Part 1 “Italian Pink Pear” This is a given name not a cultivar (cultivated variety) name, hence double quotation marks rather than single marks. a C. E. R. E. S. Seed Savers experiment. Background  The Italian cultivar 'Liguria' Presumably we will assume, for the sake of the argument, that from this original cv. of the Liguria region of Italy, famous for its olives, a number of related varieties have been developed in various parts of the world. It is fair to describe all of these as being of the "Liguria type". We even spotted a "semi-black" version called 'Black Pear'. Our "Italian Pink Pear" I would describe as a non-determinate sauce tomato of the Liguria type. The funny thing about it is that it starts as pear-shaped in the early green stages of the fruit but transforms (or degenerate) as it matures. The qualities of the fruit such as earliness, productivity, sweetness, low moisture content of a typical sauce-tomato etc. remain however or rather did remain because in 2009, possibly under the extreme stresses of drought, wind conditions and rationning in irrigation some degeneration has been noticed. The resistance to fruit cracking has disappeared and the early maturing and fruiting for which "our tomato" was noted have been pushed beyond their limit. The original seeds of this "variety" were saved from fruits bought in a Geelong shop (South Eastern Australian). These seeds were grown by 2 successive Australian home gardeners for a number of years and the resulting seeds passed on to the CERES Seed Savers. With this history in mind it is fair to assume that perhaps some degeneration has occurred via accidental cross pollination or more likely lack of proper selection. This makes it a typical seed saver variety. The name we gave it reflects the physical appearance of the fruit as well as the origin of the plant but should not be considered as a cultivar name in the prevailing political views on the worldwide seed market (refer to the court case Baumaux vs. Kokopelli). It reminds us all also that saving seeds from fruits bought at the green grocer is not a good way to start unless one is prepared to go through a lot of experimentation, testing, selection, and heartache in the process.  Green fruit stage. So far so good.  Ready to eat but where is the beautiful shape?  Our justification for calling this tomato Italian Pink Pear, unfortunately never more than a proportion of the fruits are pear-shaped. These fruits are placed on a large dinner plate, on top of a round table. We are waiting for permission to reproduce photos under the bolded names below. We welcome offers of photos of these cultivars. Possible parentage of our initial “Italian Pink Pear” Pera d’Abruzzo could be described as being of the Liguria group.  We find a small proportion of those fruits among our Italian Pink Pear This is often wrongly described as a "Coeur de Boeuf" type of tomato. Possible parentage of our initial “Italian Pink Pear” Petra’s Geribde could be described as being of the Liguria group. 'San Marzano' Possible parentage of our initial “Italian Pink Pear” Super Italian Paste tomato Possible parentage of our initial “Italian Pink Pear” "When we officially recognise the failure of our experiment it will be possible to fall back on the following varieties." This statement generated strong protests from my colleagues at the meeting of April 2009. My response was that we can choose to adopt the positive approach and call our Italian Pink Pear a "genetic reservoir", a way of saying a hybrid concoction. Why not after all? Modern seed companies sell far more hybrids than so called "open-pollinated" varieties these days. As long as we can reproduce our variety or carry on our "reservoir" let us go for it. The Liguria type or Piriforme type.  Poire rouge 'Franchi'  A modern cultivar   The grower told us that due to circumstances below his control he never saw the mature fruits. We believe that it was a red fruited tomato, not a yellow one, but we have been proven wrong before. Indeed we have never come across a yellow pear-shaped tomato that is normal size.  All the above should not be confused with the mini pear tomatoes commonly found on the market. These are placed by some taxonomists in the (Cherry Group). We would say Cherry Group, Piriforme sub-group Mini Yellow Pear Mini Red Pear False pear tomatoes See examples on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ljc_pics/1244914127/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ljc_pics/1245777252/in/photostream/ of a tomato labelled as "New Zealand Pink Pear" which is in fact a typical "Beefheart" tomato. Seed companies, greengrocers, and gardeners commonly make this mistake. This will be the subject of another article.  Red, yellow and orange versions of this type are available. References for tomato cultivars The following are collections of cultivar names with good photos and descriptions in different languages. 1. < http://tomodori.com/fichephoto.php?nom=Liguria >. Excellent site on tomatoes. French text. 2. An excellent tomato database by Nelly Dolezal < http://www.nellystomaten.com/tomatenrassen.htm > text in Dutch. 3. Graines Baumaux catalogue – tomato section: < http://www.graines-baumaux.fr/catalogue.php?cat=1&sscat=120 > French text. 4. < http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/tomato_seeds.htm >. English text. 5. Seed Savers Exchange, USA. Tomato list. < http://www.seedsavers.org/Items.aspx?hierId=43 >. English text. 6. The "professionals" may prefer this style of databased material. Personally I find it unpractical, especially when one is faced with mostly numbers such as accession numbers). Searching 20 000 cultivars can be problematic. Where do you store 20 000 photos? < http://documents.plant.wur.nl/cgn/pgr/tomato/searchform.asp >. |
