What little true seed that I managed to collect last autumn was sown in mid March, and here is the result so far...
...not a flush, but a long slow ongoing trickle of germinating seedlings. The difference this year, is that I surface sowed the seed, and it seems to have improved success, with the first emerging after four weeks, and no end in sight so far at ten weeks. They had artificial heat to start with, but for the last six weeks have been in an unheated greenhouse, with temperatures oscillating wildly from over 30°C to near freezing. Who am I to know, maybe this is helping.
Meanwhile, last year's true seed success story, IOW2, gets its first chance to grow from tubers. Here it is about to be planted out amongst the outdoor cordon tomatoes.
The soil is still very poor, but we'll see how they do.
Incidentally, I've settled on a quick and easy overwinter storage method for tubers; in autumn I just drop them into multicell trays, add dry compost on top, and leave them to it. It makes sense when there are lots of varieties to keep track of, since the cells can easily be labeled, and it's a simple matter to just start watering when shoots emerge, and they turn into plug plants...
