PC,

All I know that "Rebel" is not very good. It is anti establiskment among other thing. hehe

You have already spent 9 bucks and got one seedling. That is Rebelious. !!!

Sey

"You have already spent 9 bucks and got one seedling. That is Rebellious. !!!"

Thanks for seeing things my way and the consolation. Some people in the past have posted about Rebelski, the few rebellious growers that dared pay this kind of money, for example in this thread (link to 2012 thread) where they were having super germination were beautiful tomatoes and plants had great vigor and production, but just average in the taste department.

My pack is labeled testing at 97% germination! Can't rule out a fluke, but something doesn't seem right. Unfortunately of the six I started only 3 germinated. One was too anemic and died by itself and the other two didn't catch up to the rest and I threw them both out this morning really bummed out left with *nothing* as the adjacent seedlings' growth left them in the dust/shade. If you just order one pack of 15 seeds, you pay over $25 so that's what I'm out and I have nothing to show for it this autumn, but I'll put the remaining seeds in the safe deposit box at the bank :-(.

It is an interesting name that made me wonder too, sort of brings a brewski to mind. My bet is Rebelski is named for the British present-day composer, probably the one who does the electronic dance music (youtube video), though there is another German composer too. It's a Polish derived last name. That's my guess anyway.

I wanted to trial the tomato for my autumn conditions because it had a nice shape to it and ... does well in cooler, humid weather.

Cheers

PC

I'd email them. Johnny's has always been pretty good about keeping their reputation.

In contrast to your experience, I ordered 3 varieties from them this year. One was an heirloom, so to me, 3.95 (or so) was fine for 25-30 seeds of a variety I may never have to order again. The other 2 were hybrids that were on sale. They were each $1 for 25 seeds. Can't beat that...

However, if I saw such a bad germination rate as you did, and paid full price, I would be disappointed and would write them.

'Isn't jonnys supposed to have 100% satisfaction guarantee?"

Yes, thanks for reminding me :-) of that... I was so focused on not having the plant I had gotten so excited about trying in autumn which no guarantee addresses, and sort of wondered if 6 seeds with partial germination were enough to rule out a fluke ... and, also, if seedlings of Rebelski happened to start out weak as normal, which I doubt, but I had no previous experience with the variety and there isn't much posted about it, I guess it's mostly for commercial growers that see high seed price from a completely different angle than amateurs. I'll call and see what they say, about satisfaction and this.

Cheers

PC

I have been extremely happy with my seeds from Johnny's this year. Everything did awesome and was as promised and no signs of seed borne disease. Customer service was extrmely helpful and eager to please. The only thing I bought from them that did terrible was the Genovese Basil, I have like 2 mature plants from most of the packet and they are already bolting. But one bad experience among 20+ packets of seed is an A+ IMO.

Thanks rgreen and Peter, I will definitely follow up with them and see if my result deserves service. I just looked at the other two high performance hybrids I got from Johnny's a week earlier and noted they were among the slower growth seedlings, but at least keeping up with the others. I'm sure Johnny's does great job with their own seed. But on such expensive seed they just repack, I've always wondered how all companies buy it, and by no means do I mean specifically Johnny's. If they are like me they store it a while to take advantage of wholesale quantity discounts by the producers. But the real place it hurts here is not having a plant which no one can fix at this point. If the seed didn't cost so much I would have planted more. But I was just seeing $2 bills for each '97%' germ seed and you can see what happened.
cheers

PC