It can be done!
I disagree with what others have said, what you are saying can definitely be done. As a guide based on opinions, it would have its flaws but would be a nice bit of information to start with for sure and potentially as important of a data source as Tanja's is.
This is how I would do it.
-Via annual survey of a very very large data set. Survey helps eliminate peer pressure bias that you get in threads. Survey would be delivered via a subscribable APP. For a small fee, users not only get to enter and collect and retain all of their own tomato data for the season, but all get the benefit of benchmarking their data against everyone else using the APP. The only folks that get the APP data would be paid subscribers. Users that purchase more than one season get to see their own data side by side as well as the historical data of the whole population.
-A controlled data collection tool like this would require the population of key bits of important information that otherwise might be left out in say a forum.
-It would collect data for that particular year's growing conditions in that particular region
-A survey could require named varieties and not allow for F1 experiments.
Now the trick for such a survey would be to provide the information in such a way that that the varieties that flood the box stores "Big Boy" don't get an unfair representation. This could partially be controlled by splitting questions between hybrid and heirloom. Then there is the question of accuracy of data, you could add a question about years of experience growing tomatoes.
Key Questions:
-Tomato Variety Grown
-Hybrid versus Heirloom
-Tomato Type: Cherry, Slicer
-Tomato Color:
-State Grown In
-Year Grown In
-Growing Method: Ground, Container, Self Watering Container, Hydroponic
-Growing Location: Indoor, Outdoor
-Fertilization: None, Compost, Purchased Organic, Purchased Inorganic, Other
-Calcium added? Eggshells, Gypsum....
-Seed Obtained From:
Seed started in:
-Years experience growing tomatoes
Performance:
Seed viability: %
Date Planted:
Date Transplanted:
Date fruit seen:
Date first fruit Harvested:
Fruit harvested when: 100% colored; ~50% colored; <50% colored
BER: None, early fruits only, pervasive
Other disease seen: None noted, slight, moderate, significant
Number of fruits harvested: (optional)
Avg Total weight fruits harvested per plant: (optional)
Fruit appearance: Perfect, Good, fair, unattractive
Issues noted: check all that apply: zippering...catfacing..BER..drops off vine...insect damage...
Taste:
you get the idea....
If done well I would pay up to $10 annually for this (provided it wasn't owned by monsanto or an individual seed company). (This is high for an APP, but reasonable because of the analysis that goes with it.) I already do it via my own excel file, but the ability to see other's results from my region would add lots of value, as well as the convenience and data storage of an APP.
Billing does a few things. I would limit one license per email address, and help keep down the spam of those that might artificially inflate data. That does happen, but analysts know how to find it and dump it from the summary data.
So if you hire one of the top APP building firms, this effort would probably run 100-150K to build, they would do the whole thing. Do the math to figure out how many you would need to sell to get your return. Or you could find a couple of motivated geeks, and you could get us all something great within a few months!
Stacy
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