tomato growers supply 2009 catalog

tjg911 · December 19, 2008

why doesn't tgs have wes in the catalog? i saw it somewhere and i checked my 2008 tgs catalog where i thought i saw it and they did not list it in 2008 either. maybe it was in the jss catalog.

wes and prue are the 2 best tomatoes i've ever tasted and it just amazes me that black cherry, imo almost as bad as yellow pear and that's pretty gosh darnoodleyed bad, is listed but the 2 best don't get a mention.

what's up with that?

tom

DuckCreekFarms · December 19, 2008

Tom
If you do find a source for Wes, please list it here. I have been looking for it too. Seems like I did see it somewhere, but can't find it now.

Thanks
Gary

tjg911 · December 20, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckCreekFarms

Tom
If you do find a source for Wes, please list it here. I have been looking for it too. Seems like I did see it somewhere, but can't find it now.

Thanks
Gary

i checked all my catalogs but i can't find wes. i swear i saw it in a catalog because it is one of my favorites and i was pleased to see it in a catalog but maybe not. gary, if you want some seeds send me a pm.

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.

tom

**carolyn137** · December 20, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjg911

why doesn't tgs have wes in the catalog? i saw it somewhere and i checked my 2008 tgs catalog where i thought i saw it and they did not list it in 2008 either. maybe it was in the jss catalog.

wes and prue are the 2 best tomatoes i've ever tasted and it just amazes me that black cherry, imo almost as bad as yellow pear and that's pretty gosh darnoodleyed bad, is listed but the 2 best don't get a mention.

what's up with that?

tom

Tom, I thought I'd sent Wes seeds to Linda when I sent the Chapman seeds, but maybe not.

Same with Glenn at Sandhill.

After I get through with my seed offer here I'll be sending lots of seeds to Linda, Glenn and probably Mike at Victory Seeds and I'll be sure to include Wes.

I'm not so sure that Prue and Wes would be my absolute top varieties, but they sure would be near the top.

No, I don't want to spend the time thinking WHAT my top varieties would be to post here, thank you.

clara · December 20, 2008

Hi Tom,

here's a source for Wes:

http://www.skyfiregardenseeds.com/va...s/tom_wes.html - 2k,

but I must say I don't know anything about this source (and I am very glad, that you've already given me some seeds of Wes and Prue).

Merry Chrismas! clara

**carolyn137** · December 20, 2008

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.

****

Tom, I don't remember when I sent seeds of Prue to TGS but it wasn't years ago, and to be honest I'm assuming I did, but I don't keep lists.

I have no idea where any of the varieties might be that I've sent to Linda recently.

She's moved since Vince died and has much less room where she is and so has to grow using containers, which cuts down on how many varieties she can look at each year.

And please remember that she has to subcontract out most of the OP heirlooms so it takes a minimum of 2-3 years before she can list a variety. Glenn at Sandhill and Mike at Victory seeds and Marianne at mariseeds, for instance, can turn around a variety in one season and list it/

As an example, the seeds I sent her for Virginia Sweets I sent her at least three years ago and is only now being listed in the 2009 catalog/website.

She's so darn busy right now I wouldn't dream of contacting her about this, but as I said, I will be sending quite a few new varieties to her in January.

I'm so sorry you don't like Black Cherry but I sure do and there are quite a few other varieties listed that I'd delete before ever deleting Black Cherry.

**carolyn137** · December 20, 2008

I just remembered that I'm listing Wes in my current seed offer here.

Tom, I don't see your name on the list of participants.

Gary, I did see Duck Creek on my list of participants so I assume that you've already requested Wes.

I'm temporarily closing my seed offer late tomorrow b'c I currently have about 80 responses and things are going slowly with seed packing b'c of so many varieties. I may reopen it in January if there are still enough seeds available.

And I don't have a huge amount of Wes seeds, which Tom, I've been offering in my last two seed offers here.

DuckCreekFarms · December 20, 2008

Carolyn. I didn't request Wes as I had my 5 varieties that I wanted to try before I got that far down the list. Thanks for having the seed offer, I am soooo excited....

feldon30 · December 20, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjg911

it just amazes me that black cherry, imo almost as bad as yellow pear and that's pretty gosh darnoodleyed bad, is listed

Probably because the late Vince Sapp, co-founder of Tomato Growers Supply, developed Black Cherry.

By the way, Black Cherry is my favorite cherry, BY FAR, same for Suze, same for Michael G. We do like Wes and Chapman too, just thought you should know.

Lomatia · December 22, 2008

BC is my favourite cherry also. We in Oz can only look at the catalogues now and drool because of the tom seed importation rules into here. I have an import permit but need a Phyto Cert from suppliers in the US etc. Who offers that service?

tjg911 · December 23, 2008

Let me make some comments.

I do not need a source for Wes. I have plenty of seed I have saved from my Wes plants. My observations were since Wes and Prue are such good tasting tomatoes I just wish TGS listed them.
Carolyn said “Tom, I thought I'd sent Wes seeds to Linda when I sent the Chapman seeds, but maybe not.” I had folders on my previous pc in Outlook Express that were for Prue. I had one for every year from 2002 thru 2007, bought new pc in 4/2008 and those folders are not on this pc. After I sent seeds to you and Craig for the 2003 season, you emailed me that you were sending Prue seeds from your plants to TGS, this would have been in fall 2003. You said be patient as it takes some time. This is why I asked you about this since I have not mentioned it for years. If TGS lists Prue fine if not well at least you have it listed at SSE and I (and now others) have distributed Prue seeds across the world so it will live on after I'm gone!
Carolyn said “I just remembered that I'm listing Wes in my current seed offer here. Tom, I don't see your name on the list of participants. ” That is because I don't need Wes seeds. Somehow people misunderstood and think I am looking for Wes seed when I was just questioning why Wes was not in the TGS catalog when so many other so so tomatoes are. Trust me, I have bought the seeds from TGS and grew them. I have since learned to not believe seed catalog descriptions, it appears they are designed to sell seeds not describe taste.
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

Carolyn I thought I kept prints of our original emails but apparently not. i do have a print dated 11/29/2003 asking me if it is ok to offer Prue thru SSE so I think my dates are correct above.

Also I'd like to state that I consider TGS the go to place to buy tomato seeds. My comments about the descriptions re taste would apply to all seed companies. Not surprising catalogs praise just about all their tomatoes wonderful flavor, no one would buy the seed otherwise. You just have to read between the lines and try them for yourself to see how you like them. Look at my opinion of Black Cherry, many people really like it.

Tom

feldon30 · December 24, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjg911

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 · December 25, 2008

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

**carolyn137** · December 30, 2008

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.

Wi-sunflower · December 23, 2008

We in Oz can only look at the catalogues now and drool because of the tom seed importation rules into here. I have an import permit but need a Phyto Cert from suppliers in the US etc.

Actually that isn't totally true. Unless things have changed in the last 2 years.

About 2 years ago I emailed with the AU dept of AG about how to send tomato and Pepper seeds to AU. The info I got was that as long as my seeds were properly labeled with the source, common name and latin name AND totally clean of any extrainious plant material or bugs, (in other words, seeds only) they were OK to send. That was for tomato and pepper seeds only. I didn't try to find out about other seeds.

I have sold some seed to AU and NZ. I send in a 6x10 bubble pack that is clearly labeled "seeds" on a sticker and the customs form. I and my customers expect them to be inspected at customs and to the best of my knowledge none of my shipments have been rejected. At least none of my customers have ever complained.

I'm just a small family farmer that does seeds as a side business to my vegie farm. I don't have any special permits or Phyto-sanitary certs. I'm also not sending large amounts of seed. Mostly just "packets", tho I do have a pepper customer that has ordered several grams of several varieties at a time.

December 19, 2008	#1
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	tomato growers supply 2009 catalog why doesn't tgs have wes in the catalog? i saw it somewhere and i checked my 2008 tgs catalog where i thought i saw it and they did not list it in 2008 either. maybe it was in the jss catalog. wes and prue are the 2 best tomatoes i've ever tasted and it just amazes me that black cherry, imo almost as bad as yellow pear and that's pretty gosh darnoodleyed bad, is listed but the 2 best don't get a mention. what's up with that? tom

December 20, 2008	#6
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	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. **** Tom, I don't remember when I sent seeds of Prue to TGS but it wasn't years ago, and to be honest I'm assuming I did, but I don't keep lists. I have no idea where any of the varieties might be that I've sent to Linda recently. She's moved since Vince died and has much less room where she is and so has to grow using containers, which cuts down on how many varieties she can look at each year. And please remember that she has to subcontract out most of the OP heirlooms so it takes a minimum of 2-3 years before she can list a variety. Glenn at Sandhill and Mike at Victory seeds and Marianne at mariseeds, for instance, can turn around a variety in one season and list it/ As an example, the seeds I sent her for Virginia Sweets I sent her at least three years ago and is only now being listed in the 2009 catalog/website. She's so darn busy right now I wouldn't dream of contacting her about this, but as I said, I will be sending quite a few new varieties to her in January. I'm so sorry you don't like Black Cherry but I sure do and there are quite a few other varieties listed that I'd delete before ever deleting Black Cherry. __________________ Carolyn

December 20, 2008	#7
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	I just remembered that I'm listing Wes in my current seed offer here. Tom, I don't see your name on the list of participants. Gary, I did see Duck Creek on my list of participants so I assume that you've already requested Wes. I'm temporarily closing my seed offer late tomorrow b'c I currently have about 80 responses and things are going slowly with seed packing b'c of so many varieties. I may reopen it in January if there are still enough seeds available. And I don't have a huge amount of Wes seeds, which Tom, I've been offering in my last two seed offers here. __________________ Carolyn

December 23, 2008	#11
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	Let me make some comments. I do not need a source for Wes. I have plenty of seed I have saved from my Wes plants. My observations were since Wes and Prue are such good tasting tomatoes I just wish TGS listed them. Carolyn said “Tom, I thought I'd sent Wes seeds to Linda when I sent the Chapman seeds, but maybe not.” I had folders on my previous pc in Outlook Express that were for Prue. I had one for every year from 2002 thru 2007, bought new pc in 4/2008 and those folders are not on this pc. After I sent seeds to you and Craig for the 2003 season, you emailed me that you were sending Prue seeds from your plants to TGS, this would have been in fall 2003. You said be patient as it takes some time. This is why I asked you about this since I have not mentioned it for years. If TGS lists Prue fine if not well at least you have it listed at SSE and I (and now others) have distributed Prue seeds across the world so it will live on after I'm gone! Carolyn said “I just remembered that I'm listing Wes in my current seed offer here. Tom, I don't see your name on the list of participants. ” That is because I don't need Wes seeds. Somehow people misunderstood and think I am looking for Wes seed when I was just questioning why Wes was not in the TGS catalog when so many other so so tomatoes are. Trust me, I have bought the seeds from TGS and grew them. I have since learned to not believe seed catalog descriptions, it appears they are designed to sell seeds not describe taste. 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 Carolyn I thought I kept prints of our original emails but apparently not. i do have a print dated 11/29/2003 asking me if it is ok to offer Prue thru SSE so I think my dates are correct above. Also I'd like to state that I consider TGS the go to place to buy tomato seeds. My comments about the descriptions re taste would apply to all seed companies. Not surprising catalogs praise just about all their tomatoes wonderful flavor, no one would buy the seed otherwise. You just have to read between the lines and try them for yourself to see how you like them. Look at my opinion of Black Cherry, many people really like it. Tom

December 30, 2008	#14
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	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. __________________ Carolyn

December 19, 2008	#2
DuckCreekFarms Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Mounds, Oklahoma Posts: 257	Tom If you do find a source for Wes, please list it here. I have been looking for it too. Seems like I did see it somewhere, but can't find it now. Thanks Gary

December 20, 2008	#5
clara Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Posts: 1,351	Hi Tom, here's a source for Wes: http://www.skyfiregardenseeds.com/va...s/tom_wes.html - 2k, but I must say I don't know anything about this source (and I am very glad, that you've already given me some seeds of Wes and Prue). Merry Chrismas! clara

December 22, 2008	#10
Lomatia Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 147	BC is my favourite cherry also. We in Oz can only look at the catalogues now and drool because of the tom seed importation rules into here. I have an import permit but need a Phyto Cert from suppliers in the US etc. Who offers that service?

December 25, 2008	#13
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	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

December 23, 2008	#15
Wi-sunflower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,591	We in Oz can only look at the catalogues now and drool because of the tom seed importation rules into here. I have an import permit but need a Phyto Cert from suppliers in the US etc. Actually that isn't totally true. Unless things have changed in the last 2 years. About 2 years ago I emailed with the AU dept of AG about how to send tomato and Pepper seeds to AU. The info I got was that as long as my seeds were properly labeled with the source, common name and latin name AND totally clean of any extrainious plant material or bugs, (in other words, seeds only) they were OK to send. That was for tomato and pepper seeds only. I didn't try to find out about other seeds. I have sold some seed to AU and NZ. I send in a 6x10 bubble pack that is clearly labeled "seeds" on a sticker and the customs form. I and my customers expect them to be inspected at customs and to the best of my knowledge none of my shipments have been rejected. At least none of my customers have ever complained. I'm just a small family farmer that does seeds as a side business to my vegie farm. I don't have any special permits or Phyto-sanitary certs. I'm also not sending large amounts of seed. Mostly just "packets", tho I do have a pepper customer that has ordered several grams of several varieties at a time.