Garden Peach is under-utilized

[DrTomato]

Has anyone done any work with Garden Peach? It's one of my favorites and such a unique variety, it always seemed odd to me that there aren't any other novelty varieties with similar traits. For those who aren't aware, Garden Peach is a Compari-size heirloom tomato that's yellow with some orange tint when fully ripe, but it also has fuzzy skin like a peach. No exaggeration. Apparently the fuzz is a single recessive gene mutation which means it should be incredibly easy to cross that trait into something else, but I've never seen it outside of Garden Peach. The plant itself is also good (although indeterminate) but has decent disease tolerance, fair yield, and somewhat firm and great-tasting fruit; they're usually the last to rot after I pick them.

I'm using Garden Peach for another project but it occurred to me that I could cross it into one of my micro lines. Flavor is one of the hardest things to maintain when making a cross, but Garden Peach already tastes great so I don't expect it to give me any trouble.

Does anyone here have any experience with this variety and has anyone ever tried crossing it? I've only crossed it to Tim's Black Ruffles (the F1 tastes okay but the fruit is soft. Thanks a lot Tim's.) Viability doesn't seem to be a problem.

[Diane Whitehead]

Wapsipinicon Peach is fuzzy.

I have seeds of Pink Fuzzy Boar but haven't grown it yet. I did not buy the seeds from Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms, and he is not currently offering it. He does have the following two fuzzy (or furry) ones.

Red Furry Boar
2-4 oz. fruit, Red with Gold Stripes, Matte Skin, Fuzzy. Great, True Tomato Flavor, peach fuzz skin not at all intrusive. Heavy Producer. Another Great, Rare, Unusual Variety

and Yellow Furry Boar
2-4 oz. fruit, Round, bright yellow with green stripes that turn gold. Matte skin (fuzzy) Extra sweet and gorgeous. Mid-season.

[DrTomato]

It looks like Wapsipinicon Peach is the same as Garden Peach; it goes by several names. I'd be interested in seeing pictures of how your Pink Fuzzy Boar turns out when you grow them.

[HL2601]

I have grown Wapsipinicon Peach and the fuzz was not something my family loved. Flavor was good but the fuzz put them off. I wish they had liked it because it was nicely firm and a sm-med size which was good for my short growing season. Dr Tomato- I am also in zone 5 and did not find Tim's black ruffles to be mushy. It did well in my heat and I would have used it in a cross too... which state are you in? ( if that isn't too personal, then please no need to reply).

[DrTomato]

I'm in Syracuse NY, about an hour east of the Finger Lakes and less than two hours from Canada. It's not a great growing area; most days are partly sunny at best, and we get so much precipitation that I usually go most of the season without ever watering. It's all lake effect... most years we take the top spot of highest snowfall of any city in the country. Summer temperatures are pretty mild with maybe a week or two at/above 90F, but it's mostly in the mid-high 70s, and I know tomatoes do best in mid 80s. Peppers really don't do well here. As of this year, I'm growing all of my peppers indoors in pots under lights. I end up with 2 - 10x the yield by the end of the season, depending on the variety.

I wouldn't say my Tim's is "mushy" but it's definitely softer than Peach, and I think the F1 is even softer because it doesn't have the ribbing. Honestly the F1 get kind of blocky which is cool.

[dfollett]

I haven't grown any of the "Peach" varieties but do have several crosses that are fuzzy. Do the Peach varieties have the 'fuzzy' or 'angora' leaves or is just the fruit fuzzy? I made a cross with Fuzzy Wuzzy, which is a relatively small (2.5') determinate with red/yellow striped fruit. It has extremely fuzzy RL leaves. The entire plant is fuzzy. I've made several subsequent crosses and now have a few fuzzy carrot leaf crosses someone could play with. I have several fuzzy RL and CL and one PL crosses folks could play with.

Fuzzy Wuzzy isn't great tasting, but some of the crosses have quite good flavor. However, I find the fuzzy fruit a little off-putting so I haven't done too much with them. They make great looking plants, though.

Do the 'Peach' plants look anything like these?

[DrTomato]

No, Garden Peach doesn't have fuzzy leaves, but those are so cool! I would be interested in a fuzzy CL line at some point. It sounds like there isn't specifically a micro Garden Peach so I might move forward with that. I'm thinking it would be the size of a cherry tomato but still yellow and fuzzy like garden peach.

[dfollett]

Let me know. I'd be happy to send you any of the fuzzy seeds I have. How fuzzy is Garden Peach fruit? Is it anything like this?

[DrTomato]

It's really hard to tell just from a picture... but I want to say Garden Peach is more fuzzy? It's exactly like a peach. I don't think I could compare without feeling the fruit.

[dfollett]

Interesting it has fuzz on the fruit but not the plant where this gene puts fuzz on both. Apparently the fuzz is driven by different genes on the two plants.

[dfollett]

I don't know they are different genes, but assume they must be since they produce somewhat different characteristics. It would be an interesting cross. How about I send you some seed from micro fuzzy carrot leaf and fuzzy regular leaf and you give it a shot?.....

[DrTomato]

I'll take the micro fuzzy carrot leaf to cross with garden peach. Do you still have my address?

[dfollett]

I'm sure I have your address somewhere, but it would be under your real name and I would likely mix it up. Send me a PM with your address and remind me what I'm supposed to send.

[Diane Whitehead]

Does the fuzz rub off easily? I always peel peaches before eating them, but eat cherries, pears, apples with the peel still on.

I've sown some seeds of my Pink Fuzzy Boar so I will find out.

I just remembered apricots - they have only a bit of fuzz and I eat them without trying to remove it, so perhaps the tomatoes will be more like apricots than peaches.

[dfollett]

It comes off about the same as removing the fuzz from a peach - not quite easy enough. I'll wash and rub the fuzz off a peach and eat it peel and all. I rub these a bit then take a bite to check the taste. I've not found any yet I felt worth the effort to remove the fuzz just to munch on. Some have had quite good taste, but for me would still have to be better to justify the effort. Perhaps I would feel differently if I didn't have so many others without the fuzz laying around. On the other hand, none of the neighbors have ever complained about them. So far, they always end up in the giveaway pile......