The Ides of March

Tomorrow is March 15, the day I always start tomato and pepper seeds indoors for transplant into my garden during the first week of May. I've got the Jiffy Mix mixed up with warm water and soaking overnight, and I'll be happy to have something growing again. Once I get some veggies planted, I always feel we've made it through winter and another growing season has begun. My tomato and pepper varieties this year:

* F4 generation unnamed Big Orange Semi-heart from my 2009 Dr. W's Yellow x G. Red Strawberry cross
* F4 generation unnamed Big Pink Oblate from the same cross
* Big Beef Hybrid
* Super Fantastic Hybrid
* F5 generation OP Campari
* German Red Strawberry
* Grandma Mary's Paste
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* Gypsy Hybrid pepper
* Italian Pepperoncini
* Corno di Toro
* Jimmy Nardello
* Mariachi Hybrid

Pictured is the unnamed Big Pink OP sliced on a 12" dinner plate - showing how it inherited "meatiness" from the G.R.S. parent. I've been more excited about the Big Orange Semi-Heart that came from the same cross, but this pink one has real good flavor too.

Woww! That is a pretty cool looking 'matter. Very cool that you are doing your own crosses. How does the orange one taste?

I have enjoyed following the history of these crosses and look forward to hearing how this year's crop turns out.

"How does the orange one taste?"
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Everyone's taste is different, but everyone in our family here thinks the flavor of the orange strain is real, real good. I guess I've paid more attention to that one because of my surprise at getting one F2 plant that produced orange tomatoes, when the F1 hybrids the year before were all red.

This 2009 cross is down to only two strains that I'm pursuing - the Big Orange Semi-Heart and the Big Pink Oblate (flat) tomato. Now that we're in the fourth generation since the cross, this will be a good year to compare the two against each other and against other varieties to see how they really stack up for flavor. Very good, I think. Here's what the orange ones look like sliced on a plate, they're also very meaty.


This message was edited Mar 15, 2013 11:00 PM

Well, if a picture says a thousand words, then that picture says yum a thousant times. Looks like it might be good for saucing, too, since it is meaty. Good luck with them this year ☺.

I gave my egg cartons a little sunshine by an east window this morning, a little heat can't hurt. I sowed seeds four days ago, so there ought to be some tomato spouts visible soon. It'll be awhile yet before I see peppers sprout.

Everybody does things different, but this seed starting method works real well for me. Years ago I super-glued plastic egg carton halves down on pieces of 3/8" plywood, two by two - that makes them real easy to handle and carry without spilling. I poked a small drain hole in the bottom of each cell and marked beside the cells with a pen "A" board 1 through 24 and "B" board 1 through 24. The cells are full of damp Jiffy Mix and I keep the list of what's planted in what cells on a spreadsheet. Yes, I've got it on paper too just in case.

My first tomato plants appeared this morning, 4 1/2 days after planting seeds. Our weatherman say a snow storm is on the way, but the new garden season is officially started anyway, as I now have veggies growing!

Nice simple system. I like it!

Ozark,

The Orange F4's you sent me in the second batch of seeds are outside, hardening off. I will be moving them in and out this week, since there is a chance of more than one night with a freeze. Both the F3 and F4 seedlings are looking pretty good. I am going to plant mostly the F4, but I will plant at least two of the F3 for comparison.

Have you grown Kellogg's Breakfast before? How does the flavor or the Orange compare to KB or KBX?

David

It's been 5 or 6 years since I grew Kellogg's Breakfast. I remember I liked it, but that's too long ago for me to compare flavors. With you and others growing the F4 generation Big Orange Semi-Heart this year, that will give me some good input about how folks think it tastes.

I'm getting good germination from all the tomato seeds I'm starting, which surprises me a little because a couple of the varieties are sprouting from seeds I saved in 2009. I don't use a heat mat, but I've got a good place to start seeds in our furnace closet. I sit the egg-carton contraptions on top of our water heater, and though the insulation of the water heater is good enough they don't get any direct bottom heat, the air temp in that room stays at about 75 degrees and helps seeds to sprout pretty quick.

Now that I've got tomato seedlings I put the trays on a table by a south window during the day and back in the closet at night. I should be seeing some pepper seedlings soon now.

For those who don't know. Ozark sent me F4 seeds of the orange one to put in the experimental section of my annual seed offer at Tville. Ozark, I know some foks reqeusted them but don't know how many since I send back to each person the request list that they send me.

But I still have, of course, some of those F4 seeds and I should send some to Craig in Raleigh who raises all my plants for me from seed I send him and ships them up here to me.

With fingers and toes crossed, since the last several yars here, as I just posted to Nancy, it's been terrible for the ones that Freda grows for me here at home.

Will this be the YEAR that I finally get some GREAT results? We shall see.

Carolyn

Carolyn, it would be great if you could find time to send some of those F4 seeds to Craig. Another chore when you're already busy, I know - but I sure wish you could try that orange one as I value your opinion more than anyone I know when it comes to tomatoes..

I planted 12 of the orange-strain F4 seeds for my own use on March 15 and I got 12 seedlings, 100% germination.

Ozark, I waited until today for the seeds from Russia and CA to come, but they didn't. So now I have to start doing the serious business of packing individual varieties for those who chose them off my list. And for those varieties where I have enough seeds , those will go to Craig, and not just your F4 seeds but LoKa, the one from the prison Market in Accra, Ghana, Heartbreaker, Normandia, Turkish Ayla, Delano Green Ripe, and many more, if I do have enough seeds, the seed producer folks get the ones with less seeds, and I no longer can do any fermentations here, well, I did do Dester last summer, so Ilet themdo the fermentations.

Craig seldom grows anything himself from what I send him for plants since he's so wrapped up in the Dwarf Project and almost everything he grows at home are the various linesof Dwarfs and then the varieties he sells at the Raleigh Farmer's Market.

And Craig and Shoe know each other well, since Shoe is one of my 5 star seed producers and there have been those years when Craig couldn't germinate one of mine and Shoe could, and the reverse. So then Craig drives up to Shoe's place and they exchange seedlings.And after the seedling exchange I think they chat for maybe 12 hours. LOL

Carolyn

Carolyn, Shoe and I exchange seeds sometimes and he grew the F3 generation of the orange strain last year. He liked it and had some good things to say about it.

Since the F2 and F3 generations of that tomato seemed identical, I'm really expecting the F4 and onward to be the same. Such a simple cross, I think it stabilized quickly.