Details

Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato, slightly under-ripe

• Open-Pollinated
• Type: indeterminate
• Shape: beefsteak, squat and irregular, with pleats
• Color: apricot (brilliant pastel orange, seems to glow from inside)
• Maturity: 80-90 days from transplant
  • 2010: 70-77 days to 1st harvest
  • 2011: 112 days to 1st harvest
  • 2012: 70-98 days to 1st harvest
  • 2013: 91 days to 1st harvest
• Size: large; 4-5″ in diameter, 1-2 lb tomatoes
  • 2010: 5.5-7.0 oz on average
  • 2011: 2.0 oz on average
  • 2012: 5.0-6.5 oz on average
  • 2013: 5.0 oz on average
• Yield: “very productive”
  • 2010 (Kellogg’s): 11 tomatoes for 3.5 lbs
  • 2010 (Louise’s Orange Heirloom): 36 tomatoes for almost 15 lbs
  • 2011: 14 tomatoes for 2 lbs
  • 2012: 10-12 tomatoes for 3.0-4.75 lbs
  • 2013: 4 tomatoes for 2.25 lbs
• Taste: “rich, meaty & full-flavored”, “delicious rich flavor with a good acid/sugar balance
• Disease Resistance:
  • susceptible to root-knot nematode
  • susceptible to fusarium and/or verticillium

Notes:

• Also known in my garden as “Louise’s Orange Heirloom” for my neighbor, Louise. In 2010, Louise gave me a tomato seedling that she had started from seeds she had saved from a seedling given to her the year before. Not knowing anything about it other than, “it’s a really large funny looking orange heirloom”, I planted it right next to another new tomato that year (Kellogg’s Breakfast). Well, the crazy thing is, that it ended up being exactly like its neighbor. I’m fairly certain that Louise’s Orange Heirloom is Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato. No other tomato that I’ve seen has had this vibrant, seemingly glowing, orange color.
• Seed Saver’s Exchange: West Virginia heirloom obtained from David Kellogg of Redford, MI

Sources: (where to buy)

• Seed Saver’s Exchange
• Territorial Seed (both seeds & plants)

Results from My Garden:

• 2010: bought one seedling from Territorial Seed Co to try out. It was not very productive, but it was at the top of a sloped bed, so it may not have gotten as much water as it needed; Also in 2010, I received the seedling from Louise, “Louise’s Orange Heirloom” which turned out to be Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato; since these two ended up right next to eachother, their harvests may have been mis-identified
• 2011:  didn’t grow KBT but I did grow 2 plants from Louise’s Orange Heirloom seeds saved from last year. way less productive than 2010. Perhaps I planted too early, or disease or competition?
• 2012: 2 plants grown from seed (Seed Savers’ Exchange); earlier planted plant had more wilt (fusarium or verticillium) than the older one, which indicates that it was verticillium (Verticillium usually can’t get a foothold in the plant when temperatures rise above 85 or 90); also in 2012, started 2 plants from 2010 Louise’s Orange Heirloom seeds. Disease & competition from pine trees that were growing into our veggie beds prevented tomatoes from producing. Only 1 tomato, the entire season, from these two plants. They were both at the top of the sloped bed, right where the pine roots were infiltrating from. Less water & more competition.
• 2013: purchased two seedlings from Territorial Seed Co. Very low production due to heat & disease (root-knot nematode, verticillium or fusarium wilt, and some kind of spotting disease)