A stunning deep red tomato (we have not retouched or filtered the photos). Bonnyvee’s deep red colour comes from its high-lycopene content, which also gives it its excellent, rich taste.
This is the first time in 30 years seeds for Bonnyvee have been on the market.
This high-lycopene tomato (an ‘Old Gold/ High Crimson’ tomato—see below) was developed by the late Dr. Ernie Kerr, the master Canadian plant breeder, at the Simcoe Horticultural Experiment Station in Ontario and released in 1981. The Simcoe station was a publicly funded vegetable breeding institute under the auspices of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Bonnyvee’s tomatoes are exceptionally dark red in colour (due to the ‘og’ gene). The medium size round tomatoes are 90 g to 120 g. The compact 2ft plants are very productive. Bonnyvee is a mid to later season tomato (in our Zone 4 gardens), and if you do have to pick unripe fruit at the end of the season, Bonnyvee will ripen nicely indoors, and last a long time off the vine.
Bonnyvee has a similar sweet, rich taste as the other ‘Old Gold/High Crimson’ tomatoes in our collection (Harvestvee, Veepro, High Crimson, & Caleplata).
These days it is very hard to find open-pollinated high-lycopene tomato seeds. The high-lycopene tomato seeds on the market today are expensive F1 varieties. For instance, 10 seeds of an F1 high-lycopene tomato variety are currently selling for $7.
This Canadian bred ‘Old Gold/High Crimson’ tomato is a real treasure and we are so happy to bring Bonnyvee back to the seed trade.
A bit more:
‘Old Gold/High Crimson’ refers to the ‘og’ gene that Bonnyvee has. Tomatoes with the ‘og’ gene have 25% to 75% more lycopene than standard red tomatoes. Lycopene is an important antioxidant that has cardiovascular, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties, to name a few of its benefits.
Using traditional breeding methods, Canadian researchers isolated the ‘og’ gene from a tomato from the Philippines in the 1950s and developed several outstanding tomatoes with it – including Bonnyvee.
How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Transplant after the danger of frost has passed/later spring.
