lol...thanks. Many on here will let you know my pictures are so neat because i'm utterly obsessed with my gardening. Hah...Anyway, I studied many posts on here that say about what you said, that many veggies including peppers, require a higher soil temp for germination. Since I have a few uses for the heating mats already, including that, I figured they are worth it. =) Regarding the heirloom maters, I have so many now to choose from that I don't know if i'll even be able to grow half of them to fit in my garden...lol. I'm gonna at least add Amish Paste & Sungold Select II to my list of plants for this year. I can save the rest of the seeds for future plantings, trades, etc.. - Steve

I did post before but it changed. Some I started didn't make it after attempting to harden off in a freak storm. And I kept finding others I *HAD* to have. Others I'll plant if I find them are Gold Medal & Dr Wyches orange. The new list: Arkansas Traveler Aunt Ruby's German Green. Black Cherry Black from Tula Black Krim Black Zebra Burgandy Traveler Carbon Charlie Chaplin Cherokee Green Cherokee Purple Heart Chocolate Stripes Eva Purple Ball Frank's Large Red Grandma Viney's Y & P Green Doctors Green Doctors Frosted Green Zebra Hazel Mae Hillbilly Indigo Rose JD's Special C-Tex KBX Kentucky Striped Kosovo Marianna's Peace Matt's Wild Cherry Medovaya Kaplya (Honey Drop) Momotano New Big Dwarf Pineapple Prue Snow White Striped Cavern "Suprise" (an unknown dwarf from Craig LeHoullier) Sun Gold Sweet 100 Virginia Sweets Wes I was given plants in bulk by someone that's the main tomato guy locally so with certain varieties I have easily 10-15 plants. I'm at around 200 plants. I think I went a bit overboard this year, lol.

Oh, this is such an old thread... but at least I won't be the only one still posting in it! I was gifted a Sungold and a Brandywine (no idea which version) from a friend years ago, stuck them in a patch I dug out of the front yard... and they were amazing! I haven't been able to bear to eat grocery-store tomatoes since. But the intervening years have been focused on other things; my one attempt at gardening 3 years ago was a failure when I didn't find time to water (or weed) anything for three weeks at the end of June. Anyway, this year I finally have the right mix of time and space so I spent the winter reading up and dreaming, and... well, let's just say my family and local food shelf will have lots of tomatoes in August... Most seeds from SandHill, but the Sungold Select II and Green Zebra from Bakers Creek, and a handful are from cherrygal.com Cherry Types Blondkopfchen Sungold Select II (soooo excited to have snagged these!) Black Cherry Green Doctors Snow White Cherry (gift from SandHill) Hawaiian Mexican Cocktail "Regular" (I can never keep the beefsteak/medium/etc apart in my head) Brandywine, Sudduths Gogosha Green Zebra Black Krim Black Sea Man Rosabec Purple Calabash (gift from SandHill) Lucky Cross Potato Leaf "Other" Riesentraube (we'll see what tomato wine tastes like...) Yellow Pygmy Costulato Genovese When I got the two extra varieties from SandHill, I couldn't decide whether to jump up and down for joy (yay, two more flavors to try!) or despair - I spent weeks choosing my list, how could I fit 2 more?? But I decided joy was the right reaction. :) I'm sure it'll be more than a jungle in the yard this summer, but it'll be an edible jungle... and I have never been so grateful for the half-acre lot we have as this year. :) Good thing my husband is here to talk me out of cutting down our trees so I can have even more sunlight... Unfortunately, the cutworms have already been busy - but fortunately, although I only planned to grow 2 plants of each variety, I actually PLANTED 7-10 seeds... and almost all of them came up...and then I couldn't bear to cull since they all looked so healthy... so I ended up with lots of seedlings to give away. :) And to replace cutworm-killed plants. And then to give away some more! And still have replacements on hand in case my popsicle sticks don't do the trick with the cutworms... I'm just lucky Minnesota had an incredibly early and mild spring, my seedlings have been outside since the first week of March (with short breaks inside overnight until April) - there was no way I had enough grow-lights or space in the basement for them all! The seeds that I saved from those unknown Brandywines years ago still germinated three years later, so I'm really hoping to increase my seed from every one of these varieties this summer. Just need to cross my fingers and toes that I can get at least one tomato of each variety to survive and ripen enough to collect their seeds! Watching the cutworm decimation last week made me doubt I'll have luck that good, but hope springs eternal...

Thai Pink Egg-- I have to admit I almost stopped carrying this one due to sluggish sales at market but my booth assistant saved its day. She protested that it was one of her favorite ones! And lo and behold, everyone wants one this year. Popularity is such a wavy thing. I guess it likes baking in the Willamete Valley. That makes one of us! Personally I think it is very productive, attractive plant with versatile fruit. It is very sweet and firm but juicy. Plums are so travel-friendly, fit nicely on a stick over a campfire, great quick gourmet roasted dish and meaty but juicy, too. And it does taste better than Juliet. Though arguably noone tastes better than Juliet, except maybe Romeo:) I'd say it makes a nice companion with Black Plum being sort of pearly white fruited for seemingly forever before coloring up. Anyway, back to the field and the greenhouses. The sun has finally returned after monsoons of rain. The breeze is sweet lilacs. Ah, Spring! Vine