3
[ATTACH]94222[/ATTACH]

K15_F2 - cherry variety with larger fruits than K13, the rest as K13
[ATTACH]94223[/ATTACH]

I'm trying Kozula 179 (Zebra Zolta) this year.

Hi all-glad to see others Kozula grow plans! Here are pics from my last season's haul.
Heide

Which was the best you’ve grown so far Heidi?
KarenO

I didn't realize the post was 2 years old. Your photos are beautiful.

Did you grow out those original ones again last season or just the ones in the more recent picture?

Beautiful fruit Heidi. I will be growing #25 this year, that I got in MMMM. I also am interested in your opinion of flavor. I love bold and balanced for flavor, Brandywine Cowlicks type flavor. Sungold best tomato ever, but never seen a large tomato have that bold of a taste. Growing a lot of hearts this year, for possible paste, and the wife loves mild and sweet. Growing several of Karen O's also this year. Midnight sun one. Taiga. Wish the warm weather would arrive sooner!!!

@KarenO- I think my favorites so far are Kozula 136 (unreal production with lovely bi colored fruit),Kozula 25 and last year's 186. How could I choose just one? :)

@Barb_FL thanks about my pics. The first set of pics was from 2021, and the second set was last year. I am trying to fit in 4-5 each season.

@Andrey_BY I grew K179 last year but didn't get great results, most probably because it had a terrible garden position. I didn't feel fruit was representative so I didn't photograph it. I hope you will post your results with a pic. I don't know how much you know about this one but after lots of Kozula research, here are my notes from as many sources as I could find-if they could help you.

KOZULA 179-Zebra Zolta -(yellow zebra ) Mid Ind RL tall 7-11 oz Large striped yellow-orange fruits more often green, weigh about 300-500 gr. Beefsteak type, round fruits with slightly flattened and ribbed and rounded shoulders. Flesh greenish-yellow with greenish gel. Mild flavor with a touch of acidity. full flavored fleshy fruity aftertaste, a bush with quite little foliage, RL leaves, had little fruit, but large ones - each around 500 grams and more. The fruit is quite hard, fleshy, strongly yellow in color and green jelly.


@kenny_j-glad to hear you are growing K25. Seeds were most likely from me. It was a good tomato. Brightly flavored, but not at all like Sungold which I think just is not duplicatable. I had really good production with this one too, and loved the colors at the cut.