Tomato Growers had it and I ordered them. I have plants in the greenhouse right now.

Jay

Thanks, Jay.

I'll order some.

However, the question remains as Lemon Boy used to be
everywhere and now it's (almost) nowhere.

The Burpee thing, in particular, concerns me. I always
regarded Burpee as sort of the gold-plated standard for
getting good seeds (perhaps mistakenly). But when I see
the standard company that so many people have relied on
and the one with such a large market share selling seeds
that are not viable I have to sit up and wonder. No, this
is not an anti-corporate rant and I hope, if this thread
continues that it does not degenerate into that. I know
that seed quality is always in question, no matter where
you get them and non-viability can happen anywhere.

My purpose in writing this is to answer two questions:

a) Is Lemon Boy disappearing as a hybrid?

and

b) Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of
keeping something of value if the answer to a) is yes?

Along that line, does anyone have knowledge of who does
the actual breeding of Lemon Boy and where, etc., etc..

I always regarded Burpee as sort of the gold-plated standard for getting good seeds (perhaps mistakenly).

Yes, mistakenly. ;) There are many other sources for seeds that would rate a higher "gold-plated" rating than Burpee, sorry.

As already indicated, Dona hybrid seeds are still readily available as are Lemon Boy seeds, but online rather than in local stores. The seed sales market changed drastically last year and even more so this year because of the marked increase in online sales and pricing changes.

As transplants, that may be a different story as the pro growers grow what is in demand based on sales the previous year. IME Lemon Boy has never been a big demand variety, certainly not in this area, and there are many better low-acid yellows available, but if they sold lots of LB in your area last year the odds are they will be back this year too.

But if you wish to preserve a certain variety that you feel may be threatened, just buy as many seeds as you can afford and store them for the upcoming years. Tomato seed viability is quite long - many years - when properly stored.

Dave

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Dave,
I would really appreciate your telling me where to get
Dona hybrid seeds. If anyone has some, even if only a few
I would like to get some.
I have looked everywhere, even in Europe, and all I
find is OP. Frequently they are not identified on a
website but after inquiry it turns out to be OP. After many,
many hours of searching, my quest for Dona hybrid seeds
has produced zilch.
Of course, it's not that long ago that they were
discontinued, so there may be someone who has a few
seeds left in old stock. If you are reading this
and you have some, my comment is please, please, please.

By the way, I have actually spoken to a person at Vilmorin,
which is the company that originated Dona, and the answer
was a very definite,"Yes, it is discontinued". However,
has another company picked up the information and started
to breed real, true Dona?

I agree with Dave. Burpee does a great job of marketing their product in a retail setting. It is the name that people recognize. I usually don't buy much from them because of two reasons, price and number of seeds in a packet. One example is I forgot to buy a specific squash variety last year. It was late and I had to order it through them. I spend 4.50 for 10-12 seeds. I spent 3.00 this year, from someone else, and got over 40 seeds in a packet.

I don't want to slam Burpee either, I have used them in the past and some today, but I think there are better values in seed out there.

Jay

Tomatofest has Dona.

TGS, amoung others, has Lemon Boy.

Tomatofest has their own OP variety of Dona.
I've tried it and was unimpressed.

Jay and Dave,
Yes, I agree generally. Perhaps gold-plated was a bit
over-enthusiastic. Retail and Marketing appear to be the
key words. And yet, I have always expected them to be
consistent. I believe most folks would expect them to
have what they have and that it will grow. That's all.
There are certainly better values out there but as a last
resort, I wouldn't be alone in trying Burpee.

I'm not saying that I ever found very many Lemon Boy
seeds or plants but until now I always found what I
needed without an extensive search.

Just popping in to say Lemon Boy is a damn fine hybrid.
I would be sad to see it go.

I started trying to de-hybridize it this year.

sneezer

Did you see this about the discontinuation of the Dona tomato?

No, anney, I hadn't seen that but it's not news
as I got the same information directly from
Vilmorin. I've gotten as many of the OP strains
as I can and have tried a couple but they just don't
measure up.
Going back to the Lemon Boy, I think it certainly could
happen there too but no one will tell us until
afterwards. My suspicion is that may be what's going on.
Burpee sent me seeds that did not germinate - probably
too old. Totally Tomatoes has it listed on their site
with a nice picture but has a note that it is
"unavailable". A few others still have some.

This is why I asked my second question in an effort to
learn more about de-hybridizing. There is lots of
discussion around but I can find little real information
unless it is along the lines of saving several
generations of seed. In the case of Dona, that hasn't
worked. Somewhere I saw something about a method that
involved some back-crossing but I can't find it now.
I don't expect to recapture all the genetic background
but a little effort could yield something acceptable.

Sneezer,

Here is a nice little article discussing the dehybridization of tomatoes.

I grow Lemonboy last year and the production was great but for a yellowish tomato I prefer Dr Wyches Yellow, now I wish they would cross bred those.

Dean

Thanks Dean,

I haven't read that yet but will. If anyone has a more
detailed procedure, please contribute it.

Haven't tried Dr. Wyches. Maybe one of us should try
that crossbreeding. Up to now I've been satisfied
with Lemon Boy

Thanks again.

I saw lots of Lemon Boy transplants at my local wal-mart yesterday......