Seeds in Need of a Good Home

It has become a tradition every year to give away the extra seeds that I've saved. I never require trades. It is always a joy to share my seeds with others including new gardeners who haven't even thought about saving seed yet. Maybe this will get them to try next year. In the past I've had more to share, but this year because of the move, only easy to collect seeds have been saved. No biennials, no herbs, nothing that needs extra time to bear seeds and nothing that needs isolation.

I'll ship anything except bean seed anywhere in the world. I put them in a card and that usually keeps them safe enough and its cheap for me to ship. Beans are too big and fragile. They need special packaging. I'll ship them to the US and Canada. I will probably ship all the requests out after Christmas unless I need to go to the PO before then. I avoid the PO at this time of the year.

I do ask for things though. I ask any of you to send me seeds that I'm looking for. Last year I asked for Asian greens and lettuce. I ended up with way more than I could even trial this year. Luckily the seed lasts, so I'll do more lettuce trials next year. This year I'm looking for pole beans. I grew several new varieties of bush beans this year, but I'm not a fan of the bush bean. I want pole beans. They look beautiful on their supports in the garden; make better use of space; and let the squash ramble over the ground. I'm not looking for green beans. I like Kentucky Wonder (though maybe I'll ask Granny to send back a few Fortex to try again). What I'm hoping for are dried beans. I'm guessing not many of you grow them. I may be wishing into thin air, but I have a lot of space allotted to them next year. I wish I could find a pinto or kidney bean, but I've never seen one offered. I think when the SSE yearbook gets here I'm going to have fun looking at beans. But if any of you have pole beans that you love and can spare some seed, send me an email.

Now on to the list of seeds.

Tomatoes - sadly I can't find the seed of Amish Paste. I'm quite sad. I saved seed of both Amish Paste and Market Miracle and neither of their seeds are anywhere to be found. I have exactly two Amish Paste seeds left. So if anyone can spare a few that has some I'd love some.

For the following listings below the date in the parentheses is the year I harvested. None of the tomatoes were isolated.

1) Progeny of GabrielleAnn, Sungold F4 (2010)- Sungold is a hybrid tomato so the seed doesn't grow out true to the plant. These are seeds from the F3 plant I grew this year. It produced prolifically. It didn't split as much as my other cherries. It was the second most prolific tomato in my garden. It was not as sweet as the normal Sungold, but then my Chocolate Cherry wasn't as sweet as usual either. It could be the seed; it could be the weather; it could be the soil.

2) Heinz 2653 (2010) 68 days - Seed originally from Fedco. Heinz was not a pretty plant. It was scrawny and a bit sickly, but it was very productive for the short time in the garden. It put out all of its tomatoes very quickly. It started ripening at the same time as the cherry tomatoes. And it finished fast too. It is a paste tomato and good for canning as the harvest all comes at once. There should be time for fall crops in the space after it is finished. The tomatoes had a great taste, better than San Marzano, but not quite up to Amish Paste.

3)Cherokee Purple (2010) 77 days - Seed originally from Dan. A black beefsteak tomato. In the warm dry summer we had (80s and low to mid 90s mostly), it was fabulously productive. Out produced all my other plants by two to four times. It was the best tasting of all the tomatoes in the garden.

4)Romeo Roma (2010) 75 days - Seed originally from wintersown.org. Unique paste tomato. If you want large paste tomatoes for easy processing this is the one for you. The tomatoes can get over a pound. Very dry flesh with hollow interiors. The plant has weak not very branching stems and likes to sprawl. With a cage, it has to be tied to the sides or it will collapse. Taste is fine, but nothing to write home about. Not terribly prolific.

5) Market Miracle (2009) 70 days- Seed originally from wintersown.org. This is my workhorse tomato. Originally a Siberian tomato, it can handle cold northeast (or northwest) conditions. This is a standard red beefsteak. It puts out beautifully perfect tomatoes of 6-8 oz. The taste is good, but not great like Cherokee Purple. A standard homegrown tomato taste. It is fairly prolific and can produce in conditions other tomatoes can't.

6) San Marzano (2006) 80 days - Not my saved seed, but some left in a packet. No need for it to go to waste even though I won't be growing it. San Marzano is the standard of paste tomatoes.

Other Solanums

6) Sport of a Pueblo Tomatillo (it really needs a name - any ideas?) (2010). Seed originally from Fedco. Most of the tomatillos from the seed I got put out 1"-1 1/2" tomatillos. This one had tomatillos over 2" and the plant was much more upright. It branched less and was a prettier plant. Even with that it seems to set the same amount of tomatillos, which means it was more prolific as each one was larger. So I saved seeds from this plant. It might grow out as the smaller one, it might grow out as the bigger one.

7) Early Jalapeno (2009) (isolated with a cage) - Seed originally from Pinetree. Nice jalapeno. Doesn't get very hot unless it is stressed in some way.

Beans - none were isolated. There might be crossing.

8) Trail of Tears (2010) - Seed originally from the Ottawa Gardener. Very prolific pole beans. Said to be carried by the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears.

9) Ottawa Cranberry (2010) - Seed originally from the Ottawa Gardener. Pole bean.

10) Tiger's Eye (2010) - Seed originally from Dan. Bush bean.

11) Red Kidney (2010) - Seed originally from Fedco.

12) Black Coca (2010) - Seed originally from Fedco.

Flowers

13) Ground Control Marigold (2010) - Seed originally from Pinetree. A large rambling marigold that was bred to kill off nematodes in the garden. I interplant with my tomatoes. Often hacking the plant back to keep in under control.

So there you have it. Thirteen different things to choose from. The first year I sent out just a few packets of seed. Last year it was about 24. I wonder how many I'll be sending out this year.