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Old June 17, 2014   #1
Tom Wagner
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Default "Impossible Dream" tomato

I just may have found my unreachable star of tomatoes. I am giving it a name..."Impossible Dream" and I think I can finally beat the so called 'unbeatable foes' of store bought tomatoes.

The tomato is a hybrid that I made last year and is going through a number of tests to see if it is, indeed, a winner. I have frequently said that the way to find a truly good tomato is to taste it in the mature green stage just before it starts to turn color. "Impossible Dream" has it in spades! Wrapping up a half dozen mature green tomatoes a couple of weeks ago has paid off handsomely in my evaluation tonight when I extracted the seed and tasted the fruit. They had the tantalizing sweetness of a fully grown and ripe tomato, the richness of flavor of a large heirloom and the tartness that only an unusually tart tomato can deliver.

I pick many of my tomatoes breaking color or at the mature green stage since if I didn't...they would be picked by others. Frequently the tomatoes suffer in the lack of sweetness and flavor after a couple of weeks. Not "Impossible Dream"...I was shocked by the sensory perception. I have further crosses of this hybrid and in hindsight I am glad I have them.

I have other plants of "Impossible Dream" in different locations and I will continue to try out the tomatoes at different stages of ripeness. Not that I think tomatoes should be picked at the mature green stage but that is almost what store bought tomatoes are....and they lack flavor all too often. The area I live in is not exactly tomato country and finding a tomato that has this kind of flavor early and ripens in wrapped paper for two weeks is startling.

I am sowing lots of tomato seed this week for the fall evaluation, therefore I will sow the two parents also to make lots of the "Impossible Dream" F-1 seed.

The male parent is almost a 'spitter' to some people, and no, it is not the Green Zebra. My California experience 20 years ago in tasting non-ripe tomatoes is finally paying off. The three varieties in the hybrid were part of my California crossing blocks. The parents are like the 'Beauty and the Beast' and the combining ability is superb.

My tomato grafting experts/friends are looking for a tomato like "Impossible Dream" and I will approach them to make it available on grafted root stocks.
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Old June 17, 2014   #2
carolyn137
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Tom, I have a large number of music videos and play some of them before I turn off my computer each night.

So when I saw your Impossible Dream,of course I had to fetch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHnzYEHAow

And yes,I'm still singing it right now.

Carolyn
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Old June 17, 2014   #3
Tom Wagner
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Thanks, Carolyn, for linking to Man of La Mancha and the music. The Don Quixote quest that I am on with a lifetime of tomato breeding is somehow ominously parallel to fighting a war against all odds.

I went to the Frank Sinatra version of the song that has lyrics as you listen. I am not the only one who is chasing tomato windmills, some of us try out huge numbers of tomato varieties each year in their 'quest' for the perfect tomato.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjI7VeIA7ZI

I am guilty of being an impossible dreamer. How many of us are considered 'mad' by our family, friends, co-workers and employers? However ridiculous and incredulous pumping out dozens of new varieties each year is....does it truly leave the world a better place?. Carolyn, I believe you are, indeed, one of those who leave the world a better place. Thank you!

I've got tomatoes to transplant, tomatoes to cross, tomatoes to extract seed from, so pardon me while I get on my horse and charge some windmills!
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Old June 17, 2014   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Wagner View Post
Thanks, Carolyn, for linking to Man of La Mancha and the music. The Don Quixote quest that I am on with a lifetime of tomato breeding is somehow ominously parallel to fighting a war against all odds.

I went to the Frank Sinatra version of the song that has lyrics as you listen. I am not the only one who is chasing tomato windmills, some of us try out huge numbers of tomato varieties each year in their 'quest' for the perfect tomato.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjI7VeIA7ZI

I am guilty of being an impossible dreamer. How many of us are considered 'mad' by our family, friends, co-workers and employers? However ridiculous and incredulous pumping out dozens of new varieties each year is....does it truly leave the world a better place?. Carolyn, I believe you are, indeed, one of those who leave the world a better place. Thank you!

I've got tomatoes to transplant, tomatoes to cross, tomatoes to extract seed from, so pardon me while I get on my horse and charge some windmills!
I went with the original movie version and you went with the better voice.

You wrote:

(Carolyn, I believe you are, indeed, one of those who leave the world a better place. Thank you!)

Well thank you Tom but do you know something I don't know about leaving the world, at least in the short term?

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Old June 17, 2014   #5
Tom Wagner
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Quote:
do you know something I don't know about leaving the world, at least in the short term?
Most of us don't have an option about leaving the world but some of us have an option of making it a better place. I live with the work ethics that there will always be tomorrow, with maybe one exception. Thank yous are better given today or yesterday rather than bet on tomorrow.

Since I wrote the lead topic conversation on the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, my chances of sending in the inbred parents to a winter nursery are looking up. Most places making custom hybrid seed need to get their seed sown by October in order to have seed sown next spring. I am hoping my supporters want to put the F-1 seed on grafts. I have already been advised to make cuttings of my remaining plants and send to another state for trials.

Carolyn, sorry if I alluded to any impassibility from this world.
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Old June 17, 2014   #6
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Originally Posted by Tom Wagner View Post
Most of us don't have an option about leaving the world but some of us have an option of making it a better place. I live with the work ethics that there will always be tomorrow, with maybe one exception. Thank yous are better given today or yesterday rather than bet on tomorrow.

Since I wrote the lead topic conversation on the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, my chances of sending in the inbred parents to a winter nursery are looking up. Most places making custom hybrid seed need to get their seed sown by October in order to have seed sown next spring. I am hoping my supporters want to put the F-1 seed on grafts. I have already been advised to make cuttings of my remaining plants and send to another state for trials.

Carolyn, sorry if I alluded to any impassibility from this world.
No apologies needed Tom, I was just making a joke about it.

However, if you still feel badly about it my birthday is the 26th of this month, I'll be 75,and you can send me a pack or two of stable seeds, knowing that I'm not into the blue stuff, I mean something I haven't grown before that you think I might like, and also some chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii, or some good dark bittersweet chocolate.

Carolyn
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Old June 17, 2014   #7
Sun City Linda
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Tom, I know almost nothing about breeding tomatoes but I can tell that you do! I am happy for you and your Impossible Dream tomato! How great to have a place like this to post and share this kind of excitement with friends who understand!
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Old August 14, 2015   #8
AdrianaG
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Can we get an update on Impossible Dream?
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Old August 15, 2015   #9
Labradors2
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Love the name. Hope it turns out to be exactly what you are hoping for!

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