Agreed Mike - on several levels. @ struw - What - non-pathogenic tumors? Bacteria can be non-pathogenic. As far as I know genetic mutation is non-pathogenic, though it could be argued that you have to have a trigger, such as lack of UV light to turn it on, which is perhaps where they were going with it, but that's not stated in the article. And there are no additional studies to confirm this. The only one that comes close was done by Tibbitts in '83. And as far as citations, fine. Here's one. This one (which "cites" Morrow and Tibbitt's work) offers the following: "specifically, intumescences develop when the interaction of high temperature and high humidity causes the rate of water absorption by plant tissues to exceed the transpiration rate. Other environmental factors, including light quality, may also promote (Morrow and Tibbitts 1988) or inhibit (Jones and Burgess 1977) intumescence formation. The developmental process of intumescence formation is unclear. Balge et al. (1969) and Eisa and Dobrenz (1971) described the rupturing of epidermal cells caused by cell enlargement (hypertrophy) of underlying water-soaked palisade cells, the walls of which have been softened by cellulase activity (Kawase 1981). Other studies indicate that intumescences are formed predominantly by cell division (hyperplasia; La Rue 1933c) or by a combination of hyperplasia and hypertrophy (Wolf and Lloyd 1912) that may be cytokinin- or auxin-regulated (Morrow and Tibbitts 1988)." At the beginning it states that M&T (among others) wrongly portrayed these to be tumors and that they are instead blown up cells. While light temperature "may" promote or inhibit this effect, the main culprits are humidity and temperature. And I've spent more time than I care to on this. I wont' even vouch for this study, but I do feel an obligation to block bad science/advice when I see it. And I personally think this post pretty much falls into those categories. I'd hate to think of all the newbies (not unlike myself) trying to figure out how to wire up small halogen lights to their fluorescent fixtures.

I've grown it from seeds and plants from different sources, known variously as Big Beefsteak, Crimson Cushion and Red Ponderosa and it always makes a big, vigorous plant that needs a 6' tall cage, unless I grow it in a smallish container. I have two this year, both purchased transplants from Bonnie Plants that I bought in February, transplanted into 4 to 10 gallon pots, and grew them as my early tomatoes. I never intended to keep them in those pots for long---I just wanted a good crop of early tomatoes from them. We harvested from those plants from April through July and the plants got about 4' tall and about as wide in what definitely would be considered small containers. My biggest problem with them this year was the wind which kept breaking the limbs because they were so heavily loaded with fruit. I grow Red Ponderosa, which is the name I prefer to use for it since I first grew it from seed with that name, about once every 3 or 4 years and we like it just fine. They do set well in heat as long as the humidity is not excessive. I like their flavor better in dry years than in really wet years. There are some other large-fruited tomatoes that produce very well in dry heat/drought and not nearly as well in wet heat/drought, so I think that for some varieties, the amount of humidity is at least as important as the heat. I don't compare growth rates of different Indeterminates to one another much because it can vary a great deal depending on whether the plant is in a container or in the ground, the soil quality, the weather, how early or late the plant was transplanted, etc. I don't think I've ever noticed that this variety is necessarily smaller than other Indeterminates when grown in the ground. I have some plants that are still producing, but they aren't producing up to my usual standards...and I don't even care. It is just too hot and we have had tons of tomatoes before it got so hot, so I am content with whatever we get at this point, especially since I'm not watering the beds of tomatoes.

How about the bicolors? I seem to recall seeing pics of some bicolors that had some pink-ier aspects to them. Northern Lights maybe? ***** Nope. I don't think so. Most of those are gold/pink:red bicolors and the exterior pink is not prominent. There are a few that color up almost entirely, I think I have Mary Robinson in mind, but that exterioe color is reddish, not pink. (I agree, the Gogotha pics I can find look good. It's darker than a strawberry milkshake pink, but it looks good.) Looking at photos is OK to a point, but the only way to know the true color, in any one season, is to grow it. And I say anyone season b/c from season to season, and based on how folks grow their tomatoes as in what amendments, as well as weather, there CAN be color differences for the same variety. (Weird idea: What would you get if you crossed a white tomato with a pink tomato, let it sort itself out for a couple of generations? Great White x Gogotha?) Who knows what you'd get after making some selections. LOL Why don't you look at Big White Pink Stripes first? ( smile) Carolyn, who notes that she's seen the variety Dr, Carolyn as baby pink to adolescent pink to a senior citizen darker pink in various seasons. Sigh.

While it is really somewhat questionable to plant seeds from what are almost certainly hybrid tomatoes, since what you get may be a formally edible but unexciting fruit, it should be understood that planting seeds straight out of a plant is not optimal for germination. Mature seeds should be fermented, by placing them in water with some of the pulp and left in a warm place for a week. Then wash off the icky stuff and dry. Tomato seed harvesters know this strategy well. Here's why. When seeds mature, they are naturally encased in a protective gel coating. This is the slippery coating around seeds when they come out of the fruit. That gel coating has a hormone called abscisic acid that actually inhibits germination. That's why when you crack open a mature fruit, the seeds aren't all already sprouting! Microbial fermentation is an easy way to break down that gel, metabolize abscisic acid, and allow germination. Not all seeds have this protective gel. Solanacea and Cucumis commonly do. Some may say that, hey, I can plant mature seeds without fermentation, and they grow fine! That's because sitting moist in soil, especially anaerobically, the gel will break down naturally, But it will require more time, and may not work completely. That gel is natures way of making sure that new seeds don't sprout in the winter, but will wait a while, ideally until spring. FWIW, fermentation can also kill off disease spores.