What are the odds?

2FrontFeet · January 19, 2007

Please excuse my newbie-ness as I am brand new to seed starting and heirloom tomatoes.

I recently purchased two packages of brand new seed called Tomato Rainbow Blend that contains 8 different heirloom varieties. I did not realize that the seeds of these different varieties would be mixed in together. To test the waters, I sowed one package 10 days ago just to see if I could do it. I also sowed a few Golden Queen and Yellow Pear seeds using the same growing medium.

The GQ and YP are up. Thus far, I've had zero percent germination with the other heirlooms.

And here is where the newbie-ness kicks in:

I did notice that all (ALL) of the Rainbow Blend seeds were MUCH darker than the GQ and YP, but I thought that was normal as the 'blend' contains seed for darker tomatoes like Cherokee Purple. One lonely little seed was orange and I thought it might be Nebraska Wedding. That didn't germinate either.

So, at the risk of sounding incredibly foolish (I like to think of it as hopeful!) is it possible to differentiate heirloom varieties by seed colour?

The second package also contains mostly darker seed.

Thanks for your patience.

January 19, 2007	#1
2FrontFeet Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: 6a Posts: 87	What are the odds? Please excuse my newbie-ness as I am brand new to seed starting and heirloom tomatoes. I recently purchased two packages of brand new seed called Tomato Rainbow Blend that contains 8 different heirloom varieties. I did not realize that the seeds of these different varieties would be mixed in together. To test the waters, I sowed one package 10 days ago just to see if I could do it. I also sowed a few Golden Queen and Yellow Pear seeds using the same growing medium. The GQ and YP are up. Thus far, I've had zero percent germination with the other heirlooms. And here is where the newbie-ness kicks in: I did notice that all (ALL) of the Rainbow Blend seeds were MUCH darker than the GQ and YP, but I thought that was normal as the 'blend' contains seed for darker tomatoes like Cherokee Purple. One lonely little seed was orange and I thought it might be Nebraska Wedding. That didn't germinate either. So, at the risk of sounding incredibly foolish (I like to think of it as hopeful!) is it possible to differentiate heirloom varieties by seed colour? The second package also contains mostly darker seed. Thanks for your patience. __________________ .