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Grittyville, WA

What do you think about innoculating (and testing) the seedlings with a bit of patch soil. The way I see it, the seedlings exposed to patch soil wont grow better (in fact they might get inoculated with diseases) but if they're introduced at a very young age to their "future life" they might be able to activate the genes and rekationships they will need and pre-adapt themselves?
The article is actually about tomatoes. Heads up tomato growers... I think this is a real thing

1/10/2025 7:30:31 PM

Colorado

Interesting. I do this for my starts and clones sometimes. pure laziness tho. :)

1/10/2025 7:53:46 PM

valtierra/spain

And if the plants that have suffered more stress, pumpkin for example due to heat, winds, low humidity.., and still have achieved large pumpkins are the best plants to grow in the following years? We have always talked about pumpkins grown in very hot climates, are better in hot climates, but also in colder climates. But pumpkins from cold climates, maybe then they are sensitive to heat and get stressed more easily. Some of this may make sense.

1/11/2025 3:19:22 PM

valtierra/spain

It would be interesting to know the temperatures that plants such as 2145, 1885 pumpkins, and 2365 had in summer... the 2183 I assure you that it was very hot..hahaha

1/11/2025 3:21:54 PM

Nova Scotia

Back in the day giant melons all grown in the south of course but couldn't grow giant pumpkins due to conditions. However growers have adapted to "modify" conditions best they can as we see. Still a firm believer in "climatized seed" meaning better odds growing seed from specimens produced in your zone. We had it going on here in Nova Scotia back in the late 1970s and 1980s with successful growers and results. I still give credit to the "Rhode Island" group namely Wallaces and others who figured that out using seeds from their area.

1/11/2025 3:47:34 PM

Bethlehem CT

Brandon, I would be nervous to introduce my patch soil to the seedlings I would fear that would cause my seedling to get "damping off".

Are Giant tomato growers trying out grafted plants for their giant tomatoes? They have some pretty strong commercial rootstocks that are available for the low, low price of a dollar a seed. LOL
It might be worth a shot. There has to be some trick that Dan is using that puts him light years ahead of the pack.

1/11/2025 9:32:19 PM

Grittyville, WA

We will get Dan-level results eventually. There's a learning curve though. As far as I know he does not stress his, he would probably think thats silly.

But I do stress mine... My best plants have suffered extremely as seedlings. The 8.68... I ripped out of the ground when it was about 12" tall... broke most of its roots off. It was crowded in with some others. It took awhile to recover. Then it grew the 8 lber and it had a bigger one that in hindsight I'm sure could have been 10+ lbs. Its mother plant was extremely stressed as a seedling too. For better or worse, any genes it has for stress should now be fully activated.

I'll try some grafting. I know materdoc has tried it. I'm thinking the giant tomatoes are a robust strain of tomato, superior to other heirlooms, so it might not make much difference. I could use some "previously stressed" seedstock for the grafting trial as I have a good supply of those seeds.

1/12/2025 12:23:46 AM