Uh oh, I just got my Baker Creek seed catalog. One hundred and forty pages of seed porn. Must resist buying more tomato and pepper seeds. Those Lucid Gem, Black Beauty and Brad’s Atomic Grape toms are so pretty, tho…
For those masochists out there, they are selling Carolina Reapers, Fish, Trinidad Scorpion, and Bhut Jolokia hot peppers, among others. They even sell grains and cover crops, and if you like eggplants, they have almost 2 dozen varieties to pick from. A real garden growers cornucopia. Best of all, it’s free, just go to their website to order it.
Just noticed a 21 day old post where you mentioned having a “grapefruit cocktail” tree with 1 fruit on it. Just curious…I know you live north of me, so I’m curious whether you are growing that tree (and your lemon, for that matter) indoors, in a heated greenhouse, or maybe you have property down south also? If its an indoor tree, have you gotten many grapefruit from it in the past? Do you use artificial lighting or just a southern window? Thanks.
I’m pretty sure you saw my black beauty posts last fall, but just to be sure: They are really awesome looking tomatoes! Not the best eating tomato I grow, but not bad either. Certainly worth growing a few just to show your friends!
No way. As soon as I get those in the mail, it’s straight to the recycling bin,or I have some explaining to do to my counselor (jk). They are beautiful though.
So what’s one more seed variety anyway? I can handle it.
I am growing them in the house in the winter and in my greenhouse from May to Oct. Both these trees were small when I purchased them, they flowered and set fruit last fall. This is the first grapefruit, and the second time for the lemons. I picked the first round of lemons off as the tree was a puny size.
We move them into our basement when the temps get to cold and we have to shut down the greenhouse for fall.
For lighting we use a shop light on chains with 4 T 8s that are labeled Plant Light. Last winter they were in a sunny south window and slowly they lost their leaves. This year under total artificial lighting they haven’t lost one. I do however keep the lights on at least 16 hrs a day, and once a week I leave them on for the full 24 hours. This practice may have no benefit but low lighting seems to be one of the major factors in citrus growth.
It is interesting the lengths some of us will go to get a taste of fresh fruit, and yet the fun is the journey. I tease my husband that if we have a zombie apocalypse we at least wont get scurvy, so all the work is worth it.
I’ve never ordered anything from them, yet, so I can’t comment on their performance. There are some items that kind of interest me, tho.
My wife said, “you’re not going to order any more tomato or pepper seeds, are you?”. Well, not any of those seeds…
I looked at Johnny’s site, they have a nice collection, but seem a bit expensive from what I can tell.
I have bought most of my heirloom seeds from ohioheirloomseeds.com, they are very reasonable, and I have had good germination from them, from what I can remember.
Well, they have them listed in the catalog now, still at $5 for 15 seeds. But, that’s still too costly for my tastes. Sounds intriguing, but we’re going to really pare down the number of our tomato varieties this year. We need to get some good performers so we’ll have more to can. Thinking maybe 3 plants of our favorite 10 varieties.
I still want to try some unique ones, but trying to tend to 70 plants last year was a chore I don’t want to deal with again. Add to that, I’m planning on getting some new berry plants started, and a few more fruit trees as well. So, I need to use my time more wisely. I can’t believe it’s almost time to get my plants started.
Your watermelon thread might inspire me to try some this year. I still have some Charleston Gray and other seeds that I can try. My wife really likes WM’s, so I’m sure she’ll enjoy that.
Sounds like a perfectly rational approach. The price is absurd, and the quality of the tomatoes as well as the odd color that anything you make using them all, to me, mean the only real reason to grow black beauty is for the sheer novelty of them.
You know my position on watermelons: They are actually pretty easy to grow, very fun, and extremely gratifying to eat, give away, watch grow, etc. So if you have the space, you should certainly plant at least a few! And Charleston Gray is a pretty decent choice in my humble opinion.
Madison, WI has a Jungs that has a ton of seeds available to buy. I’ve bought a few things at Farm and Fleet and even Walmart. Online i have ordered from Pinetree and Sand Hill…
I don’t know if those 10 year old (!?!) seeds would sprout, but I don’t how long tom seeds would be viable. I’m guessing not.
Will a Flavor King grow true from seed? I know apple seeds don’t, but I suppose stone fruit do. I do wonder about a plum/apricot hybrid, tho. How has your mature trees done, good fruit and production?
Are you close to Jung’s? That would cool to be able to browse a place like that.
i’m going to test those seeds… I have all my stuff out ready to go…i use a heating mat to get stuff going quick…i usually pre soak seeds.
FK? Mine have done fine in pots (ripen late Aug/into Sept–my favorite plum/pluot). Have no idea what will come out of a seedling since almost all my stuff blooms around the same time (it did last year). I have some American plum seeds that are just kicking out their first leaves…i also have a tray of pears (from Bartlett) for some reason.
Jungs is 2 hrs from here… they have a good selection of seed trays there…i stock up.
My opinion is [if they were stored right] they will most certainly sprout. Seeds will store a long long time. Probably won’t get 100% though.
I have a friend who was given seeds from cambell soup co of a determinent variety of tom that was discontinued he still gets seeds to germinate after 30 years, he keeps them in the freezer.
These were in the refrigerator or the basement (cool/dry) for most the time so i think they’ll be good…i’ll report back. Shouldn’t take too long. I might wait a few more days before starting.
