Zone 9b - too late to start Opalka tomato indoors?

11 years ago

I am in Zone 9b. Our average last frost date has already passed (March 1-10).

I recently found out about a tomato variety I would love to try this year (Opalka), but my local nursery will not have this variety in stock at all. So I have to grow from seed.

I have ordered seeds and they should be here this week. But am I too late to start these indoors this year? Would I be better off hanging onto the seeds and waiting till next year to grow them?

If it matters, I will be growing these in large containers.

Comments (14)

sautesmom Sacramento
11 years ago
Northern California has a 6 month tomato growing season. You will be fine, even if you can't claim to have the first tomato on the block! :)

Carla in Sac
fujiapple
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you Carla, this is good news!
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dodge59
11 years ago
You can buy the plants live from Amazon. 4 Opalka plants for $5.99. I just had a friend in Oklahoma buy 4 bloody butcher plants from Amazon and she says all 4 plants look great.

Friend said it took 5 days to get them.

I paid more than that for just one plant from Laurel and I'm still waiting for them to ship, alto I'm sure they will be great tomatoes too. I did check Laurels site for the Olpaka, but She did not have it listed, but that does not "necessarily" mean she does not have them, as She did not have Giant Belgium Listed, but She did have some.

Laurels Heirloom Tomatoes.

Good luck

Gary

Here is a link that might be useful: Live Opalka tomato plant
fujiapple
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you so much Gary! I had no idea I could do this!
nialialea
11 years ago
It looks like the live plants are all through third party vendors, so I'd be really careful to vet them before ordering.

I'm sure Amazon will protect you from fraud, but you'd be set back even further if there were an issue.

Case in point, the "famous Italian tomato tree". Unless all the reviewers are wrong and it's a real thing, in which case, sign me up!

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato tree... or IS IT?
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
Since fujiapple lives in California and that state is particularly picky about live plants from outside the state, how difficult will it be for him to find someone on Amazon who can ship live plants to California? (I haven't any idea, but just want to make sure this is considered before he loses any money.)
dodge59
11 years ago
I did supply the OP with Laurels info too. She is in Calif, Lomita, which is in S Calif.

As a general rule, Amazon tries to find a shipper reasonably close to the sale, I believe the Okla order was filled from Ohio.

I'm sure Amazon knows what a PITA "The Peoples Republic of Calif" is and will react accordingly, I'm a Native but I hate our "Big Brother Attitude here!!!!!

I've known my friend in Okla for many years, and take faith in her advice and would not be posting without doing the proper research first.

Gary
dodge59
11 years ago
Well, bad news today, Amazon is sold out of the Opalkas..
I will call Laurel later today and see if she has any.

What I would do is do a search for "Tomato Plants for Sale, Bay are, or your city or a big city nearby.

Why do I suggest that?

Well I did a search for Tomato Plants "Orange County Calif".
I didn't turn up any nursery that had the kind of maters I wanted, so I found Laurel and ordered them all from her.

I had a dentist appointment Tuesday, and on the way home, I stopped at a local Nursery, (about 10 miles from Home).
They had every mater I wanted, and nice size and price too!, GRRRRRR. I did not find that nursery when I did my search because it was in LA County!!!!!

With Me, I want "Instant Gratification" with my maters, and had I done a better search, they would be in my garden now!!!

I'm 70 and don't have the patience, time, or wish to take the chance on something going wrong trying to plant seeds, caring for them, light heat, water, etc, transplanting them a couple times, hardening off etc etc, so I always buy live plants.

Hope you find your maters!

Gary
dodge59
11 years ago
OK Lauren does not have any this year, but here are 2 places that do, and they do dhip to Calif.

(1) Indiana

http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/-c150.htm

(2) Tennessee

http://www.tomatobabycompany.com/reds.htm

This place says they can get anything U want, and one of their suppliers has Olpaka

Santa Cruz

http://www.localharvest.org/about.jsp

Nice drive to Santa Cruz, along 84 or 92, as I recall.

Gary
fujiapple
Original Author
11 years ago
No worries Gary, I actually ordered the plants from that link on Amazon immediately after you posted it, and they have already shipped! So maybe I got the last few plants. :D

Thanks again!
dodge59
11 years ago
Great, let us know how the plants look and perform, I hope you are as happy with them as my Oklahoma friend is!

Gary
fujiapple
Original Author
7 years ago
I'm way late, but I wanted to update anyone who finds this thread by search. The "Opalka" plants I ordered via Amazon grew just fine, but they turned out to be ordinary roma tomatoes, not Opalka at all. That same year I successfully grew Opalka from seed and I could tell the difference in how the plants looked even before any fruit set.
PcolaGrower
7 years ago
Just a lil late......LOL!!!
gorbelly
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
For future reference for anyone who finds this thread, the issue with getting the plants in early in higher zones is that, in many areas with high zones, the temps during summer get so hot that all tomato production shuts down. So the goal is to get plants up and producing before that happens.

But zone is actually only an indicator of how cold it gets where you are. It doesn't indicate how hot summers get, when the heat really gets going, etc. There are some parts of the country where winters are mild, so the zone # is high... but the summers are also relatively moderate and not the death zones they are in deep southwest, Gulf area, etc. So the urgency to get plants in the ground as soon as humanly possible isn't nearly as strong in the more moderate summer areas.

Zone 9b - too late to start Opalka tomato indoors?

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Zone 9b - too late to start Opalka tomato indoors?

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