I found your seed list trying to find a source for 'big month', which a friend of mine grew last year and really liked but didn't save seed from and now can't find a commercial source for. I'm personally interested in 'green giant'. I love green tomato juice. So far I've grown 'green zebra' (which did fairly well), 'emerald evergreen' (which performed terribly), and 'Aunt Ruby's German green' (which was probably the best of the three.) Do you have a favorite green-when-ripe tomato you can recommend? I've read high praise for the 'green giant'. Feel free to contact me if you think I might have anything you'd be interested in trading for. I don't have any of the tomato varieties you're looking for, but I have a few tomato varieties you don't have. I would particularly note San Marzano redorta and Polish linguisa which are very similar, very large/long extremely meaty paste types. They're a very tasty fresh eating tomato but my family's very first choice for canning whole, for sauce, for roasted tomatoes, for paste, etc.

Jill, There are so many red beefsteaks it is hard to guess, but if it was an F-1, I'd suspect it is either Big Beef or Beefmaster. Both of those have some of the best flavor I've ever tasted in an F-1. If it is an O-P, my best guess is the old red heirloom known under several names--Crimson Cushion, Henderson's Scarlet Ponderosa or Red Ponderosa. I think all three of those are the same tomato and are the red version of Pink Ponderosa. Does your friend remember if she bought a Bonnie Plants tomato plant? I ask, because if it was a BP plant, we probably could narrow it down from looking at their variety list on their website. They grow pretty much the same tomatoes year in and year out. Also, do you remember if it was round and smooth or if it was more ribbed? That would be a helpful clue. Was it as beefy as a Brandywine tomato or a Giant Belgium? There are a lot it could be, but with it being that productive, I'd lean towards thinking it was a hybrid. Dawn

Pretty gurl, I can see cloning being done for hybrid varieties, but not for OP's. As soon as the cloned OP'sor F1's get too big they have to be recloned and then done possibly a third time in order to have plants ready for transplanitng outside.And that takes up more room than many wish to allocate. As to the cost of seeds for either F1 hybrids or OP's I think there's a big range depending on what the specific sources are and which specific hybridsor OP's are under consideration and that relates to specific seed vendors.. And then look atallof us here with our computers, our software we add, and total up the cost of all that and it does seem to me to be quite a bit of money depending on individual sets ups, and thinking of that it also seems to me that the cost of seeds is not something to worryabout. In addition, usually the packs have 25 to 30 seeds and for home gardeners that should be enough for several seasons if they regrow the same varieties. Most don't, I also know that. LOL As to cloning, the only thing I'd like to add is that it's best to trim back the sucker, as you said, but then put it into artificial mix, not water as so many do. The reason for that is that cuttings rooted in water have to then adapt to a solid matrix, so why not do it from the beginning, Carolyn, who cloned plants only when there had been critter damage in her tomato field or the man who worked for the man who used to use the land at our farm would cultivate and hook out some plants. And if I arrived there when the hooked out plants were still alive, you know, hearts beating, LOL, and they were hard to get varieties, then I'd clone them, stick the suckers right next to the damaged plants, build a wee moat around the cutting and keep it full of water until I saw new growth.

Tom (kentishman), Sorry, I've been out of touch for the Holidays. I have grown over a hundred varieties over the years and rarely grow the same ones each year, except for the Beefy Boys. I do like Dixie Golden Giant, Georgia Streak, Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, Coustralee among others. What are you looking for? Taste, Yield, Size, long season, Slicers, Salads, Color? Come on down to Rodger Winn's SPLATT next to the last weekend in July and see and taste dozens of different varieties. Jim