Big seed lie revealed!!!!!

[Worth1]

I don’t know where to post this but it does have to do with tomatoes.
Last year I gave my brother a pile of seeds to start for me and for him to grow too.
He told me that a bunch of seedlings had died and sort of told me or at least led me to believe that they were the ones I had given him.

I never really got the whole story from him until tonight on the phone.
You see when you lie you have to remember the thing and I guess he forgot.

We were discussing seeds and tomatoes to grow and he started to look through his seeds to see what he had.

He started off with the ones I gave him, ‘all of them.

That’s when I asked him about all of the plants that died last year.
Then I confronted him as to if he even planted any.
He said no, ‘I could just see my beloved brother twisting in his chair as I started to turn the screws to get to the truth.

Here’s how the conversation went.

Don, “When do I need to start my tomato seeds”?

Worth, “Now is the time”.

Don, “I’m not going to waste my time with little tomatoes this year I’m just going to grow big ones.

Worth, “What kind are you going to grow”?

Don, “Big boys and some tomato called an, ‘I can’t think of the name of it”.

Don, “An heirloom I think”.

Worth, “There is no such thing as a tomato called an heirloom, it is a group of tomatoes that are---- well you guys know.

Worth, “That’s what I gave you last year and they all died”.

Don, “No they didn’t I never even planted them”.
Worth, “What, you told me they died”.

Don, “Well uh well uh I had too much to plant and I didn’t plant them”.

Worth “That was my insurance for plants that Nancy might kill”.
And so forth.

My brother is spooked with anything other than the normal tomato that’s why he didn’t plant them.

He totally afraid of change and you wouldn’t believe how many times I have tried to explain heirloom tomatoes to him, he just doesn’t get it.

He’s planting them tonight bless his heart.
Now I have to get him to eat a black or green one.

I just love my brother.

Worth

[angelique]

Wow. That sounds like my husband's coworker. I gave DH a list of "spare" tomato plants that I had. I told him to tell her to pick six, so she did. I packaged the plants and made a print out of the descriptions for her. I went out of my way for her because she wanted her 3 year old daughter to experience gardening. Truth be told, I don't really know her.

I also had about twenty other plants that DH set out on the "public table" at work. DH said that the plants were gone within a 1/2 hour of his arrival to work. A couple of DH's coworkers went out of their way to thank me for the plants. Ironically, most of my plants died early without fruiting. In general the cause was either: Grandpa not watering when I was on vacation during 110F weather, nematodes, buggers (lots of aphids and hornworms) and experimentation with grown bags (watering issues). In casual conversation, DH told one of the recipients of my plants about my problems. She promptly offered to share some of hers with me. Needless to say, I didn't take up the offer.

Anyhow, the person who got the special box never said thank you. One day, DH "hinted" about the tomatoes and she said that she "normally buys them at the natural food store". Hmmm... I really didn't mind sharing the plants with her, I just wish that I had more to give to people that were going to plant them. Additionally, for the past few years, I have always given surplus veggies to DH to take to work. There was no need to hoard the plant. I guess that I am also annoyed because I forgo giving my uncle plants to share with this coworker of DH.

[feldon30]

I guess it shows that enthusiasm has to be tempered.

"I've got some seeds/plants for tomatoes that really taste like a tomato used to. If you'd like them, I'd be thrilled to give them to you, if not, I will give them to someone who will appreciate them. It is a fair amount of work to grow tomato seedlings and don't want them to go to waste. And I can't just buy these seeds at Home Depot. I had to order them online or trade with other people through the mail to get them. If I give you this gift of seeds/plants, will you grow them?"

I guess for heirloom neophytes, I'd do a tasting first. If it's a good old boy who likes cars, the examples come easy. Which would you rather have? A 2006 Corolla, or a 1966 Mustang? These tomato seeds/plants go back 50, 100 years or more. To a lady who just buys what they have at the feed store, I'd ask her if she's heard the expression "They just don't make them like they used to" because it applies 1000% to tomatoes.

Re: the horror stories about people not watering, I would call home every other day during hot spells and ask if they have watered TODAY. Or just set up soaker hoses and a timer. I saw 50' soakers at Wal-Mart for $8 and the timers aren't that bad if I recall.

[landarc]

Siblings!

I give my sister a few seeds or plants every year and then I go up there on the mountain and her plants are bigger, healthier and pumping out peppers and tomatoes to where she is throwing them at the chickens just to keep the veggies from getting under foot. I mean, does she have to show me up year after year. Just last night I told her I was going to give fish peppers a try again this year as last year I lost my plants. She pointed out that they are cool, hers (the one I abandoned at her place) is still pumping out peppers in winter. ARGHH!

[foolcontrol]

I like the car comparison by Feldon.

Talking about people hoarding tomatoes. I brought over 100 lbs of maters to work over a three day span last summer. I just put them in the kitchen and told people they could have some. Three people hoarded the majority of them before other people had a chance to get any. We only have about three dozen people at my company. All are degreed professionals. Several people told me that they didn't get any and wanted some. I ended up bringing more maters and gave them directly to people that didn't get any. Everyone told me they ate the maters fresh.

One of the hoarders (about 25 lbs) told me his wife at all of the maters in one weekend. She didn't cook with them either. It is impossible. They were harvesting their own maters at the same time. I am thinking that people knew they were attempting to grow tomatoes and gave them away saying they grew them. Where else did they go?

[landarc]

Makes you kinda wonder what a person that can eat 25 pounds of any food in a weekend looks like.

[Tomstrees]

sounds BUSTED to me !

~ Tom

ps.
Is that where the TYW seeds went ???!!
Ouuufaaa ~

[PaulF]

For several years I took my extra heirloom tomato plants to work and put them on a table in the break room and put a big free sign on them. The first year it took a week to have twenty extra plants go out the door (50 employees in my department, half engineers and half technical people).

The second year I got maybe ten requests for specific varieties. It took two days to remove 50 plants. The next couple of years there were requests for my variety list as well as twenty requests for more than 15 varieties. Someone even put up a donation cup the help pay for what was taken. That had to be a technician; no engineer I worked with could or would have thought of that.

There were complaints that people from other departments were raiding our breakroom and making off with tomato plants. Somebody must have taken up the tomato slack since my retirement because there have been no phone calls asking for the "good tomatoes" as they were called.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by kctomato

Don sounds like a Texas politican to me.

You should hear me and see him when he comes over and starts up the POLYTICKS talk.
It dosent last long I can tell you that.

Worth

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Tomstrees

ps.
Is that where the TYW seeds went ???!!
Ouuufaaa ~

No way bro no way!!!!!
I have them here with me as we speak.

Worth

[angelique]

Originally Posted by feldon27

Re: the horror stories about people not watering, I would call home every other day during hot spells and ask if they have watered TODAY. Or just set up soaker hoses and a timer. I saw 50' soakers at Wal-Mart for $8 and the timers aren't that bad if I recall.

Hi Feldon. In my case, I was out of the country. Besides, I should be able to trust grandpa, right? :wink: I was sad to have lost my tomatoes, but my greatest lost was my multigraft ultra dwarf cherry tree. It still had not been planted. I still don't have the heart to toss it. My brother said that he would smoke up some salmon with it the next time he is in town. On a happier note, I did come back to healthly looking doggies.

[foolcontrol]

I set up everything to water automatically with a DIG system.

[Worth1]

The DIG system is the cats meow for a low cost way to water plants.
All Nancy has to do is turn on the water.
I use the 0 to 10 gph emitters and will put in the controllers soon.
http://www.digcorp.com/

Worth

[Tomstrees]

Worth ,

:wink:

~ Tom

[landarc]

xeriscape