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Post by davidjp on Sept 20, 2015 11:10:16 GMT -5
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Post by lisaann on Sept 20, 2015 11:14:06 GMT -5
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Post by lisaann on Sept 20, 2015 11:16:40 GMT -5
Thus, the original Rutgers tomato line is long lost, and all the seeds sold today are derivative selections, possibly even different cultivars, from the original. We do not have original seed maintained here at the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. Read about our efforts to bring back the "original" Rutgers tomato (story on page2).
Refer to the above link.
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Post by davidjp on Sept 20, 2015 13:02:18 GMT -5
Looks like that article may be where the guardian article was researched from. It'll be interesting if there is a resurrected variety similar to the original coming out this January. Lisaann who'll have to keep a lookout and let us know.
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Post by wheelgarden1 on Sept 20, 2015 19:12:26 GMT -5
I'll be following this with great interest. My parents grew Rutgers as far back as I can remember, and I still do, although the later disease resistant varieties. Good tasting and producing tomato, it'd be great to get the original flavor back.
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Post by lisaann on Jan 3, 2016 10:28:41 GMT -5
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Jan 3, 2016 11:24:12 GMT -5
Are the recent Rutgers tomatoes not the same? How is it that they are different?
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Post by lisaann on Jan 3, 2016 11:37:45 GMT -5
Just click all the links and read.....................
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 3, 2016 11:43:22 GMT -5
davidjp what a good article. My husband's dad was one of those small farmers selling Rutgers tomatoes to the factories. I don't know if they went to Campbell's but hubby picked tomatoes as a kid and got pad a few cents per basket. We live in PA which is just a hop, skip and jump from Jersey. lisaann according to david's article Campbell's DOES have original seeds but that variety will not be available anytime soon since they only have 5 plants so far out of the 250 they grew from crossing the 2 parent seeds. "As it turns out, Campbell’s had retained seeds from the two varieties used to create the Rutgers tomato. They were the Marglobe and the JTD, named for Dr John T Dorrance, a chemist who served as Campbell’s first president and invented canned condensed soup."
Just crossing the 2 original parent seeds does not guarantee that all or even some of the resulting F1 plants will be the same as the original cross. Plant genetics is much more complicated than that. They grew 250 plants from that cross and only 5 were deemed worthy or further testing.
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Post by lisaann on Jan 3, 2016 11:49:16 GMT -5
Cool, didn't see that update! What fun!.
Well heck.............that wasn't an update. Rutgers said they were doing that. I thought it was something new............
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 3, 2016 11:50:36 GMT -5
I would DEFINITELY buy that hybrid!
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Jan 3, 2016 12:20:27 GMT -5
I will just have to buy both seeds so I can test them myself.
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 3, 2016 12:35:45 GMT -5
I was going to say that you probably would not be able to find the JTD variety but I googled it before saying that and, much to my surprise, it is available through Victory Seeds: www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_jtd.htmlJust remember that crossing these 2 parents will not necessarily give you the original Rutgers variety. You would probably have to grow thousands of crosses to achieve this. You will probable still have fun though.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 3, 2016 19:18:57 GMT -5
The thing I remember about the rutgers, as well as other commercial tomatoes from way back, is that they were determinate - something needed when the companies wanted them all ripe at once, but not what I want for my garden. And, while the commercial tomatoes of yesteryear were much more flavorful than the ones they have now, there are many others out there of the indeterminate type with better flavor, IMO.
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Post by octave1 on Jan 3, 2016 21:13:45 GMT -5
Actually Rutgers is often listed as semi-determinate. I know it's not quite a determinate tomato because I've seen it grown.
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