Bill, there's not a better teacher than experience. Thank you.
I did look for VFN seeds locally today, and there were none. I do have around 15 Big Beef VFFNTA F1 seeds I could get started Friday June 2 which is still one month before the recommended seed starting for a fall garden here.
I have read a lot about grafting, and it is still confusing to me.
The rest of this is/are just thoughts on what I have seen in 7 years of tomato gardening:
I read a lot about crosses and F1s, and I have accidentally created my own crosses, received other people's crosses, and got wrong seeds from purchases from seed selling companies. What I have found about these crosses is that they grow faster and bigger plants with better tasting tomatoes. I think that is what others call Hybrid Vigor. I have also experienced F2s not being as good, and F3s have been awful. Then there is an F4 that is producing very well even though RKN is there and the plant is a lot smaller but no signs of fusarium.
That leaves me wondering about a lot of things. We have a Big Beef VFFNTA F1 tomato that is now well past first blush. Could I take seeds from it - and would they still be VFFNTA? If so, I could start seeds tomorrow -June 2 ^ same as above without having to use F1 seeds. (Yes, I pinch pennies that much.)
The idea is to cross Big Beef VFFNTA with varieties of Campari, Sweetie Cherry, Porter, Sungold, Sun Cherry Extra Sweet, Sun Sugar, Amish Gold, Rebel Yell, and whatever I clone.
I do not look at having RKN and Fusarium as a reason to stop gardening. I see it at as a reason to improve gardening.
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