Sophie's Choice/Resource

I am getting ready to start my indoor winter garden and would like to grow some Sophie's Choice. Would like to know of a commercial resource.

morgan

I was looking for SC seeds for next year as well. If you do a web search for
Sophie's Choice Tomato Seeds
you will find links to Tomatofest, LocalHarvest, SampleSeeds, Landreth, SandHill and many others.
Tatiania's tomato base site has a lot of info, Carolyn may have more.

I Just looked at Tania's site to see who was selling seeds and I would suggest the following:

Tania herself and I'm sure you can find something else from the over 600 varieties for which she sells seed. LOL

Jeff Casey, also in Canada with lots of unique varieties as well

THe Sample Seed Shop run by Remy who sells sample packs cheap , has a wonderful list of other varieties as well and her reputation is sterling, and yes, I know her.

SandHill Preservation, but can't order from there right now

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, one of the first places I sent Sophie to when Je3ff McCormack still owned SESE.. But you'll note at several sites where they list it that I also sent seeds to them as well.

So Google Sophie's Choice to find Tania's page for it and get the addys for the places I mentioned above.

And yes, as described at Tania's site I'm the one who first introduced it, as she describes.

In that first report at the top of Tania's page, something was said about not liking wet feet or too dry. That may be true for someone somewhere, but I don't remember ever having problems in that regard.

Happy Growing, and when at Tania's page for Sophie's Choice and you're through, go to the upper left and click on home and see all the ways that you can access info about a variety, most with seed sources. I use the alphabetical method b'c it's easiect for me but you'll see you can look for varieties by country, fruit shape, and color and on and on.

Carolyn

I grew this variety for the first time this year in a coir bag (5 gallon plastic bag filled with coir that I amended with various orgainic fertilizers). I purchased the seeds from Terroir Seeds (listed as Underwood Gardens in the Garden Watchdog) which specializes in heirlooms and is included in Tatiana's 2011 list. http://www.underwoodgardens.com/

That company has very good reviews and I was pleased with their service. My experience with this variety was very mixed. I don't know whether it doesn't like "wet feet" or not but it certainly got a lot of that this summer. On Terroir it states "Strong disease resistant small plants, 18 to 24" tall. Likes moist soil and cool climates. Does not handle heat or drought well. 55-70 Days." So I don't know whether mine succumbed to "wet feet" or "heat and drought"! I tried very hard to water it consistently during the heat wave. It grew very well and set lots of nice sized tomatoes. Unfortunately I got very few good ripe ones as they tended to split and rot before fully ripening. I am inclined to blame the heavy spring rains, then the heat wave followed by more heavy rain. The ripening occurred during the heavy rain period.

I fully intend to try them again as they were impressive before that point! This was a strange summer so I am reluctant to discount any new varieties until given another chance under more "normal" conditions!
I have recommended this variety to friends who want a small container plant with good tomato setting. It truly only grows about 1 1/2 to 2 ft. but sets so many tomatoes! It pained me to have to throw so many away!

I appreciate the fantastic responses here....thanks much.

Question gardadore on the choir. Up until recently I thought choir was made from cotton seed hulls and although some cotton is grown in MT I have not found any local resources for this product. In the vermiculture form there has been quite a bit of discussion about using 'choir' as a medium because of its pH neutrality as well as being easier to work with. However, I recently spoke with a DG friend who lives in Montana who came across a cocco choir purchased from Lowes which she is now using for the same reasons as mentioned. I am planning on planting two Sophie's Choice in a 30-gallon plastic tub set up for bottom watering and will be using a medium similar to the layered media I use for my indoor/outdoor hot pepper plants. The bottom layer is mostly inorganic materials designed for drainage, while the upper three quarters media blend is primarily organic. If I understand you correctly the choir can be used directly as a growing media without processing via worm cultures. This has some appeal to me gadadore if that is the case.

In order not to veer off topic on your original posting I have sent you a d-mail concerning coir!

mraider3,

The coco coir is made from coconut husks. There are many good sources for the bricks (compressed coir which expands at least 5 times when water is added) on the Internet. One of my sources is Gardeners Way. Their packet of 10 bricks is an excellent price and I use it almost exclusively now in my Earthboxes and coir bags.
http://www.gardeners.com/Coir-Bricks/20708,37-561,default,cp.html

I try to order them when they offer free shipping for orders of more than $75. I love the site so keep a wishlist waiting for the offer!

I am estimating that a 30 gallon tub would take about 10 of these bricks (2 bricks = 5 gallons plus for me)

The best and cheapest site for the EZ grow bags with coir or just plain coir is http://www.hydro-gardens.com/gsystem.htm. Although the site indicates the bags can't be found for purchasing I called them and they said they will have a new shipment in at the end of October. They will quote shipping charges. From talking with the sales person it sounds like this would be good coir but I have not tried it. Their coir bricks are very reasonable because they basically do a bulk business. They are willing to quote a shipping price before you place an order so you can call them beforehand to see if it is worth it. She said each grow bag with coir is about 4 lbs. A 30 gallon tub sounds quite large to me!

I bought my original 5 gallon bags with the coir bricks in them from a former DG member who was selling them on the DG Marketplace. He is no longer in business but I bought a lot. The bags can be re-used and have holes in them for drainage. My tomato plants for the last two years have done relatively well in them - better last year, of course, but did better this year than some of those planted in my hay and straw bales. (See the Forum on Straw Bale gardening if interested) I supplement the coir with Perlite and Vermiculite, about a cup of general organic fertilizer, some gypsum, rock phosphate, worm castings, and bone meal. I then feed the plants every two weeks with fish fertilizer. I put straw on top of the bags to help keep them from drying out too fast. As I said above this summer was feast or famine - very hard to regulate the watering anywhere in the garden.

I would definitely consider the Hydro-gardens source when I need to replenish my supply. I have had them bookmarked for a couple of years.

I love coir and highly recommend using it!! Good luck and feel free to ask me any other questions concerning this medium.

Jessica

Thanks Jessica, will read the information you recommended and get back with you.if I have questions.

Hmm, didn't realize I had also posted here as well as the d-mail! Wasn't my intention! Now it looks as if I never sent the d-mail although I remember opening your d-mail to do it. Have no idea what happened! I see my link above to Hydro Gardens isn't working. This one should work:
http://www.hydro-gardens.com/growing_medias.htm

This message was edited Sep 22, 2011 9:44 PM

THe bit you see at different seed sites about wet feet, needs cool weather, doesn't like to be dry are mostly comments taken from the blurb at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange after I sent seeds to Jeff McCormack. I haven't checked to see if the blurb is the same now.

He grew his plants in VA at the time.

And a twofer here, for Gardador.

I never was that pleased with Mayo Underwoods site and yes, I met her once at SSE when I was asked to give a talk there. And yes, I know she sold it and yes I know the new place and have looked at their offerings as well, and yes, they contacted me, I won't go into the details, but was somewhat underwhelmed with the new site as well. Just me and my opinion and if you say that they have an excellent reputation, so be it and good for them.

Carolyn

I only ever placed one small order with Underwoods (now Terroir) based on Garden Watchdog feedback so that is my basis for saying they have "very good reviews". They had some varieties I was having trouble locating (that was before I discovered Tatiana's site!) and the three varieties of tomatoes plus a spinach I got from them have done well in terms of germination. I can't blame them for our crazy weather and the fact that the plants performed in a mediocre fashion this summer! They filled my order efficiently and I found their prices for the number of seeds included to be very competitive. Can't say I have any qualms about ordering from them again but I respect your opinions and experience. I order from a variety of sites - many you have recommended based on availability and price. I am always happy to have your input on sites as you are such a good resource for knowing if what they offer is the correct variety as they present it!