The story begins in 1958 when OSU breeder Tex Frasier sent a few trial seeds to the Hanley Farm Research Station. The seeds were a cross between a Campbell Soup and a Oxheart varieties resulting in the Medford tomato. On a summer day in the 1960s, Clarence Holdridge, a Bagley Cannery fieldman while inspecting a crop of Medford tomatoes found one plant that stood out from the rest as more vigorous with larger fruit. The resulting plants grew true to type and become known as the Talent tomato.
The popularity of this new tomato grew rapidly among local growers looking for increased yields. The rise of the ‘Talent’ tomato was a short one, however, because the cannery shut down not long afterward. With no place to sell their crop, tomato growers moved on.
The Southern Oregon Research Station continued to propagate and distribute ‘Medford’ tomato seed because it was an OSU release. But the ‘Talent’ tomato was forgotten, and over time it became just a memory to a select few.
After 18 years, 40 shriveled up seeds were found in an envelope in local garden writer David James’ desk with a note, “Dave, here’s the Talent tomato seed I was telling you about. Good luck, Shorty 1992.” David was surprised to find that after all those years the seed still yielded a 60% germination rate. He began the process of growing the tomatoes and saving the seed.
Hope Mountain Nurseries was able to purchase seed for ‘Talent’ this winter and are excited to be a part in bringing back this local forgotten gem! Make sure to leave some room in your garden to try a few this year.
Wow!! How exciting to be a part of bring back a little history! Hope to pick up about 6 plants this year for my own garden!! 😙
That would be super duper. I miss you!
Wow!! How exciting to be a part of bringing back a little history! Hope to pick up about 6 plants this year for my own garden!! 😙
I love this story and will try growing the tomatoes this year. Thanks for sharing this bit of local color!
You are welcome.
How cool! I want to try to grow some this year. I’ll have to come get some at your annual sale.What’s the date?
The weekend after Mother’s Day. I’ll make sure you get an invite.
What is the flavor like and what is the poundage for each fruit approx.
The flavor is a classic tomato flavor, they are very meaty which makes them a good slicer or canner. Each fruit is 1/2lb, with an average of 24lbs per plant.
Shannon, I wish I’d seen your blog last summer. Not knowing anything else to do, I air-dried (for seed) a couple of Talent tomatoes that I grew last summer from plants grown from seed that David James supplied to Greenleaf. Can I just put the wrinkled, seed-filled carcasses in small pots and start them that way, or do I need to tease out the seeds and plant them individually. Thanks for your help. I’m clueless. On another note, I can’t wait to find some of your lovely heirloom Sweet William, sweet peas, Gaillardia, and Oriental Poppies. When will they hit the stores?
It would be best if you could get the seeds out (you don’t have to clean them up) and then plant them, otherwise you might have a big mess if you try to plant the whole sun dried tomato. The seed will come true if you you didn’t have any other variety of tomato planted nearby. If you did then the bees could have cross pollinated and it would be a guess as to what you’d get. We are making deliveries now to nurseries in Grants Pass like the Grange Co-op and Farmer’s Building Supply. I.V. Building in Cave Junction will be carrying our plants a little later in the season usually around March. Let me know if you have any other questions. Great to hear from you!
Happy Gardening
P.S. I forgot to mention that the Talent tomatoes grew like the Energizer Rabit: they kept producing and producing and producing until the first frost.
We were so impressed with this plant, so glad you liked them!
I am in a short season area. How many days to maturity for this variety?
75-80 days
There is a prologue to the story as told by my grandparents who owned a berry farm in Ashland and grew U-Pick tomatoes from the 1930’s to the Mid 1960’s. They had developed a tomato variety that was large, meaty, did not crack at the stem or get blossom end rot. They said they took it to the local OSU extension office for review and to see if it could be marketed. They heard nothing for quite awhile, but were ultimately told that the variety had no market value. Just a few springs later the Medford tomato became available.
Makes you think hmmm…
Thanks for sharing this. It does make you wonder….