I have googled this, found a good entry in Wikipedia but unfortunately the tomato forum search does not work. It kinda works if I go to google first and get the Garden Web forums, but this only allows me to read so far in a reasonable time frame. I know there is a lot posted here about San Marzanos, and I know from Wikipedia they are a heirloom indeterminate plum type that grows in Italy in a region with volcanic soil.

A friend of mine gifted me a large packet of San Marzano (2) seeds that she brought from Italy a few years back. This was during a time I was renting so I did not have my own garden. She also gave me some Valentino basil seeds. Last year we sprouted the Valentino and it took quite a few seeds (low germination rate) as well as a long wait time, but wow, was it worth it! Beautiful basil. We attempted to sprout the tomatoes as well, trying just a few seeds of the San Marzanos, but we got nothing at all.

Considering how much we liked the basil, we figured maybe it was worth trying again on the San Marzano seeds this year (yes, we are also growing the basil again). These were given to me about 4 years ago, we do not know how old they were then, and we took no special precautions storing the seeds. It is a very large seed packet, I guess in Italy when they plant tomatoes they do not kid around. I figured well, even if I only have a 1% germination rate, Ill just try to sprout a couple of hundred and I should get a couple of tomato vines. So we seeded very thickly on a cookie container with a good seed mix near the window. That used up about half of the seed packet.

OK, by now you probably guessed what happened. There was a JUNGLE of San Marzano seedlings, all crowded and getting leggy, in my cookie container. Sunday morning, armed with a pair of teflon tweezers, a plastic spoon, a magnifying glass, some potting soil, a cup of coffee, and every single seedling container I could find in the yard, I went to work. A few hours later I had separated 82 seedlings. This morning they looked remarkably well. There is still about 40-50 seedlings in the original container but I ran out of seedling pots.

A couple of quick phone call and emails resulted in tomato loving friends claiming about 24 of the seedlings. We will use anywhere from 6 to 12, (depending on what answers I get here). Not sure what we will do with the remaining seedlings, we are thinking a sign in front of the house "heirloom Italian tomato seedlings 2 for a dollar ". Crazy? I do not want to give them away to strangers because free stuff sometimes does not get planted (I know our friends will plant them so they get them free).

As far as us using the tomatoes, we actually prefer Black Krim and Kellogs Breakfast for making sauce, however, I am very interested in tomatoes for drying. I got two Principe Borghese seedlings specifically to use for drying, so I was thinking if San Marzanos would work well as a dried tomato (split in half of course) then I will keep more San Marzano seedlings and hold back on sprouting any more principe Borghese this year. So my questions:

-Have you tried drying San Marzano tomatoes? Were they tasty?


-Any comments about their taste, productivity, anything else about them?

-Any advice on special care they might require? How large do the vines get?

-I have not contacted some of my friends that live in the mountains around here, this could be as cold as zone 6. What is the coolest zone where they will do well? (this way I can give some to more of my friendsÂ)

I feel that the more information I can give to the folks that will be Âadopting my seedlings the better they will do and the happier everybody will be. Please tell me what you know about growing and using the San Marzanos? (Â.andÂ. do not tell me to grow Opalka, not this year OK?)