I enjoyed growing 4th of July, but decided I wanted better taste, larger fruit, and higher volume. It was easily the earliest tomato to ripen in my garden around mid May while other varieties produced larger, better tasting tomatoes in early June. 4th of July also became dormant in the high heat of summer and rejuvenated in the cooler fall weather. It provided a spring and fall bountiful harvest. It also seemed to have a good disease resistance while other varieties were dyeing around it from disease.

I only have 1 bought plant.
I was never thrilled about productivity,just getting an early tomato.
Some people don't like when the skin gets stuck in your teeth.
I will have to see how it's offspring do.
I grew early girl next to it last year and didn't get a ripe one til august.

In my experience the ones that pop out long after the others are less vital and very often there are some problems with them later. The strategy is to sow more if they take too long, but that only applies to seeds that I have plenty of. If I have something special and scarce, it's a different kettle of fish.

So, I'd like to ask an upside down question:
What is the longest safe margin? After how many days can I consider them beyond hope? 30 days or even more?

Milan HP

I can not seem to germinate Floradade to save my life.
I have started 20 seeds and I have had 1 germinate.
With and without heat mat.
Temps of the mix is 83 degrees.
Too hot?

I think it's weather-related because here in Virginia we are having Pure "Summer Heat" than "Pure Cold Weather". But the Easter Lillies look so Pretty. May this means Love and Respect for all People with these Easter Lillies Flowers all over the place, Amen!!!

I garden in a glass greenhouse and last year I had tomato volunteers come up in one of the raised beds in there that had tomatoes in 2 years prior. There were lots but they had to go. Shame as they laid there through 2 winters before they grew. Just for curiosity I potted two plants and grew them in big pots outside the greenhouse.. both were small cherry size, one orange and one red.Both OK to eat but not mindblowing. Looking back at my notes I had grown Sungold in that side of the greenhouse in 2019..I guess they were just determined to grow.

The first batch of tomato seeds this year seems to be a disaster. It's been 22 days since I put them in the seeding mix (the best quality available) and to score is 53 out of 71 (very little chance of anything else popping out their heads). So I started looking for possible causes and I realized that the seeds that had been brought to me from Britain had almost zero germination: 1/12 - 3 different packs of 3 different varieties 6 - 3 - 3 seeds. I checked the packaging and found out that they weren't pocketed in aluminium foil as usual. So I suspect that going through the various detectors at the airport - especially X-ray detectors - could have damaged them. Seeds from other sources germinated at the usual rate in the same conditions. At the moment, my second batch - I used those seeds again for verification - is in their fourth day. So, I'll see what happens.

Has anyone here had a similar experience?
Milan HP

Mi Milan, just read this thread and now I'm worried the seeds I sent you did not germinate. If they didn't I can send you some more and pack foil round them. Also, if Alecante did not germinate, I have some new seeds you could have also. Personally, I germinate mine on some wet kitchen paper inside a sealed plastic bag. Haven't had any issues this year and most started germinating within a few days.
By the way, the seedlings from your seeds are all ok, but are only a few weeks old and still small.

all the best,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,
that's good to hear.
Actually, I probably screwed up with Orange Paruche. It's my habit to dip them in a very weak water solution of potassium permanganate for max. half an hour. But I completely forgot about them and they remained in it for almost 2 hours. The solution was brown. A very bad sign. I seeded them anyway (3 seeds) and they didn't germinate. But I suppose it was my fault as I poisoned them with manganese. I have enough left, so don't worry. As a result I've switched to hydrogen peroxide (about 0.5%) which I used for my second large batch and it worked well.
Should I try again? I have just moved some of my big plants (sown in Nov) into my "balcony-house". It's a construction, sort of tunnel, made of polycarbonate and polypropylene foil + non-woven textile to shade it from direct sunshine. It's equipped with lights and heating. Without heating, the temperature inside is about 4°C higher than the outside temperature. Actually, I can attach a photo or two. So I now have some free space.
Btw, I've got two red Start fruits.:D The other one is on another plant.
Milan HP

Hello Milan,
I don't think I've poisoned any seeds yet but mistakes happen, last year I let a cat in were my seedlings were growing and it had a good time rooting through them causing all sorts of mixups :x. I hope you have time to try again but if not there is always next year.
I've managed to get my cuttings from last year outside also. They are inside a hoop house, that's inside another hoop house. The temperature isn't too bad but we can get frost till early May here, so I also use a small oil fueled heater and suppliment this with 8hr tea lights when needed. As you can see from the picture, my plants aren't as good as yours but I've cut the foliage away at the base and buried them deep hopefully to increase root growth. Following your advice regarding strong root growth and High phosphate fertilizer I give them a feed of 10-52-10 every couple of weeks and it seems to be working fine so far.
regards, Kevin
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