We all tried. Honestly we did. I was happy with myself for narrowing it down to five top tens.

Jay's Top Ten? LOL Well, he eventually listed 374 varieties that he had seed of and was willing to share although he did not declare they all were on his 'top ten' list.

Shelly, I cannot tell you how many of those 374 varieties Jay still has because he's been giving away tomato seeds the way that the U. S. Congress has been spending our money.....

Still, I'd suggest you look at his list and send him an e-mail requesting a few seeds. You need to do it now before he starts his seeds for Spring 2010 because you never know....he might decide to grow all 374 varieties plus his new acquisitions this year.

Dawn

MJ and just what title is that? "Indecisive"? LOL.

Carol you and Dawn know me too well. You are right. A few tomatoes here, a few there. Jay

I told someone I'd bump this thread up because they wanted to see your list, so blame me if you are suddenly inundated with tomato seed requests.

I also thought a lot of the 'top ten' lists on the responses in the original thread might be interesting to some of our newer forum members who are wondering about which tomato varieties to try.

The other day, someone on the Tomato Forum here at GW posted about the "agonizing" process of choosing which tomatoes to grow. Clearly, you and I never feel that same agony of having to choose only a few varieties to plant because we just go ahead and try to plant them all.

I'm glad your horses can't read this thread (um, you don't let them read the forum pages, do you?) or they might be wondering 'what about us?'

MJ, We all knew Jay had a "tomato addiction problem" before he posted his list, but once he posted the list, Carol dubbed him the Tomato King and I seconded the motion. LOL Then, Bella described us as a Tomato Cult, which I have to admit is pretty true. Carol belongs to the cult but is more space-challenged which prevents her from planting as many tomatoes as she'd like.

Carol, The thing about Jay's place that surprises me is that he still has room for the horses. I think the horses keep Jay's garden under control by eating any plants that he places too close to the pasture fence. Reining in the Tomato King is a tough job but someone has to do it. I guess that job falls to the horses because they have to prevent him from taking over their pasture.

Dawn

Mandy

Diane, feeling much better about herself now...

There is no limit to what you can plant there on your property. Just steal a little land from the horse pasture, but don't you dare tell the horses I suggested that!

I'll probably start more varieties than I have room for, but then that will postpone some of the tougher decisions until planting time. And, I can always plant a lot in containers like I did last year. If this spring's weather is a repeat of 2007's which is what the winter reminds me of so far, then I'll have to plant mostly in containers because the garden will be a lake.

You know, a day or two ago I was looking at something on Tatiana's website and I did pause a second and ask myself if you or I had ever linked it here, and I couldn't remember if we had. So, I'm glad you linked it. I do like the descriptions she includes from real people who've actually grown those specific varieties.

I can't wait to see what your 'surprises' are.

I pulled my trade list off "My Page" long ago for the same reason....numerous seed requests from people all over the country that I'd never seen on any Garden Web forum before or since, although I also did trade seeds with some nice people who were GW members and who are still around. I like trading with folks from our region that I know via this forum or other forums, but have no intention of being a free seed supplier for just anyone who knows how to google and is just looking for free seeds without participating in the forums at GW.

If you ever find an oxheart that produces more than 3 fruit per plant in any given year, I want to hear about it. I gave up on oxheart types long ago after getting from 0 to 3 fruit per plant. Varieties have to produce well to earn space in my garden.

Mandy, I always thought Diane and I each kind of went overboard because we each have 100-200 varieties of tomato seed sitting around at any given time. Then Jay posted his list and I decided Diane and I are mere amateurs. I gave away a large portion of my seeds next year and all that accomplished was that it left room in the seed storage box for me to start accumulating other varieties that are new to me this year.

Diane, Well, at least you have begun the recovery from the Great Seed Drama so I'm sure you'll rebuild your seed inventory in a few short years. Um, did you mention peppers? The Tomato King grows a couple of varieties of those too, although it is hard to imagine where he finds the space.

Dawn

Diane I grow around 30 pepper plants. Mostly jalapeno's, NM chili types, bells and a few other sweet types. I grew a Hungarian Volcano I really like last year. Really haven't counted but probably have 30-40 varieties. So not near as overboard as my tomato addiction. I'm going to try to hold my in ground numbers to about the same and increase my container number this year. Hopefully can keep numbers to around 80-90 plants. And that maybe hard to cut down too.

Dawn I wasn't sure if you had ever linked to it but was sure I hadn't. I use it myself a lot and will be more as I try to whittle down my list. And thought for those that don't grow as many it might be of interest and use. You are more liable to see a neutral comment there than you are at a sellers site. I do know Mule posts reviews there as he asked me about listing the garlic I sent him there. Jay

With the folks from Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri who post regularly on our forum, I just think of them as part of 'us' and anytime they want some kind of seed that I have, I'm happy to send them some, and they send me seed too. I tend to ignore seed requests from people who do not post on this forum because they're usually just looking for free seeds. Sometimes I will offer seed to someone who asks me questions about a specific variety but that's not the same thing as having strangers trolling the web for free seeds and I ignore those e-mails if I don't recognize the folks from this forum or the Tomato forum.

I'm going to try to save OP seeds this year so I can share them , but I know that in order to do that, I need to do it early in the season before canning, freezing and dehydrating consume my days. I know from experience that once I'm spending 12 to 16 hours a day harvesting and putting up food, saving seeds will be the last thing on my mind.

Diane, See....the Tomato King is turning into a Pepper King too. Those horses are really getting nervous. They are wondering if he's gonna put those containers in 'their' pasture.

Jay, When I go to Tatiana's Tomatobase and start reading the lists/descriptions of varieties and seeds, I totally immerse myself in it and can wander around there for hours, planting dream gardens in my mind. I, too, take everything a seller says with a grain of salt and prefer real reviews from real gardeners.

I'm looking forward to trying Mule's tomato crosses (Dora and Gary O Sena) that you sent me. I'm thinking of growing them all together in one bed along with Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Indian Stripe...and JD's Special C-Tex, just so I can closely compare their growth and performance side-by-side. Of course, I'll have to do many, many taste tests to choose my favorites....like THAT will break my heart.

Tomorrow is THE DAY....the big day I've been looking forward to for such a long time......no, not because it's the Super Bowl. It's SEED-STARTING DAY! Well, you know that I'll watch the football game, but long before gametime, I'll have my 2010 tomato seeds tucked into the seedstarting mix, sitting on the seedling heat mat with those bright lights shining down from the shelf above.

Seed-Starting Day is one of my favorite days of the year. On the day you start your seeds, the new gardening year stretches ahead of you in all its perfection -- nothing has gone wrong yet and there haven't yet been any disappointments. From seed-starting day forward, the gardening year is a tiny bit less perfect day by day as things begin to go wrong....seeds don't sprout or the weather acts up or whatever. But, for that one perfect day, everything is brand new and full of hope and you are sure that "this year, things will be different....and everything will be perfect". OK, I know that kind of gardening perfection doesn't really exist, but on Seed-Starting Day you can make yourself believe it does.

Dawn

I wasn't going to start seeds til Valentine's Day...maybe I should squeeze in a few early? My 10 year old has already started some of his. I had to threaten him to stay out of the tomatoes!! He'd get them all mixed up, and I only have about 5 or 6 of some!

I'm starting raised beds this year, and I think that will help my tomatoes a lot. I didn't have a good year with them last year. I think because it was so wet. They grew great, just didn't produce. I think the raised beds will allow them to drain more, because we have such heavy clay here.

Now...off to peruse The List!

:D

Shelly

Chiles. I love them as much as tomatoes. Maybe. It's pretty close. I don't think I want to get as crazy with the 100-150 varieties of toms and chiles like before. That was just too many to track. I really am enjoying the relative simplicity of fewer (but good!) varieties that I have now. Of course, my simplicity includes the now slight;y enlarged numbers from the Great Seed Avalanche of 2009. :-D I'll be starting a bazillion and bringing the excess to the swap as Phase One of my pay it back & forward plan. Make sure you folks leave lots of room to take some home!

And, horror of horrors! I just opened the last jar of pickles chiles from last year's garden. *sob* I'm canning WAY more chiles this year. We eat more & more of them each year as the kids are acquiring the addiction.

Diane