Good move Deeby. In zone 9b your timing ,I think, is right. I have to wait another 3 weeks or so to do that. I also got one of them Jiffy kits with plastic dome. Wishing you a good germination rate: LOL This post was edited by seysonn on Wed, Jan 15, 14 at 22:04

I have been growing Red Robin from saved seed for six years now. The original seed was purchased mail order. I have been expecting it to fail every year but it continues to maintain the same growth habits and fruit production. I have such increasing demand for it from friends and family that I started 100 plants this year. A great container tomato and a heavy producer that produces orangish-red cherry tomatoes of what I consider to be mediocre flavor (the fruit looks and tastes the same as from the plants that were grown from the original seed). But kids love growing and caring for the plants and love to pick "their" tomatoes and eat them, so that makes it a valuable tomato variety as far as I am concerned. I have been cramming seven plants into 6 gallon pots and that makes a wonderful little tomato shrub. This method also makes it easy to add a little support when the fruits start to set and size up. This year I am going to plant them in some half-barrel planters for at the local elderly care center. Many of the residents there used to garden and I think they will enjoy watching "their" tomatoes grow as well. -Tom

Tomato Seed Round Robin This is a "round robin" tomato seed swap. We're all beginning to think about the tomato varieties that we want to plant this next Spring! So now's the time to swap. If you are interested, please email me (or post your interest as a reply to this post) and I will send you a link where you can post the varieties that you will be supplying to start the round robin. Rules are as follows: 1. To participate in the round robin, each participant will need to submit 5 different varieties of tomato seed (minimum 25 seeds per variety) - open-pollinated or heirloom varieties perferred. This will get our round robin started with at least 25 different varieties of tomato seeds (5 participants X 5 varieites each) Seeds should be packaged in a small jewelry-sized Ziploc (for moisture proof) and the Ziploc contained in a small coin envelope. Jewelry-sized Ziplocs and coin envelopes will be supplied to each participate by the round robin host before the round robin begins. Please choose varieties that are different than those already chosen by the other participates that have posted. After we have 5 people signed up, we'll establish the date that the original seed packets are due to the host. Each seed packet must be labeled with the following information: a. Variety Name b. Type: Indeterminate or Determinate c. Year of seeds (must be 2005 seed) d. Days to harvest (from transplant to garden) e. Source of seed whether it be from a company or seed you've saved yourself (if you've saved the seed, it must be by the fermentation method) f. Any other known information about the tomato variety such as good for container gardening, resistant to specific diseases, leaf type, etc g. GW person (GW name & email address) supplying the seed for the round robin. 2. Put in as many seeds as you take out - if you remove 5 seeds from one variety and 5 seeds from another variety, then make sure that you add 10 new seeds in a packet from a variety that is not yet in the round robin. Participants may also add extra varieties and seeds if they would like to. This will keep our round robin fresh and also growing with new varieties :) 3. Each participant will have 5 days to review the contents of the Tomato Seed Round Robin when they receive it in the mail. Then they will be responsible for packaging the round robin (in the original package) and sending it on to the next person. 4. Participants will be required to keep the round robin host's name/address as the "return address" on the package in case it should be lost in the mail - it can be returned to the host. 5. Participants are required to send the round robin package to the next person on the list via USPS 1st class mail with "delivery confirmation" which is a small minimal charge. 6. Participants must email the host and post to the GW Round Robin Exchange Forum when they receive the package and when they mail the package to the next person. They must also post the USPS Package Confirmation Number for tracking purposes. 7. Round Robin is limited to the first 5 people who sign up!! If I've forgotten anything that I should have addressed above, please let me know.

According to a research review on the origin of San Marzano around 1960, there is no real one San Marzano variety. No one source can truly claim they have "the San Marzano". At it's origin, San Marzano was a "type", never a single variety, that was grown in Italy. Plants and fruit varied. Seeds of these different types were widely distributed from different sources in Italy throughout Europe, the US and South America and by 1960 there existed many different ones based on regional preferences. So many different lines are called 'San Marzano'. Those claiming they have the original are probably doing so for marketing purposes or to somehow claim it is theirs. So if it's something you like go ahead and save it. If it wasn't a hybrid and didn't cross it should come back to that type.