Well, 21 days from seed planting to clear flower bud formation:
This is the variety Venus, planted on December 17, 2017, using a heat mat and a 400-Watt metal halide light. This particular seedling emerged just 3-1/2 days from seed sowing, and buds are pronounced today, January 18, 2018. So definitely on track to have blossoms open within 30 days of planting; then maybe 70 days from sowing to first ripe fruit.
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Update: January 16, 2017, here it is: Venus, from seed to open blossom in 30 days!
Venus micro-dwarf tomato blossom 30 days from seed
Update: March 04, 2018 – orange, soft-ripe fruit 77 days from seed sowing, 47 days from open blossom –
Leaves are scorched as a result of the plant being grown within 18″ of a 400-watt metal halide light without protection. Semi-regrettably, this tomato is for seed saving, not eating. I have some seeds left of this variety from last year – see full description at:
https://www.delectationoftomatoes.com/store/p1479/Venus.html
Can hardly wait until there are enough of these to snack on!
Earlier photos:
March 02:
February 28:
February 27:
February 15:
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Also, Domingo is the first of the three varieties in the indoor giant tomato project to put out a bud, and it looks like there’s going to be a megabloom in the works!
The other two vines, Big Zac and RW Cephei, look like they might have the early beginnings of megablooms as well.
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1-16-2018 update on indoor giant tomato project.
The Domingo megabloom is a 4X, but is looking like a dud:
The Big Zac plant, on the other hand, has developed an impressive ribbon/fused stem, with a 3X+ megabloom developing. I trimmed back excess leaves and suckers:
The RW Cephei plant is still very healthy, but the growing tip split into 3 stems. I removed two of them, and tiny single flower buds are developing on the remaining stem. We’ll see if maybe a megabloom will develop on a second truss in a couple of weeks.
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A few days ago, I inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi:
At four spots around each vine, I shoved a pencil about 4″ deep and used a funnel to gradually work the granules into the soil. This should have been done at planting, or at least potting up. But better late than never!
My big concern is that these seedlings, now 51 days from sowing, will be pushing up against the lamp within a week. I may have to bend the vines over and start trimming leaves much earlier than I had anticipated. There just is not room for them to grow tall.
The last batch of seeds from 2017:
Dáchtyla Mynoa (0.018 DT 2018)
Harvested November 15, 2017. These are very sweet little morsels, but interestingly are also crunchy and can store for weeks before getting soft. Should make an excellent drying, as well as snacking tomato! But there are very few seeds per fruit; on December 30th, I put 136 fruits to ferment:
After four days, when a healthy looking crop of fungi had done its job of fermentation, I extracted the seeds:
Once dried, I counted 472 seeds. That’s only about 3.5 seeds per tomato! That’s a lot of work and time per seed, but no discrimination here – glad to share seeds of 100’s of excellent varieties:
https://www.delectationoftomatoes.com/seeds.html
I just wish I could keep up with everything – website is still very far from what it ought to be, and still more than 8,000 pictures to name and…
Good thing this is enjoyable; but it sure would be nice to have an assistant or an intern – anybody out there interested in funding an internship?
dale@gianttomatoseeds.com
Delectation of Tomatoes, etc. 