Village Red Tomatoes

Let me tell you about a Tomato I called Village Red, a self sown potato leaf seedling that ‘appeared’ in my garden in Cranbourne many years ago. The season before this seedling appeared, I grew 6X Casey's Pure Yellow tomato plants as a grow out for Jeff Casey in Canada to help him out, because my garden was already full I grew these plants in tubs. These plants were a yellow fruited tomato, which had accidentally crossed in the growers garden a few years earlier and he was attempting to grow them out. The story is that the plants grew well in the tubs and yellow fruit grew as expected, but I didn’t much like the taste, so sent seeds back to the grower and then gave away the remaining seeds to a friend in Marysville.

After the tomatoes finished, I later planted some Chillies in the tubs so as not to waste the potting mix. In one pot a self sown tomato plant emerged, so I pricked it out and grew it. This I know had come from one of the yellow fruited tomatoes, but I found it confusing as to where the seed came from. To cut a long story short, I grew the plant and it threw red fruits, but these fruits were great looking, large globe shaped and when cut showed a velvet like texture inside.

What was this plant, the filial cross was already in the seed inside the yellow fruited tomato, so the F3 or F4 of the yellow, had now reverted to a red fruited plant in my garden. The seed saved from this original plant actually grew very tasty tomatoes, but that didn’t last very long, as each year after, the plant produced mongrel fruits, the last year I grew it, the fruits reverted back to yellow and the shape had changed to a big Roma shaped egg. I bag all my seed, so with each generation, the changes kept showing.

The last few years I’ve grown out the seed from the very first red tomato I got, but the seed is getting old now and it will eventually be lost. Over the years with the changes, it has thrown both regular leaf and potato leaf plants. The reality is that it’s not worth pursuing any further, but it has been good to see just how a plant can change from one season to the next when it’s unstable, as this one is.

The funny thing is that the yellow fruited plant became a stable plant and its seed is sold online from the grower who gave me the seed in the first place. Apparently the taste is excellent and has been a great seller for the guy.

For this season, I’m growing out a regular leaf plant from last seasons potato leaf seed in the hope something changes in the regular leaf types.