Fat Lady in Last Year's Opera Gown

It's time for many of my charges - that were only 5 inches tall on May 23 - to slip into something more comfortable. Taking off the isolation barres means that I will have to tag the trusses that set fruit while they were protected by the barre. I'll have to make individual bags for trusses after this.

The goal is 1-2 ounces of seed for each of the varieties featured in next year's AppalSeeds programs, but 1/8 ounce of those that won't be a featured AppalSeeds star, but which will be listed in the Seed Saver's Exchange Yearbook.

Stock for next year will include the following, based on results so far this year:

Butler Skinner (mitten-leaf, drought-proof)
Nolt's Holy Land (drops blossoms in high heat)
Depp's Pink Firefly (potato-leaf, drought and frost tolerant)
Maruskin's Andes
The Kenny (potato-leaf, drought and frost tolerant)
Rose Beauty (blight and drought tolerant, very productive)
Livingston's Beauty (blight and drought tolerant, very erect sturdy plants, high productivity)
Grandfather Ashlock
Greenbush Italian (it's big fat jolly monster of a plant, with some blossom-drop resistance in high heat)
Peacevine Cherry / Brown Berry (they're cherries, and therefore indestructible)
Britain's Breakfast (multiflora, also indestructible)
Piedmont Pear (good seedling vigor, thrives on neglect, but fitful germination this year)

Transplants will be the tried and true: Livingston's Beauty, Stupice, and Jaune Flammee.

It's absolutely incredible when you think that Alexander Livingston recorded that it took 1 1/2 TONS of seed from Livingston's Beauty to supply the demand for that particular variety at the end of the 19th century. If an ounce of tomato seed is approximately 15,000 seeds, then Livingston was sending out more than 430 million seeds annually - of this ONE variety. And by then, Livingston was one of several seed companies that operated on a large scale. One of these seed groups was The Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance  -  the Shakers - who grew their own seed stock. It boggles the mind to think of seed production on this massive scale using only hand tools.



Butler Skinner, making a break for it (lower right).



Greenbush Italian isolation cage looks more like a tomato bratwurst.