Fourth Of July!

I started growing FOJ for an early, productive hybrid three years ago with great success. I purchased seed last year and started producing my own seedlings. I was visiting with the owner of my nursery/farm store recently where I used to purchase my seedlings. He said his grower of the plants experienced a difficult time this year acquiring seed for the variety and called him asking if he knew any contacts who may have a good supply of the seed for sale. He still doesn't know if he will receive any FOJ plants from his grower.

I'm curious if something happened in the supply chain that reduced the available seed supply or if increasing demand for the seed reduced availability.

If you are growing FOJ this year, please post a note on this thread stating how long you have grown the variety.

Ted

[Wi-sunflower]

Fourth of July is a Burpee exclusive.

Around 2005 (give or take a year or 2), when Burpee was sold, they quit selling bulk quantities like bigger growers would order. They now ONLY sell in home packs of 10 or 15 seeds.
For big growers it's not possible to make a profit if you have to buy seeds that way.

I've been growing out several Burpee varieties and saving seeds. Some are varieties they discontinued, some are those like FoJ or Heatwave. While they are all supposed to be hybrids, I have seen little if any segregation from most of them. I did get a Potato leaf version of the FoJ tho.

I have a customer that has bought large quantities of Heatwave seed from me for at least 3 years now so my seed can't be too much different than what they were getting before.

If you want, you can give this info to your friends. I don't have a whole lot of FoJ right now but it might be enough for them. My F-5 is about 75% germination. I have close to an oz of that. I only have about 1/4 oz of F-6 that is 90%+.

Carol

That is very interesting Carol. I wonder where the nursery grower has been getting his seed since 2005. I will pass the information on to my friend and to his grower. I would imagine he will need a large supply in the future since his nursery is a major seedling supplier in the north and central areas of Texas.

My friend also told me when he first started selling FOJ the plants were an early producer of medium sized tomatoes. Over the years, the fruit size has become golf ball sized. I wonder if the declining fruit size coincided with the time frame Burpee stopped selling bulk seed to growers.

Ted

[WhippoorwillG]

I grew FoJ two years ago and thought it was decent for an early tomato. I have germed the last of my seeds for this season but did not save seed from the first growout, but will now based upon the above comments.

Of note and curiocity, I was looking at the Burpee rack at Tractor Supply yesterday and saw a variety called Independence Day. I kind of assumed it was probably just a new name for FoJ, but that is purely a guess??

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

"Of note and curiocity, I was looking at the Burpee rack at Tractor Supply yesterday and saw a variety called Independence Day. I kind of assumed it was probably just a new name for FoJ, but that is purely a guess?? "

I checked their website and searched for "Independence Day" tomato. The only variety that resulted from the search was FoJ because the description said "the first to ripen by Independence Day". The Burpee search engine normally shows results for both their web sale varieties plus the packet varieties sold in retail outlets. I would guess you are correct in assuming they are relabeled FoJ.

Ted

[Dutch]

I received my Fourth of July seeds from Burpee in the mail today. I have grown them out in the past and got both RL and PL plants that were not as productive. I have also grown out Independence Day by Livingston Seed and it is not the same.
Dutch

[Wi-sunflower]

I've been growing FoJ for well over 10 years and have never gotten anything other than a golf ball sized tomato. It's very much like Matina in size and maturity.

BTW, the PL plants I have seem very much the same as the RL in size, maturity and quantity of fruit. I have pick of both on my web site here http://knapps-fresh-vegies.netfirms.com/4-july.html

Carol

[Sun City Linda]

Someone here gave me some Hybrid FOJ and I grew it and loved it as a pretty much indestructable tomato machine. Unfortunately, I lost the seed so had to buy new from Burpee this year. I got 40 seeds in the pack, probably cost 4 dollars, cant remember.

I have often thought FOJ has a lot in common with Bloody Butcher. Both take the heat very well, are very productive and have small, tomatoey tasting fruit. Was not surprised to hear Carol say she was getting some potato leaf as that is what BB is. If I see a Burpee labeled Independance Day, I would buy it. They rename their seed all the time and run it out thru cheap retail outlets.