Gardener's Delight Tomato Seed Germination and Growing Thread

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by JWK, Mar 29, 2018.

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  1. Scrungee

    Scrungee Well known for it

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    These were the plants from a packet of seeds packaged in 2007 and probably opened in 2008, 10 years ago, and not subsequently stored in ideal conditions. Looking at them just now, out of 8 small plants, 4 are already multi-branching, and the other 4 are rather spindly, so I'll send the best one on to @JWK and molly coddle the remaining plants.

    I'll also question my daughter who's just about to finish her Biology Degree (but keeps telling me it's mainly about animals and I know more than her about plants), or my BiL who has a PhD in genetics (and who needs advice in growing plants).
     
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    • Phil A

      Phil A Guest

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      The aquliegias i potted up for Shiney died of death in that cold snap, roots must have froze:sad:

      So I can take as many as you want.
       
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      • Ezzie

        Ezzie Gardener

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        Apologies for the recent radio silence, domestic events have rather taken over!

        @silu , I’ve also been there and got the T-shirt! Fortunately, mine were only lightly sautéed and just rather crispy around the edges. Being ever the optimist, I gave them a second chance and much to my surprise they kept going.

        Absolutely guaranteed. :)

        @JWK , no, none at all. I have tried with both a dilute seaweed extract pre-soak/pot of good quality seed compost and a dilute Miracle-gro/kitchen towel. However, I haven’t attended to my experiment very studiously! The latter are still in the propagator along with some early season cuttings due to my aforementioned optimism. Must be 5 weeks now. Definitely going to try again next year and I may give some of my seed the freezer treatment in the interim.

        @Scrungee , I couldn’t agree more. I had about 100 tomato plants underway from 10 varieties. Having started the Gardeners’ Delight old seed experiment, I just decided that I would have a clear-out of the rest too! Apart from one variety purchased in last year’s end of season seed sale, all the rest of my successful seedlings (circa 85 plants or so) were from opened packets of varying ages between 2 and 12 years old with the majority being 6 years or older. When I looked across the sea of young first potted on plants sitting in pots on their benching, there was a marked effect of mutants amongst their more vigorous siblings the older the seed got. It has been quite easy to do a cull!
         
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          Last edited: May 11, 2018
        • Ezzie

          Ezzie Gardener

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          Apologies. Not quite sure why my responses to @JWK and @Scrungee appear in the quote boxes!
           
          Last edited: May 11, 2018
        • Scrungee

          Scrungee Well known for it

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          Select Edit, click on the 'spanner' icon at the top right hand side and you'll see where the additional quote tags are that need removing. If it's not caused by too many tags, cut and paste your stuff outside of the quote tags,

          Clicking on Use Rich Text Editor at bottom left will return display to normal for checking before Saving Changes.
           
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            Last edited: May 11, 2018
          • JWK

            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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            Breaking News: First of my 2005 seeds (sent from Scrungee) has germinated - took just over 6 weeks:
            Capture.JPG
             
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            • Loofah

              Loofah Admin Staff Member

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              STOP THE PRESSES!!
               
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              • silu

                silu gardening easy...hmmm

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                Funny you should say that @Loofah:). However, I thought if I made a similar comment it would be seen as green cheese I, having failed spectacularly to produce anything at all:snorky:
                 
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                • JWK

                  JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                  I have flowers on my 2012 plants but the older stock are way behind.

                  My four precious seedlings, 3 X 2007 on left and a single 2005 far right:
                  WP_20180518_08_56_33_Rich.jpg


                  I've got multi branching on one of my 2007 seedlings:
                  WP_20180518_08_57_00_Rich.jpg

                  Also another 2007 seedling has never developed true leaves, it's just a thick stem and the two cotyledons - this will never be any good:
                  WP_20180518_08_56_42_Rich.jpg

                  ... and my single 2005 seedling may be OK but the cotyledons look crumpled and the first true leaf looks a bit odd:
                  WP_20180518_09_25_44_Rich (2).jpg
                   
                • JWK

                  JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                  @Scrungee - thanks for the plants, received from @Zigs at shiney's Open Day. I gave two to @Beckie76 and two to Kristen.

                  Can you remind me which are which, I've got 2 of your plants in the round red pots and one in the black square pot?

                  Your three are on the right compared to my two 2007 plants on the left.
                  P5270225.jpg

                  I've got tiny flower buds just visible on my 2007 plants.
                   
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                  • Scrungee

                    Scrungee Well known for it

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                    2005 - Round red pots

                    2012 - Black rectangular cells
                     
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                    • JWK

                      JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                      Tiny flower buds on a 2007 plant:
                      P5270241.JPG
                       
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                      • JWK

                        JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                        First fruit forming on a 2012 plant:
                        Gardeners Delight first fruit.JPG
                         
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                        • sandymac

                          sandymac Super Gardener

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                          Well all my gardeners delight from the local garden centre supposed to be his own saved seed (said he had been keeping his own seed for twenty years) are disappointing a nice tomato but not the old real flavour of GD.s not improving
                          I have been picking them for a while not judging on the first ones as we all know the first ones may not be the best flavour, however flavour is not getting any better.
                           
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                          • JWK

                            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                            Thanks for the feedback @sandymac , do your other varieties Sungold, Suncherry and Flamme taste much better?
                             
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