For the love of hearts...

[Julianna]

I got my Reinhard Kraft seeds from Renaissancefarms.org.They are new for me. Will report on all the new ones. Highly recommend you try to get Dotson’s Lebanese. I saved seeds last summer so could share if you can’t find them on line.

I've purchased from there a few times! If I can't get ahold of the person I am trying, I will get the RK stuff from there.

I don't see Dotson's Lebanese beyond some TV threads. I will keep looking. Had to filter out Omar from the search since Omar's Lebanese was showing up all over lol.

[mention]Gardadore[/mention] I have hopefully purchased the RK seeds! I always wait to declare it done until they arrive in the mail.

Still looking for Dotson's Lebanese. It is a hard one to find!

I meant to ask before if you had tried Midnight Sun or if it is new to you. It and True Colours and Taiga look intriguing.

[Tormahto]

I got my Reinhard Kraft seeds from Renaissancefarms.org.They are new for me. Will report on all the new ones. Highly recommend you try to get Dotson’s Lebanese. I saved seeds last summer so could share if you can’t find them on line.

I've purchased from there a few times! If I can't get ahold of the person I am trying, I will get the RK stuff from there.

I don't see Dotson's Lebanese beyond some TV threads. I will keep looking. Had to filter out Omar from the search since Omar's Lebanese was showing up all over lol.

@Gardadore I have hopefully purchased the RK seeds! I always wait to declare it done until they arrive in the mail.

Still looking for Dotson's Lebanese. It is a hard one to find!

I meant to ask before if you had tried Midnight Sun or if it is new to you. It and True Colours and Taiga look intriguing.

I have DLH listed in the MMMM spoiler alert (pre-swap inventory). Now, I'll have to see if I still have some.

[Julianna]

I have DLH listed in the MMMM spoiler alert (pre-swap inventory). Now, I'll have to see if I still have some.

That would be amazing! There were so many coveted varieties on that spoiler list!

[Tormahto]

Would you still plan to start DLH (and other hearts?) this year, if seeds get there in about a week?

[Julianna]

Would you still plan to start DLH (and other hearts?) this year, if seeds get there in about a week?

Honestly? Yes lol. I haven't started sgt pepper yet and i could replace it with one and then anything that I have that doesn't come up, will get a tomato in its spot. I would like to say I have self control and can stick to a plan, but 10000% I will just start stuff and find places somehow. Is that terrible?

[wykvlvr]

OH looking through the swap tomatoes in my list I came up with two more oxhearts to try. EM Champion is described as an early (65 days) good tastings red heart on a productive easy to manage plant. The other is Dwarf Pink Passion another early heart that is pink. That bring my total to 3 hearts out of 25 plants

Nope I haven't started my seeds yet. This week is the first week we should be starting tomatoes...

[Julianna]

OH looking through the swap tomatoes in my list I came up with two more oxhearts to try. EM Champion is described as an early (65 days) good tastings red heart on a productive easy to manage plant. The other is Dwarf Pink Passion another early heart that is pink. That bring my total to 3 hearts out of 25 plants

An early heart! That sounds good. Have you tried any of the other dwarf hearts? I keep kind of wondering about them. This year I am trying other dwarfs for the first time. My husband kept complaining that my tomato plants were "huge" and he felt this was unnatural ( lol he is used to these tree-like mini things they grow in Jordan that dont need support and max out at like 3ft. My 8ft plants keep throwing him).

[wykvlvr]

This will be my first year to grow any of the hearts. Last year was my first with any dwarfs and sadly it didn't do well where I had it. HOWEVER that dwarf did well enough that most of my plants this year will be dwarfs. I have physical problems that means reaching above shoulder level is painful so short plants are mostly what I am wanting this year.

[Julianna]

This will be my first year to grow any of the hearts. Last year was my first with any dwarfs and sadly it didn't do well where I had it. HOWEVER that dwarf did well enough that most of my plants this year will be dwarfs. I have physical problems that means reaching above shoulder level is painful so short plants are mostly what I am wanting this year.

That sounds encouraging! I hope they work better for you this season.

I wish I could grow in ground. That would probably help my production. I was hoping dwarfs would be better.

[wykvlvr]

grin what is this ground you speak of? I have room in ground for up to 8 plants, the rest are in grow bags or buckets. This year I am planning on 12 dwarf/compact varieties in the buckets and bags.
My dwarfs last year were bought late and planted later when it warmed up a bit and we got more buckets. Then they got slammed with hail a couple of times, stood up to our wild winds and still made large tomatoes that in a normal year would have been ripe before snow. As I said they didn't do well but did well enough to make a good impression on me. I had to look it up in my notes those were 2 Yukon Quest which are a mid season tomato. My Green Zebra were just blooming ... when our extra early snow hit. My micros came inside but I ran out of room so the dwarfs were left out to die like many of my plants

[rossomendblot]

I am growing my first ever heart this year - EM Champion. Having a bit of trouble with germination but at least 2 have come up. Looking forward to tasting it!

[Julianna]

grin what is this ground you speak of? I have room in ground for up to 8 plants, the rest are in grow bags or buckets. This year I am planning on 12 dwarf/compact varieties in the buckets and bags.
My dwarfs last year were bought late and planted later when it warmed up a bit and we got more buckets. Then they got slammed with hail a couple of times, stood up to our wild winds and still made large tomatoes that in a normal year would have been ripe before snow. As I said they didn't do well but did well enough to make a good impression on me. I had to look it up in my notes those were 2 Yukon Quest which are a mid season tomato. My Green Zebra were just blooming ... when our extra early snow hit. My micros came inside but I ran out of room so the dwarfs were left out to die like many of my plants

Oh man! I did see that hail last season that hit WY in some of my other groups. Yeah, I am basically the same, but 100% containers. It sounds like under the circumstances, they did fantastic!

We have a nice yard and space enough I could grow more than I do, but my husband hates the idea plus we rent and so putting in the effort to excavate the whole thing and double line with gopher mesh isn't something feasible.

[Julianna]

I am growing my first ever heart this year - EM Champion. Having a bit of trouble with germination but at least 2 have come up. Looking forward to tasting it!

You will have to report back! I hope it does well for you!

[wykvlvr]

I am growing my first ever heart this year - EM Champion. Having a bit of trouble with germination but at least 2 have come up. Looking forward to tasting it!

I am also trying EM Champion this year. Sounds like I should plant more then I had planned on...

[rossomendblot]

I think it's just a packet of not very good seed rather than the variety being stubborn to germinate. The seeds are very dark like they have been over dried.

[rossomendblot]

I think it's just a packet of not very good seed rather than the variety being stubborn to germinate. The seeds are very dark like they have been over dried.

...and like magic now the rest of them are coming up, almost as if they read my post and felt ashamed.

[Julianna]

I think it's just a packet of not very good seed rather than the variety being stubborn to germinate. The seeds are very dark like they have been over dried.

...and like magic now the rest of them are coming up, almost as if they read my post and felt ashamed.

Lol in January when I was asked how my winter sowing germination was going i said nothing yet. Went out the next day and almost everything I planted was up. They sense their shame lolol.

[Sue_CT]

Sounds like you got a bunch of slackers there, lol

[Gardadore]

I grew Midnight Sun and Taiga last summer. Both had very poor production and I’m not sure why. They are hearts so tend to produce wispy stems and leaves. Midnight Sun looked so weak and wilty that I thought it was going to die before it could produce. Taiga wasn’t much better. It was a strange summer with extended high humidity. What I did get were delicious so I am growing both again as well as True Colors for the first time. I have purchased new organic straw bales so hope things will go better.

[Julianna]

I grew Midnight Sun and Taiga last summer. Both had very poor production and I’m not sure why. They are hearts so tend to produce wispy stems and leaves. Midnight Sun looked so weak and wilty that I thought it was going to die before it could produce. Taiga wasn’t much better. It was a strange summer with extended high humidity. What I did get were delicious so I am growing both again as well as True Colors for the first time. I have purchased new organic straw bales so hope things will go better.

Interesting! We have a real powdery mildew issue here with all the summer fog. I sometimes have wondered if wispy foliage could help since it would theoretically have more air circulation... Or hinder because there is less to fall back on. This year I got a sprayer and plant grade sodium bicarbonate that others here swear by so we will see if I can keep it under control.