North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

Rodney Eveland wrote:
 I don't know where this will take us, but I'm hoping for
> a tasty, zone 3, indeterminate, perennial tomato that produces half a
> bushel of ripe tomatoes by the 4th of July in all of zone 4 and is
> resistant to every known tomato disease.

There is such a tomato, but it's an heirloom.  One modification to your wish
list, though.  It's a determinate.  If you want a half bushel of ripe
tomatoes by July 4, you have to plant a determinate.  An indeterminate
ripens its crop over a long period of time.

Silvery Fir Tree, a Siberian heirloom, sets fruit at  40F.  Each plant grows
about 30 inches high, sets fruits in clusters and ripens them in 56 days
from setting out transplants.  One plant will yield about 15 pounds of
fruit.  The plants are sturdy and don't need to be staked or caged.  They
seem to be resistant or tolerant of most diseases.  Even when planted in
ground where other tomatoes developed Early Blight, Silvery Fir Tree ripened
its crop before disease struck.  The plant has finely dissected foliage that
resembles carrot tops, another name for the variety.  Let a couple tomatoes
drop and rot into the ground when harvesting.  You'll have new seedlings the
following spring.  That's almost perennial.

Silvery Fir Tree seeds can be found at: www.seedsavers.org  or in the Tomato
Growers Supply catalog.
Doreen Howard