Although that article was published today and says the varieties may soon be available, fact is Scarlet Red and Mountain Glory already are available at Stokes; and I've seen Red Defender sold somewhere, but cannot remember where just now.

In fact, I bought some Scarlet Red seeds out of Stokes last year. Decent tomato. And I grew Mt. Glory last summer from seeds sent in advance, some of which I shared with growers in Texas and Carolina who also got good, flavorful results. Mountain Glory is a TSWV version of Mountain Spring but has way more flavor.

I had no idea these tomatoes were product of an advancement in flavor enhancing technology until Keith M. sent me this article tonight. Gotta marvel at what the modern seed breeders have been able to do.

hoosier,

The article says the ones you list above are only available to commercial growers - - not home gardeners. However, it says a variety called "Fabulous" has been around and may be available to us mere Mortals. Question: has anyone ever heard of Fabulous and where could one go about getting these seeds?

Raybo

Raybo, I don't care what it says. I bought Scarlet Red and grew it last year. I'll post links to the catalog sources when I get time to find them.

Scarlet Red is at the bottom of This Page of Stokes online catalog.

Mountain Glory is at the top of This Page of the same catalog.

It's gonna take me a while to find Red Defender because I think it's in the Twilley catalog and that's at my office and they don't have an online catalog.

In any case, all three of those varieties are available to home gardeners. I think Mountain Glory might even be in the 2009 Totally Tomatoes catalog, too.

Fabulous has been available from Parks Seeds for several years. It's a bit prone to BER in chronic wet conditions. A friend of mine grows it in the field and in his hoop houses for his farm stand.

Bill and Ray

Harris Seeds lists a Red Defender F-1 seeds

Len

thanks Bill,

While the article praises Fabulous, I can't ever remember anyone here posting it in their "favorites" list. Maybe Carolyn has a sound-bite on it.

Raybo

Thank you, Troad. I looked at the online Harris catalog. Good news! They have all of those new varieties named in the article.

Harris Seed 2009 Catalog

Hi Bill, are you saying that "Mountain Glory" is related to the other "Mountains" of Dr. Randy Gardner at North Carolina State fame? If so I'd be interested in trying Mountain Glory. I've grown a couple "Mountains" before and they were perfect looking tomatoes with great set on 3 foot tall plants. The "Mountains" are the number 1 commercial tomatoes sold around here. Man, if you can get them to taste great too you'd really have something there!

BigDaddy,

Yes, Mountain Glory is Mountain Spring (a Randy Gardner tomato) with TSWV-resistance added.

Last year a fellow from Rogers/Sygenta sent a quantity of seed for us to grow in the Master Gardener Display Garden here to trial them for area gardeners. He sent so many seeds that I sent some out to two people in Texas and a couple more in North and South Carolina, since they have the TSWV problem.

The reports I got back from Texas was 50 or more extra large, tasty tomatoes on a 3-foot vine. They also said the flavor was good and had some tomato tartness to it. And what we got here surprised me for a Mountain series tomato. It actually tasted pretty good.

"While the article praises Fabulous, I can't ever remember anyone here posting it in their "favorites" list. Maybe Carolyn has a sound-bite on it." Raybo
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Since no one is responding in regard to the flavor of the Fabulous tomato, let me post the results of a 2007 taste test covering several heirloom, standard and hybrid tomatoes where one caption under a picture said, "Fabulous is probably the best tasting round red commercial variety that weÂve ever trialed. These are best packed in flat trays due to a somewhat tender skin."

There are charts ranking the cherry and slicer tomatoes by yield and taste rankings. Very interesting results in all categories!

Here's a link to an interesting article!

Boy, do those tomatoes look great, HC! Just the thought of a tablefull of tomatoes and picking a big one for a sandwich makes my mouth water!

Your link is a great resource for those who raise tomatoes for sale, given the information about taste, size, production and packability. Useful for home gardeners, too.