Primrose Gage

• General Info
• Seed Availability

Primrose Gage
Maturity	midseason
Growth habit	indet.
Leaf type	regular
Fruit color	yellow
Fruit shape	round
Fruit size	small
Fruit type	salad
Variety type	heirloom, open-pollinated
Country	India

Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Primrose Gage - sliced fruit. 2014-08-29.

B.C KO T

Indet., regular leaf, somewhat unusual looking foliage - your can easily tell the plants apart from other tomato plants. Small round pale yellow fruit with fuzzy velvety skin are about 1 oz. When immature, they have an appearance of a gooseberry due to the pale striping, which disappears as fruits ripen. Delicious sweet and rich flavor. (15 seeds / packet)

Seed source:

1. Jennifer Hutson, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada 06 / Craig LeHoullier of Raleigh, North Carolina (NC LE C) / USDA

2. Angie Allen, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 11 / USDA ARS, Geneva, New York 11

Year grown: 2010 (crop failure), 2011 (crop failure), 2014(1)

Location: Zone 7b, PNW, Anmore, BC, Canada (760 ft above sea level)

---

IA AL A

A blocky round pale yellow/white with a matte finish, about the size of a golf ball. I ate my first Primrose Gage tomato on August 26, from a container grown plant, put out in mid-June. Hot, very humid weather slowed all the plants and impaired fruit set. The skin is tough, rather like an apple. The texture of the flesh is a bit like a peach or a plum. The eating experience is very like eating a plum or an apricot. Sweet with a bit of bite, sweet and sour with a ripple of tomato flavor. A fruity quality that makes it seem like it would make a good pie or would fit right in on a mixed fruit plate with apples, peaches, kiwi, berries...

According to my aunt, Molly Allen, who was getting a lot of ripe yellowish white golf ball size tomatoes from an in ground plant, "The tomatoes are kind of spongy to the touch when ripe. The taste is very mild, not a typical tomato taste at all. I'm not sure if I like them or not, but several people who have tried them say they are the best tomato they have ever eaten. They do have a fuzzy feel with ribbing similar to some apples. The taste could be called sweet as compared to other tomatoes, but not really sharp. They have a very subtle flavor and are dense and meaty even though they are small. I have picked about 30 of them and there are usually between 8 and 10 every other day so far."

Seed source:

USDA ARS, Geneva, New York 11

Year grown: 2011

Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

---

History

• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), PI 91458.
• Collected in 1931 by Dobbie and Co. (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) in the village of a semi-nomadic tribe in the jungle of southern India between 5,000 and 8,000 feet altitude.
• USDA Narrative:

Foliage is more glaucous green than that of the ordinary tomato. The primrose-yellow fruit, about the size of a golf ball, has a bloom like that of a grape. It has a sharp sweet flavor which is distinct from that of all other tomatoes.

• First offered in the Seed Savers 2005 Yearbook by Norbert R. Pikovsky, Johnstown, Pennsylvania (PA PI N2), who got the seeds from PI Station, India.

---

Picture Gallery

• 

  Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Primrose Gage - seedling planted. 2011-05-26.

• 

  Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Primrose Gage - flower. 2010-07-11.

• 

  Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Primrose Gage - baby fruit. 2010-08-01.

• 

  Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Primrose Gage - ripe fruit. 2014-08-29.

• 

  Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Primrose Gage - sliced fruit. 2014-08-29.

---

Seed Availability

Year	Commercial Vendors	Seed Savers Yearbook (Member listings)	Seeds of Diversity (Member listings)
2018		.	.
2017		.	.
2016	Tatiana's TOMATObase Seeds	.	.
2015	Tatiana's TOMATObase Seeds - new	.	.
2014	Victory Seed Company	.	.
2013	Victory Seed Company	0	.
2012	Victory Seed Company	0	0
2011	Victory Seed Company	0	0
2010	Victory Seed Company	0	.
2009	Victory Seed Company	?	.
2008		1	.
2007		1	.