Quote:
Originally Posted by tam91
Interesting. Well whatever they are (Zima), they really are pretty tasty.
I must be practically the only person who doesn't like Campari tomatoes. I did really like the Kumato though.
I wonder what varieties these are then?
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Doing the process of elimination is not that hard
There are only a select few breeders of tomato seeds for the greenhouse/hydroponic market. They are: Syngenta (Have Golden Sweet F1, Golden Sunshine F1), Enza Zaden (Have yellow but not orange tomatoes), De Ruiter Seeds (Have a couple of orange beefsteaks), Rijk Zwaan, Tokita Seeds, Sakata (Have Solid Gold F1), Vilmorin, and Hazera Genetics (Have Loranna).
A few phone calls to the various reps gave me a few some tantalizing hints - none of the afformentioned seed companies sell directly to the grower, even large growers like Mastronardi can't buy from Syngenta, Enza Zaden, or Hazera except for the Kumato Controlled growing program - but they were all extremely willing to give me the names of the seed companies that represent them. Being a commercial grower I already knew a lot of the seed companies. Finally, I had it narrowed down to three tomato varieties: Golden Sweet F1 by Syngenta, Loranne by Hazera Genetics, and Solid Gold F1 by Sakata, and I called a seed company in Florida that had been provided me by the rep from Hazera Genetics - I asked him a bit about it, and who has it, he told me that he has one particular large customer that buys it from Canada, but he could not disclose who it is. I asked him if it is exclusive to them, and the answer was a characteristic no.
Pricing was $209.50 for a minimum of 250 seeds. Also, I was explained that varieties bred for greenhouse use lack nematode resistance (The N in VFNT - verticillium fusarium nematode tolerant acronym), and in many cases the flowers abort with low night time temperatures translating into low yields - significant flower abortion is seen at temperatures below 60 degrees farenheit with Loranne which is particulary sensitive.
I grew 250 plants of Golden Sweet F1 last year, and I found it to be every bit as good as "Zima" and very difficult to distinguish between the two. Solid Gold was a bit more yellow than orange.