[dice]

It's getting kind of late in the season for transplants
in a northern climate.

I was in a nursery a few days ago, looking at a couple
of shrubs, and I wandered by a table that often has
heirloom tomato seedlings. I'm standing there looking
at this kind of spindly Black Plum plant, a cultivar that
I have been curious about because of its reputation
for ruggedness in difficult environmental conditions.

For $.99, I was sorely tempted to buy it and set it
out. (I have a space that I didn't actually intend
to plant tomatoes in, but something ate all the
zucchini sprouts there before they could get going.
So it could have grown there.)

Then I thought, "What am I, nuts? It is the middle
of July in Western Washington. By the end of the
season, this thing will be four feet tall at best and
with luck have 3 tomatoes on it, and I won't know
anything about it except how it tastes, which I could
find out by buying a few fruit at a Farmer's Market."

You are in a similar situation with your potted
transplants and the Zapotec. How big is it? If it
is really good sized and covered with flowers,
I would probably give it the benefit of the doubt.
Even if it starts late, it could still produce more
tomatoes than an earlier cultivar that is only
a foot or two tall that you set out now.

If the Zapotec does not produce more than
a few tomatoes, you have not lost much
compared to a transplant that you put out
now, unless the transplant is a very reliable
cultivar that also happens to be covered
in flowers and is already setting fruit in
a one-gallon pot or something like that.