Tomato Seeds - San Francisco Sunrise, Fog Friendly, Indeterminate, Free Shipping

Description: San Francisco SunriseA New Tomato for Sunset Climate Zone 17 Here in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, smack in the middle of the Fog Transition Zone, I can usually only grow Pear or Cherry style tomatoes. Being stubborn and adventurous (at least by gardening standards) I persist nevertheless at attempting to grow big beefy heirloom style fruit and try a few new cultivars each season in search of a tomato variety well suited to our long cool growing season. A Series of Fortunate Events Most coastal communities of the Bay Area are classified as Sunset Zone 17. We Master Gardeners further sub-divide San Francisco into a Fog Zone, Fog Transition Zone and the Sun Zone. A few years ago I grew a variety named Orange Jazz using seeds I bought from Totally Tomatoes and got a few decent sized beefsteak style orange fruit. One branch of one plant apparently produced a spontaneous bud sport, a somatic mutation. The fruit on that branch were multi-lobed and dramatically striped with red etching over the orange skin. When I posted photos of this oddball tomato on my Google+ social media account, fellow gardeners started asking me for seeds. While it would not surprise me if somewhere in the world, someone has developed a similar looking tomato through hard work and selective breeding, I was intrigued by my lucky find and saved a few seeds for the next planting season. I started ten seeds but only four plants survived to maturity with the other six falling victim to early blight. The four surviving plants grew quite vigorously and with the assistance of being sprayed with Serenade, resisted and tolerated disease long enough to ripen many huge and yummy fruits. The Mission: If You Accept It At this point I started to realize that I needed to select, save and develop these fruit from a chance new strain into a genetically stable, heirloom style, open pollinated named variety to share with my long suffering San Francisco Bay Area gardening colleagues. Now it felt like I was on to something new and exciting, so I saved the seeds from the biggest, most dramatically colored and tastiest. In 2018 I planted a forest of fifty in our tiny garden. Two plants produced orange fruit, reverting to the phenotype (genotype?) of the grandparent, but the other forty-eight vines all made large amazing looking tomatoes. My biggest tomato by the end of the 2018 growing season tipped the scales at 17.25 ounces, with many more in that same one pound class. In 2019 I grew 36 plants for seed and fruit, the largest reported by my customers was 21.5 ounces ! For 2020, 2021 and 2022 I only grew 24 plants, and this year only 20 - as each year they've been selected for increased vigor and the plants have now evolved to become so huge that I have to grow fewer to ensure they have room in our small space. If you are local to the San Francisco Bay area and want plants instead of seeds watch for the Master Gardener Spring Garden Market in San Mateo. Also, the San Francisco Department of Parks and Recreation may once again be sharing these out to community gardens all over the city. Spreading The Love Of A New Love Apple After several seasons of trials and selection I'm happy and proud to offer this new variety to you. These large, heirloom style multi-lobed fruits with dramatic red striping over an orange skin will often tip the scales at 13 to 15 ounces and more. This year I had reports of fruits weighing in at over two full pounds from local gardeners. I save the seeds from anything over ten ounces and sell them here on eBay under the name "San Francisco Sunrise". I shared seeds at the start of the 2018 growing season with several other gardeners in various parts of San Francisco to help me trial this new variety and their results looked very promising. My germination tests have been running at a pretty stable 95% with seeds popping in as little as three days while some take as long as a week. In 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 I had reports of success from all over the continental USA, so while San Francisco Sunrise was selected to produce here in the foggy Bay area, they seem to thrive in "normal" Tomato growing regions as well. The Back Room Skunk-Works Sow your seeds indoors beginning early February through March. Consider up-potting to 4 inch containers after the second set of true leaves form. San Francisco Sunrise is an indeterminate tomato. I start my tomatoes semi hydroponically in soil-less peat, rock wool or coir cubes under LED lighting with aeration of the nutrient solution and with bottom heat. I keep the pH between 6.5 - 6.8 and gradually move the nutrient levels from 300ppm up to 1200ppm over the course of the grow. I do not bury the seeds at all, I simply lay them in the bottom of the cube depression and make certain they are in contact with the moist media. Starts are ready to set out in six weeks or so. I plant them deeply, right up to the first true leaf node to encourage adventitious root formation and add a teaspoon of Dynomyco mycorrhizal pellets to each hole. Grow Fast, Make Fruit, Get Sick And Die I remove all suckers the first two months and then let them branch like mini-oak trees. I stake them with tall poles and nylon mesh trellis "Italian Grandpa Style". Here in the Fog Transition Zone this is a very long season Tomato, maturity is achieved in around 85 - 105 days from planting out in the soil. I inoculate with Serenade when the plants are around three feet tall, this seems to hold off early blight, or at least allows them to tolerate it long enough to ripen fruit. I cut off bottom leaves as they get shaded out or chlorotic and I top prune when the vines reach seven feet. My plants get briefly hit hard every year by aphids and white fly but ladybugs come to the rescue and I regularly hose the plants off with a jet spray of water to remove infestations. By late August, many of my plants start showing signs of disease and senescence but they still produce abundant massive fruit. In 2021 and 2022 I noticed some Tomato Russet Mites on a few plants and controlled the outbreak with Doctor Zymes Eliminator. A Little Magic, A Little Science Saving tomato seeds is a bit of a black art but easy once you know how; I learned from the website of Permaculture Research Institute. The gel surrounding tomato seeds has a germination inhibitor, fermentation removes this. The trick with seed saving is to dry them as soon as the gel is gone. A batch I fermented for only 48 hours still had a bit of gel attached, another batch I tried for 60 hours seemed almost perfect with just a few seeds showing signs of premature sprouting so I've settled on 54 hours in the ferment going forward - your results may vary depending on temperature and dilution. As a final step I dry my seeds on a metal screen for three or four days. Each fruit in the one pound class can yield more than 100 seeds. You are buying ONE (or more) packet(s) each containing a minimum of 35 seeds packed by net weight (0.15 Grams). I am selling up to a total of 80 packets for $7.95 each for my 2024 offering (first price increase ever!) and may have additional offerings if these sell out. Please note that I only grew 20 plants this past 2023 season, so quantities are very limited. Use The Leftovers Creatively & Stay In Touch My gal Kelly oven fries a few green tomatoes early in the season when they fall off the young vines on a windy day, very yummy. She also makes a great pasta sauce from the multi-pound dregs of my seed extraction efforts; waste not, want not ! Another use for the seeded carcasses is to roast them and then freeze measured portions for use in various recipes. These tomatoes have a classic flavor profile plus a delightful hint of fruitiness inherited from the Orange Jazz great-great-great grandparents.

Price: 7.95 USD

Location: San Francisco, California

End Time: 2024-08-06T08:00:39.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD