Dorothy,

Oooh! Tomatoes! I could talk about tomatoes all day long and all night long too.

I get seed from several sources, and try to buy only from reliable sources who sell good-quality seed that is true to type and germinates reliably. Here's a few favorite sources:

Seed Savers Exchange:
seedsavers.org
You can buy from their public catalog/website, or join and become a member which then entitles you to purchase seed from listed members (like George) who save seed and preserve many heirloom varieties that you can obtain only through SSE's listed members. The intent of the exchange is that you, too, will save seed and pass it on to others to help keep the heirloom varieties alive.

Victory Seed:
victoryseed.com
One of the most reliable firms around and you can believe every word of documentation they write in describing the known origins of the varieties they sell. They are careful to maintain the authentic history of their varieties, unlike some other companies that exaggerate and embellish with little regard for the truth.

Sandhill Preservation Center:
sandhillpreservation.com
A relatively small operation run as a sideline by Glenn Drowns (breeder of my all-time favorite watermelon, Blacktail Mountain) and his wife, they have the best prices and shipping and their seeds are always reliable and true to type. Also a great source for heirloom seeds of all kinds, and heirloom sweet potatoes and heirloom poultry as well. And, even though they don't brag about it, they offer over 500 tomato varieties which is remarkable when you consider that their efforts are NOT their full-time job.

Tomato Growers Supply Company:
tomatogrowers.com
This is probably the first company from whom I purchased heirloom seed, other than my very first purchase of Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter seed from Burpee eons ago. Tomato Growers Supply Company is very reliable. I've always had good germination rates from their seeds and their service is great. Black Cherry was developed by and first offered to the public by Vince Sapp, just a year or two before he passed away. Linda Sapp still runs the company and it is one of my favorites. They also have one of the best selections of pepper seed around.

Totally Tomatoes:
Totallytomatoes.com
I don't purchase as much from them, but they are the only source for some seeds like those of Big Zac, for example.

Harris Seed
harrisseed.com
I've bought seeds from Harris for many years and have found them to be a reliable firm with quality products. They are the only source, I think, for seeds of some tomatoes that I adore, like Supersonic and Prime Time.

Burpee Seed Co.
Burpee.com
For a long time, I wouldn't buy tomato seed from them because it seemed like their seed was more expensive than that from other sources, and the hybrids they brought onto the market in the 1990s were not that great. In the 2000s, though, they seem to have hit the tomato-breeding jackpot and several of their newer hybrids have been incredibly good. These include Brandy Boy, Little Brandywine, Bucks County and Porterhouse, all four of which I grow every single year without fail. I prefer to buy from their catalog or website. The packages there are more expensive than similar seed packets sold at places like Wal-Mart, but the catalog/website packets have more seeds per packet than those sold in the stores.

Johnny's Select Seed
johnnyseed.com
A great company based in the northeast. Has a wide variety of heirloom and hybrid tomato seeds as well as veggie and flower seeds of all kinds. They breed and develop a lot of their own, esp. squash and pumpkins.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed
rareseeds.com
A relatively young company--about 10 years old, I guess, run by Jere Gettle and family and based in Missouri. This is an amazing young company that has experienced explosive growth and offers ALL kinds of heirloom veggie and flower seeds. They offer an amazing variety of seeds from all over the world, including some old Ozark heirlooms you won't find anyplace else. Every packet of seed I've ever bought from them has been packed with many more seeds than the "minimum" number they say will be in a packet. Although I buy many kinds of seeds from them, they are my all-time favorite source for heirloom melons, winter squash and pumpkins. They have tons of heirloom beans and okra too. I love this company and buy from them all the time.

For what it is worth, Dorothy, many of the tomatoes you've tried, like Juliette and Sugary, I also tried and found very disappointing. I think the problem with most modern hybrids is that they are bred for appearance, shelf-life and disease-resistance, and flavor is given little, if any, consideration. Isn't that ridiculous? On the other hand, heirlooms were usually saved and passed down because they tasted good and/or produced well. Now, that makes sense to me!

I don't know how important it is to ferment saved seed. I know some people ferment and others don't and both claim to have great success and germination rates with their saved seed.

There are reasons why fermentation is "preferred" and one of the main ones is that the fermentation process kills many seed-borne tomato diseases, which is very important. Also, fermentation removes the gel sac from around the seeds, which is vital because the gel sac inhibits germination.

Inside the actual tomatoes, that gel sac is what prevents the seeds from germinating while inside the fruit (and, occasionally, they will germinate anyway). If a tomato falls off the vine and you leave it on the ground in your garden, that tomato will eventually rot and leave the seeds behind to germinate as "volunteer" tomato seedlings in the spring. As that tomato slowly rots, a natural type of fermentation occurs which destroys the gel sacs and, ultimately, allows the seeds to germinate. So, when you ferment the fruit, you are recreating that process.

Some people, though, just scoop out the seeds and put them on a paper towel or coffee filter to dry. Personally, I prefer fermentation since so many diseases can be seed-borne and I want to avoid perpetuating them.

There are several ways to dry tomatoes. You can dry them on any food dehydrator, following the instructions that came with the dehydrator. You can dry them in an over set at very low temperatures. I think 140 degrees is the best and anything over that is supposed to affect the flavor in a negative way, but some people dry them at 250 degrees and are happy with the flavor.

We bought a new stove a couple of months ago and it had a convection oven. Actually, I didn't choose it for the convection oven feature, but once I got it home and read the book, I learned that my convection oven has a "Dehydrate" setting. LOL Now I dry tons of cherry, grape and currant sized tomatoes in the oven and we just love them.

I have tried air drying some tomatoes both on and off the vine and it is hard to do except during periods of extremely low humidity.

A lot of people have success saving seed from commercially-purchased cherry and grape tomatoes. Some of the named varieties I know people have saved successfully and felt came true from seed are the original Santa Sweets (seed not sold in the USA--very long story there), Compari, and Grape.

Occasionally, a particular seed is only available through a university breeding program and Ramapo F-1 is one of those. Ramapo F-1 was once one of the most popular tomatoes around and, then, at some point it was dropped by the seed producer and that was the end of it. Some seed savers did save seed and de-hybridize it and have offered/shared dehybridized Ramapo seed with other tomato afficianados. This year, Rutgers Univ. and NJAES brought back Ramapo F-1 tomato seed, but you could only get the seed through them. I know they found it to be incredibly expensive to produce the seed themselves, so I don't know if they will continue to produce it every year or not. (I bought several packets, just in case they discontinue their efforts.)

The seed you saved and brought home from California should be fine and should grow for you next year. Just store it in an airtight container in a dry and cool location (or in a freezer). The main enemy of any seed, whether saved or commercially purchased, is high humidity and wildly fluctuating temperatures.

I grow a huge variety of heirlooms and hybrids, but my main consideration is always flavor. If a tomato doesn't taste good, what's the point in growing it?

One good way to find heirlooms that generally perform well in Oklahoma is to go to the Tomatoman and daughter website and see what Lisa Merrell offers. If Darrell offered it(may he rest in peace) and Lisa now offers any given variety, you KNOW it grows well in Oklahoma.

Finally, there are many, many other companies that sell tomato seeds but I am VERY PICKY about who I trust and who I buy seeds from. Some companies, esp. one very large company based on the west coast, have a reputation for selling cross-pollinated seed and for failing to refund money for crossed seed. I avoid those companies like the plague. Other smaller companies tend to be over-enthusiastic about every single variety they sell. If you read their copy, every tomato they have is the absolute best ever. I try to avoid companies that over-hype their seeds in that manner too. All the companies I listed above are very good, reputable firms and I have faith in them and their products. I've always found their seed to be true to type and not over-hyped.

Dawn

Thank you, thank you! We love tomatoes, but because of such limited seed starting space, I have been buying my plants which are at least available and will produce. (I have never yet got decent sized heads of broccoli from purchased plants, so I start those--and sugar snap peas have to be started over heat too.) But you and George have inspired me to try raising my own again. George gave me a couple others which are just now getting ripe. Baker's family heirloom isn't ready yet, but I picked several of the gold ones today. I let the Texhorns get crowded in weeds and then they suffered a weedeating accident. Anyway, next year I am going to figure out something different. But this year it is off to buy more beet, bean, carrot, lettuce, spinach, radish and turnip seed. And I hope I am picking lettuce and spinach in Jan. Dorothy

Dorothy, the gold tomatoes I gave you are Sunray. It's a nice variety. The variety which got "got" by the weed eater is Tuxhorn's Yellow & Red, which I originally received from Mrs. Ed. Tuxhorn, of Warsaw, IN; back in 1985.

Baker Family Heirloom came from L.D. Baker of Tinley Park, IL, back in the mid to early 90's. I got it through a seed swap with him. You'll like this one.

George