tomato growers supply 2009 catalog

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Tom, I can check my e-mails as well, when I have time, and I'm pretty darn sure that I told you that I would send seeds of Prue to Sandhill as well as TGS, and if I said it, I did it.

After the Holiday I can ask Linda what happened to them, whether they were trialed and if trialed what was the result, as in yes or no as to going ahead and having seed produced by subcontract.

That's the best I can do.

I know you sent several em's to Glenn telling him that Prue was not a paste tomato, and I agree, so you know that Glenn did list Prue from seeds I sent.

i believe that you sent prue to tgs, i have no doubt about it. we know you sent prue to sandhill and yes you and i agree that glenn is wrong listing prue as a paste but that's ok by me as he is not going to change it. i prefer to not list prue as a paste because i would not grow a paste for eating so maybe some folks would dismiss prue as it is a 'paste'. no need to address this again with glenn as we both have expressed our opinions to sandhill. i am happy they list prue.

i appreciate your asking linda about prue's status. if she choses to not list it well then that is that and you tried for which i'm greatful.

tom

[dice]

Some vendors might consider Prue problematic to sell
seeds of to inexperienced customers, because of its
exceptionally wimpy appearance, even when the plant
is completely healthy. Experienced heirloom growers
would know to overlook that with Prue, but it may convey
a bad image of the vendor's products to customers who
are not widely read in the tomato forums (at least until
they taste it, but the problem is convincing them not to
pull it out before any fruit ripen in a 25-word blurb that
has to also convey all of the usual information).

Bulk seed sales to nurseries that sell seedlings might be
especially difficult with Prue.

[tjg911]

yes dice that is true. we may have mentioned that point in the past.

i know when i gave seeds to a local greenhouse i explained to him all that. prue did not sell well for him nor did any of the other heirloom seeds i gave him.

people want early and big. people want names they know and what they bought last year. they don't know and don't care about the things we value. most of them probably have gardens where the weeds are as high as the tomatoes by july and the tomato plants are dead by labor day.

i never saw any variety as sparse and sad looking as prue, initially anyway, by mid season they have more branches but they definately look like a charley brown christmas tree.

tom

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by tjg911

1. I am surprised so many people like Black Cherry. I bought seeds from TGS and gave plants to several people in work that season. No one liked it except 1 guy. I think it is terrible, on par with Yellow Pear tho BC does have more than the card board bland taste of YP! At least Yellow Pear has a unique shaped and is pretty yellow, Black Cherry doesn't have anything going for it. If these were the only 2 tomatoes on planet earth I would not eat tomatoes! YYMV

I guess I could search but I'm being lazy. Do you like dark/purple tomatoes in general?

[tjg911]

yes feldon i do like some purple/black tomatoes.

cherokee purple is one of my top favorites.

i grew paul robeson in a 5 gallon pails a few years ago when i grew 12 plants in 5 gallon pails and it was ok, but prue and otv brandywine were not too good and they are top favorites. wes was so so that year, 1st year i grew it and it too is a top favorite. so i concluded that tomatoes should be grown in my garden not a 5 gallon pail. jeesh all that to justify that paul robeson was so so!

i grew black from tula but it was a slug magnet and i was not all that impressed.

pruden's purple was ok.

i'd like to try black krim and may grow carbon this year.

also remember that all the other people i gave plants to that year did not like it either except for 1 guy.

like i said, ymmv.

tom

[amideutch]

I agree with tjg911 concerning BC. After hearing all the hype concerning this variety I was disappointed when it came time for the taste test. Now the Indian Stripe x Sungold was a different story. And my Spudakee Purple (Cherokee Purple PL) was just awesome. Ami

[Ruth_10]

Tom, for how many seasons have you grown BC? If you've grown it just once, try again. Sample it throughout the season.

[tjg911]

just once ruth and i know that 1 season is not a fair test. however, none of the others i gave plants to liked it but for 1 guy. so based upon that i felt it was just not a good tasting tomato.... to me. a lot of people like bc, i don't. i got the seeds from tgs so it can't be a mistake besides there aren't many black cherry tomatoes in fact bc may be the only one.

tom

[dice]

There are a few other dark fruited cherry tomatoes (brown
berry, etc). I never heard anyone claim that any of them
were better flavored than black cherry, though.

[travis]

Brown Berry makes larger fruit than Black Cherry, not quite twice the size, but has a peculiar flavor and not as sweet. If you don't like Black Cherry, I wouldn't recommend Brown Berry. There's another dark cherry called Chocolate Cherry, but I haven't grown it yet.

[Wi-sunflower]

I've grown all 3 of those listed in post 25 and in my opinion, Black Cherry is the best flavored and Brown Berry is the worst. Chocolate Cherry is better than Brown Berry but not as sweet as BC. But that's just MY opinion. Personally I like Black Plum too.

I did find that Black Cherry didn't color up very well last summer. We had a rather mediocre summer here. Not a "green tomato summer" but definately not HOT. As last year was the first year I had grown BC, the only reason I knew it wasn't colored as it should be is because I had a couple of plants potted in an open ended greenhouse and they had a much better color because it was at least 10 degrees warmer in there.

If anyone wants to try any of those 4 give me a PM as I have plenty of seeds for all of them.

[stratcat1]

Tho' Black Cherry is at the top of our list, N-e-g-r-o Azteca tasted just as good this year. A very tasty purple cherry tomato that looks like BC.

Didn't care that much for Brown Berry. Too mild and not as sweet.

[carolyn137]

carolyn,

i looked at the sandhill 2008 catalog (specifically and carefully as they list prue now) but no wes. it has been years since you sent prue seeds to linda, any reason why tgs doesn't list prue? it'd be great if tgs listed both prue and wes and stop wasting space on black cherry.

****

I''ll ignore your comment about Black Cherry, ahem, but will tell you that I had a long phone chat with Linda at TGS this morning.

I brought up Prue and she recognized the name immediately. She said that Vince had grown it for trial, and that was at least two years ago, maybe three now, since I think he passed away about two years ago, and she said that he got it planted too late and it really didn't perform well at all.

So I told her I'd send more seeds along with Wes and the several other varieties I'm sending her for trial. She sows seed about now, so I have to take a break in filling seed packs for my seed offer and get to it ASAP.