I’m a sucker for anything that appears to be native Illinois and the Abraham Lincoln is no different.
Tomatoes are ready to pick generally from 80 to 100 days (except for cherries which start as early as 50 days). The Abraham Lincoln is a a mid blossom. I’ll grow earlies, mids and lates along with cherries, green zebras and other specialities.
The story below convinced me this was a variety to grow this year.
Abraham Lincoln, Shumway’s “Original” – From Victory Seeds
90 days, indeterminate — The variety ‘Abraham Lincoln’ was originally released by H. W. Buckbee Seed of Rockford, Illinois in 1923. It eventually became an R. H. Shumway variety. The original seeds for our line were purchased from Shumway in the late ’90s when they were stating that the variety had been cleaned up as the result of a “major rebreeding project“.
The 1932 Shumway Seed Catalog described the plants as, ” . . . the largest Tomato ever grown. We have had nine tomatoes in a single cluster with a total weight of seven pounds; the average weight is about a pound and we have grown many weighing nearly three pounds.“ It continued in the description with such acclamations as, “phenomenal solidity of flesh” and ” . . . a sturdy, healthy grower with distinctive bronzy-green foliage.“
Our experience with this Shumway variety is that it is a very sturdy plant that produces nice yields of solid fleshed, dark red, good flavored medium-sized fruits that average about eight ounces. We are continuing our search for the original ‘Buckbee Abraham Lincoln’ tomato.
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