Germination on some from Tomatovillians...

[nctomatoman]

Here are a few that I really look forward to that are planted, and some are emerging:

Casey's Pure yellow - from Jeff - up in 3 days
Tom's Yellow Wonder, seed from Suze - up in 3 days
Linnie's Oxheart, from Suze - up in 3 days
Grub's Mystery Green from Grub - up in 3 days
Ashleigh from Neil - awaiting
Lincoln Adams from Gary - up in 3 days

Anything that is related to the Dwarf project will be reported in the appropriate threads there.

Most depressing (kind of...maybe educational is a better term) finding so far - my old seed germination experiment - seeds of 50 different varieties that are between 17 and 21 years old - nothing at all yet emerged, after 12 days. Not ready to give up yet....but I wonder if a reasonable cut off for tomato seed viability, with no special drying, storage or pretreatment, is around 16 years old??? Let's see what happens...

[Raymondo]

Were the old seeds fermented? Just curious.

[PNW_D]

Craig, if any of those old seeds are really special, and you've got the space, don't give up on them for at least 6 weeks - yes 6 weeks

Can't find my specific notes, but do recall it took that long for one of my older varieties to germinate - still looking for my notes - could have been one you shared??

[nctomatoman]

Yes, all were fermented using the same techniques I use now - and stored the same way. And I will indeed not give up! This is a long term experiment. I do note that a few of the cells are showing fungal growth, which I've seen before with bad seeds that rot, rather than germinate.

[carolyn137]

but I wonder if a reasonable cut off for tomato seed viability, with no special drying, storage or pretreatment, is around 16 years old??? Let's see what happens...

****

No Craig, I don't think that the cut off is around 16 years. I resurrected one that was 22 yo and the record is 50 years for those seeds that were transferred from th Cheyenne, WY USDA prescursor to the new at that time USDA station in Ames IA.

And surely you remember the Magnus story where I waited for ONE seed to germinate and got ONE plant and that took TWO months to germinate. And all current seed for Magnus derives from that one plant.

I know you don't want to do anything special with your old ones, but if there are varieties that are goners unless you wake them up you might try what I did. And that's to NOT keep them in a large baggie so too much moisture might rot the seeds, rather, I watered them just a couple of times a week with the same dilute Knitrate that I used to use to wake up old seeds and did that with Magnus as well.

The Adams-Lincoln one is interesting. The originator, Tom, sent me the seeds and also a fruit. If it really does derive from that era, and the fruit does look oldish, if you know what I mean, it will be interesting. It's one of the ones that I plan to list at SSE although I'll tell you, requests this year are not good at all, even for the four new ones, so I may do something else with all the new ones that will be grown this year to ensure that they do get distributed to others.

I have been offering seeds of my new ones here at TV, but let's just see what the future brings re SSE and requests and other considerations.

[nctomatoman]

Well, for this experiment, I am looking at the cut off for germination success with no special drying, pretreatment or storage. So, if after two months I have zero germination on these, we will be able to make some conclusions, I believe.

[kimpossible]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

It's one of the ones that I plan to list at SSE although I'll tell you, requests this year are not good at all, even for the four new ones, so I may do something else with all the new ones that will be grown this year to ensure that they do get distributed to others.

I have been offering seeds of my new ones here at TV, but let's just see what the future brings re SSE and requests and other considerations.

Carolyn, do you think the lack of requests may be due to the lateness of the publication?

[carolyn137]

Carolyn, do you think the lack of requests may be due to the lateness of the publication?

****

That's possible Kim but every year requests seem to be going down. I list few these days comparded to what I used to list years ago, but other SSE members who list a lot more than I do have also seen requests going down.

And what else continues to go down are relistings from folks who get seed from you. I think it wasn't too long ago that Craig crunched some numbers and came up with about a 5% relist rate for the ones he was offering at the time.

Since 1999 I've only listed new ones to everyone but by now many of those are offered commercially, which also might make a difference.

Also, it seems to me that the trend is still there of more and more listed members offering just one variety of anything.. And my personal take on that is that they then get to request seeds as a listed member and Pay less.

I even that out by offering the same price for everyone in the US, Canada and elsewhere. But that's tomato seed that is small. Those offering larger seed types do have higher packing and shipping costs.

[epiphanista]

I hope I'm not misunderstanding the thread and hijacking, but in case those who shared seed do want germination results:

Red Zebra - from Cathy - all up in three days
Black from Tula - from Cathy - all up in three days

I have reported results from Carolyn's seed in another thread.

And on the re-offer note, I have always saved seed from the tomatoes I have grown, but usually just enough for myself and some friends. Actually, I guess I have not understood how much I should save if I were to re-offer. I have a very small garden, most of the time only six tomato plants, but surely even a few tomatoes (of the seedy sort) would yield quite a few for offering through SSE. I have not done my math, obviously! But my goal has always been to help preserve these great varieties, and at some point, with a larger garden, perhaps I can contribute better.

~Thalia

[Lee]

Craig,

How has the Spears Tennessee Green Germination gone?
For me, it has been one of the best at a quick 100% with all seedlings looking
very strong.

Lee

[nctomatoman]

Ah, Lee - thanks! I didn't report on it because it was planted in the dense seeded plants for seedlings for the market. Up in three days, germination looks fine! Glad you reminded me about it.

This was a big day for the seedlings - they went out this morning, got filtered (and a bit of full) sunshine all day, and they are going to get to spend the night outside tonight.

Back under the lights over the weekend, though, in the garage - we are off to a friend's beach house at Sunset Beach from tomorrow until Monday.