Feedback: NCSU varieties

[carolyn137]

Earlier this year I sent seeds for three varieties that were bred by Dr. Randy Gardner, formerly of NCSU but now retired and thanfully still involved with breeding projects. Some of you may know him as the person who bred the very popular Mountain series of varieties and he's bred many more.

He was the one who sent me the seeds, not at first for me to distrubute them, but when I asked him if I could do that he was very pleased. And I also told him that I was going to start a thread on feedback for these three varieties and I know he'll be looking at this thread to see how they did for the many folks who requested seeds from me.

Aside from taste comments, which are always welcome, I know he's particularly interested in the way they performed in areas where there were disease pressures for the many resistances bred into these varieties, so please be sure to indicate that if it pertains to you where you live and grow your tomatoes.

I know that most of you in the southern climes have ripe tomatoes now whereas many of us up here in the tundra don't, so I hope that as folks continue to taste the ripe ones and note the disease resistances that they'll continue to post in this thread.

There are two folks who have already posted in the thread where I offered the seed and they know that I expected to start this thread and I'm hoping they will transfer their comments here so that everything is in one place.

Here's the link to information about Mt Magic F1 and Plum Regal F1 and I'll summarize the that info below as well as the info about Smarty F1 which is currently available at Johnny's Selected seeds, the others are not yet available, and it looks like Smarty F1 was very popular b'c when I just checked Johnny's, they're out of seeds until 8/6/10.

http://www.bejo.cn/gba/upload/pdf/34....S.%202009.pdf

Summarizing the disease resistances:

Mt. Magic F1, a cherry tomato:

R to Verticillium Wilt, 1 and 2
R to Fusarium Wilt 1 and 2
Early Blight ( A. solani), moderate resistance
Late Blight ( P. infestans) highly resistant

Plum Regal F1, a small plum:

R to verticillium
R to Fusarium Wilt 1 and 2
R to TSWV
Early Blight, moderate R
Late Blight, highly R
High R to graywall and fruit cracking

Smarty F1, a grape tomato:

R to Vert race 1
R to Fusarium, races 1 and 2.

Most of you don't know that Dr. Gardner does post here, his user name is Randy G and I asked him if he preferred Dr. Gardner or Randy and he ASAP said Randy.

And we have a second professional hybridizer who also posts here and you know him with his user name of Frogsleap Farm and his real name is Dr. Mark McCaslin and he too, when asked, prefers to be called Mark.

And while they didn't tell me this and I didn't ask, since they are full time professional hybridizers I'd like to suggest that you not PM them for advice, etc. If they have the time and see a thread where they can help I'm sure they will.

We also have here quite a few so called amateur hybridizers but believe you me, many of them are not exactly amateurs.

And I'll end this with a personal recollection that Randy may or may not remember, but I certainly do.

In the early 90's I was seeing something on my tomatoes, often heart varieties but some others as well, that I didn't understand or recognize., Neither did the Cornell Coop Director for the five county area around Albany, NY, So she referred me to Dr. Tom Zitter at Cornell and he knew what I was talking about and said they thought it was some kind of aberrant form of Early Blight but they hadn't been able to prove that.

I ended up calling it CRUD , a word that has become part of the tomato lexicon. So, Dr. Zitter asked if I would be interested in doing some challenge experiemtns with Early blight in my tomato field. I wasn't too interested b'c I had my own EB to worry about, but we talked EB for a while and he mentioned that Dr. Gardner was also working on EB resistance as well.

So I called Randy back in the early 90's and that's how we first met. At the time he was interested in using some heirloom varieties in his breeding programs and did, but found that the fruits were too soft to be of commercial value.

he's now going back and using some heirloom varieties in his breeding programs and a few of us are growing out some of those crosses.

So thanks Randy, for all you've done in the past and are continuing to do with tomato varieties. We tomato obsessed folks appreciate all that you've done and will do in the future.

And Mark, I've known you for far less time and I am aware of some of what you do with tomatoes b/c you post some of it here, but not the other crops you work with. I'll try to follow more closely what you post here.
OK, enough already, I do confess to being wordy sometimes.

I sent out a lot of the NCSU seeds to a lot of folks so please take the time to let Randy and others here know what your experience was with them for taste, disease resistance and production. I grew all three last summer and am growing Mt. Magic F1 and Smarty F1 again this summer .

Thanks.

[carolyn137]

I'm bumping this thread back to the top with the hopes that somce of you will give some feedback on the NCSU seeds I sent out to many of you and some of you have referred to them in individual posts.

I was a good girl and got the seeds out to all of you ASAP after you e-mailed me and dented my dark bittersweet chocolate budget by paying postage to the US, Canada, Europe and Scandinavia and I think Ireland if I remember correctly.

So I'm going to keep bumping up this thread until hopefully some of you do have the time and interest in do some feedback for Randy, who graciously allowed me to share the seeds with others, as well as feedback for others here at Tville.

Thanks so very much.

[Lee]

Hi C! Sorry, I didn't get these in as all my space was taken
by the time the seeds got here. They'll be on the list for next
year though.

As an aside, I've got seed saved for the other three you had
me grow out.

Lee

[PNW_D]

Tried to transfer the post/pic I did on the other thread - couldn't make it happen - will repost just as soon as I get access to my other computer with the pics on it

[PNW_D]

Thank you Suze

Anyhoo, this is not really a fair evaluation of Randy's Smarty F1 simply because I'm trying out some new soil in my containers this year and I'm one unhappy camper, getting the watering right has also been a challenge as my new water meter seems to indicate!! Unfortunately used mix with some of those water retaining crystals which I've not used before

I've added two pictures taken a few hours ago - plants seem to be in steady decline despite my feeding watering routine

So here they are - if Randy has any thoughts I'm open to suggestions - and I should also add that as I only had a limited number of containers and more plants I wanted to try out - I planted a companion tomato along with each of the two Smarty's - Mano in one container and Grub's Mystery Green in the other - you can see the very purple PL of GMG in this pic ...

On the plus side I am more than happy with the crop on these plants and given some good soil I'm sure they would be much happier

None ripe yet but will provide taste results hopefully before September

[PNW_D]

My first harvest

Smarty F1 along with a Grub's Mystery Green -picked a wee bit early - but as they are growing in a community garden, thought better now than never

Growing Degree Days for first ripe (GDD) Aug. 14 - 1099.8 (1100 is considered Ultra Early - Stupice, etc.)

[b54red]

That's funny about the water crystals because the only successful tomatoes I grew in containers had water crystals I ordered from Water Keep. I also added some worms and very small amounts of cottonseed meal to keep them going. I also used a large amount of mushroom compost and homemade compost and no bark. I didn't have problems watering the containers because if I put too much the crystals would absorb the excess and I didn't have the splitting problems usually associated with getting too much water in the pots. I had one without the crystals and it died when I was away for 5 days and couldn't water; but the two with the water crystals did fine.
The mix I used was:
2/6 Jungle Grow Professional Potting Soil
1/6 Peat
1/6 Perlite
1/6 Mushroom Compost
1/6 Homemade Compost

I added a couple of handfuls of shredded leaves. A couple of tablespoons of Water Keep medium crystals. A little basic slag, a little cottonseed meal, a little alfalfa pellets and some live wigglers. Put the plants in and soaked them good with mild solution of Miracle Grow.

I used different amounts of the water crystals from none to about a 1/4 cup and the ones with the most crystals did the best, so I will try a few again next year but they will all have a good supply of the crystals in them. I thought they did a great job of keeping the pots uniformly moist yet not too wet. Oh yeah, I still have wigglers in the pots with the crystals but they either left or died from lack of moisture in the one without the crystals.

I no longer can get the fresh mushroom compost anymore so I will have to use bark or something else to keep the soil loose next year.

[FILMNET]

My Smarty f1 and Mountain magicF1 review, both are strong plants stems. If i leave the fruit on the plant, and they are really red they are sweet. I have both in 5 gal pots and they are growing nice. Only 4 ft high.

[carolyn137]

I'm bringing this back to the first page b'c by now the many folks who requested the NCSU seeds from me should surely have results and I know I'd like to know those results and even more so Randy, who bred them, would like to know about them as to performance, taste and tolerance to the diseases that I outlined on the first page of this thread.

I have a nice container of the Mt. Magic F1's and Smarty F1's that I grew this year that are in a plastic bag next to the recliner chair that these days I watch my TV tennis from, and when the tennis isn't on I do all my reading there.

So throughout the day I'm munching on those fruits, and good thing that b'c from my 36 plants outside I have practically nothing. A couple of Ste. Colombes, two Josephines, one Hays', one Mala Bishka, two Bobbies, one BER Carrie Claxon Yellow, well you get the picture. Triple Sigh.

Also some Sungold F1's and Black Cherries go into that container as well.

But I'm really pleased that I have ONE huge heart off a new variety called Kukla's Portuguese Heart, indet and PL and am still hoping for the other two Kulka's, one a beef and one a paste. Craig was supposed to be doing the seed production for these three Portuguese ones but his plants got wiped out with Septoria.

Ok folks, how about some feedback on these NCSU ones. I don't want to think that I spent all that time packing up the seeds to send to you guys, at my expense for postage, which, thankfully, didn't decrease my bitterwseet dark chocolate budget, and then you didn't grow them.

[Tom C zone 4/5]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Earlier this year I sent seeds for three varieties that were bred by Dr. Randy Gardner.

><8 snip 8><

[quote-carolyn137;179493]
And Mark, I've known you for far less time and I am aware of some of what you do with tomatoes b/c you post some of it here, but not the other crops you work with. I'll try to follow more closely what you post here.
OK, enough already, I do confess to being wordy sometimes.

I sent out a lot of the NCSU seeds to a lot of folks so please take the time to let Randy and others here know what your experience was with them for taste, disease resistance and production. I grew all three last summer and am growing Mt. Magic F1 and Smarty F1 again this summer .

Thanks.[/quote]

Is it possible to post websites where other crops (ah um the equivalent of Cornville) might exist? A-n-d where breeders like this post?

I don't have nearly so many questions as I like the read. Mostly smarter folks than me come up with the germain questions quicker'n I think of them.

Thank you all

[carolyn137]

Is it possible to post websites where other crops (ah um the equivalent of Cornville) might exist? A-n-d where breeders like this post?

*****

Well, there is a Forum here for other vegetables and fruits, and folks do post there about other crops. And I know there are websites devoted to pumpkins but I don't know any broccolivilles or cornvilles or the like.

Perhaps others can help you with that if Googling on your own doesn't turn up any websites devoted to a particular crop that you're interested in.

And as to where breeders post, and I assume you're now talking about Mark and Randy and their tomato activities, but don't forget that there are lots of other folks who breed tomatoes and they post primarily in the Crosstalk Forum here.

And Tom Wagner posts here about both his potato breeding, in the Potato Forum and elsewhere here about his tomato activities.

I don't know of any websites where professional breeders who do it for a living post other than specialized ones not open to the public.

But you might check out the following link where Randy sometimes posts, and I think Mark as well and I'm a member there but don't get there very often, and there are others at this site who are also amateur breeders of tomatoes, and some not so very amateur at all:

http://thetomatogarden.★★★★★★★★★.com/index.cgi?

But please, I humbly ask, this thread is for feedback of the NCSU varieties I distributed, so I would appreciate it if we could keep possible answers to Tom's question to a minimum.

Thanks.

[Fusion_power]

Carolyn, I got seed straight from Randy for both Mountain Magic and Plum Regal. I don't have pics but do have some good info about production and flavor.

Mountain Magic was a relatively small tomato that was slow to ripen. Flavor was moderate, I would say they have to be left on the vine longer than normal. Production was moderate but there were conditions that probably reduced the crop as detailed below. They were uniformly susceptible to septoria and I was not seriously hit by either early or late blight. If they had septoria tolerance, these would be very desirable tomatoes. As it is, I expect they would perform much better in a dryer and cooler climate.

Plum Regal was a bit more productive than Mountain Magic. Flavor was poor IMO. I got enough fruit to screen a juice sample. It was a bit less sweet than I would like but was acceptable for making sauce and paste. As with Mtn Magic, they are susceptible to septoria.

I planted both of these late in the season so not so surprising that I found out they don't have too much heat tolerance. Also, they definitely need some form of irrigation.

I have Randy's G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, and three other numbered selections in the greenhouse along with Burgundy Traveler and German Red Strawberry as controls. They should have mature fruit in about 2 months. Hopefully I will be able to keep them warm long enough to sample lots of fruit.

Randy is going to try for a cross between a disease tolerant line and Heidi to combine heat tolerance, determinate habit, and oval paste type fruit with disease tolerance. I'm on the waiting list for seed!

DarJones

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Carolyn, I got seed straight from Randy for both Mountain Magic and Plum Regal. I don't have pics but do have some good info about production and flavor.

Mountain Magic was a relatively small tomato that was slow to ripen. Flavor was moderate, I would say they have to be left on the vine longer than normal. Production was moderate but there were conditions that probably reduced the crop as detailed below. They were uniformly susceptible to septoria and I was not seriously hit by either early or late blight. If they had septoria tolerance, these would be very desirable tomatoes. As it is, I expect they would perform much better in a dryer and cooler climate.

Plum Regal was a bit more productive than Mountain Magic. Flavor was poor IMO. I got enough fruit to screen a juice sample. It was a bit less sweet than I would like but was acceptable for making sauce and paste. As with Mtn Magic, they are susceptible to septoria.

I planted both of these late in the season so not so surprising that I found out they don't have too much heat tolerance. Also, they definitely need some form of irrigation.

I have Randy's G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, and three other numbered selections in the greenhouse along with Burgundy Traveler and German Red Strawberry as controls. They should have mature fruit in about 2 months. Hopefully I will be able to keep them warm long enough to sample lots of fruit.

Randy is going to try for a cross between a disease tolerant line and Heidi to combine heat tolerance, determinate habit, and oval paste type fruit with disease tolerance. I'm on the waiting list for seed!

DarJones

Darrel, yes I know that you got your seeds directly from Randy, as did several others. I'm just glad I had enough seeds to share with others.

As to disease, the three different ones have different disease tolerances bred in and I was hoping that folks would speak to the relative tolerances for Late Blight, Early Blight and TSWD, especially for those in the SE and along the Gulf Coast who have had problems with it as well as the other tolerances.

Last year I grew all three and all had very high production, and flavor-wise I liked Mt Magic and Smarty best and Plum Regal the least, which is why this year I have just the first two and in a very difficult year here they are producing well, not as well as last year, but the extreme blossom drop snf high sustained heat and humidity that we had this past summer, which is unusal here, affected everthing.

Mt Magic for me is not a small fruit, rather, it's more pink pong ball sized and Smarty is typical grape tomato sized.

Both years my plants had no Early Blight when others I was growing did and both years there was no Septoria Leaf Spot on anything so I couldn't assess that.

And there are several folks now involved with working with Septoria and fingers crossed that in the future some relevant genes might be IDed.

I don't know what the G ones are but I'm also growing four of his new hybrids and have just one fruit off two of them not yet totally ripe to be tasted. As I said bad bad conditions here and I have no fruits off 3/4 of the varieties I'm growing.

As is oft said, there's always next year, but I've been saying that now for the past three seasons.

[FILMNET]

I grew both in pots after August heat i put them together, they have been very happy now, with a ton of new fruit today Sept 13th very late. Magic Mountain F1, and Smarty F1,both are turning out very sweet after all, they must love this weather now 60-70. i would love them for next year? i hope so, no diseases yet here on any plants?


Smarty F1

Magic Mountain F1

[sfmathews]

Carolyn, I did not get mine in this year, as I received them in late spring.
I will grow out next year and post my findings in the Dallas area.
Thanks,
Susan