New tomato species developed in Sudbury

The owner of McGrows Farms and Gardens in Garson in Greater Sudbury has successfully grown a new type of tomato that is larger, less acidic and can withstand northern climates.

Stuart McCall created the Cherokee Tomato X Hybrid — a cross between the rare Bear Claw variety and the Cherokee.

The result is a pinkish, reddish tomato that is about a pound or a pound and a half in size.

“They’re low in acidity,” he said.

“[They’re] just a huge tomato. So one slice and you’ve got your BLT covered.”

Last year, McCall was the co-chair of Seedy Sunday, an annual event in Sudbury where gardeners are able to exchange flower and produce seeds.

“Part of the program was for people to put some donations in to save some rare seed varieties,” he said.

Those donations allowed the group to become a member of Seeds of Diversity – an organization that attempts to maintain rare bio-diversity, he said.

From there, seeds to grow the Bear Claw Tomato were obtained, germinated and grown.

McCall said the Bear Claw variety originated in West Virginia and is typically grown in warmer climates, whereas the Cherokee is a native variety to northern climates.

He got the idea to create a hybrid tomato, in hopes the appealing characteristics of each variety would come through.

“What I wanted to do was enhance the size of the Cherokee and reduce acidity … and have something that would grow in a northern climate fairly easily,” he said.

“The Cherokee has the purple seeds inside … and then the Bear Claw, of course, has the lighter colour. So I wanted to enhance the size of the Cherokee and maintain that purple colouring inside.”

Working to create a new variety

McCall said to create the new tomato species, he had to germinate the two varieties separately, grow the plants, and just before they blossomed, isolate them so there would be no cross contamination.

From there, he used a Q-Tip to cross pollinate the two types of tomatoes to create the hybrid.

Then, he said he had to wait and see if the characteristics he wanted in the new tomato would be produced.

Luckily for McCall, that happened.

“The desired characteristic that you want you’ve actually created,” he said.

“That’s really cool. That’s very self-gratifying.”

He said he is looking forward to marketing something different and natural to the public.

“Well, there is some degree of pride in being able to create a new life form,” he said.

“So that’s neat."