Johnny Jumpup is a fantastic Canadian-bred tomato developed in the 1950s for short season gardens.
However, unlike its more famous flower namesake, this tomato has almost disappeared from the seed trade. We couldn’t find Johnny offered by any seed companies and our original seedstock came from the USDA genebank.
To re-introduce gardeners to Johnny we decided to make a list of its amazing traits!
Johnny Jumpup is:
1. Small and compact. The plants are only 16-18″ tall and make a great container variety.
2. Very productive. The plant is covered with small tomatoes (25 g to 35 g).
3. Very flavourful. One of its parents is Burbank; a classic, great tasting tomato.
4. One of the earliest tomatoes in our garden and produces all summer.
A bit of history:
Johnny Jumpup was bred at the Provincial Horticultural Station in Brooks, Alberta in the 1950s. See a picture of Johnny from an early agricultural publication from the 1950s.
Its ancestry is Burbank x Farthest North. The following description of Johnny Jumpup was published in the Vegetable Cultivar Descriptions of North America in the 1950s:
“Johnny Jumpup–Breeder: Provincial Horticultural Station Brooks, Alberta, Canada. Vendor: Billy Helper Co., Durham, New Hampshire. Parentage: Burbank x Farthest North. Characteristics: high yielding, small fruit, seven to nine on one hand; small leaves, small to medium plants. Resistance: leafroll. Similar: Farthest North. Adaptation: Alberta, Canada.”
In 1958, the Billy Helper Seed Company (mentioned above) published this description of Johnny Jumpup in their catalogue:
“This new and extremely early tomato comes to us from Brooks, Alberta, Canada Experimental Station; P.D. Hargrave, originator. It had ripe tomatoes in early August from seed planted outdoors at the University Farm [New Hampshire] June 2. The tomatoes are red in color, small in size, averaging 1 ½ to 2 ounces.”
The part about having ripe tomatoes in early August “from seed planted outdoors” on June 2 is interesting. We haven’t tried to direct sow Johnny Jumpup seeds ourselves — we start them indoors mid April, even into May, this is a fast growing tomato. The University Farm mentioned above is in Durham, New Hampshire (Zone 6), so a bit warmer than our Zone 4. But it might work!
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How to Grow Tomatoes from Seed? 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.
