I grew the fabulous large, tasty, dense CG first over 10 years ago. When my seed packet was gone, I bought more. Not the same. The current one from seedsfromitaly.com is called "valente" variety that is not very fluted and not very good. Have bought CG seeds many places in a quest for that great tomato that I used to grow. All are different. This year I found the reason. Found seeds that I had saved from my great CG over 10 years ago. Every plant produced vastly different fruit in size and shape. Most good-tasting. My original CG had to have been a hybrid that we believed to be an OP. Some fruit were perfectly smooth. Some partly fluted in varying degrees. The only one that was totally fluted like the original was only an inch wide. Every seller has a different plant as CG. The reason is probably that they grew out selections from that hybrid. I have given up finding the great CG. But there is an alternative. I believe that the future of tomatoes is in heritage mariage: the creation of hybrids from good-tasting, but yukky, OPs. (Think Brandy Boy!) For two years, I have grown Genuwine (one version of CG x Brandywine). Looks like the old large fluted CG. Tastes fabulous. Unbelievable production - 8-10 times as much fruit as a Brandywine and more than the wonderful old CG. 6 to 8 large fruit every 6 inches along the stem. Packed so densely that they are difficult to pick.

oakleif, Oh no,! Don't say that! My page is outdated and somewhere in that changeover that GW did, they lost all my links! So now it doesn't make since and I'd have to really look to dig to see if I even have a copy anywhere... Sigh! I pretty much hang out in the Vegetable Forum. What happened when GW changed over anyway? I missed what sounds like was a pretty big mess. As for a swap... how about meeting out at the Nathaniel Greene park in Springfield on either of these days? Sunday, April 22 at Noon-? (Earth Day appropriately enough) Sunday, May 6 at Noon-? We can vote on a day and narrow it down to a pavillion, probably the one on the North side of the park that has a parking lot somewhat close to it. Not sure if they have to be reserved. You'd definitely have to bring a chair. Everyone can "bring a dish" get plants potted up, plan trades (wait for me! my plants are barely up yet!) It's also just a few yards away from the MG Demonstration Gardens so eveyone can mill around at their leisure. If you have extra pots or gardening tools you no longer need, you can drop them off so the MG volunteers can use them for the gardens to it might be a good time to do some spring cleaning. But we can work on details later. It's been a while since I've seen you guys... what d'ya think? Sound like a plan? Let's start voting on a date!

Costoluto Genovese is definitely POTATO-leafed. I am growing about ten plants, started from seed, and it is definitely potato-leafed. My seeds are also from Italy. **** The seeds being from Italy for both of you doesn't change the fact that all of the Costolutos are RL and always have been. In the past two years or so there have been major problems at several seed sites with their contacts in Italy sending them wrong seeds. The best example was at Baker Creek last year when they listed German Red Strawberry, but it wasn't. A heart variety is broad at the top and then tapers down, but this one was the exact opposite, narrow at the top and broad and ribbed at the bottom. And several seed sites got the same wrong seeds and one even called it Cuor di Bue, which was really wrong. The folks at Baker Creek traced the seeds back to their US supplier who traced the seeds back to Italy. Plain and simple, wrong seeds from Italy. I've linked below to the page at Tania's data base for the genovese one and if you check out the other two you'll also find that the leaf form is RL and if you could see those who list this variety in the SSE YEarbook you'd also see that no one lists a PL. And if you do a Google search for any one of them, genovese is the one most often offered, you['d also see that it's RL. Check out TGS ( Tomato Growers Supply) and you'll also find that genovese is RL. Linda at TGS is very particular about giving right information and note that at TGS leaf form is not given unless it's PL. So I'm sorry to say that both of you have gotten wrong seeds from Italy and it's been happening more and more lately as I tried to indicate above. What is the name of the seed company you dealt with in Italy or bought your seeds from, as in what's the name on the seed packs? Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Costoluto Genovese ( Tania's site)

My NAR seeds never came up when I planted them, so I had to put Delicious in the place of NAR in my garden this year. I've heard Delicious is a good variety, but some say it's not the most flavorful (while others say the opposite). One tomato NOT to try is White Wonder. Tried that last year...first ripe one was sliced and put on sandwiches. They didn't have much of any tomato flavor at all, and the texture wasn't very meaty. They looked nice though. But I ain't growing them again. If you want a strong, acidic flavor, try Hank. Tomatobob.com sends free Hank seeds with every order (or you could just buy some). The tomatoes are all under 3 inches wide, but with an acidic bite and good red tomato flavor. I found a slightly bitter edge to some. But they were too seedy for me - not planning on growing those again either.