Temps have been VERY mild...we had one day in the first week of August where the temps reached the upper 80s. Otherwise it's been low 80s or mid 70s as the high temps.

So why create and market a whole "new" variety just because the skin is a different color but all else is the same? ****** Cherokee Chocolate wasn't created, it was the result of a spontaneous mutation. And the choice as to whether to market a variety is the choice of those places selling seeds. If you want to talk about creating new varieties I think we should look at all the so called black tomatoes to start with. When I joined SSE in the late 80's there were about 5 of them, that's all. Then the fad started for the blacks and now there are over maybe 150 of them listed in the Yearbook. Are they all different? Nope. There are those who have done large growouts of some of them at the same time in the same season and they aren't all unique. The names may be different but the varieties aren't all different. We could say the same about the current fad for green when ripes. Where there is demand the varieties will follow. Names have been changed at some places and by some folks to try to indicate something unique, something different. I could send you to a website where Green Grape was called Eenie Weenie Greenie and Cherokee Purple was called Native American. But I won't send you there. LOL And look at all the wonderful varieties that arose by accidental cross pollination and then dehybridization from that initial hybrid to an OP state. And the same for those that were deliberately bred. I could make long lists of both kinds. Many commercial seed sites, especially those that most folks who grow heirloom kinds go to, get their initial starts from the SSE YEarbook as well as varieties sent to them by others. And several of those sites put a spin on varieties for sales purposes. What does one call a variety such as a well known pink that has had an epidermis mutation from clear to yellow so that it's now red? Is it still the same as the original pink? Nope, it's not b'c there has been a mutation. the DNA has changed. Green Doctors is a nice green when ripe cherry and last summer two different folks got a mutation with it such that the epidermis went from yellow to clear so now those fruits look like frosted grapes. it was decided to call it Green Doctors Frosted, and I offered it in a seed offer elsewhere and seeds are now available commercially as well as in the SSE YEarbook. What do we do about a variety that has become PL where the original was RL? Many would say they are the same except for leaf form, but I've written here many times that I don't think that's a reasonable conclusion b'c there's more than one way to go from RL to PL and more than one gene can be involved. Is KBX, the PL form of KB ( Kellogg's Breakfast) the same as KB? Are Spudakee and Cherokee Purple Potato Leaf the same? So there's a difference in creating a variety either by deliberate breeding as many are doing now, or by dehybridizing and making selections of naturally crossed hybrids to the OP sate, or as a result of a mutation, either seed DNA one or a cell one called a somatic mutation, and those activities have to be separated from what you call marketing, which is not in the hands of those OP varieties that are a result of those activities. Every year I send the best of my new ones I've grown that year for trial to a few commercial places where I know the owners and trust them and how they run their businesses. it's their decisions to offer them if they want to, not mine. Do large corporations also create and market at the same time? Absolutely and the variety Kumato is an excellent example of that as well as Campari and Santa Sweets and many many more. It sure is an interesting situation, but it also occurs with many many veggies and fruits, not just tomatoes. ( smile) Carolyn

I grew PP in 2009. It was a healthy plant and set quite a number of fruit. Needless to say, we were looking forward to them. Then -- bam! -- late blight came to town and we had to destroy every single tomato plant, including the luscious-looking (up to that point) PP. Obviously I can't comment on the taste because none of the fruits were close to mature. But it did have a good number of medium-to-large fruits and quite a few blossoms before it went to the great garden in the sky. :-) I keep meaning to try it again, but always get sidetracked by other varieties and PP gets forgotten. Hmmmm, it's not too late this year. Thanks for the reminder!

I grew mine from seed as well, and all my plants grew very well at first, but the cherries grew big and bushy and shadowed the CPs. Not to mention the cages are too small and the tops got heavy and droopy. And the suckers have grown into the growing space of other tomato plants! The CPs seem to have stopped growing. I cut some of the growing tips off the cherries and once I get all the tomatoes off them will trim them down a bit. Unfortunately recent flooding rains here in Pensacola have caused excessive splitting of my toms. Next year I realize I need to space my plants out a bit more and give them larger cages to grow in. Also prep the soil a bit better and will try pruning a bit more, as I pretty much let all the suckers grow. Maybe I'll get better looking yields next year. I got some pics of some of the problems, and will try to post them tomorrow. Thanks for the responses guys!