No Shows and no seeds left

[Tania]

I am sure some of you are in the same situation as I am right now - where for some varieties I planted all available seeds and none germinated - which leaves me no choice but wait until next year when I get the variety...

Here are my no-shows:

1. Ed's Fat Plum
2. Marizol Bratka (really wanted to grow it side-by side with Brandy Purple)
3. Wagonwheel
4. Strawberry Margarita (but lucky me, last Friday I've got fresh seeds from the SSE member in replacement of the old seeds that didn't germinate last and this year! Very nice surprise indeed )
5. White Rabbit
6. Victorian Dwarf
7. Canadian Dwarf
8. Stor Gul

Actually, considering that I started 140 different varieties, this is not as bad as it sounds - only ~5% didn't show up

[Fusion_power]

I typically expect 5 percent no-shows from my older seed. This includes varieties with seed 5 or more years old. Fortunately, I either have plenty of seed or else can readily get more commercially. There will be another 5% that have poor germination with 1 to 30 seedlings from 100 seed.

Examples of poor germination this year for me are:
Aunt Gertie's Gold 0/30, replanted 300 seed yesterday.
Heidi 1/30 have more seed ordered, will grow again this year.
Burgundy Traveller 2/100, replanted 500 seed yesterday.

I have literally hundreds of seedlings of heavy hitter varieties like Brandywine, Kellogg's Breakfast, and Eva Purple Ball.

Fusion

[nctomatoman]

Seeds can surprise you - I got 90% on my 1996 saved Cherokee Purple, and 100% on 1997 ChP. Next year I may do an experiment and plant out a flat of varieties I saved in 1986-1993, just to get an idea of the drop off over time.

[carolyn137]

2. Marizol Bratka (really wanted to grow it side-by side with Brandy Purple)

Purple Brandywine, which is what Joe Bratka named, it and Marizol Bratka are the same variety. Joe sent me a list with Purple Brandywine on it and I said what the heck is this b'c he was passing it off as a family heirloom. We talked. I suggested he rename it Marizol Bratka, which he did, but he'd already sent out seeds with the name Purple Brandywine, which is why both names are out there, but they are identical. it's another variety that Joe bred and is not a family heirloom.



4. Strawberry Margarita (but lucky me, last Friday I've got fresh seeds from the SSE member in replacement of the old seeds that didn't germinate last and this year! Very nice surprise indeed :grin: )

Neil just offered that variety for the first time in the 2006 Yearbook and ASAP he was getting reports back that it wasn't germinating. And that was true for almost all of the new ones he offered. He called, we talked, and it turned out he had done the fermentaions differently for those.

it was a very upsetting situation for Neil last year with those seeds that didn't germinate and it showed me more than ever how concerned he is about his seeds that he sends out and his general interest in OP tomatoes in general.

He sent me the Strawberry one and the Gaja one just a few weeks ago and these are the new seeds that he's offering in the 2007 Yearbook. So you should get good germination. I don't know if I'll have room for them or not, considering I'll only have about 12 plants again this year and I have some higher priorities for new ones sent to me.

[Tania]

Carolyn, I also got the Gajo De Melon from Neil, along with Strawberry Margarita, and I am growing both of them this year, and will re-offer seeds, if everything goes well :-)

[Fusion_power]

Just speculation, but I've found that there are some things you should never do when fermenting seed. Never ever leave seed to ferment more than 2 weeks. Germination goes down in a hurry if they are still in liquid at that time. The optimum time to ferment seed appears to be 3 to 5 days though some varieties are fine if left in longer.

One of the strangest things I've done is to pour off almost all the liquid in one of my fermenting cups and then let the rest of it dry down to a hard brown mass. Interestingly enough, seed treated this way gives very high germination even after several years storage. I suspect the dried fruit pulp protects the seed. I am planning a long term storage trial this year that will involve seed prepared using normal methods and the same variety prepared using the dried down method just to see which is better.

Fusion

[cdntomato]

Tania, am sending you more of the Canadian Dwarf and, if possible, the Victorian.

Jennifer

[carolyn137]

Are any of you growing the Victorian Dwarf that I've offered in several previous seed offers re old seeds?

Fusion, Neil is a very very experienced tomato grower and fermenter of seeds.

What happened was that for the first time ever he left the working fermentations in a different building on the property and the heat built up and the seeds were cooked.

So for summer growout 2006 he went back to his usual way and did the fermentations where he used to.

It wasn't a matter of fermenting too long.

And as for your two week limit, well, I only had to do that when it was late in the Fall and the temps were ridiculously low and I had flat after flat of containers with fermenting seeds that could not be brought inside for all sorts of reasons, least of which was my mother, who was alive at the time and living in the old farmhouse and the stink would have put her over the top.

Yes, she was supportive of my tomato growing and I knew few folks in their 80's who so loved my bicolors and green when ripes as she did and who would insist that I leave lots of them on the big front porch where she would have her lady friends come to pick up my tomatoes. And prior to my growing what I did she knew only red tomatoes.

[Tania]

Originally Posted by cdntomato

Tania, am sending you more of the Canadian Dwarf and, if possible, the Victorian.

Jennifer

Jennifer, thank you so much! Let me know if you don't have Victorian because if that's the case, I might take John's offer

Thank you so much John, this is very nice of you

[tylenol]

Tania,

I have Wagon Wheel, so just PM your address and I can mail them out right away.

Rob

[Fusion_power]

Lol Carolyn, I knew that Neil was "very experienced" at seed saving. My comment was just to say that even someone who knows what to do sometimes makes a mistake. I have, Neil has, I would speculate that you have a time or two. Ever have mice get in your seed and mix them all up?

I thought it might be good to let people know that things can and do go wrong in seed saving. Maybe we could have a thread "What NOT to do when saving seed!".

Fusion

[redbrick]

No-shows for me this year are Black Cherry (saved by me from last year) and Teton de Venus (from Mariana's Seeds). I'm not trying to pick on Mariana, just listing where the seeds came from. The Kalocsa'a I got from there sprouted just fine, by the way. I'm doing a germination "test" in a ziploc baggie on the Tetons, more to try to get some sprouts to transfer than to actually test the rate. I guess I should try the same with the Black Cherries too, huh?

[Mireille]

Hi Tania,

No germination of Stor Gul for me neither. I sew another 5 seeds yesterday. If it does not work, no seeds left. For you, was it the seeds I sent you ?

[Tania]

Originally Posted by Mireille

Hi Tania,

No germination of Stor Gul for me neither. I sew another 5 seeds yesterday. If it does not work, no seeds left. For you, was it the seeds I sent you ?

yes Mireille, same seeds, no-show. Hopefully next year we'll have more luck with a different seed source.

[Tania]

Hi guys and gals,

just a very quick check-in (my life has been quite busy lately, don't ask why... )

John and Tylenol - thank you so much for offering the seeds, it is mighty nice of you! ALthough for the time being I am going to take the offers of my fellow canacks, due to proximity and lower postage rates , and I will take another shot at the other varieties next year (since it is getting a bit late for me to start seeds now).

Btw, I didn't mean to have this post to appear as if I was begging for seeds, but it feels so good to have so many friends here who are ready to lend a hand right away, it really did brighten my day today (and unfortunately I did have a rough one today, that's for sure! )