North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Rodney Eveland" <reveland@collinscom.net>]

Thank you for the information. The one thing you left out of your
description of Silvery Fir was taste. How would you describe the taste
of Silvery Fir? I wished for an indeterminate as they bear longer and
when we are "creating" our own plants using genetic modification you
might as well ask for everything. I could have asked for a pine tree
that has tomatos rather than pine cones, but I don't want to have to
climb up in a tree to pick a tomato and I wanted a perennial as you
only have to plant them once.

I see you call yourself "Gardendiva". Do you sing to your plants?
Anyhow if Silvery Fir is a tasty tomato ( I like sweet 100), I'll
certainly give it a try. Thanks for the info.


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