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Ankeny, Iowa

Hey everyone. I hope all of you are having a great season and enjoying some HUGE pumpkins. It's been a while since I've posted anything on here.
I have a question about Big Zac tomatoes. I'm thinking about growing some of these next year, but I heard that the plants aren't true from seed. So how do you know when you buy the seeds that your plants will be all Big Zacs and not some other cross?

Junior

9/22/2009 9:10:10 PM

Winston Salem NC

really no way to know if any seed it true to variety. Best thing to do is get them from a source you trust.
Rick

9/22/2009 10:07:30 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

http://www.totallytomato.com/quickSearch1.asp

9/23/2009 12:11:26 AM

ExtremeVegetables.com

The F1 seeds you buy SHOULD all grow true to their description. If you save seed from those F1's, the following season they may or may not grow true to the original plant.
I don't see that as a problem with Big Zac and from what I have seen of the F2 seeds which have been grown from Big Zac it makes me wonder even Big Zac is an F1 at all.
That being said.
The heaviest tomato recorded by the GPC which should be Brant Timm's 5.58 was grown off of the 3.9 Catapano 07 which was originally grown from a Lyon's seed which was a Big Zac.

9/23/2009 6:47:47 AM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

Let me get this straight as it is a bit confusing. Lyons grew a Big Zac using purchased seed. (What did it weigh and when was it grown?) Using seed obtained from the Lyons' tomato, Catapano grew a 3.9 pound tomato in 07. Capatano sent some seed from his 3.9 pound tomato to Brant Timm and he grew a 5.58 pound tomato using that seed. Have I got it right? I know for certain that Big Zac is a hybrid. This year I know people are growing tomatoes from seed obtained from the Timm tomato. Anyone know what they got?

10/1/2009 10:45:19 PM

ExtremeVegetables.com

Yes, you've got that right.
I don't know what the Lyon's fruit weighed. Brant Timm may be able to answer that.

The 5.0 Timm, 3.87 Timm and 3.68 Timm all came from a two pound tomato grown by Brant in 2005 which was originally a Delicious. In three years he selected up from two pounds to five, one pound per year.

The 5.58, 5.32, 4.29 were all grown from the 3.9 Catapano which were grown off of the Lyons seed which were originally Big Zac.

10/2/2009 6:17:29 AM

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

Marv, the tomato that grew the Catapano 3.9 was the Lyons 4.59 from 2006.

10/2/2009 10:03:30 AM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

The Delicious is an heirloom variety whereas Big Zac is a hybrid. Somehow when we talk about these seeds we are going to have to use the name of the original seed. For example the Timm tomato from Delicious might go something like "2008 Delicious Timm 5.0" because if we don't we will have trouble keeping all of this straight. It would be a mistake to abandon the use of the variety name as some of these varieties are over 100 years old. I am not certain how the new seeds should be named but the grower should not be taking away the name of the variety and substituting his own but rather he might add his as noted.The 5.8 pound tomato grown by Timm is actually a Big Zac f3, a third generation of Big Zac. Confused? Thoughts?

10/2/2009 2:58:58 PM

virginia

Yelp i think you are correct Lubadub,,,,,,,,,greg

10/2/2009 3:32:20 PM

Nekoosa, Wisconsin

If you plant a seed from a hybrid should it still carry the hybrid name? It's not really a hybrid anymore. Just throwing it out for discussion. :)

10/2/2009 3:56:25 PM

Ankeny, Iowa

Thank you everyone for your help. I know way more about pumpkins than I do tomatoes, but I think a Big Zac will be worth giving a try next year.

Junior

10/10/2009 10:31:12 AM