Seedling Vigor...

[carolyn137]

No way do I want to see a Forum for tomato histories. And I'll tell you why maybe tomorrow.

As it is my eyes are still partially dilated from my eye exam late today and I'm having a hard time reading here, so won't be staying long.

Bye now.

[clay199]

Hope your eyes feel better.

How about a forum where only you and Craig post?

[jerseyjohn61]

I agree with Clay. It could be like story time and we
could all sit on the carpet with milk and cookies and
listen to the tales. OH PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!
....JJ(junior)61

[clay199]

Oh Oh

John and I agree....this could be dangerous for everyone else.

[jerseyjohn61]

Clay, I knew we'd be freinds if we
just stuck to tomatos. Yeah, a forum that was
sealed to our most knowledge laden moderators,
who could relate, say a "Tomato of the Week"
history. As Barb said, we are doing this for posterity
as well as ourselves; that's why we plant the seeds.
For today and tomorrow....JJ61

[michael johnson]

Well- heres a tomato history that wants sorting out desperatly.

There is a tomato being touted at one or two sites called (Shenandor ) hope I have spelt it correctly! it is supposed to have come from old german stock, chuck wyatt once thought he had it-but didnt,

Personaly I believe its an invention by someone to fit a certain old german variety from a certain area in the US, but it may be true- does anyone actualy know the real history of it.

[Althea]

My most vigorous seedlings are Purple Russians (SSE) that shot up 2 1/2 days after planting, and are the tallest and first to get their first true leaves. Russian Red from Clay aren't tall, but very strong looking seedlings. The least vigorous are Kellog's Breakfast (seeds from Pinetree) that didn't come up at all. I replanted K'sB this morning.

[jerseyjohn61]

Sorry for your Kellogg's troubles Althea, as KB is
one of my vigor boys this spring. KB, Hillbilly, and
Cherokee Purple have overtaken Red Brandywine
in size and vigor within the last two weeks. CP has
become the real leader in this race....JJ61

P.S. I've done alot of resowing myself this year as
my germ. % has been lower than normal. Only
about 70 % overall this Spring....JJ61

[Tomstrees]

All of a sudden Black Prince
has jumped out of no-where
to take the lead for seedling vigor ~
These things are monsters !

~ Tom

[Althea]

Thanks for the sympathy John.

On the bright side, I'm sure one of the Purple Russians and a Soldaki (SSE) produced two plants from a single seed. That brings those up to 125% germination! I planted a couple extra Soldaki in case the K'sB don't come up again.

[barkeater]

My most vigorous seedlings are my generic Brandywines, twice as large as Sudduths, and Aunt Gerties Golds.

The weakest are Kosovo and Sophies Choice.

And the worst are my two no-shows: German Red Strawberry and Kimberley. Two weeks have passed and still nothing.

[nctomatoman]

Year in and year out, Cuostralee is the king of young seedling vigor. Mexico (TGSC) is another....once Purple Russian get going, they do shoot up. Brandywine and Polish are two others that jump ahead. They all catch up with each other in the end!

Worst is pretty much any heart shaped variety, Kellogg's Breakfast, and Mortgage Lifter...lots of crud, need to get repotted deeply and into the sun quickly to thrive.

Craig

[betsylt]

Hey there folks,

My least vigorous seedlings at this point appear to be Aunt Ruby's German Green. I was wondering if it's typical for them to have teeny-tiny cotyledons and start out looking especially wimpy?

I'll admit that those and some of my other seeds were older; I used the salt peter soaking treatment that Carolyn recommended (I think I saw her posting about it on GW originally) and I'm amazingly delighted with my germination rate on those oldies.

Gives a new/different meaning to "better living through chemistry," huh?

-BLT

[Dunkel]

My biggest plant now is Mortgage Lifter Mullens! Still a skyscraper.

[carolyn137]

BLT,

I haven't used that potassium nitrate method ( saltpetre) in quite a few years.

All I do now is to soak very old seeds, and for me that's seeds over about 8-10 years old, b'c I'll just double sow ones between about 5-8 yo, and what I do now is much simpler, I think.

First, many folks have problems getting a hold of potassium nitrate.

So I soak the old seeds in water, stirring and poking them until they sink, and then I add a pinch of blue stuff such as Miracle Grow or Peters, or whatever, and just soak the seeds over night. One can also add a few drops of seaweed or fish prep instead of the blue stuff.

The added blue stuff or other ups the nitrate ion concentration, which was pretty much the whole purpose of using the Knitrate, since nitrate is known to be involved in seed germination.

Soaking longer than o'n isn't necessary.

And no, I don't see ARGG as being different from any other variety when they first germinate.