Early Girl

Early_Girl_newly_planted_2010.jpg

Sometimes I shouldn’t check Wiki-Pee. I was excited to report that this fine specimen of Early Girl tomato has settled in well. Since its specialty is the short growing season, meaning we should have tomatoes off it sooner than the Rutgers I grouped nearby, I was stoked to add it to the assortment. I thought of it as related to Burpee’s famous Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes.

Now, I check that famous online group memory and, pfft, the air goes out of me when I read that Early Girl is a Monsanto product—since 2005, anyway. While we’re at it, the cultivar “is a medium globe type F1 hybrid”. And, a nice bonus, and more related to why I found it on the garden shop shelf: it’s “reliable and prolific.”

Sidenote: the “F1 hybrid” modifier means that it is a first-generation cross. I think. And, BTW, don’t confuse variety and cultivar. They’re both lower in the botanical hierarchy than species, but differ. But you have to be deeply into taxonomy to sort it all out, as near as I can tell.

Anyway, sometimes it’s better to avoid the reality recorded in Wiki-Pee. I think.

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