Orange Minsk is beefsteak shaped not heart shaped at all, so I don't know where those fruits came from.

What was the source of your OM seed; I know it wasn't me. LOL I know Victory Seeds offers it and possibly Gleckler's and I know I sent it to Glenn at Sandhill. heck, I sent it to those tomato places where I know the owners well and trust what they do.

or maybe you traded for it? Strange to see two distinct fruit forms on the same plant although I have seen that before, years ago with one variety, and never saved seeds from anything on that plant b'c I couldn't be sure of what the deal was.

And I was so impressed with OM that I sent it for trial to quite a few places. If I had my notebook here next to me I could tell you those places. I always send to Linda at TGS but she's so far behind with trials that we decided I wouldn't send any more right now. But she DID trial the OM I sent her last year so I know in a year or two she will be listing it b'c sh absolutely loved it.

I first offered Orange Minsk in my seed offer elsewhere two years ago so have seen quite a few pictures of it. And see the pictures I linked to below from a Google IMAGES.

Carolyn, who says those are BIG RED, go Cornell, not yellow fruits you show there. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange Minsk

Thank you Carolyn. I think Red too on the CB Yellow Giant. I'll do the epidermis test when I eat one maybe tomorrow or the next day.

On the OM, yes I got the seeds in a trade. On the Google Image link you posted I must say they DO look like mine that are beefstake on the plant and on the pic below you can see a big heart shaped one on the upside down tomato in the pic. I had one just like that! It's like 70% are beefstakey and 30% Hearty on the same plant and I have three plants of it outside, two caged and one sprawling because I ran out of cages at 30 plants...;-)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_i4JNVpnkIoo/SpwGdRnXRXI/AAAAAAAAB1A/FRHth4LmwWk/s200/O+Min.JPG

At least one person who listed Orange Minsk in the Seed Saver's Exchange yearbook described it as a "bomb shaped tomato" and they listed their source as Andrey Baranovski. So, perhaps there is some variation in shape?

Betsy

Bets, yes the person I got it from got their seeds from Andrey and reported back that mine are like hers.

Carolyn, I did a taste and epidermis test this morning. Tastes very good. Like a Brandywine but less creamy and more juicy. Lots of seeds but lots of meat too. Definitely BLT worthy. When compared upside down to a Sudduth Brandy it's color is a slightly darker pink. Epidermis looks clear to me. I'm calling it a dark pink. So "Claude Brown's Dark Pink Not Yellow Giant"....;-)

Betsy, I just looked at the 2010 listings for ORange Minsk, and everyone got their seeds from either Andrey or me and all reported beefsteak fruits with that one exception and that person says from Andrey. Now I don't know if the person means from Andrey directly or is just citing him as the original source, or who got it from my free seed offer elsewhere, or whatever.

I first listed it in 2009 and was the sole lister and then Andrey also listed it int the 2010. So the person couldn't have gotten it from Andrey in 2009 from his listing b'c he didn't list it.

I've also received feedback from some who got it from me in the seed offer last year and grew it out last summer, and they got beefsteaks as well.

So I'm not sure what's up with the one person saying bomb shaped varieties. it's possible that that person traded for saved seeds from my 2009 listing for it from someone who got it from me and those saved seeds weren't true, but then why did this person list it as Orange Minsk with bomb shaped fruit b'c I'd like to think that the person knew that wasn't correct and would not list something that was not OM.

Ah well, I could sit here and come up with all sorts of scenarios and never know what happened. LOL

Carolyn, who would appreciate it Big D if you could save some seeds from the best HEART looking one for lil ole me and I can make it up to you with another "goodie". You know that hearts are my faves and I'd like to see if this one truly is a heart.

I had another thought, I do that sometimes. LOL

I checked Tania's page for Orange Minsk to see who was listing it and I checked all three seed sources and all were listing OM as a beefsteak as was Tania herself.

As Tania said, Andrey distributed a lot of seed for OM thru another place and it wouldn't surprise me one bit that some traded seeds might not be what they should be due to Cross pollination. Just a guess and assumption whether deserved or not.

Carolyn

I like heart shaped so it wouldn't bother me a bit. I'm seeing OM mentioned quite a lot lately must be very good. My hubby who thought tomatoes-are-tomatoes got the shock of his life wish I had a picture of his face when he tasted our first KB. His description of the taste would have made you proud Carolyn. I was alway amazed how you described the taste of tomatoes in your book one would think you were talking about a fine wine--well, that's how my hubby was talking after tasting this KB. :)

Andrey has just posted at another site where OM was being discussed and said that it's what he calls an "amateur" variety that he got at a farmers market so different shapes could be possible.

That's fine, but except for the one SSE person and now this bomby heart one, ahem, all others who have grown it that we KNOW about have gotten beefsteaks.

Carolyn

Heart Bombs LOL! I am getting more heart bombs than beefstakes on the same plant! My wife loves them because she says they don't give her mouth sores. I think they are good but not great. KBX is GREAT! (4 Big KBX Beefstakes ripening top right of center)The OM plants are VERY productive! In the pic below you can see a bunch of them in the upper left. We ate the Bomb at 5 across 3 down this morning. It was fully ripe. (4 across 4 down another bomb)

Carolyn, I have already a batch of seeds fermenting of OM but I used two OM beefstakes. I didn't bag any blossoms this year but I save seed from only the earliest fruit which has worked pretty good. Are you saying you want me to save you some seed from ONLY the heart/bomb fruit? If so no problem. I have plenty of bombs to choose from! A couple days to make sure they are ripe-ripe, another 5 or 7 fermenting and another week drying. You could have them in 3 weeks. It's just so weird that I am getting beefstake AND hearts from the same plant!

Hello, I am interested in growing Orange Minsk, and heard about these consistency issues- are the commercial vendors selling this seed (Gleckler, Victory Seeds, etc.) selling from a reliable source?

thanks!

You can see the current seed sources at Tania's page on Orange Minsk that I linked to below.

I know I was the source to Gleckler's as well as JEff Casey, both listed in her chart on seed sources.

I think, but didn't check, that Andrey sent seeds to Victory and I know there are a few places where I sent it for trial that haven't listed it yet and those would be Sandhill and TGS.

I've not seen any inconsistencies in fruit form my self, or from the folks doing the major seed production for me.

I SSE list it and have been offering seeds in my free seed offer elsewhere for a couple of years now where there is a feedback thread and I don't recall any offtype fruit forms being mentioned their either.

I just looked at the 2010 SSE listings and aside from the same person who said bomb shaped???? and one person who didn't specify fruit shape, all others said beefsteak shaped. The one person who said bomb shape got it from Andrey and all others got it from either Andrey or me. But sometimes someone will give the original source instead of the actual person they got the seeds from. And the original source for this variety was Andrey.

And bomb shape can mean different things to different folks as they describe a fruit shape.

Bigdaddy did send me seeds saved from his heart one, so we shall see, with fingers crossed since I'm not able to grow many plants these days, that I have room.

I went back up and read the posts and see where bigdaddy got his seeds in trade, so I don't know if there's an issue there re possible cross pollination.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange Minsk