Phoenix Hybrid Tomato

Hello tomato forum friends...

I often check out what you are all doing here but have never posted. I need your help...

Last spring I heard about a new hybrid tomato called Phoenix that was introduced at the Bexar County Fair (TX - a tradition every year to intro a new hot set tomato)... A very nice DG person picked up and shipped me a bunch of plants as they were only available in the San Antonio area and the nurseries that had them don't ship. To make a long story short, several DG friends and I trialed the tomato in our gardens are were rather pleased with it's taste, disease resistance and performance. We are now gearing up to start seeds for spring and would love to get a hold of some of these seeds. I found one online source that is out of stock and you have to buy a minimum 1000 seeds - yikes - don't really think I need that many...

I normally shy away from hybrids - I ♥ my heirloom 'maters - but was so impressed with this one I really want to grow it again. If anyone has any leads as to where I can obtain seeds for this tomato as well as any recommendations for hot set tomatoes that may do well in the desert I would be most appreciative!

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/phoenix-tomato-hybrid-to-ldquorise,1151889.html

Thanks a bunch - Kelly

Phoenix is a Seminis product. http://us.seminis.com/products/fresh_market_tomatoes/phoenix.asp . It is a commercial fresh market tomato so home garden retailers may be slow to pick it up. You can go to the Seminis site and " locate a dealer". Some plant distributors are using it in Texas, so you may be able to find plants in the southwest.

Thanks Farmerdill;o)

Kelly,

I have found the Phoenix seeds at Wilhite Seeds, http://www.willhiteseed.com/products.php?cat=77&pg=2. I found some plants last year at a local nursery and liked the results. I'm going to grow again this year. The Wilhite's site only sells larger quantities (as in 50 seeds). Have you found a retail source? If not, I may buy a larger quantity and offer the extras here for a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

David R

Good to see you posting again David, I've been wondering where you were.
Lisa

Hi David! Thanks for the find!

I had checked Willhite earlier and they did not have them. Last year a nice DG member from San Antonio actually bought the plants from a nursery there and mailed them to me! He had never mailed plants before and would not accept any reimbursement for them. Several friends and I grew them last year and were very impressed with them overall but have been struggling to find seeds. I will likely purchase a large quantity to split with the local folks here.

Thanks so much for that link - I had almost given up hope. I had tries the Seminis site like Farmerdill suggested but only found I think one place that had the seeds and they were out of stock.

Kelly

P.S. Siegers Seed Co has them as well but you need to order $100 minimum and minimum 1000 seeds. I sure didn't need that many;o)



This message was edited Dec 3, 2010 9:15 AM

Wow, they better be good at that price. 9.00 + dollars seems like a lot of money for 50 seeds when the others aren't that pricey. IMHO

It is a lot, I think because this is the first year the seeds are commercially available. Plus they seem pretty hard to come by.

I would find some way to kill them at that price. LOL With all the trouble RF has I'm mildly surprised he got them to you.

Lisa,

I'm going to buy some of the Phoenix seeds. I don't need the full quantity, so I'll share. They were pretty decent last year, but I only bought 2 plants. I'll post the SASE offer once I have the seeds.

David R

Yep, got them to me no problems whatsoever;o) Lisa, we really liked this 'mater and I'm sure you will too!

Since my son left and it's just my husband and I, I'll buy a pkg of seeds and use them over 2-3 years. Most seeds will germinate quite well over that amount of time. I first learned to do this from another forum on DG.

I bought a couple of Phoenix mater plants at Lowes a couple of weeks ago. Heaven knows if it's the same plant (don't really trust the labeling in places like that), but the plants sure are healthy and happy at this stage. I imagine I won't have much fruit until February or so. Love the winter crops down here!

That's interesting that you found them at Lowe's, though I have to agree that they are not always labeled correctly. I'll be curious to see as your plants grow if we can tell if they truly are Phoenix. I'm skeptical just because it seems the seeds are very limited in availability and very pricey. Are they Bonnie plants? Maybe Bonnie got to grow out some of the seeds? Interesting;o)

I ordered 100 seeds from Willhite and will split them with my DG friends here that want to grow them again. Maybe the price will come down as they become more available. I see that Seminis is marketing them to commercial growers as a fresh market tomato. I also saw on the Seminis site a place in Yuma, AZ listed as a commercial dealer. I plan to check them out as well for future reference but they look like a large scale dealer - probably not interested in dealing with a home gardener - lol...

No, I don't believe they were Bonnie plants, but I'll report back after I go out to the island cottage tomorrow. It had a rather fancy black and gold label and came in a six-pack, no funky peat pots w/ plastic wrapped rims like most Bonnie veggies seem to have. When they fruit I'll post some pics. I planted a few at my brother's house in some SIPs that are much bigger than my own. Figures, since he barely even remembers to water them...lol

I buy for Wilhite's every spring now. I have Phoenix on my list, I'm just waiting for the 2011 variety list to post to their website before I order. There is no way I can use 50 Phoenix seeds. If this seed is still available by the time they post the 2011 (they are always slow to post the new year's listings) list I will order and will be delighted to share. If I do get them on order I will let you all know and you can let me know if you want some.

I did a Yahoo search for "Phoenix tomato" and came up with this old thread. I see some of my friends posted on it six years ago, so my posting here will now give you a blast from the past on your DG home page.

Went by a local nursery today, looking to replace a few tomato and pepper seedlings that were lost to moles - that happens every year. This late in the season my timing was good as they had a sign up "all vegetables $1.". Looking for something new to me I found a Phoenix tomato plant in a quart pot, and I'd never heard of Phoenix.

Took it to the lady behind the counter, I think she's the owner's wife. "Can you tell me what kind of tomato this is, please?"

"No, I have no idea."

Realizing that she thought I was asking her to identify a tomato variety by the appearance of the plant alone, I pointed out to her that it had a stake label.

"Oh, it's a Phoenix."

"Yes, I'm not familiar with that variety. Can you tell me about it?"

"Well, it's a tomato plant."

"Yes, but is it a slicer, paste tomato, cherry tomato, red, yellow, determinate, indeterminate, open-pollinated, hybrid? Those are the things I'd like to know."

"It's probably red. We don't have many yellow ones."

LOL. Well, there ya go - a font of information. I got it home and found that Phoenix is a red bush-type hybrid determinate slicer that's bred to set fruit in hot climates. Not a variety I'd normally grow, but at least it's a new one for me. Apparently it's catching on more than it was six years ago as I see you all were having a hard time finding seeds back then.

LOL! I grew that tomato a couple of times. Whillhite's carried the seeds--and still does. It was a fairly good tomato, but I had a few that we liked better so I haven't grown in in a year or so. DH is supposed to restrict himself to the yellows now as they have less acid. I don't know if that is really true--but the Dr says so. I say "supposed to" as the harvested reds keep disappearing. He says the dogs are eating them. Okayyyyyy!

I hope you enjoy your Phoenix tomatoes. It did take the heat well. I always think tomatoes taste slightly different when grown in different areas.

Terri, I remember Carolyn saying lab tests show that all tomato varieties have near-identical acid content when they're compared at the same stages of ripeness. Some varieties, including many yellow and orange tomatoes, produce more sugar than others so they taste sweeter - and that has led to the popular, but wrong, belief that yellow tomatoes have lower acidity. Your DH might as well enjoy those red ones!

Ozark, I remember the same thing...from Carolyn and from further research. They tried to lower the acidity but it lead to problems with canning ie botulism.

Dang, we have good memories! Lol