When will most seed companies have seed?

I'm planning my 2011 tomato garden and I already have most of the seed for the garden. I have the following seed.

Berkley Tie-Dye
Black & Brown Boar
Black Krim
Brandywine Sudduth
Cherokee Purple
Cuostralee
Indian Stripe
JD's Special C Tex
Kelloggs Breakfast
Mortgage Lifter
Prudens Purple
Spudakee Purple
Sweet Carneros Pink

I don't have the following seed.
Neves Azorean Red
Black From Tula
KBX
Stump Of The World
WES

I've located the seed I want at two vendors, but I would prefer to purchase my seed from a single vendor. When do most of the vendors update their lists to reflect seed grown out this season?

I planted a lot of the tomatoes listed in the "seed I have" list, but it has been a really lousy year in North Texas for growing tomatoes. I planted seedlings in late March, and early April. We experienced an early onset of high heat in mid May which stopped my tomatoes from blooming. The only tomatos which actually produced a harvestable crop were the Prudens Purple and Brandywine. I believe they produced well because the plants grew so fast after planting in the garden, they were able to produce blossoms before the heat arrived. The others were slow growers and had no chance to bloom. some of them like Cuostralee, Kelloggs Breakfast, and Mortgage Lifter never produced a bloom bracket much less a bloom.

Next spring, I will germinate earlier and plant about a month earlier. I can protect them from late frost and if that fails, I will have some extra plants in a heated cold frame to use as replacements if needed.

Does anyone know if any commercial seed will be available from vendors from the Dwarf Project. I sure would like to grow some compact plants which produce well and have tomatoes that taste good.

Ted

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

I'm planning my 2011 tomato garden and I already have most of the seed for the garden. I have the following seed.

Berkley Tie-Dye
Black & Brown Boar
Black Krim
Brandywine Sudduth
Cherokee Purple
Cuostralee
Indian Stripe
JD's Special C Tex
Kelloggs Breakfast
Mortgage Lifter
Prudens Purple
Spudakee Purple
Sweet Carneros Pink

I don't have the following seed.
Neves Azorean Red
Black From Tula
KBX
Stump Of The World
WES

I've located the seed I want at two vendors, but I would prefer to purchase my seed from a single vendor. When do most of the vendors update their lists to reflect seed grown out this season?

I planted a lot of the tomatoes listed in the "seed I have" list, but it has been a really lousy year in North Texas for growing tomatoes. I planted seedlings in late March, and early April. We experienced an early onset of high heat in mid May which stopped my tomatoes from blooming. The only tomatos which actually produced a harvestable crop were the Prudens Purple and Brandywine. I believe they produced well because the plants grew so fast after planting in the garden, they were able to produce blossoms before the heat arrived. The others were slow growers and had no chance to bloom. some of them like Cuostralee, Kelloggs Breakfast, and Mortgage Lifter never produced a bloom bracket much less a bloom.

Next spring, I will germinate earlier and plant about a month earlier. I can protect them from late frost and if that fails, I will have some extra plants in a heated cold frame to use as replacements if needed.

Does anyone know if any commercial seed will be available from vendors from the Dwarf Project. I sure would like to grow some compact plants which produce well and have tomatoes that taste good.

Ted

First, no varieties that have come from the Dwarf project here at Tville are currently available, either commercially or from those participating in that project, by consent of those in the project. But the co-leaders of the project, Craig and Patrina, expect to have some commercially available soon. I can really only speak about Craig, who has sent out a few of the genetically stable ones for seed production this summer, so time will tell and I'm sure he'll tell folks if any are going to be available as soon as he knows.

Second, all the varieties you say you want are all available at Sandhill Preservation. Several are indicated as being sold out now, they're very popular, but new stock should be listed at the website in very late Fall and the 2011 catalog comes out , usually, in January.

Glenn does almost all his seed production and processing of fruits for seeds occurs after he's back teaching full time so it takes Sandhill a bit longer to process the seeds.

Some others that also do most of their own seed production are Gleckler Seedmen and Marianne Jones at mariseeds and Tania at her site. And while I didn't check those sites I don't think that any one of them lists seeds for sale of ALL the varieties you want as does Sandhill.

But to answer you in a larger context, some places, very few, do their own seed production, some subcontract out and some buy off the shelf wholesale and some get seeds directly from the companies that first bred them, mostly F1's, and some do a combo of those methods. So many seed sites won't update until they have the seeds in hand from subcontracting out, especially, so they might be delayed.

if I missed discussing something you asked about please let me know.

Thanks Carolyn,

You covered it. I had not checked Sandhill Preservation, but had located all of it at Glecklers and Tomato Growers Supply. I know Glecklers grows their seed and they are expanding the list of available seed. I'm curious to see if they list some new seed of the varieties I want in their fall list. I know very little about Tomato Growers Supply except some good comments made about them on this forum.

January catologs are a little late for me since I will start germinating in late January. If I wait much past late January to Germinate, I will be in the same predicament I had this year (to little, to late, to hot).

Ted

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

Thanks Carolyn,

You covered it. I had not checked Sandhill Preservation, but had located all of it at Glecklers and Tomato Growers Supply. I know Glecklers grows their seed and they are expanding the list of available seed. I'm curious to see if they list some new seed of the varieties I want in their fall list. I know very little about Tomato Growers Supply except some good comments made about them on this forum.

Ted

OK, now you've got me confused when you said above " but had located ALL of it at Gleckler's and TGS", which I thought meant that they too carried all the varieties you wanted but then you went on to say " I'm curious to see if they ( meaning Gleckler's) list some new seeds of the varieties I want."

Yes, all three companies are very good.

And while I know most of the new varieties sent to Adam this Spring I have no idea which of them might be listed this Fall.

Sorry Carolyn, I confuse people easily. I tend to ramble in my mind and then write it the same way I rambled (is that a verb) it.

I meant to say, I have located some of the desired seed at Glecklers and some of it at Tomato Growers Supply. Between the two vendors, I have now located all of my desired seed. I am waiting to see which seed Glecklers lists on their updated list which I have also located at Tomato Growers Supply.