As a patented name for a new GMO tomato?

Really?

Where did you find that?
Not a great idea!

Hotwired has been writing about it on other forums. Seems the full name of this 'new and improved' is Heirloom F1.

IMO the real mischif won't be this year or next, but at a later time when seed inevitably gets mixed into other OP seed stocks.

*Grumble*

Do they really need to add to confusion on OP tomatoe varieties?
Which ever company is promoting it ----we gardeners need to boycott!

I just saw "Heirloom Orange F1" tomato seed in a Wilhite catalog. PPPFFFTTT!

Worse than "Jumbo Shrimp".

I saw "heirloom tomatoes" advertised in a supermarket and checked it out. There was a wicker basket with several different shapes and colors of tomato ... just that and the word "Heirloom". Each fruit had the SAME barcode: like pepper varieties sold as "red" peppers or "yellow" peppers. Real helpful, NOT.

It was obvious why supermarkets usually only stock tomatoes like pool balls or baseballs. These Mystery Heirlooms were all bruised and squishy. I tried to pick one up to buy it, but it sagged like raw liver and I gave up.

A trend that baffles me is that fruit stands and supermarkets can label and charge more for "On The Vine" tomatoes. They can charge more for NOT trimming the stems off? What kind of tomato is it, a connoisseur might ask? "On The Vine".

Perhaps next we'll see a premium charged for "On The Vine" tomato seeds.
Is the whole world wacky, or is it just me?

I have to admit I was startled to learn that some seed traders thought that "Open Pollinated" meant "open to the sky and winds and insects, freely crosspollinating with whatever".

I like Joseph's term for that: "PP" meaning "Promiscuosuly Pollinated".

I live in really tight quarters. As a result I ship out just about all of my saved seed. People who run give-aways like Trudi Davidoff, or Robin Marble, have both the space and temperment to run them. And I don't need to worry too much because one or the other of them is going to keep me in seed that I haven't saved yet, whether I want them to or no.

This can't do anything other than muddy the water, and I need a steady stream of those 'new guys' coming on.

IMO seed security is when everybody who wants some, has some.

This is awful and should not be allowed. Check out the link. Most of these hybrids have names that are very close to many of the tomatoes that we have know for years. There are several "Heirloom F1" list.
http://www.seedsbydesign.com/i...

The reality is that the word "heirloom," as it applies to plants, became a marketing term many, many years ago.

The posts of folks in this thread highlight some new, even bolder, glaring examples of how far some companies are willing to go for a buck. It is kind of like companies slapping the word "natural" on processed, packaged "food." It is meaningless and put there to make busy people feel good about their purchase. (Or trick them)

Personally, I remain a purest. To me, the definition of an heirloom is found in the dictionary. That is, it is simply a valuable object (it could be a vase, a pocket watch or a seed variety) that has been owned by a family, and passed from one generation to another. Simple as that. The only conditions I would add is that an heirloom plant must be open-pollinated and not genetically engineered.

Some people like to assign some arbitrary age to their definition, i.e. 50 years or 100 years, but this is inherently flawed as well. For example, the technology of genetic engineering was discovered in 1973. Plants started to be engineered about 10 years later. You see where I am going with this.

Basically, in our complex, consumerist world, we can't trust labeling. We must research who we are dealing with, what their ulterior motives are, and ask questions.

Thank you @Joannabanana for your post . . . I had not seen all those "heirlooms." What a mess!

~Mike