medpundit |
||
|
Sunday, July 11, 2004"Up until Oved bred the Big Boy, the tomato was very much the preoccupation of an aficionado hobbyist,' Mr. Ball said. 'The Big Boy was the most significant innovation we ever did.' Until the advent of the Big Boy, tomatoes were a hugely popular but time-intensive crop that flourished only under the painstaking dedication of gardeners diligent enough to spend hours staking their 15-foot vines, fertilizing to accommodate their persnickety soil preferences and protecting their delicate constitutions from disease. An unconventional thinker amid the more conventional plant breeders, Dr. Shifriss spent much of the 1940's combining thousands of experimental pollinations between different pairs of tomato 'parents' until he finally hit on 'one big, huge bonanza,' as Mr. Ball called it: a plant that was disease resistant, compact and bushlike rather than being a sprawling vine and that produced an abundance of full, fragrant fruit that could weigh more than a pound. 'It was a quantum leap in performance that opened the door for amateur activity,' Mr. Ball said. 'Suddenly anybody - Mom, Dad, the Boy Scout next door - could garden with the tomato. For gardening, it was as innovative as the V-8 engine or the microchip.' Thank you, Mr. Shifriss. posted by Sydney on 7/11/2004 11:33:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|