A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 The Wrong Color!!!

I'll admit, I'm not much of a vegetable grower, but i decided to plant some green peppers and set out a few tomato plants (i grew from seed).
I don't like green peppers, but a customer gave me a few plants;so, i gave them a "shot". Well, the plants stayed green all summer and got about a foot tall, but the peppers all rotted before they could ever get very big.... I guess it rained too much. Admittedly, I'm not crazy about green peppers, and the customer who gave them to me cheated me anyway... (lol, made me really have a distaste for green peppers. I even let the bugs destroy the plant...)

Now, the tomatoes i did much better with. I had many cherry tomato plants and they produced a lot of fruit. I've got a gripe though... On the seed packet (i can't remember the brand) it showed nice juicy red looking tomatoes... I HAVE YET TO SEE MY FIRST RED TOMATO!!! I waited and waited and waited but they would never turned red!! They stayed orange until they rotted on the plant...dammmm lol I even picked some and thought maybe i could coax them into turning red that way... no luck.
Is it normal for tomatoes to stay orange?????

What kind of cherry tomato did you grow Bob? I grew just roma tomatoes but I didn't have any problem with them turning red.

Hi Bob,

There are varieties of cherry tomatoes in red, orange and yellow. Please see pictures of orange tomatoes here.

Okay, i just found the empty seed packet....
It came from Ferry Morse and its called "Jelly Bean Hybrid". The photo on the packet shows bright red tomatoes. I didn't get a single red tomato. Not only were they orange, but the skins seemed to be very tough...
I definately won't buy that particular seed again next year!

I have nothing to say other than I have heard a lot of people complain about tomatoes not ripening this year and I read meters and walk in people's yards all day long and whoever has healthy plants has no ripe tomatoes in general. I see ripe tomatoes on diseased plants almost exclusively- and I am from MN obviously!

I think it has been a hard year for the tomatoes plants I got one red tomatoe but they started to rot too. but the cherry tomatoe plant did fine it grown over 5'10" i think that's how you do it?? lol Anyway it's like a small tree lol. Dee

Bob,

Is this the one?

I will ask the Ferry Morse people for comments.

Update on Jelly Bean Hybrid tomato seeds from Ferry morse as of 15 Sep 2005.

The company is aware of the problem that Bob described/experienced. They asked to have the seed packet with the lot number returned to them for replacement or refund.

Here's the return address:

Ferry Morse seed Company
P.O. Box 1620
Fulton, Ky 42041

Attention: plant Department

Gardener's Help Line is 1-800-283-3400 [Toll Free] and/or website: http://www.ferry-morse.com/

I found the empty seed packet again and the wording was exactly the same as what u quoted previously;so, i guess i was just "unlucky"! lol, that figures! It's just disappointing when u spend all the time and effort and find out when it's too late that it was all for naught!!!

Thanks for all the information, i appreciate it!

Ciao Bob,

Sorry about your frustrating tomatoes. Mix-ups can happen sometimes where the seed company packs the wrong seed into the packets or sometimes the seed can be the result of cross-pollination. That's what I think has happened to me with one of my varieties.

I got 2005 seed for a variety called Sutton, a white saladette tomato. I've gotten mostly pink tomatoes, some strawberries n cream (pink/white) tomatoes, and a few actual white ones. It's like freshman genetics the way the alleles have played out.

I'm growing over 50 varieties so while the Sutton is kind of a weird abberration, I can live with it. If it was my only tomato variety, yeah, I'd be plenty bummed.

Hang in there, hope your growing year is better in 2006,

Julianna