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I think that I will grow on the tomatoes myself and save the seed again next year just to be certain, I do not want anyone to worry about using the seed. After I wrote the post a lot of the tomatoes I had brought home to ripen deteriorated very quickly and having read Poolcues post I realise may not be a good idea. Funnily enough I planted out an assortment of toms which did not fit in the greenhouse and they all looked great the other day!! Will go tomorrow and have another look.
Composting: Leaves and stems of plants affected by blight can be added to your compost heap; the fungus will not survive in dead plant material. Do not compost blighted fruit, as the fungal spores can survive in seeds to grow and reproduce next spring, carrying blight onto your new crops; either bury deeply (60cm/ 2ft) or put in a dustbin. Alternatively, take all affected plants to the local recycling centre. These centres compost on a very large scale, thus generating high temperatures which will kill the disease. I have just been on the HDR site and read the above.Surely this is incorrect.
Some of the crops being saved from are biannual, again quite a commitment to time and space. Perhaps starting with the new group Jan 2013 would be easier giving you a chance to plan in advance what you would like to save for the group? I know not the same as having a parcel this year, but if you let me know what type crops you are interested in I'll put a small selection together for you to get you started.
I've been doing calculations and with 20 people in a circle and a bare minimum of six seeds each that they can themselves grow on for seed: that's 120 seeds, more than I accumulate in the normal run of things. If I have 50 spare seeds I think that's overkill. So your procedure of setting out to grow seed for the circle is the best way of going about it but it does mean a year's delay. I do have seed surplus to my requirements and I do have some 'exotics' that can be shared or swapped on a limited basis. Maybe there's an alternative for people like me.
There are two distinctly different variertes of Tomatoes called Queen of Hearts.I have tons of Queen of Hearts tomatoes....but..after some investigation after mine were not hearts either it seems the description in the HSL catalogue is not accurate, theirs were not heart shaped either so the seed if from them and not heart shaped is true.The Queen of Hearts which is heart shaped is from the breedder Stan Jackson who never gave seeds to HSL so the articles about his Queen of Hearts being given to the Queen via HSL are also inaccurate. HSL got their original seed from a lady with US connections so it seem it is US bred and not British as was though.It was these seeds wqhich were given to the Queen. Stans tomatoes are British bred but have no connection to HSL.I can send seed of the HSL non heart shaped one if needed.XX Jeannine
Quote from: Jeannine on October 13, 2012, 09:42:29 There are two distinctly different variertes of Tomatoes called Queen of Hearts.I have tons of Queen of Hearts tomatoes....but..after some investigation after mine were not hearts either it seems the description in the HSL catalogue is not accurate, theirs were not heart shaped either so the seed if from them and not heart shaped is true.The Queen of Hearts which is heart shaped is from the breedder Stan Jackson who never gave seeds to HSL so the articles about his Queen of Hearts being given to the Queen via HSL are also inaccurate. HSL got their original seed from a lady with US connections so it seem it is US bred and not British as was though.It was these seeds wqhich were given to the Queen. Stans tomatoes are British bred but have no connection to HSL.I can send seed of the HSL non heart shaped one if needed.XX Jeannine Good to have you say it as well Jeannine, that's pretty much what I arrived at too. It does explain why Stan was so surprised they were sent to the Queen, plus the fact he said they were a hybrid he created and could only be grown from the original cross or overwintered cuttings. Great to know they did well for you and you have spares if needed. I'm not yet sure if Markfieldrover is adding them to the Circle this year, I've saved some too which I think are consistent with HSL description which I can add to hers. If they are not being added I'll probably put my spares in the Virtual Tomato bag.