I've grown all the one you mention in your post, including Anna Russian.

No, I wouldn't say it's a pipsqueak, but since it has the wilty look to it which is exaggerated with youg seedlings, I mean the wispy nature of the foliage which many hearts have, perhaps that's what you're referring to.

No, I don't think it has anything to do with seed size since most cherry tomatoes as well as most hearts also have small seeds. In addition I know of two folks who have tested out seed size, taking freshly fermented seeds of a couple of varieties and dividing them into three seed sizes, throwing away the flat white immature ones, and have seen no difference in seed viability or vigor of seedlings.

About the only variable left is seed age, older seeds sometimes take longer to germinate and growth can be slower.

Carolyn

Where did you get the seed?

Carolyn - after I posted, I read elsewhere the "wispy" nature of oxhearts. Perhaps that is it. All I can definitively say is that AR looks very different from the rest of the varieties, in that is is only 1/2 to 1/3 of the size.

It could be old seed. Of the 20 seeds I sewed, only 5 or 6 germinated. By comparison id say 75% of all the seeds for other varieties germinated.

Assuming it is old seed, and thus, slowed growth, is that something that stays with it its whole life, or does it "grow out of it" & start behaving normally after a while?

Euarto - Hirt's Seeds. I found them on Amazon.com when I was ordering the automatic opening arm for my coldframe.

Assuming it is old seed, and thus, slowed growth, is that something that stays with it its whole life, or does it "grow out of it" & start behaving normally after a while?
$$$$$$$

No, fresh saved seed from fruits from this season behave normally as long as they are processed correctly, which for me means fermentation

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Euarto - Hirt's Seeds. I found them on Amazon.com when I was ordering the automatic opening arm for my coldframe.

Hirts is not a company I trust when it comes to seeds. There are so many wonderful small family run seed vendors that you might want to look at and a search here will bring up those threads,

Even if the seed pack from Hirts, or any other place says packed by______ that's useless information b'c it only tells you when the seeds were packed, not when they were produced,

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

First year growing (2) Anna Russian plants and I'm very impressed with the productivity and the flavor; excellent tomato flavor here. Size of fruits vary from large down to small, I like that too. I ordered these plants but I'm saving seed to plant at least a half dozen next year.

I'm actually growing three varieties of hearts, Anna Russian, Kosovo, and Orange Oxheart, all three as young plants were 'wispy' and sickly looking, but you'd never guess that now! All three are very vigorous plants.

Kosovo is not nearly as productive (or tasty imo) as Anna; Orange Oxheart producing nearly as good as Anna but not as tasty, seems to bit a bit on the mealy side imo.

I've also grown Anna Russian a couple of times, and although they have the classic wispy looking foliage, they shouldn't be as small as you say. My plants were fairly large and productive, and semi-early as most hearts are.

"...they shouldn't be as small as you say..."

Variableness in fruit size only, from large to small.

"... My plants were fairly large and productive, and semi-early as most hearts are...."

Ditto

This post was edited by sidhartha0209 on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 4:12

I'm growing AR for the first time and its given me fits. It was my smallest of seedlings, now it's quite large, over 6 ft, but it took a long time to set blossoms and only now starting to set fruit. I'm holding my breath. On top of that we had a storm last week and one of the stems broke. I thought it would be one of my earlier tomatoes, but its not even close.