Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewsj!johna
From: johna@cbnewsj.att.com (john.a.welsh)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Tomatoes from Space ?
Summary: To eat or not to eat.
Message-ID: <1990Oct1.155530.23848@cbnewsj.att.com>
Date: 1 Oct 90 15:55:30 GMT
References: <61190@masscomp.ccur.com> <26ff7c8d-1b7.1sci.space.shuttle-1@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 20

In article <26ff7c8d-1b7.1sci.space.shuttle-1@vpnet.chi.il.us>, cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Gordon Hlavenka) writes:
  
> >Many will remember that a one of the experiments in a (recent ?) space
> >shuttle flight involved exposing some tomato seeds to space conditions...
   
  
> Sorry I don't have more details, but the Chicago Tribune reported a week or
> two ago that a "space tomato" won first prize at a state fair.  (Not the
> Illinois fair, though.)  So _some_ of the plants did OK.
  
> The seeds were lofted on the LDEF which was stranded for a while.  (The
> XLDEF?)  After the LDEF was recovered the seeds were distributed to
> scientific researchers and schools.
  

I read that a number of these seeds produced tomato plants that produced
good looking tomatoes.  One school in New Jersey did but nobody was allowed
to eat them because they were not sure if they were safe.  If I remember
the article correctly, the plants grew faster than expected.  My question
is: has anybody analyzed these tomatoes to determine if they are edible?