Germination/Updates(2012); My Seed Offer

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Mark0820

Kukla's Portuguese Heart (2011): 0 of 5 seeds 0%
Kukla's Portuguese Paste (2011): 0 of 6 seeds 0%
Cuore del Drago (2011): 0 of 5 seeds 0%
Fish Lake Oxheart (2011): 2 of 4 seeds 50%
Lisos Grandes (2009): 2 of 3 seeds 67%

On Feb. 20, I sowed 2 seeds each of Kukla's Portuguese Heart & Paste and Cuore del Drago. Seeds were handled similar to my non-seed offer seeds. For the non-seed offer seeds, I sowed 33 varieties from 12 different sources and achieved 86% germination rate within 5 to 8 days (20 varieties had 100% germination).

On Feb. 29, I sowed 1 seed each of Kukla's Portuguese Heart & Paste and Cuore del Drago. This time I put them in the oven with the oven light on to give them a nice warm environment (also included Cowlick's and Croatian Brandywine). Within 5 days I had 100% germination of the Cowlick's and Croatian Brandywine seeds.

On March 10, I soaked 2 / 3 seeds each of Kukla's Portuguese Heart & Paste and Cuore del Drago in warm water for 24 hours before sowing. I was certain this would work as the seeds were nice and plump after soaking. I placed them in the oven with the oven light on for a nice warm environment. Three weeks later, still no sign of life. They are still in the oven, but I don't have a lot of hope.

I'm not sure what is going on. I guess it is just the luck of the draw of the seeds out of the vial and into the envelope.

I guess I should have selected the older varieties. Last year I had very good results from Danko (2007), Wes (2004) and Sarnowski Polish Plum (2003).

Mark, I went back through the whole thread and am going to post the results below for your no shows to indicate that even with the same seeds, as I said in my first post here, that there can be huge differences in germination percentages.

The numbers to the left indicate the number of the post in this thread:

8 ; Kukla Paste, 100%. FIsh, 100 %
9 ; 1/2 seeds of Cuore up
11 : Kukla Paste 100%
12 : Fish, 100%
14:Kukla heart, 100%, Coure del drago 0 which was true for some other seed offer seeds but it turns out that the problem was mold growth by using wet towels in plastic baggies, as several pointed out.

25; Fish, 3/5 up
33; Kuklas Beef, 4/9, Fish, 4/10, Kukla paste 5/9
36; Fish, 5/5 in 5 days
37; Kukla Heart,1/3, I think,can't read what I wrote, LOL, Fish 3/3
44; FISh, 4/5 up
49; Fish, 1/2
60; Fish, 0/6
62; Fish 1/4
67; Fish 3/6

The same Fish Lake Oxheart seeds were sent to everyone, most got near to 100% germination and a few got 0 Germination. This is a pattern that I'm familiar with and noted on the first page.

You got 0% for Kukla Paste but the reports above show almsot uniform 100% germination and again, everyone got the same seeds.

Only two folks reported back on Cuore to date, one person said 1/2 seed came up and the other person had major problems with mold growth for varieties other than Cuore as noted above.

It's good for me to go back and check varieties but I see nothing wrong with the seeds for Cuore, Kukla Heart, Kukla Paste and Fish, based on the data above, to date. Hopefully more reporst for Cuore will come in when we folks in the north start sowing seeds.

Different folks use different seed starting mixes, incubate the sown seeds in different ways, and well, there are so many variables to starting seeds that it shouldn't surprise anyone that results for the same variety can range from 0% to 100 % with the exact same seeds.

Mark, I never told you this but for some reason I was looking for an envelope to use as a divider for my 2011 seeds, so I'd get the seeds back in alphabetical order after filling a seed pack.

And I just took one off the empty envelope pile where I'd already filled the request, and it happened to be yours, and it's still there.

So thanks to your empty envelope for helping me to keep my seeds straight in the shoebox where they resided.

[Worth1]

These aren’t seeds from the seed offer but seeds that were sent to me from Carolyn some time ago.
Wes was from 2004 stock and I had 75% germination in a cold garage at about 55 to 60 degrees.
I followed Carolyn’s instructions to a tee.
Just not the cold garage part.
Fish Lake and Granny,s heart had about the same germination rate.
After the Nitrogen mishap I had one Wes plant left from this batch of plants and no Granny’s or Fish Lake.
They all died.
I still have a few of those seeds left.
The good news is the lone Wes plant is doing fine and just may be the first tomato to set this year.
It and 17 other plants are doing just fine.
I will keep you all updated on this lone Wes plant.
It will receive extra care.

Worth

[k3vin]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

What are your plans right now? To work with the RL or PL seedlings or both as you suggested.

Carolyn, I'm not so much interested in the leaf form as I am the gf gene. The F1 had lightly chocolate brown fruit, sort of like Paul Robeson or Cherokee Chocolate, but egg shaped and I'm guessing 3 oz or so. I said earlier it had clear skin, but thinking about it now I'm certain it was yellow skin. The F1 plant had sparse, wispy foliage as well. Flavor was out of this world. Of 40+ varieties grown it was #1 for flavor. If I could stabilize what I had in the F1 I would be happy, but we'll see what surprises the F2's hold this year.

Do you recall which RL black/chocolate tomatoes you may have grown the year you grew the Moravsky Div seeds?

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Dissemination of wrong seed is of great concern to me,

But of great joy to me!

Kevin

[carolyn137]

Kevin, as I recall the Moravsky Div seeds were produced in 2008 and I'd have to confirm it, but I don't think I was the one who produced them.

Since my fall in Dec of 2004 and being in this walker I've done very little seed production since I have to depend on Freda to bring in fruits for me and while I sit on a stool at the sink and set up the fermentations, it hasn't been many that I've been able to do. And the past two years only the seeds for the experimental possibly pink currant one did I do since smushed up actual fruits were sent to me, and I almost forgot, I set up a fermentation for the Orange Minsk Heart and good thing I did since Shoe, who was doing the seed production, lost those plants..

I just sent out all the seeds for this season this past Wednesday to Craig and Shoe and Lee and Neil and sent Shoe some of the original seeds for the Orange Minsk Heart that were sent to me by Big Daddy.

Please remind me to check on who produced the Moravsky Div seeds, but thinking about it it could have been a stray seed of mine that got in there, so I'd have to check to see if I grew any small dark oval ones as well, but I just went back to check your initial post about this and it does appear that it wasn't a stray seed, rather, a crossed seed.

So I'll check when I have the time and motivation to do so, starting with my 2008 seed offer here at Tville.

[mrdoitall]

Hi Carolyn, Thank you again for your kind offer. Wish I could have done better with these seed. I feel like a failure. Sorry!
I will try to do better next year.
Started all seed with jiffy organic seed starting mix. 2-26-2012 Watered with rain water only. No seed soaking. Started under 4ft shop lights 2 inches above seed.
Lights on 16 hr per day. Temp was 75f-80f

Dutka’s 5 seed planted 0 germination. 0 %
Fishlake Oxheart 5 seed planted 3 germinated.60%
Hays’ 5 seed planted 1 germinated.20%
Heshpole 5 seed planted 0 germination.0%
Terhune 5 seed planted 0 germinated.0%

I started 145 different varieties of tomatoes this year out of all these varieties 11 varieties I did not get any germination.

Thanks again for all you have done over the years with tomatoes and sharing your information on the forums.
Dwight

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by mrdoitall

Hi Carolyn, Thank you again for your kind offer. Wish I could have done better with these seed. I feel like a failure. Sorry!
I will try to do better next year.
Started all seed with jiffy organic seed starting mix. 2-26-2012 Watered with rain water only. No seed soaking. Started under 4ft shop lights 2 inches above seed.
Lights on 16 hr per day. Temp was 75f-80f

Dutka’s 5 seed planted 0 germination. 0 %
Fishlake Oxheart 5 seed planted 3 germinated.60%
Hays’ 5 seed planted 1 germinated.20%
Heshpole 5 seed planted 0 germination.0%
Terhune 5 seed planted 0 germinated.0%

I started 145 different varieties of tomatoes this year out of all these varieties 11 varieties I did not get any germination.

Thanks again for all you have done over the years with tomatoes and sharing your information on the forums.
Dwight

Dwight, don't feel like a failure, look at it as a challenge. If you took the time to go back and read thru this thread you'd find that most of the ones you sowed seed for were OK for others, although I don't remember any reports back from Dutka's PInk, but surely they're there.

I try hard to spot problem seeds, but so far I haven't spotted any, except I am concerned a bit about Malinovyi Rog, so will continue keeping tabs on that one.

Now back to bed for me.

[ljp]

I replanted the 9/64 for which I had extra seed. Unfortunately, I planted all of Carolyn's seed the first time. The seeds went on the top shelf of a plant stand with a south facing window. Most have sprouted. I think the difference is the sun warmed the soil in the pots. When 9/64 seeds don't sprout, it is easy to blame the seeds. There are other factors.

[Douglas14]

Although I didn't receive these seeds from the original seed offer, I'll give my germination results for the two varieties I obtained from you, Carolyn. I think both these varieties were planted on March 16. No special seed treatment. They have, for the most part, been at room temperature.

Fish Lake Oxheart....7 seeds sown....5 germinated.

Kukla Portuguese Beefsteak....7 seeds sown....0 germinated. I'm not giving up on this variety yet. If any do germinate, I'll update it on this thread.

[Idahowoman]

These are my germination results for Carolyn's 2012 seed offer

Planted March 3, 2012

Vince P1 - 6 planted -1 germinated
Lucinda,- 5 planted -3 germinated
Ambrosia Red -6 planted -0 germination
Zleovo 6 seeds -2 germinated
Uralskiy Rozovy-5 planted 2 germinated
All are transplanted into 4 inch pots in the greenhouse. They are doing well.
I bought a pack of Ambrosia Red from J and L Gardens so I have that one now. Thank you Carolyn, I am looking forward to watching these grow .
Susan

[Mudman]

Kenosha Paste 2010- 9 seeds planted, 6 seeds sprouted in 7 days. 66.7%

[rsg2001]

Here are my germination results for this year's seed offer. Note that I did something a little different this year in seed-starting. I wanted to try a coir seed-starting mix from Gardener's Supply (I was finding that in the last two years, I was also getting mushrooms growing from the Gardener's Supply mix, albeit good germination, and let them know. They were kind enough to send me a free new bag of it, but I had the same result.)

So, taking advice from Green Thumb Omaha, I planted half the seeds in the coir and half the seeds in the leftover seed-starting mix from Garder's Supply. I did not see an appreciable difference between both mixes thus far, although I found I got somewhat better germination on my hot peppers (not from the seed offer) than on the tomatoes.

These were all planted on 3/24 so this report is 12 days after sowing.

Orange Minsk 2008: As of 4-7, 8 of 8 have germinated (double sowed), no treatment so this is 100%. Two of them came up with the seed coat stuck completely on the leaves. I am pretty good at "surgery" but in case the patients don't survive I will still have some Orange Minsk plants.

Vince P1 2011: 8 out of 8 seeds germinated (and they look good). They were the first up. 100% (Updated 4-10)

Russian Queen 2011 : 5 out of 5 seeds germinated (that's all the seed I was sent - looks like I will Russian Queen in the garden :-) 100%

Ambrosia 2011: So we're holding as of April 7, with 4 out of 8 germinated, 50% They definitely are taking more time. I will report back if there is a change in this. UPDATE: Less than an hour after I posted this.

Terhune: 0 out of 4 seeds germinated. (I only had 4 seeds). I will report back if I eventually get any. UPDATE: There is still no action on Terhune.

[barefootgardener]

rsg, dont give up hope on the Terhune. I planted all 5 seeds sent, and it took almost 4 weeks before I had one seedling germinate. I eventually had a second seed germinate, but it had a helmet head and did not make it. Reading back on the updates it seems most of us growing Terhune, have had a bit of a struggle with germination.

Ginny

[carolyn137]

I went back this Am and read throught this whole thread again looking for data from Terhune and Hoy. In post #76 I had done that for Fish lake and some others that didn't seem to be germinating well and found some with 100 % germination and with the same variety 0 %/

And on this reread I found some folks with 100% germination for Terhune and some 0% and the same for HOY.

It's very difficult for me to make any firm conclusions at this point, especially when many folks sowed only two seeds of a variety when I asked in my initial offer that all seeds for a variety be sown.

Given that some are very experienced with sowing seeds and some are new at it I expected to see huge variations as I've said before/ For instance, I sent many seeds of Vince P1 to each person who requested it and many got 100% germination while some got 0% germination.

There was only one seed source for Terhune and the fact that some got 100% tells me that there was nothing wrong with the seeds themselves.

There were two seed sources for Hoy and I alternated from time to time using the two seed sources since one had a lot more seeds than the other, so I can't make any conclusions except that many got good results for Hoy and some did not.

I'm still shaking my head a bit b'c when I put up the seed offer I listed what I expected from everyone if they expected to participate, and that included sowing all the seeds I sent and posting germination reports as well as posting in the thread I'll put up later in the late summer or early Fall about were the seeds true, how did you like the variety, etc. Almost forgot, and saving your own seeds.

And then I said if this seed offer is not for you b/c of what I'm asking, I understand and perhaps a differenmt seed offer might be better where none of this is asked for, or words to that effect. I could go back and cut and paste the exact words but any of you can look on that first page to see what I wrote.

Good heavens, I'm starting to sound like the teacher I once was in terms of why didn't you follow the directions?

But IF I go ahead and make another seed offer next year, for 2013, and I'm about to list the 2012 growouts in that thread, there will be MAJOR changes in HOW that seed offer will be run and what the limitations will be, so be prepared.

[barefootgardener]

Carolyn, I went back and reread also and out of six that reported back on Terhune, only one had 100% germination. That was post #2, and only three seeds were planted. The rest of the germination results were all over the board. Some of us planted all 5 seeds, and others planted only two or three. So i can understand why it would be hard to come to any conclusion at this point. Hopefully more will be reporting back on germination results soon.

Ginny

[barefootgardener]

I know this is thread for germination updates, but wanted to post a few pictures of my seedlings from your offer Carolyn.

Far left: Malinovyi Rog., Kukla's Portuguese Paste.. 2nd Pic: Fish Lake Oxheart, Terhune, Casino