Seed Production

[DuckCreekFarms]

I have done lots of soul searching and have decided to sell tomato and OP/Heirloom seeds on my web site in 2012. I have wanted to do this for several years, so I have decided I need to just do it.

So what varieties is there a need/high demand that I should plan to grow out for seed production this coming year?

I will grow most of the unusual varieties. I have a couple of other growers that will grow a few for me. And I will be looking for other growers as well. This will be a low volume supply, so I am not planing to grow more than 1 to 4 ounces of tomato seed to offer in small units.

any suggestions are appreciated

Gary
www.duckcreekfarms.com

[JackE]

It will work good if you can get it to come-up on the search engines. People will google the variety names and if you're on the list they'll buy. Many people don't reaize how many tomato seeds are in an ounce - about 12,000 - at 30 seeds a packet, $3.00 a pop ----

We needed to find an heirloom okra that everyone around here was asking for - Louisiana Green Velvet (stays tender even when the pods are big). I found it on the web - Victory Seed Co, an heirloom seed collector in Oregon. Nice guy and real knowledgeable. Trouble is, he only made one sale because OP okra seeds are REAL easy to save. That's the problem with selling OP seeds - everybody just buys a packet and saves their own. Okra is the only OP crop we grow, and some of our treated hybrid tomato seed cost $150/thousand.

This forum is sure dead. I'm disappointed - where is everybody? I've only had one reply to all my posts - one four-letter word,"YUCK".LOL Guess I have bad breath or something. Guess I'll have to go outside in the cold and work - YUCK! :-)

Is it always like this?

Merry Christmas,

Jack

PS- Put it on a Facebook page - seems like things I post on Facebook always seem to show up on Google searches. You can do a page for free.

[DuckCreekFarms]

Jack

thanks for the comments

I have foundation seed for 10 or 12 varieties of Okra but I don't have green velvet. I do have Stewart's Zeebest which is supposed to be a selection from green velvet. Since Okra needs to be planted in isolation, I will need to hand pollinate, but I am prepare to do that. And while I do think lots of people will save their own seed, not everyone will. A company I use for supplies sells clemson spineless seed in 50 pound bags. And they sell tons of seed.

when I first put my website up, I could not google it, but I had my friends start giving it (website) some traffic and before I knew it, I was getting email from everywhere inquiring about my sweet potato varieties. It was truly amazing.

thanks again
gary

[JackE]

Thanks for the quick reply

I don't know anything about seed production, Gary. I guess isolation means that cross-pollinating varieties by bees/wind must be avoided - when you plant more than one variety?

Clemson Spineless is the industry standard and we planted it for years - but it's a lousy okra compared to Green Velvet and Emerald Velvet(which is even more robust) The only advantage Clemson has, IMO, is ease of picking - other than that it sucks and the customers don't like it.

The velvet okras make several main stems (Clemson only one) and all of them produce. The plant gets 8 ft tall and you have to pull the stems over to pick the top - HUGE plant that requires at least 6' between rows. We often get 10 or 12 pods per plant at peak harvest. Best of all, the pods can get quite large and still be soft enough to cook - if Clemson pods get much more than 3-4 inches, they ain't fit to eat.

However, the velvets are extremely irritating to the skin and our volunteer pickers (church ladies) hate it. They come to work all dressed-up like an astronaut - even the face has to be covered because it constantly brushes against the lush foliage while picking. But the customers - mostly black folks, who call it "Gumbo" - absolutely love it! My wife said, the first year we planted velvet, that a young black girl got a large bag and put $5 in the donation can. An hour later, she came back and put in another $5, saying, "when Mama saw that Luziana Gumbo she sent me back with more money."

So, our people may not know a good tomato when the see it, but they DO know their okra! :-) Merry Christmas


Jack

[DuckCreekFarms]

here is a link to an okra trial done here in Oklahoma. I looked to see if they had velvets listed, but they don't. I guess they need to do another trial and include more varieties.

http://www.kerrcenter.com/publicatio...kra-report.pdf

Wishing you the best Christmas ever
gary

[RinTinTin]

Okra was originally brought to the US on slave ships from West Africa. The fruits, in the native West African language, were called "gumbo". The plants took well to the hot/humid south, and they (as well as "gumbo") have become a regional staple.

[Blk_Vegan]

I always grow lots of okra. It's one of my favorite veggies. Boiled, fried, with cowpeas or cabbage, even raw...it doesn't matter. Love it. My favorite variety to grow is Cajun Jewel. Tender pods. Pleasant taste. Compact plants(24-30in) with high production. I tend to grow the more compact vegetable varieties as i have limited space. Gonna also try the Burmese this season. A gardening friend raves about that one.

[Fusion_power]

I grew the seed of several of the varieties used in that trial. As an fyi, the fertilizer amount was inadequate for the larger and more rampant growers. Burmese as a compact variety was one of the few that would have had enough.

I've been debating about developing a more useful okra than what is on the market today. The best traits seem to be in 3 varieties that I've got seed of.
Lee - a short internode variety
Cowhorn - a huge plant that produces a steady supply of long tender pods
Granny Franklin - Has the best overall flavor and multipurpose use

What I would like to combine is the tender pods and low skin irritation of Cowhorn with the short internodes of Lee. Then add in the multipurpose usability of Granny Franklin. That should be enough of a project to keep me busy for the next 5 years or so.

DarJones

[JackE]

Christmas morning! Joy to the World!

Gary, There is at least one velvet on the list - Emerald - and maybe two. I don't know if that Milsap White is a velvet or not, but it could be a variation of the old White Velvet that my grandmother used to plant for pickling. Personally, I had to eat so much okra as a kid that I never touch it now.

What we're planting now is actually Emerald - we call it Louisiana Green because that's what the customers want to hear. It's very similar - a higher yielding variation developed by the Cambell Soup Co in the 1930's.
We planted the LG one year and saved the seed. During that winter, I found a local source for the Emerald Velvet in bulk - cheap too - about the same price as Clemson - and we've planted that since. A huge yielder but a nighmare to pick.
*******************************
Vegan -- RAW okra?? Surely you jest - seems like it would irritate the intestines just like your hands. My mother served boiled cowhorn okra with fresh purple hull peas - I had to force it down with that sickening slim dripping off my chin. GROSS! :-) Not quite so bad fried or in chicken gumbo.

Rin Tin Tin - Interesting historical fact. I knew it was African but didn't know the slaves brought it over.

Gotta get ready to go over to my brother's house for Christmas. DW is in the kitchen cooking - NOT okra from the freezer, I hope! :-)

Merry Christmas to all,

Jack

[dave]

Gary, besides selling vegetables at the farmers market we also sell a few tomato and pepper plants mostly by request. Besides the hybrids we get a lot of requests for Sioux, Marglobe, Rutgers and Homestead plants and of course Cherokee Purple . These were the varaities grown by thier parents and grandparents as you well know. The "Goose Creek" seed I got from you were great. dave--- in broken arrow

[JackE]

I remember Homestead - we used to plant that one years and years ago.Nothing special about it - just another tomato as my memory serves me.

Jack

[DuckCreekFarms]

Dave

I have decided to really cut my varieties of tomato plants for this year and take a year off from trying to have everything. Darrell Merrell raved about Sioux a few years ago on a news program so it has become one of my top selling reds. I grew Rutgers, Marglobe and Homestead last year, but dropped them for this year because of lower demand. Of course CP is my top selling heirloom.

This is my list of Tomato plants for 2011. I do have a few things that I will grow in small qualities, but don't have them listed.

http://duckcreekfarms.com/pdfs/TomatoCatalog2011.pdf

I will probably have (homestead, Marglobe, Rutgers et) in seed form when I start selling seeds next year.
gary

[JackE]

Darn, Gary, I just bought 1/8 oz of Better Boy Hybrid from Totally Tomatoes. Next time I'll buy that from you for sure.

We are going to plant a couple hundred indeterminates this year - for the first time in years. Our CRW cages are all cut in half so we are wiring them back together. They are only 4' instead of the original 5' but they'll work -I've been there before - the BB's will just pour over the top, which may be to our advantage. The object is to prevent the sunscald we got last year.

Jack

Actually, if I had my druthers, I would have chosen "Gurney Girl Hybrid" from Gurney Seed Co. That's the indet I used to plant - fabulous tomato - huge, blemish-free, crack-resistant, sweet tasting slicers! But there are two other growers in our church project - one grows our sweet corn and the other purple hull peas - and I always start a couple dozen indet tom plants for their home gardens along with the project tomatoes and peppers - and they both insist on Better Boy. They both stake and prune heavily (I've never pruned and I'm not going to start!) but, unbelievably, their fully-exposed BB's actually had less sunscald than my commercial determinates last year!