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Post by paulf on Jul 18, 2017 10:25:06 GMT -5
It is always disappointing to expect a delicious large heart shaped variety to give small oval salad sized tomato. So it is this year with Fish Lake Oxheart. I have grown this variety for several years and saved seeds because it was in the past difficult to find commercially. Somewhere along the line I did something wrong to get a salad tomato. There is a source for next year but this year the plant is a waste of space.
Also discovered that India is doing the same thing...growing a small salad sized tomato when I was expecting an 8 to 10 ounce beefsteak. Another waste. Both varieties' seeds will get tossed and new seed purchased.
A couple of others are not looking like they should but that may be the year not the tomato. I have reduced the number of varieties that the seeds get saved from just because I don't want wrong varieties from accidental cross-pollination since I do not bag blossoms. I still hate it when it happens.
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Post by september on Jul 18, 2017 15:24:13 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, did you grow any salad size or roma types last year that you can pinpoint as an aggressive pollinator for both your smaller off types? I agree it's a disappointment to get a wrong type from your own seeds. I don't bag either, and so far my unintended crosses have luckily only resulted in fruit color or leaf type changes, and the resulting beefsteak tomatoes have still been pretty good (with a few exceptions ) I don't normally trade my crossed seeds any farther, but keep records on them for my own interest, as long as the taste is there. I know the conventional wisdom is to combine all saved seeds for a variety into one batch for storage, but I do a lot of small batches (as I eat them) with oxiclean and one larger end of season batch fermented, and keep each batch separate and dated in small ziplocks or coin envelopes, combining all into a larger envelope. That way, if I get an off type, and I can discard the offending seed batch and have others from the past years to chose which hopefully were not crossed. I save the small oxiclean batches by whacking the rinsing sieve into a labeled and dated flat cone coffee filter, (fold it over a cup for support) then just stack the enclosing filters on an open weave plastic garden flat to dry. I leave them there until I have time during the winter to re-package and file them away. Fairly painless way to save a few seeds per tomato and pinpoint a bad batch without discarding entire year.
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Saltflower
Pro Member
Posts: 336
Joined: July 2017
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Post by Saltflower on Jul 18, 2017 15:29:37 GMT -5
It wasn't saved seed but one year I got a tiny red tomato that looked exactly like a miniature Constoluto Genovese. I still wonder what it was. It was very tart.
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Post by paulf on Jul 18, 2017 16:45:17 GMT -5
Fish Lake Oxheart had a history a few years back giving a small oval, so I think my first several tries were lucky and this year was an unlucky one. I do grow a few small tomatoes for my wife (I don't care for cherries or salads, so there may have been a problem with crossing I need to check my maps to how close. No idea about India, that I will check as well.
Just to be sure, I will remove the bad seeds in inventory and replace with new.
Last year I grew crossed variety that was a cross of Cherokee Purple and an unknown heart. It may turn out to be something.
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