The listing, Rutgers tomato seeds has ended.
The justly famous Rutgers tomato was introduced in 1934 by Rutgers breeder Lyman Schermerhorn as an ideal locally well-adapted and improved "General Use" tomato for processing (canning and juicing) as well as fresh market. Rutgers tomato was developed and released in the period between WW I and WW II, during expansion of canning and truck farming, when 36,000+ acres of tomatoes were grown in the Garden State.
The tomato has many attributes, including:
- Pleasing flavor and taste of the juice;
- More uniform sparkling red internal color ripening from center of the tomato outward;
- Smooth skin;
- Freedom from fruit cracking;
- 'Second early' maturity;
- Handsome flattened globe shape;
- Vigorous healthy foliage to ripen more fruit and reduce sunscald;
- Firm thick fleshy fruit walls for its time, though considered extremely soft by today's definition of tomato firmness;
- Uniformity true to type in the field.
Not only did Rutgers provide a top performing tomato for New Jersey's processors, from Campbell Soup, Heinz, Hunt, and Ritter to smaller companies, but Rutgers tomato continued to be a preferred choice of commercial growers through much of the mid-twentieth century. It was grown worldwide, and used in breeding and selection of other improved varieties.
You will receive 20 seeds and a bonus gift as always.