Jasper Cherry Tomato

I'm curious if anyone has had the opportunity to grow and evaluate the Jasper Cherry Tomato variety developed by Johnny's Selected Seed. I don't know if it is a "new" variety or not. It is the All American Selection winner for this year. The SETA tomato list for 2008 compiled by Suze included it, but I didn't find any comments. This is not the "Violet Jasper" cherry many have grown.

I'm curious about the tomato and the process used to evaluate tomato varieties for the AAS selection. The blurb included with the "winner" announcement said the winning variety was grown and compared with three or four other similar varieties. I'm wondering how the comparison varieties were selected. It seems like a pretty weak process to select a winner. I'm also curious why it is the 2013 winner, but was grown and selected in 2012. Why isn't it the 2012 winner?

To me it would seem like having a Miss America beauty contest and only inviting contestants from three or four states. The Jasper variety may well be the best cherry variety introduced in the last fifty years, but I'm wondering if the AAS selection is anything more than a clever advertising gimmick companies use to jump start sales of many varieties of vegetables. Does the AAS selection have any real relevance?

Have you grown it and do you have any comments about it?

Here is some information about it.

http://www.newplantsandflowers.com/c...13-aas-winner/

Ted

Forget my previous comments and questions. I did a little more research and AAS seems to be a very reputable non-profit, evaluating only varieties which have not been sold previously. Considering the regional distribution of the judges, it lends credibility to the annual selections. I suppose if I want to know more about the Jasper variety, I will need to grow it in 2014.

Here is a little information about the AAS organization. (you have no idea how hard it is to keep typing AAS instead of ★★★. I had to keep proof reading to make sure I didn't make a spelling error)

http://www.all-americaselections.org/

Ted

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by tedln

You have no idea how hard it is to keep typing AAS instead of ★★★. I had to keep proof reading to make sure I didn't make a spelling error.Ted

So maybe it would be an idea to write a well known heart "Monkey Aas"?

[maf]

I haven't grown it but there was a Jasper F1 cherry tomato available in the UK in the mid-late 2000's, which was available from several seed companies and seems to have been delisted sometime between 2010 and now. I don't know for sure if it is the same variety but there seem to be many similarities between the two.

There are also differences between them in that I cannot find any referenced blight resistance in the UK version, and the fruit size is quoted as larger in the "old" one than the Johnny's release. The fruit size difference *might* be down to growing practices because the ones grown in the Royal Horticultural Society trial in 2007 were pruned to a single stem, grown in a tunnel and limited to eight trusses per plant.

Jasper F1 was awarded an AGM (Award of Garden Merit), the highest accolade possible, by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) in 2007. Here is a link to the RHS trial results: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/planttrials/T...rry%202007.pdf

Here is a Wayback Machine archive of a 2010 listing of Jasper F1 at Mr Fothergill's Seeds: http://web.archive.org/web/201007130...cherry-/13588/

I don't know if they are the same variety or not, but the fact that the UK listings were removed may suggest that Johnny's Selected Seed needed to divert hybrid seed production towards the US release of an AAS winner.

Thanks MAF,

The fact that a Jasper F1 existed prior to the JSS Jasper F1 release is interesting. There probably is no way to determine any possible relationship between the two. I would suppose it is simply another example of different varieties receiving the same name on two or more continents.

I did think it was interesting that the Jasper variety or a Jasper variety was included by name in the submissions list for the South East Texas tasting event in 2008. It may have been the British Jasper or it may have been the "Violet Jasper" variety with it's name shortened to Jasper.

I do take the AAS statement that they only evaluate varieties which have not been previously sold as fact. Hopefully the seed has been released early enough that some people will have the opportunity and desire to grow it in their 2013 gardens and some accurate reviews by home gardeners will become available.

Ted