2014 Mostly Mystery 'Mater Mailing

[LindyAdele]

All of mine germinated 100%, except for Azoychka. I planted two cells with about 4 seeds each, and haven't had one seed come up! I guess it wasn't meant to be this year.

[AZGardener]

I wish I would have participated this year! Bummer. Next season.... Good luck to everyone and did I see snow on some of your posts? Yikes!!

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by LindyAdele

All of mine germinated 100%, except for Azoychka. I planted two cells with about 4 seeds each, and haven't had one seed come up! I guess it wasn't meant to be this year.

I thought I would be in the same position with Russian 117. I got seeds in last year's swap labeled Russian 117 that turned out to be a pink beefsteak. So I asked for it again this year.

The Russian 117 NOT seeds were the first of all my seeds to germinate. What I'm hoping are the real Russian 117 was the last. I sowed two seeds and one finally germinated after more than two weeks. On top if it all, that one Russian 117 seedling is a tri-leaf!

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by AZGardener

I wish I would have participated this year! Bummer. Next season.... Good luck to everyone and did I see snow on some of your posts? Yikes!!

So, give me some feedback.

When do you start your seeds? I'm always looking for info on those who start very early. The swap usually has people sending their seeds in from about October 1st to November 1st. I try to send things back all through November and December (sometimes it goes beyond December, like this past swap).
I try to send Southerners packages back first, but I don't know how early they want them.

You can also start making a wish list (very earlies? and hot weather? varieties from reading your other posts).

Gary

[AZGardener]

Originally Posted by Tormato

So, give me some feedback.

When do you start your seeds? I'm always looking for info on those who start very early. The swap usually has people sending their seeds in from about October 1st to November 1st. I try to send things back all through November and December (sometimes it goes beyond December, like this past swap).
I try to send Southerners packages back first, but I don't know how early they want them.

You can also start making a wish list (very earlies? and hot weather? varieties from reading your other posts).

Gary

Well Gary- if our winter is some what warm without too many nights in the 30's, I will start by Christmas. That would be the ideal time. This year I didn't start until the second week or so of Jan and I'm wishing I started sooner due to such a warm spring. If I had seeds by the sec week of Dec that would be perfect so I could start planning for the couple weeks to come...

I am definitely going to make a list based on everyones recs and try this swap this fall! What a great idea you had! Thank you!!

[habitat_gardener]

I had pretty good germination on almost every variety I started this year, with the following exceptions (not sure which of the first ones were from this swap vs. other sources):
1/2, Marmande Verte
1/6, Sweet Ozark Orange
1/3, Green Zebra Cherry
5/9, Tobolsk (my own 2010 seed)
5/9, Purple Brandy (my own 2010 seed)

Actually, these are the survivors, not necessarily a true germination record.
More of some of those may have sprouted, but I was playing around with helmet heads last month and lost at least a couple seedlings (but not more than one from each variety) before refining my touch.

I started mine in early March, because that's when the greenhouse was close enough to completion. Next year, I plan to start peppers and eggplants in mid-January and tomatoes in early to mid February.

[bower]

Anyone who received Oaxacan Jewel PL seed from me, please be advised of a possible error! I started a tray of OJPL for the local enthusiasts, and lo behold every last seedling is RL.... Thought through all the possible reasons, and it's down to the most obvious, a fruit of Northern Lights must have got put with the OJPL fruits and wrongly saved into the OJPL seed packet. There are seed of multiple fruit in that packet, so likely most are OJPL, but maybe that NL fruit was on top because that's where my seeds came from, and maybe yours did too.

Soooo... please make a note on your package if you haven't started them, RL seedlings are likely Northern Lights, if PL they are the OJPL. Their fruit are so similar it's hard to tell them apart. OJPL is earlier and has bigger clusters and more size variation, NL had mostly large and prominently ruffled fruit.

I did find a separate packet in my stash of about 60 OJPL seed from an early fruit.. if you wanted it but got the mixed seed, send me a PM and I will mail you some... sorry!

[Tormato]

Do you remember how many packs you sent in?

If it was only one, well... ummm... I kept that one...one of only two selections I made from the thousands in the swap.

It's just my luck that plants may be RLs.

But then, my one selection from the previous year (Gajo de Melon), was supposed to be a RL and turned out to be a PL.

On the plus side, in reading about OJPL, I'm not sure that it can be confirmed to be entirely stable. So, I would have been on the lookout for both RLs and PLs anyway.

Now, all I have to do is not mix OJPL with OJ since they will be in a side-by-side grow-out trial this year.

Gary

[SummerSky]

So far I've only started two varieties from the swap. All my Dwarf Arctic Rose seeds germinated quickly, but only one Tumbling Tom came up. I'm totally unfamiliar with Tumbling Tom, but this one looks like a standard tomato (I had it in my head the it was a dwarf, but I could definitely be wrong) and it has wispy leaves.

The rest I was supposed to start last week, and I just wrote down my labels and got my trays out today, so hopefully I'll get them going by tonight...

[bower]

Gary, I've grown the OJPL (which came originally from Solana Seeds listed as a PL) four years and it has always been PL all the way, so afaict stable.
I don't think I did send in a lot of packs of that one. (Subject to correction by recipients!)

I have another packet of seeds to get into the mail this week, so I'll send you along the correct OJPL seed from that early fruit (thank the great darnoodly they were in a separate pack!).

Then you can grow the real OJPL, the real OJ, and the 'probably Northern Lights' RL, and THEN we'll see if you can tell any of these fruit from one another! Deal?

Originally Posted by Tormato

Do you remember how many packs you sent in?

If it was only one, well... ummm... I kept that one...one of only two selections I made from the thousands in the swap.

It's just my luck that plants may be RLs.

But then, my one selection from the previous year (Gajo de Melon), was supposed to be a RL and turned out to be a PL.

On the plus side, in reading about OJPL, I'm not sure that it can be confirmed to be entirely stable. So, I would have been on the lookout for both RLs and PLs anyway.

Now, all I have to do is not mix OJPL with OJ since they will be in a side-by-side grow-out trial this year.

Gary

[dfollett]

Any information on this variety?

I have three potted up into Solo Cups. They do not appear to be micros as they are about the same size as the Dwarfs I have growing - significantly larger than the micros. I'd like to have an idea as to how much space to give them and what to expect from the fruit. They also are showing some definite weirdness in their leaves with the curling as you can see in the second photo.

Is this to be expected or is there a problem with these??? I am not seeing this leaf curl on the others around them.

[Tormato]

www.tomatoville.com/showpost.php?p=446095

That's all, so far. It seems to be a commercial variety from China.

[SummerSky]

So I noticed something interesting going on with my Kosovo plants, whose seeds I got from the swap.

I started three, all three germinated. Two have potato leaves. I'm very interested to see how these PL plants do and what they give me!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by SummerSky

So I noticed something interesting going on with my Kosovo plants, whose seeds I got from the swap.

I started three, all three germinated. Two have potato leaves. I'm very interested to see how these PL plants do and what they give me!

May be interesting, yes, but getting PL plants says what you have is not Kosovo, due to cross pollination. So grow out at least one PL and one RL to see what you get/

There have never been any PL's of Kosovo that I know of since if you read the link below I was the first to get seeds from Glenn Parker in NZ and first introduced it in the SSE Yearbook in 2003 and other seed offers I was doing at the time as well as sending it to several seed vendors for trial. And I've kept track of it through the years at the several message sites where I've participated at/

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Kosovo

it's a really great variety that works well for almost everyone everywhere.

Carolyn

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by bower

Gary, I've grown the OJPL (which came originally from Solana Seeds listed as a PL) four years and it has always been PL all the way, so afaict stable.
I don't think I did send in a lot of packs of that one. (Subject to correction by recipients!)

I have another packet of seeds to get into the mail this week, so I'll send you along the correct OJPL seed from that early fruit (thank the great darnoodly they were in a separate pack!).

Then you can grow the real OJPL, the real OJ, and the 'probably Northern Lights' RL, and THEN we'll see if you can tell any of these fruit from one another! Deal?

I don't know what I have with your original OJPL.
It's PL, but flower buds have showed up at 27 days after sowing seeds.