New in 2013 Tomatoes

[Tania]

Originally Posted by kath

I wanted to try the beefsteak, Sweetie, and it wasn't available through Sandhill this year. A fellow Tomatovillian shared seeds for it but early on, it seemed I had a cherry and not a beefsteak plant. It grew what I guess are Sweetie, the cherry, fruits but I can't be sure.

The smallish plant had strange leaf issues in the early part of the season but I kept picking them off and spraying and it seems to have outgrown whatever the problem was. The trusses on this thing are REALLY LONG and the lowest one had to be placed on wooden boards to keep the fruits off the ground. It's a crunchy sort of red fruit that is just about Sungold-size at 0.3-0.4 oz. but isn't as productive as some of the other reds I tried this season.

Kath,

There is a cherry Sweetie. Yours look like it!
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sweetie

[kath]

Originally Posted by Tania

Kath,

There is a cherry Sweetie. Yours look like it!
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sweetie

Yes, it does, Tania- thanks for the link. Hopefully Sandhill will have the beefsteak available next season.

kath

[carolyn137]

There are obviously two varieties that are red and one is the one Tania mentions and describes as a cherry, and the one I've been offering in my seed offer here, which I called Sweetie, but is really Wild Sweetie.

Amy Goldman praised it to the skies in her book called it like eating candy.

At the time I was helping somone who lived near her make some tomato choices and he said he'd driven over to her place and asked for seeds. She gave him some fruits and he processed them, and not very well, so what he sent me were bits and pieces and yes, some viable seeds.

Right now I can't remember whch year I offered it ( see below, I went and looked), but I grew it here at home and seeds were also produced for me by one of the good folks who do seed production for me.

It's a currant size red, but as I recall Amy went out of her way to say that it was not a true currant and she listed it in the 2012 Yearbook and said it was from Digger's in Australia and listed it in the regular red section, not the species section.

I listed it with her in the 2013 Yearbook and said my seeds were from D Buchan, the neighbor ( didn't say neighbor)) in 2010.

So that's the Sweetie I've been distributing in my seed offer and I didn't go back to see if I did call it Wild Sweetie, well, I just did go and look and I didn't list it for 2013 but did for 2012 and yes, I did call it Wild Sweetie.

All to say that last week Freda brought in to me a small truss of what looked like to me as Wild Sweetie, it could have been one of the other currant sized ones that were grown here last summer, but ASAP we had to argue about it and she said it was a new plant this year,

Well it could have been if it popped up as a volunteer in that grow bag from two years ago.

So two Sweeties, one bred by Petoseed and called just Sweetie and one called Wild Sweetie, for which Tania has little to no information, the former cherry sized and Wild Sweetie currant sized.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn, who didn't know there was also a Sweetie that was a large beefsteak offered by Glenn at Sandhill. I just looked in his 2012 catalog and found it, but it's pink, not red.

Edited to add that Steve offers Wild Sweetie seeds at his Double Helix website, I don't know if he got them from me, or not, b'c I do send him varieties to trial, from time to time.

[kath]

The Tomatovillian who shared the seeds for Besser sent me this link which shows a Besser fruit that is the same size as the ones in my garden.

http://blog.tomatenundanderes.at/ind...tabtomate.html

Which description is correct, this one or the one on Heirloom Seeds' website?

#137 - BESSER★★ 75 days - From the southern area of Germany (Freiburg region), this old favorite dates back to the 1800's, and is a must for any tomato lover!★ The plants produce 3/4 inch diameter fruit in clusters of up to 12, very sweet, cherry tomatoes. The vigorous vines need strong cages for support.★ Best tasting cherry tomato we've tried!★ Proudly introduced in the United States by Heirloom Seeds.★★ Indeterminate vines.