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Old February 21, 2012   #1
jennifer28
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Default the elusive teddy jones

Does anyone know if these seeds are available anywhere at all? I read the story about Peto leaving Burpee and taking these seeds with him, but does / can anyone sell them? I'm just curious because it would be a neat thing to have and to try crossing with other varieties like Peto did... I did notice an OP variety of Celebrity in the SSE yearbook and that was interesting to me too...
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Old February 21, 2012   #2
carolyn137
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Originally Posted by jennifer28 View Post
Does anyone know if these seeds are available anywhere at all? I read the story about Peto leaving Burpee and taking these seeds with him, but does / can anyone sell them? I'm just curious because it would be a neat thing to have and to try crossing with other varieties like Peto did... I did notice an OP variety of Celebrity in the SSE yearbook and that was interesting to me too...
No Jennifer there will never be Teddy Jones seeds for sale.

The history you refer to was told to me by the current owner of Burpees and yes. John Peto was there when Dr. Oved Schifriss bred Big Boy F1, which has as one parent Teddy Jones.

I tried to get Teddy Jones out of Big Boy F1 and set out initially 12 F2 plants and only two were the desired pink. I discussed it with Dr. Schifriss and he said that the pink fruits I got were too small and that genetically I would never be able to get a pink out with more than about 80% of Teddy Jones genes.

When Peto moved to CA he did take Teddy Jones with him and there he used it as one parent to breed Better Boy F1.

Teddy Jones was an heirloom variety from the midwest and in the late 30's, early 40's Burpee was searching for heirloom varieties. They found TJ and paid the man $24 at the time and it was enough for him to build a new greenhouse at that time.

New Teddy Jones seed has to be grown all the time to produce the still very popular Big Boy F1 and Better Boy F1, which is why you will never see any Teddy Jones seeds for commercial sale.

And well I remember an e-mail from someone who worked at Burpee who said that Teddy Jones was one of the most spindly, disease prone varieties he'd ever come across but the taste was great.

I hope that answers your questions about Teddy Jones.
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Old February 21, 2012   #3
jennifer28
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Carolyn,

Thank you for your answer. That is good info. I especially liked the part where you described TJ as spindly, that makes me feel better about never being able to see it.

I liked your idea of trying to select it out... oh well.
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