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Post by seaeagle on Jul 8, 2015 1:37:11 GMT
I was reading an old thread at some forum that came up in a search.Is it true Paquebot that you are responsible for saving the Wisconsin 55 tomato?And wasn't the Wisconsin 55 bred specifically to grow in Wisconsin muck.Sorry didn't know how else to word it  |
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Post by paquebot on Jul 8, 2015 4:23:17 GMT
You want facts or truth? Maybe get both.
The history of how WI55 came to be has been well-documented. Locally, it was originally an Old's exclusive and then Jung's got it when Old's went out of business. Went well until sometime around 2000 when Jung's supplier sent crossed or mixed seeds. One might get a round slicer or a plum paste. I never saw either but would have known if the slicer was right. With so many complaints and no way to assure that Jung's could find true seed, it was last offered in 2002.
In February of 2003, a friend, Amy Roy of Monona, WI, started a thread on GardenWeb "Why No Wisconsin 55?" I knew why and told everyone. But, I also had pre-2000 seeds which I knew were true and my daughter was only going to grow those in her garden. Told her that I would give her two bags of other tomatoes if she brought me a bag of the 55s. Didn't get an awful lot but enough for what I thought would satisfy demand. How wrong I was! That fall, offered it free on GardenWeb and had 450+ requests. HT was 150+. An Australian requested 500 seeds to distribute down there. Finally, a Michigan nursery supplier asked for 15,000 but I suggested that they contact SSE to see if there were that many in their storage. It was available all around here as plants in 2004 and seeds after that. The last great non-hybrid ever created was back and nobody again will have to wonder where it went.
And then there's the story of Wisconsin 55 Gold which really complicates things!
Martin
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Post by seaeagle on Jul 8, 2015 14:40:25 GMT
Thank you Martin.A reliable tomato like Wisconsin 55 is sorta like Rutgers, they don't get talked about a lot but a lot of people grow them.And no I haven't heard the story on Wisconsin 55 Gold.But I bet it is an interesting one.
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Post by seaeagle on Jul 8, 2015 15:18:29 GMT
Found this on Tomato Addict Wisconsin 55 Gold 80 Days RL Wisconsin 55 Yellow/Gold is a yellow mutant of Wisconsin 55 (This splendid cultivar represents some of the last focused open pollinated tomato breeding done at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1950's. by J.C. Walker, who was actually a plant pathologist. Shortly after that time, breeding efforts shifted to F1 hybrids and this was among the varieties that were nearly forgotten.) that Dr. Robert Raabe, professor emeritus UC Berkeley, found growing in a field of the original Wisconsin 55 growouts in 1953/54 when he was a student tending fields and picking fruit for processing. Raabe saved some seeds as a curiosity. He's grown them for them 50 years since because he likes them but never thought there would be widespread interest in such a thing until Alison Stewart got excited about it and asked him for seeds. Raabe gave Alison some seedlings from which she got a supply of seeds some of which she sent to Martin Longseth, a champion of Wisconsin 55. This tomato grows hardy plants under harsh conditions in shallow soil and makes thick walled, dense tomatoes suitable for canning and slicing. WI-55 Gold seems tolerant to disease, heat, heavy rain, and survives bug infestations while producing relatively blemish free fruit without cracks that ripen to a very pretty yellow/gold color that is not orange. tomatoaddict.blogspot.com/2008/08/wisconsin-55-gold.htmlWhat is interesting is the colors of the ripe tomato from Tanias website,some look yellow-green and then some look almost reddish yellow and then some do look kinda gold t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Wisconsin_55_Gold |
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Post by paquebot on Jul 8, 2015 16:59:22 GMT
Rutgers and Wisconsin 55 were the two main commercial varieties grown in these two states. Rutgers line stopped somewhere just south of Rockford, IL. Everything north of there was WI55 and everything south was Rutgers. Now one may find WI55 all the way through Illinois.
The history of the WI55 Gold is correct. What it doesn't say is the turmoil that led up to finally getting it to other gardeners. At first nobody was certain if it were indeed a true WI55. Growth pattern told me that there was no difference except slightly different color. Green fruit were identical and only the color was left. I was expecting yellow but it was not. Also wasn't orange or salmon or anything else that I was familiar with. (On Tatiana's site, photo 16 and 17 are very close to actual color on my computer.) Immediately others had lots of plans on what to name it and how to distribute it and so on. I said that it already had a name, Wisconsin 55, and only needed the color added to differentiate it from the original and that I was going to distribute it free. And so it was.
WI55 and WI55 Gold are sort of an enigma. There are some who claim that WI55 is not an heirloom since it was a post-WW2 commercial variety. But if there is a variety which only one person has grown for 50 years, that is certainly an heirloom. Thus it became a case of the original not being an heirloom but its offspring was. Rifts among the tomatophile world is why the Jung's catalog does not list WI55 in the heirloom section but all by itself. And why not? If it's not a hybrid and not an heirloom after all these years then it's in its own class.
Martin
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Post by seaeagle on Jul 8, 2015 19:50:42 GMT
16 and 17 are the ones that look gold to me too and I believe you named it right.The politics in the tomato world continue to amaze me |
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Post by paquebot on Jul 9, 2015 4:25:03 GMT
If one knows what the color of WI55 Gold should be, then one would have grown them before. Only saw an exact color one time on Garden Web but yellow tomatoes may vary according to soil and other conditions. When its existence was confirmed, there was always doubt if it were a true mutant of stray seed. Until the fruit were seen, it was Y55. Since I had pure WI55 to grow with it, no problem to compare the two. As Y55 grew, it was a mirror of WI55 except for yellowish foliage. It wasn't until the fruit formed and ripened that it became another WI55. And that's how Tomato Addict's story came to be told.
This also allowed me to do something that nobody else had done before. There are still 3 of the parent varieties. Thus I grew a row of both WI55s plus Greater Baltimore, John Baer, and Red Skin. Quite a family reunion!
Martin
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Post by seaeagle on Jul 9, 2015 17:25:43 GMT
I bet that was a great family reunion what interests me is, I have heard of Greater Baltimore tomato.I think it used to be popular in the region I am in at one time, The Chesapeake Bay region.Not so much anymore,but I am curious, which of those 3 tomatoes did the Wisconsin 55's get their taste from?
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Post by paquebot on Jul 9, 2015 18:07:35 GMT
The parent on one side of WI55 was John Baer and Del Monte crossed and then crossed with Early Baltimore which had been derived from Greater Baltimore. John Baer and Del Monte would be great-grandparents on one side but their next two generations had no name The last was crossed with Red Skin to get WI55 so there is only one named parent. The intense red would have come from Red Skin while the taste would have come from somewhere on the other side.
WI55 was such an immediate success that it was used to breed WV63, KC54, and Campbells 135 and 146. I've grown all 4 and all are winners.
Martin
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