If that man in the picture posted near the beginning of this thread by korney19 on July 4th is Gordon Graham, he sure looks like a friendly and nice person to me. I think it's great that someone that cheerful and friendly looking was the person who ended up with the world record for a giant tomato. I seriously doubt that anyone will match or beat the 7 pound, 12 ounce world record. That's really a freakishly huge tomato. If it can be done though, it makes sense that it will be done most likely with a tomato plant with the same genes. So it's really nice that Dr. Meisner is offering to help people who get a kick out of growing gigantic tomatoes by offering them seeds descended from Gordon Graham's monster tomato.

So it was stable, until it wasn't stable, for the reason I just gave. I win. LOL That stealthy lubadub seems to have gone *poof*, I'd consult with him before even conceding Love-15 since he is more fun than me LOL! I think in order to judge the merits of "Big Zac F1" as a cultivar; we need to compare opinions on what constitutes a cultivar. It can be subjective and perhaps with heirlooms much more so, but now we are asking about traits that result from inbred parent lines. That the seeds were an F1 cross certainly is reasonable acknowledgment. However, anecdotal reports of “Minnie’s friends” are not sufficient proof IMO, that Big Zac F1 ever was a hybrid cultivar. To know that for sure, IMHO, we would have to have a record of the breeding of both parents to form stable inbred parent lines such that when crossed they always gave a vigorous seed and always had the same combination of characteristics to clearly define the seed plant characteristics every time in terms of its characteristics not limited to consistent fused blossoming and vigor. Porterhouse is probably a good example of a hybrid in this sense. If you mean to say that our heronie Ms. Zaccaria worked on both parent lines and Big Zac F1 was not drifting this or that way then I'll readily concede in straight sets. I vaguely recall as an armchair blabbing analyst who was off somewhere in the tropical jungles when this whole thing went down, a somewhat different version: That she simply crossed two heirlooms and used that as her F1 and little by little improved it, which I assume was via the parent lines. I would need more than a a few friends waving their arms calling this a quality F1 hybrid that always performed "the same" There is a limit to how much "in-variety genetic diversity" there can be, and everything may not be recognized as a cull when this is done in a home garden. At some point you need to say the genetic diversity did not justify calling it a stable F1 hybrid, and you are just dealing with a cross. Dealing with a cross is great, but the decision to name a variety is subjective and I'm sure plenty of varieties have been named that had parents that later were show not to breed true. The scandal of losing a parent to me is highly suspicious and the loss is hearsay which may or may not be relevant or true. To be honest, after watching the passion with which giant tomato growers behold their seeds like Smeagol's "My Precious", given the nature of the egos in the competition, my only conclusion is that Big Zac F1 was simply a cross between two heirloom lines which had a higher frequency of expression of fused blossoms. I wonder if it is more accurate that Ms. Zaccaria discovered and should be credited with a higher frequency of fused blossoms, possibly a mutation, possibly not, which was still quite variable and requires significant resources to achieve the heterosis and uniformity a quality hybrid needs to give. New breeding has probably advanced BZ (OP) well beyond the F1 from what we are seeing, and they still do not consider it stable (Unless the F* from Monsieur Boudyo has reached that point for a single specific trait). I may have different thinking, since I also believe if the mutation is fixed and a consistent tomato producing multiple fruits is bred, that the new stable cultivar should be the beginning of as new subspecies at minimum recognized as different as broccoli is from cauliflower. Perhaps when my great heirloom book arrives in the Male (smile), I’ll have a better understanding of hybrids ;-), but these are my thoughts as all-wet as they might be. PC who really wants to ask a question about the systemic or not characteristics of initial Leaf Mold (whimper, frown) when I get up the guts to start another thread. and also subscribes to the academy of "it isn't how big it is but how well it eats" though still finding this fascinating in other people's gardens. This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Sat, Aug 30, 14 at 14:25

Very good information, chas045. Thanks. I have always suggested everyone to get a generator. Weather problems will be with us for the next century. You need to power up your heating system in the winter. Pipes bursting in the winter can cost you thousands. You need to run your water pump if you have a well. You need to keep your refrigerator going. It's good to have lights, computer, phones and internet. I am not advocating this, because it is illegal. Back-feeding with a generator is the cheapest way to go to power up half of your house. However, I always find it difficult to understand with the main technical reason that back-feeding can kill a lineman. A professional lineman takes all kinds of precaution when he is working. If you don't turnoff your main breaker, you simply cannot start your generator. Your generator will be attempting to power up your entire neighborhood and all the street lights. Repeat: Don't do it, just use a heavy duty extension cord. It is not that painful to use an extension cord for a few days. A 1,000 watt generator is about $200. How big a generator do you need? Incandescent light about 100 watts CFL light, 25 watts Computer about 100 watts Phone charger, 1 watt Small electric fan, 50 watts Microwave, 600 to 1,250 watts Toaster oven, about 1,800 watts Refrigerator, Freezer, depending on size, from 800 watts Attic fan, 350 watts Forced air heating system fan, 500 watts Refrigerator, 20 cf, 800 watts TV, 250 watts Air conditioner, about 1 watt/BTU rating Hair dryer, up to 1,850 watts Electric oven, forget about it. Takes too much power. Electric water heater, 2,500 watts to 4,500 watts. Three other important things to keep in mind, besides capacity of a generator. 1. full-load running time 2. Noise level - quiet generators are more expensive. But you don't want your neighbors complaining. 60 dbs is very quiet. You will get lots of complains at about 80 dbs. 3. weight - A good 2,000 watt generator can be light enough to go camping with, others can be very heavy to transport. dcarch

lilsophie and others, the first episode is available to stream for free at A&E. Most of their shows require you to sign up with your tv provider info, which I don't have and i suspect they won't show many or maybe any more episodes without it.