Southern share update

[Rosco]

Morning everyone,
Initially this offer is to Craig and Carolyn who so graciously provided seeds via Aunty Patrina to us way out of towners.
My growing season has ended and seed saving complete. Many of the seeds you sent were very old but fresh ones await if there are any you would like. Later I will make a general offer once I've checked on what Glenn and Patrina need.
Anyway heres what I have from this Summer.

Lucky cross ( Now F8 )
Phils fantastic
Big Rainbow
Raspberry red
10 fingers of Naples
Florida
Fluted Black
White oxheart
Sad Sac (F2)
Variegated
Lyuda's red Ukranian
Verna orange
Victorian dwarf
Livingstone maincrop
Turkey chomp
Mariette
Believe it or not
Julia child
Milka's red Bulgarian
Aunty Betty ( From an old Chinese Grocer and most unusual)
Ashleigh
Long keeper
Dot's delight
Rinaldo
Black Brandywine
Oleyar's german
Grandfather Ashlock

These are just the ones which were new to me this season so if you would like some fresh seed of any listed please drop me an email.
Kind regards.
Rosco

[carolyn137]

Rosco,

Just curious, but did everything come out to be what it should have been or were there any crossed seeds for the ones you listed?

[mdvpc]

Rosco-I have seed for Victorian Dwarf from Carolyn, but havent grown it yet-I think Duker did not like it. What was your experience? Taste, color, productivity, how tall and wide was the plant, etc? Any info would be appreciated.

[Rosco]

Generally speaking I think all was as it should have been. The only real letdowns I thought were Mariette and Grosse Violette which were rather straggly small reds.
Lucky cross was interesting with it's yellowish outside and red centre but took a long time to ripen outside. I'll try it in the Hydro next season.
Victorian dwarf was nothing special either and only produced a few late smallish red fruits on a far from dwarf vine.
My favourites would have to be Turkey Chomp and Grandfather Ashlock.
This coming season I plan to grow some of my own older varieties just to keep my seeds in date. I must have hundreds of varieties now!!!!!!
Really don't know how you can keep them all as fresh seed the way you do.
Peppers too are really difficult to maintain as fresh seed but that's another story.
Cheers for now.
Rosco

[bigcheef]

Hey Rosco,

What can you tell us about Aunty Betty (why so unusual, good taste?, would you grow again)

Also,
where should we look for your general offer? Will you post a new thread in the Exchange forum?

Thanks,
RIK

[nctomatoman]

Rosco, what did you think of the following:

Rasp Red (it is not Raspberry - it is an actual name, Tom Rasp, the original source into the SSE)
White Oxheart
Lyuda's Red
and Dot's Delight?

[carolyn137]

and Dot's Delight?

Craig, you know that Dorothy fessed up that Dot's Delight was a PL mutant of a known variety and she named it after herself b'c she didn't know what else to do, but I'll be darned if I can remember which variety it was.

Do you remember?

i did grow it last summer and it was a darn nice variety, whatever it was, which is not known as Dot's Delight, as you know. I mean it is, but it isn't.

[Rosco]

Hi All,
I'll try and respond to everyone at once being as how I'm clearly not as good a typist as Carolyn my replies can be quite short
Aunty Betty is my Aunt and has been growing Tomato's since I was tiny. Given that I've hit the half century that seems a long time. When I really got into Heirlooms some years ago now I tried to give her my extra plants but she was reluctant to try anything new as she always got her plants from an old Chinese greengrocer who has grown this same variety as long as she can remember. Well into her 70's now she makes wicked Tomato sauce and keeps a bible religously of how many pounds she's picked each season. I got a couple of fruits from her and have grown them the last 3 seasons with surprisingly good results. Generally the fruits are teardrop shaped up to about 1 pound each and pinkish red with yellow shoulders. Visitors seem to like them better than most. As the season progresses they get a little smaller but produce well.
I'll try to add a photo which does'nt really do them justice but you'll get the general idea.

As for a general seed offer I'll certainly do that but first would really like to let the kind people who have shared with me over the years have first go. If I don't hear anymore over the next week or so I'll make the offer as long as seed stocks allow.
Rasberry Craig was a really nice disease free red up to about 1 pound round fruits. The only drawback I found personally was it's very late ripening. That may be because of a generally bad season hampered by white fly. I'll certainly try it again.
White Oxheart is a massive pale yellow fruit which looked good but tasted like mushy tasteless rubbish. It may do better for others so I still saved seed.
Lyuda's Red was'nt too bad but I've grown better. Will try it again but not next season. Way to many older stocks to refresh.
Dot's Delight!!!!!!!!!!
Glad I'm not the only one who has doubt's as to the origin of this fruit. To be perfectly honest I could'nt tell the difference between this and Phil's fantastic. Both are lovely large firm pinks, some of which got up to 2 pounds in weight.
I would try to add some more photo's of these varieties but for some reason HTML is'nt working for me.
Anyway enough from me for now.
Enjoy your growing season while we put on our heaters.
Cheers.
Rosco