Feedback: NCSU varieties

[carolyn137]

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?

*****

Filmnet, I don't have enough seeds left of all three to be able to make a free seed offer for 2011, but Smarty F1 is sold by Johnny's Selected Seeds.

I don't know the status of Mt Magic F1 or Plum Regal F1 in terms of when or where they will be available to the public. But I was going to e-mail the Bejo Rep at their Geneva, NY site ( Bejo is headquartered in the Netherlands) and see what I could find out. She contacted me first when I started talking about the NCSU varieties at GW last year so I have her direct addy.

I tried to indicate where I thought those two hybrids might be offered but she's not the one making decisions. I had suggested TGS and Johnny's and a couple of more places but I know that Bejo also interacts with Seedway, which is a site primarily for commercial growers as I recall, actually I can't even remember if one can buy pack amounts of seeds and I didn't check, so fingers crossed the sites will include those places where I know most folks get their hybrids from.

[Fusion_power]

Carolyn, If Seedway has them available for 2011, I'll make a bulk purchase and ensure they are available. You might contact Linda at TGS to see if she can keep an eye out.

DarJones

[travis]

I have plenty of Plum Regal F1 seeds. More than enough for anyone interested. I'd be happy to send them to Carolyn and let her distribute them for 2011.

Plum Regal is decent plum saladette (roma type) with a high crimson gel, more flavor and less mealy than the typical roma. Yes it had problems with Septoria but made a decent concentrated first crop. The second attempt at a crop was not so good. I'd rank it same as or a bit above Plum Crimson.

I thought Mountain Magic had a sweet and not real deep but decent flavor. Skins get a little thick in heavy heat, but the plant continues to set even on 95 - 98 degree days if the evenings aren't too humid. The indeterminate vine was one of the most healthy in the garden and while it got a little Septoria, that did not stop the growth or the affect the fruit quality one bit. It was fairly productive for a ping pong but not as productive as a normal cherry. I don't have hardly any seeds left for Mountain Magic.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Carolyn, If Seedway has them available for 2011, I'll make a bulk purchase and ensure they are available. You might contact Linda at TGS to see if she can keep an eye out.

DarJones

Darrel, let me contact Elaine at Bejo seeds first and then post back here what I find out.

I already did contact Linda who does have a Bejo rep but I don't know where that's at.

Better , I think, to see where Bejo has decided to send seeds to first and that should be known by now since websites and catalogs for 2011 are in the works soon. And that's assuming, once again, that seed production in the Netherlands went well this season.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

I have plenty of Plum Regal F1 seeds. More than enough for anyone interested. I'd be happy to send them to Carolyn and let her distribute them for 2011.

Plum Regal is decent plum saladette (roma type) with a high crimson gel, more flavor and less mealy than the typical roma. Yes it had problems with Septoria but made a decent concentrated first crop. The second attempt at a crop was not so good. I'd rank it same as or a bit above Plum Crimson.

I thought Mountain Magic had a sweet and not real deep but decent flavor. Skins get a little thick in heavy heat, but the plant continues to set even on 95 - 98 degree days if the evenings aren't too humid. The indeterminate vine was one of the most healthy in the garden and while it got a little Septoria, that did not stop the growth or the affect the fruit quality one bit. It was fairly productive for a ping pong but not as productive as a normal cherry. I don't have hardly any seeds left for Mountain Magic.

Travis, I could add Plum Regal F1 to my general offer if you do have enough seeds. I know I'm almost out of one of them and have few left of the other two, but will check all of that out when I decide what I can and can't offer for my seed offer here.

it's very discouraging here at my place with few fruits from maybe 1/3 of the plants and none from the others and this AM when Freda was here she went out and brought back a few and helped me set up some fermentations but there were four fruits that the wind had knocked off that I had to label with a big question mark.

And I haven't checked lately with some other folks who are helping out with seed production. But I know already that there will be no seed at all for my three new Portuguese ones and here at home I have just one fruit of the heart one, actually a delicious red PL heart, and little of my two new ones from Macedonia, unfortunately.

What are doing well are my plants of Smarty F1 and Mt Magic F1 and I keep an open plastic bag of them next to the recliner chair where I spend most of my time and just snack on them from time to time. I've found that they really have to be very ripe to get a better, sweeter flavor so just picking red ones doesn't mean they're fully ripe as to taste; I let them go a few days after that.

[FILMNET]

Me too, I leave them for days , even if they are red.I have giving some around here to neighbors, everyone likes them .

[kath]

I had good germination for all 3 varieties and planted 2 of each in the garden on 5/25. I used Actinovate on the roots at planting and they were sprayed alternately with Actinovate and Excel every 7-10 days along with everything else until I quit that in the 2nd week in Aug. The soil was amended before planting and I fertilized at fruit set with compost/molasses tea and sprayed with seaweed. Since then, they've been on their own.

Smarty had ripe fruit 7/10. The taste was just ok for me, a Sungold fan, but in a late blight year, I'm sure I would be glad to have them. Many friends/neighbors like the crunchiness of grape tomatoes and were happy to eat them all summer. We had extreme heat this year, but this variety set quite steadily. Production was less than that of Sungold, and if I really loved these, I'd have to grow quite a few plants, I think. I only watered a couple of times early in the season to get them established, and despite the blistering heat and minimal rain we had this year, they showed no adverse affects. Fruit output began to slow in Sept. with cooler temps, but there is still quite a bit on the vines, which are now over 8' tall. I continue to pick every other day and feel the fruit tastes better if left on the vine to ripen completely. There was no splitting of fruit, which averaged 0.4-0.6 oz. and only the smallest bit of Early Blight was seen on a very few leaves. It is the healthiest looking variety and has the most foliage of the 50 or so varieties still standing.

Mountain Magic didn't ripen until the end of July. It's 0.8-1.2 oz. fruit was disappointing for me tastewise as I was hoping for something better than the Camparis that get me through the long, cold winter. Again, if blight wiped out the rest of my garden as it did last year, I'd be happy to have them, but they wound up being given away with the Smarties. These plants are also 8'+ and completely healthy and full, with only a few leaves with the beginnings of Early Blight picked off so far. Like Smarty, the heat didn't interfere with blossom set too much and there was a steady supply all summer with about the same volume of fruit (had too many plants to weigh total amounts of fruit/plant). Production hasn't slowed yet, as the vines are still loaded with fruits, still flowering and setting. Cooler temps recently have slowed ripening of these a bit. If they continue to hold on and the frosts are late this year, I may be eating these myself soon, as the heirlooms are nearly finished.

Plum Regal grew to about 4' and produced ripe fruit at the very beginning of Aug. I don't usually grow plum types as I don't cook tomatoes, but my MIL does, and she loved them for their size (2.5-5.5oz.) and is very interested in the possibility of me growing more plants of this type for her garden next year. She feels the taste is about the same as the ones she usually grows, which are various hybrid roma types from the big box stores. She shared some with a neighbor who is a farmer and they are interested in it as well, so I'll keep up with the posts about sources for seed next year. This was a very bad year for army and tomato hornworms here and they absolutely loved this one. They were caged, and therefore it was harder to spray bt effectively and at one point I was losing about 30% of the fruits to them. They ripened a lot at once in early Aug. and then slowed to a few a week per plant. There are about 3 dozen fruits still on each plant, but they are slower to ripen with cooler nights (most in the 50's) and some are still quite small. By late Aug., Early Blight was a problem in the lower and interior parts of the plants and many branches have had to be removed. Since it has gotten cooler, foggier, rainier in the last couple weeks, Septoria is beginning to affect some leaves. It doesn't look any healthier than the open pollinated varieties that are out there. There was no problem with BER or fruit cracking.

The season is nearly finished here, but if there are still notable developments with any of the plants, I'll post them. I apologize for the lack of photos, but that's beyond my skill level as yet.

Thank you, Carolyn, for the opportunity to trial these varieties. I am happy that I wasn't able to evaluate their late blight resistance this year but it was reassuring to have them in the garden after the total devastation of last summer. For that reason, I will consider continuing to plant Mountain Magic, and perhaps Smarty in my own garden and growing Plum Regal for my MIL. This was an exceptionally good year for tomatoes here, as Early Blight, Septoria and verticillium are often quite bad here and last year all my plants were dead by Aug. 1 from Late Blight. That I am still harvesting nice looking/tasting tomatoes from so many plants is amazing.

Thank you, Randy, for your work in developing these varieties. It's encouraging to hear that heirlooms are being used in your breeding program again even though the results may be "too soft" to be of use commercially. Taste and texture are so important to those of us who grow our own and there are more and more folks beginning to see the importance of doing just that each year.

[frogsleap farm]

I thought Mtn Magic was very good. In my garden it is was a compact plant, mid-season maturity, medium sized scarlet red cherry, moderate production and above average taste. The fruit were very crack resistant and held quality significantly longer average.

Plum Regal was also compact and mid-season, but that's where the similarity ended. High yields of large, thick walled plum shaped fruits. Taste was just OK. It was crack resistant with great color.

I've saved seeds from Mtn Magic to plant out next year. There should be some interesting F2 progeny.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by frogsleap farm

I thought Mtn Magic was very good. In my garden it is was a compact plant, mid-season maturity, medium sized scarlet red cherry, moderate production and above average taste. The fruit were very crack resistant and held quality significantly longer average.

Plum Regal was also compact and mid-season, but that's where the similarity ended. High yields of large, thick walled plum shaped fruits. Taste was just OK. It was crack resistant with great color.

I've saved seeds from Mtn Magic to plant out next year. There should be some interesting F2 progeny.

Mark, my assessment is the same as yours. Kudos to Mt Magic and Smarty F1 but Plum Regal was not to my liking.

I keep a plastic bag of the Smartys and MM's next to my recliner chair for snacking and I do like the taste of both of them very much, especially after they've sat around a bit. And both hold up very well after being picked.

[sfmathews]

Carolyn, all three of my plants were doing great. Unfortunately, Mountaint Magic succumbed to fuarium. Smart F1 and Plum Regal are still holding on. Unfortunately, it's been over 100 degrees here for the past week, so there's no new fruit set. But otherwise, so far so good!
Susan

[lang77]

I also recieved my seed too late to start last year. However the seed that I started this year has given me outstanding vigorous healthy plants. The germination rate was excellent with all seed sprouting, however not at the same time. Some were slower to germinate. So far they seem to be doing very well with South Dakota's cooler than normal early summer temps, combined with lots of rainfall it was a slow start. Currently we are experiencing high temps and high humidity. I will try to post pics with progress reports as the season progresses. Thank you so much for making this seed available.