TOW-Spudakee

[darthslater]

Due to my very busy schedule,and the fact I wont be here Sunday, I am posting this weeks pic today!! This week we have a very nice treat. Spudakee!! Pics provided by our very own John Beidler. I know Baker Creek now offers this one but I also know that some of the folks here have one that varies to a degree.
My money is on our team, I hope Master Spud will chime in and enlighten us to the difference. I am growing this one from seeds obtained from a seed trade, so anything can happen. It always helps to know your sources! And from the looks of the photos John provided, this is an absoulute must have.
It looks similar to Cherokee purple. However I am told thats where the comparison stops. Better flavor and no concentric cracking, and its a Potato Leaf.



What a beauty, nicely done JT!!

[PVP]

I'm unaware that Baker Creek is offering Spudakee tomato seed. Baker Creek offered a potato leaf variant of Cherokee Purple reportedly found in Jere Gettle's garden in the mid-1990s, but it's my understanding from Bill Malin that he received seeds for what now is known as Spudakee a year or so earlier from a friend in Ohio.

I say Baker Creek "offered" a Cherokee Purple Potato Leaf, because I think they've even discontinued that at least temporarily after several customers grew pear shaped orange tomatoes from those seeds. Maybe I'm a year behind the times, but I don't think so. Anyone?





I grew these Spudakee tomatoes in 2007, and after bragging about them at IDigMyGarden forums, and listing them in the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook, I received a request for seeds from Green Zone (Randel) at Baker Creek Seeds. I sent him about 125 seeds so he'd have an ample supply for his growers, but subsequently have never seen or heard of Spudakee offered by Baker Creek (RareSeeds.com) at all.

I even asked Randel about it once a year or so ago, and if I remember correctly, he told me they had experienced "crop failure." Meanwhile, Spudakee has become very popular with a cult following of its own and has proven itself in a variety of climatic and soil conditions throughout the North America and Europe.


Peace, PV

[PVP]

What you might be thinking of is the "CSI" project that PrudencePurple (Timothy) is heading up over at IDig. There are several members growing out Cowlick's Brandywine, Spudakee and Indian Stripe and comparing their endurance and other qualities in hot, humid, cool, rainy, and various other conditions across the U.S.

Camochef and I sent a good supply of seeds to Timothy for distribution to his cohorts in the project. The Spudakee seeds I sent Timothy were grown in 2007 and 2008, here in Evansville at two different gardens with excellent results. I'm still getting over 90% germination from the 2007 seeds stored at room temperature and the plants coming from those seeds are still just as bodacious as in 2007 and 2008.

[carolyn137]

Over the last few years I've seen quite a few folks who have grown in the same season Cherokee Purple, Spudakee and Gettle's Cherokee Purple Potato Leaf.

Some think they're equivalent but most say they see differences in plant habit and taste especially.

But considering the various genetic ways that an RL can go to a PL that doesn't surprise me. Only if the leaf mutation is a spontaneous single mutation would the original RL and any PL variant be the same.

I used to think that all PL variants of an RL were single spontaneous mutations from the heterozygous RL to the homozygous PL recessive but several years ago Keith and I talked about it and I agree that DNA inversions, looping out and repeats can also lead to a PL variant of an RL and in those cases more than one gene can certainly be involved so apriori one can't automatically equate a PL variant of a variety with its original RL.

Carolyn

[tomstrees]

yup -

I remember reading that J. Gettle found CP PL in his patch -
wouldn't mind growing these 2 side by side (Spuds & Jers) if I was able to get my hands on BOTH varieties

~> Tom

[PVP]

I got a phone call from a fellow in Huntsville, Alabama today. He was inspecting rows of Spudakee, Indian Stripe and Big Cheef from seeds I sent down this winter. As he spoke to me from his garden, he couldn't stop raving about Spudakee, the huge fruit set he had gotten even in hot, humid weather and the large baseball to oversized pounders, pound and a half and even a few larger tomatoes just now beginning to turn ripe.


Peace, PV

[bluelacedredhead]

PV, you mention regional as well as comparisons based on weather conditions.
Any forerunner in the wet and rainy conditions the Northeast has been plagued with in 2009 and again, in 2010??

[bammer]

I'm the one in Bama that Papavic sent seeds to. Yes this is a top tomato, My opinion it's better than the Cherokee purple RL. I found it to be a top producer, it produced steady for 6-8 weeks, the extreme heat we had the end of July thru August shut most of the production down, it's cooled down some recently and it's still producing somewhat smaller but still edible maters. It has landed a spot on the every year list in my mater patch. Oh yea the taste .... It's there folks By the way Big Cheef and Indian stripe are still producing also.

[amideutch]

This is a Spudakee I grew in 08 with Ludmilla's Red Plum behind and my dogs tennis ball. Seed from Spud. Ami

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[tomc]

Jun 18, 2010 12:02:06 GMT -5 bluelacedredhead said:

PV, you mention regional as well as comparisons based on weather conditions.
Any forerunner in the wet and rainy conditions the Northeast has been plagued with in 2009 and again, in 2010??

As far as cold and wet northeast, I think we're strewed. I've not found one.

[bluelacedredhead]

Tom,

We didn't have nearly as much rain this year so most of the tomatoes I planted grew, unlike last year. This is also my second year here and the garden has had some amendment although it still has a long way to go before I would consider it decent soil.

What are growing best for me this year are the Jersey Giants, Wisconsin 55 Gold, Stupice, Moreton's Hybrid and Taos Trail.
With the exception of the Moreton's Hybrid, the others are varieties I had never grown in the past. They'll be regulars in my garden from now on.

[klorentz]

I picked some this week and are just about ready.Very nice looking maters.


Kevin