Pretty Please?????

[carolyn137]

I think this is the right Forum to reach the most folks, so here's what I'm asking pretty please about/

I spend perhaps 80-90% of my time here and have since the first week that Tville opened in Jan of 2006. But I do read elsewhere and before Tville I read/posted at many places and I have been so concerned about primarily traded seeds being wrong for the variety, yes, same can occur with seeds from commercial places as well, but not nearly the numbers that are asssociated with traded seeds.

At Garden Web I used to put up a wrong varieties thread each year and it was a real eye opener.

So......... I'm highly suggesting that first, no one sow new varieties they haven't grown before without knowing the following:

Correct spelling of the variety name and noting where the seeds were purchased from or from who you received them in trade and contact info as well.

Information about the variety so you know you've got the right variety when the plants mature and fruit.

Plant habit, whether indet, det, dwarf, whatever.

Leaf form and traits, potato leaf (PL), regular leaf (RL), angora foliage, rugose foliage, which most TRUE Dwarfs have.

Fruit color
Fruit size
Fruit shape

Information at many sites will give you different info, not for fruit color, but for fruit size. Those who are SSE members here can tell you that if lots of folks list the same variety, fruit sizes are all over the lot b/c there are so many variables associated with fruit size in general.

If you trade seeds, which I don't except for unusual circumstances like someone sending me a new previously undistributed heirloom or something unique, write on the trade envelope your original source of seeds and the seed age and anything else you feel will be helpful to the recipient. Time and time again I see folks saying , when they get a wrong variety, that they don't know how to contact the person who traded with them, so always send contact info as well.

Finally, I'm not at all shy about saying that I would prefer to see folks buying at least half of their seed from commercial places. it's those places, along with the SSE catalog and YEarbooks that have allowed for so many wonderful varieties to be preeserved and made more available to the public at large.

In addition, the profit margin at most seed places is low indeed and in these economic times I think it makes sense to help them out by buying a good proportion of the seeds you want.

Yes, I know the thrill and chase after obscure varieties, I seldom have done it with tomato varieties, but have with many perennials.

So, just some general suggestion that might help, especially for those who are relatively new persons getting involved with growing tomatoes, but for sure, some of the even "older" folks who have been growing tomatoes in some cases many decades.

Every year for several years now I get e-mails or PM's from folks who ask me to look for my oldest saved seeds of certain varieties since there are an increasing number of varieties that have gone south and are no longer what they should be. Since about 1990 I've saved seeds from almost all varieties I've grown and they reside and repose here at home. Just in the past several years I've sent out seed from 92 and 93 that some folks have been able to revive and if you look in the Wanted Forum of the Seed Exchange you'll see the so called Tadesse Project where I provided the old seeds and that b'c there wasn't ONE place where true Tadesse seeds could be found.

So you see, I do have an ulterior motive, and that's to try and lessen the percentage of varieties that aren't what they should be due to traded seeds and the first steps are what I wrote above.

No, few can ensure pure seeds unless they bag blossoms or do geographic isolation, but that's a totally separate topic which I would prefer to not see discussed here since there are already many threads when one does a search here.

Thanks for reading and considering what I wrote above.