Your 2025 Garden

[jxp]

I agree!

One year I planted 5 cayenne from a new pack of seeds. I ended up with 3 cayenne and 2 habaneros.

Another year I bought a new packet of Black Krim tomato seeds. Planted 8. Ended up with 5 Black Krim and 3 "who knows" tomatoes. Not BK but red and round. I didn't know until they started making fruit planted in my garden.

No more Ferry Morse for me. I save my own Black Krim and cayenne seeds now.

Depending on how close to or far from other tomatoes they're grown. Toms cross very easily and seeds are not always true. It's why there's so many varieties.

 

[jxp]

Here's the rainfall totals from the closest weather station. This is going to go up overnight. And again tomorrow. Then the next day. Wish I could share some with some of y'all. I know you're hurting for it.

 

[fuzzi]

Watermelon seeds have sprouted!

They're the two at the bottom, the big ones at the top are pumpkin seedlings.

 

[NanaK]

Depending on how close to or far from other tomatoes they're grown. Toms cross very easily and seeds are not always true. It's why there's so many varieties.

I used to make sure I separated varieties when I first started saving seed. I have always read they would cross easily.
At that time I was a member of an internet forum that involved gardening. It was full of tomato growers in home and market gardens and also seedsmen (to sell comercial seed). They convinced me that while tomatoes can cross they do not cross as easily as most people think without human assistance.

I grow indeterminates in the ground. They get tall. It is easier for me to trellis tomatoes in a row. I didn't like separating them.

So I tried it. I planted Black Krim and Big Beef in the same row. I save Black Krim seeds.
I purchase Big Beef because it is a hybrid resistant to nematodes.
I'd have to look at my notes but I have been saving the BK seeds for a very long time with no evidence of crossing in growth habit, tomato color or taste. Even the baby green tomatoes look very different from each other.

Maybe because these 2 tomatoes look and taste so different makes me confident they have never crossed. BK is flattened and puckered at the stem, dark and twangy, juicy. BB is round, red, sweet, meaty.

In the past I have had bells and cayenne cross. Now I plant bells in the big garden and cayenne in the bed by my greenhouse. There is probably 1000 ft and woods between the 2 gardens.

Just my experience with these 2 types.

 

[R2elk]

I used to make sure I separated varieties when I first started saving seed. I have always read they would cross easily.
At that time I was a member of an internet forum that involved gardening. It was full of tomato growers in home and market gardens and also seedsmen (to sell comercial seed). They convinced me that while tomatoes can cross they do not cross as easily as most people think without human assistance.

I grow indeterminates in the ground. They get tall. It is easier for me to trellis tomatoes in a row. I didn't like separating them.

So I tried it. I planted Black Krim and Big Beef in the same row. I save Black Krim seeds.
I purchase Big Beef because it is a hybrid resistant to nematodes.
I'd have to look at my notes but I have been saving the BK seeds for a very long time with no evidence of crossing in growth habit, tomato color or taste. Even the baby green tomatoes look very different from each other.

Maybe because these 2 tomatoes look and taste so different makes me confident they have never crossed. BK is flattened and puckered at the stem, dark and twangy, juicy. BB is round, red, sweet, meaty.

In the past I have had bells and cayenne cross. Now I plant bells in the big garden and cayenne in the bed by my greenhouse. There is probably 1000 ft and woods between the 2 gardens.

Just my experience with these 2 types.

I grow an open pollinated Black Cherry tomato. I plant it upwind of the other tomatoes and have not had a problem with it becoming a hybrid. As windy as it is here, I wouldn't feel confident saving the seeds if I planted it downwind of the other tomatoes.

 

[NanaK]

I grow an open pollinated Black Cherry tomato. I plant it upwind of the other tomatoes and have not had a problem with it becoming a hybrid. As windy as it is here, I wouldn't feel confident saving the seeds if I planted it downwind of the other tomatoes.

I would think this would help alot. We get strong straight line winds with summer thunderstorms and then there are the hurricanes. I have to have strong trellises.

I do try to save my Black Krim seeds from the earliest large tomatoes from at least 2-3 plants. Mainly because these are usually picked before the leaf spots and hurricane season begins.

 

[jxp]

 

[R2elk]

Another cloudy, rainy day. Got 0.22" of precipitation so far.

Planted Whopper and Cinderella's Ride pumpkin seeds.

 

[Sally PB]

We should get rain tonight/tomorrow. 1/2 to 1"

We really need it, so I'm very happy!

 

[tripletfeb]

Watered the apple trees today. Planted and watered onions. Gave the blueberries and garlic a drink, too