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Old October 23, 2012   #1
KarenO
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Default "Big Mystery"

Asking for your collective opinion regarding the identification of this tomato.
The story goes the seed was collected and given to me with no information other than it came from a big round pink tomato which had been grown in a private garden near Edmonton by an elderly man who had been growing it for years. I have looked at many varieties on the internet in an attempt to identify it but haven't found anything quite matching it. To describe it, It is a very big and vigorous regular leaf plant. midseason producing large, uniform pink tomatoes with a very uniform slightly ribbed round, not flattened shape. dryish, meaty, minimal seeds, very mild almost bland(IMO) flavor. some photos follow. Anyone? I call it "Big Mystery" because I don't know what it is.It is also very stable. Always produces uniform tomatoes as shown. I have collected and grown seed and it is the very same in subsequent generations.
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File Type: jpg big mystery 2.jpg (88.7 KB, 48 views)
File Type: jpg big mystery 3.jpg (118.3 KB, 54 views)
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Old October 23, 2012   #2
KarenO
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Bottom right tomato in the last photo. this one is very ripe, almost over ripe in this photo. Very thin skin. best picked not quite fully ripe.
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Old October 23, 2012   #3
carolyn137
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Karen, have you checked the epidermis color to be sure it's clear ( pink) or yellow ( red), and used a known red and a known pink as controls?

Atually I don't know how confirming the color will help b'c there are now close to 15 K varieties known and now probably 7-9 K available to the public.

So there's absolutely no way that you'll find a known variety that matches what you show b'c there are just too many and no pictures for most of them.

If you have no way of finding anything else about it and don't know anyone else growing it, it looks like you're going to have to name it yourself, which is something I've had to do many times.

Is there any way you can find out the elderly man's name?

Do you at least know what village or town or city he lives in?/

How and from whom did you receive the seeds?

BTW, there's a variety called Sophie's Choice, seeds were sent to a woman in CA, she sent then to Barry in CA, he told me about it and sent me seeds, I asked him to name it and he deferred to the woman in CA who first received the seeds from Edmonton and she's the one who named it Sophie's Choice.
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Old October 23, 2012   #4
KarenO
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Thank you Carolyn, I know it's a long shot with so many varieties. It may well be that he bred it himself or it was a "family" tomato as it certainly seems to be well adapted to our northern area and I will see what else I can find out around here. I am pretty sure the skin is clear. very thin and quite transparent when you blanch and peel these for cooking. I'm just an enthusiastic home gardener, not a breeder or any sort of tomato expert but I certiainly know that you are and I admire your knowlege! I have read your book (it's in the library here) but I'm going to look for it and buy it so I can have my own copy. I'm a fan and I am actually rather amazed that you would take the time to answer some amateur Canadian's questions.
Thanks again sincerely,
Karen
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Old October 24, 2012   #5
carolyn137
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenO View Post
Thank you Carolyn, I know it's a long shot with so many varieties. It may well be that he bred it himself or it was a "family" tomato as it certainly seems to be well adapted to our northern area and I will see what else I can find out around here. I am pretty sure the skin is clear. very thin and quite transparent when you blanch and peel these for cooking. I'm just an enthusiastic home gardener, not a breeder or any sort of tomato expert but I certiainly know that you are and I admire your knowlege! I have read your book (it's in the library here) but I'm going to look for it and buy it so I can have my own copy. I'm a fan and I am actually rather amazed that you would take the time to answer some amateur Canadian's questions.
Thanks again sincerely,
Karen
Karen, I don't breed tomatoes. If I were perhaps 30 years younger I might have but back then there weren't all the home growers who now do that and it didn't even occur to me to do so.

I try to answer questions the best I can and it makes no difference to me if someone is new to tomato growing or not, you said an amateur, b'c every one of us started from the same place at one time.

What I have done is to grow one heck of a lot of different varieties over the years and since I was raised on a farm and started helping out when I was very young I have maybe 65 years of tomato experience behind me since wherever I was at a given point in time I grew tomatoes, but really grew most of them when I moved back home in 1982 and had lots of space at the old family farm.
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