Today was a very happy day. The reason was, This morning I had been to Dept Of Hort(DOH) to collect the seed packets. I am now Tomato Rich!!!.. I have all the heirloom varieties that are available in DOH. I think i am a seed-a-holic.
There are close to 20 varieties and all of them are attractive in their own way. I think I am going to have a tough time deciding which one to sow first. I sort of like’em all.
When I saw the list in DOH, there was no illustration on each variety. As a reason, I am writing this post to illustrate with pictures each variety.
1. Oxheart Orange:
2. Black Prince:
3. Des Andes:
4. Gregori Altai:
5. Black Plum:
6. Green Zebra:
7. Black Krim:
8. Caro Rich:
9. Orange Queen:
10. Gold Dust:
11. Podland Pink:
12. High Country:
13. Stupice Early:
14. Peasant:
15. Double Rich:
16.Trigorella
17. Santion
18.Bonnie Best
19. Golden delight.
20.Madanapalli
21. Burbank
Thanks to Chandrakala of DOH for patiently packing all the varieties and thanks to google for fetching me images ;D
more later.
gg
23 Responses
I’m sure you’re having the tough time choosing the first. I’d keep looking for images and with my mouth watering before I decide. LOL! Does the Horticultural society at B’lore ships seeds to other states? I visited my local Horticultural society and I’m really ashamed to say that they have only one dull variety of all and that too the seed pkts seem years old! I was looking for Gerbera and Gladiolus and they said “You’d get that only in Bangalore” 🙁
Hey Chandramouli,
Yeah, I think I might go with Des Andes , Gregori Altai and Stupice early(Ussshhh keep it with you this tomato variety has leaves like potato itseems :D). I am not sure if they ship it to other states. But I do ;).. let me know what variety you want and how much. I can send it across to ya.
Ok. Gladiolus you get bulbs here in bangalore and for Gerbera, I dont think people use seeds. Its mainly propagated through Tissue Culture. I might come to chennai sometime in the coming month. Will let you know, a week or two before.
gg
Do you still have Madanapalle totmato seeds? Are you willing to ship to Kerala? But before that, are these non-hybrid, non-GMO seeds? Thank you.
I dont have them at the moment. I will get them soon.
These are non-hybrid, non-gmo seeds.
hi gg,
seems to be a problem of plenty !!!!!!!!!anyway good luck with the new venture. As Chandramouli said, the folks at the local horticultural society dont seem very forthcoming on helping you at all… when i made enquiries for treating the whitefly problem, they just said spray rogor… 🙁 still battling with them … shall try to get chlorpyriphos as a last ditch effort….
btw , what type is the ” bangalore ‘ variety of tomatoes?
Hi arundati,
Thanks for the wishes. And for chennai hort society, been there and same kinda reception. The seed packets were very old.
For controlling white flies, you can use Monocrotophos or Profenofos also.
I honestly don’t know what ‘bangalore thakkali’ ‘s variety name is. But I am guessing, it must be one of those hybrids from these seed companies. Will try to get that name!!..
gg
Hi gg, Thanks for your info on Dept of Hurticulture(DOH),Hulimavu. Last month I visited that place and bought few plants and seeds. I reached around 10 AM and introduced myself with your blog reference to Chandrakala. She was so kind, helpful..without hesitation she was answering all my Q’s and kind enough to do the needful thing. I bought 4 varities of Cherry tomotos (1 Gram-~170 Seeds), 20 Lemon plant – no hybrid variety 🙁 , 2 Amla saplings + 1 Guava, 10 KG Vermi also. She also insisted me to look around the campus for more plants, in which tissue culture way of producing plants was very facinated to me.
Note : I will be happy if they do provide/produce hybrid varieties in Lemon ( seedless ), orange, mango ( to grow in dry places ).. Anyone come across lemon varities(place to buy) ping me. Thanks gg for your good work.
Mahe~
Hi Mahesh,
Congrats on your purchase. Looking at the numbers you bought, I think you have a big piece of land. Have fun 🙂
Dept of Hort. is strictly nature friendly and don’t involve in hybridizing plants. I had been to their tissue culture polyhouses and yes it is exciting. I thought of making a post of it but didnt have a camera handy when I went. A post on tissue culture without pictures will not be interesting. So kept it for another day. The good thing is they are giving training in tissue culture which I was crazy about. But they need some good number atleast 4-5 persons. Let me know if you are interested. Fee is ~INR 2500 and its a 6 day program.
I remember seeing some hybrid lemon, papaya in a nursery/farm in Hosur. I will send you more details if i can recollect.
happy planting…
gg
Reg training, – if time permits why not..? share me the date.
Reg nursery.- share the details (Hosur, hybrid nursery), i’ll check and let you know in detail once i visit that place. If any one of you guys visited any other nursery(hybrid, modern) also can leave the details here..
Oooh… lucky, lucky you! Or should I be saying busy, busy you! 😉
So which ones did you sow? The Des Andes looks like a big red chilli, doesnt it?
I’m sitting here and picturing you at harvest time . What fun!
Did you get any neem oil from the DOH? Its the best! And if you got the crushed neem seeds instead, even better… you’ll have fertiliser, pesticide and fungicide all rolled in one 😀
Amazing! and Congrats 🙂
hi gg,
btw, i’d like to know if application of chlorpyrophos will make the whiteflies disappear overnight or will it take some time? In the case of the mealybugs, as soon as i sprayed the plants with pesticide they just dropped off in front of me. But even after spraying with monocrotophos i find the flies still flying around and settling on the plants again.
What do i do ?
Good luck to your tomato adventure…
Hi, I enjoyed your post about the visit to the Horticulture Dept and buying seeds there. Next time I visit Bangalore, I’ll try to pay a visit there (of course, after getting the details from you). The photos of various tomatoes look good! Happy gardening!
Hello gururaj,
Welcome to my blog and glad you enjoyed it. DOH is a nice place and you should definitely make a visit.
gg
Greetings from California! How are your tomatoes doing? I’m growing (for the first time) some of the varieties on your list, and found your site on Google. Black Prince, Black Krim, and Gold Dust are all fruiting now (greenies) though Green Zebra has not set fruit just yet. Please keep us posted!
Hi,
Your blogs are always soo detailed and soo enriching.
Its a gold mine for us folks.
I bought some coco-peat, Seed starting tray and vermi compost.
I forgot to buy perlite, loam and the bricks. 🙁
I am planning to Visit the DOH tommrrow. is this the one on bannerghatta road?
Guess what its a saturday and hopefully i should try to persist and get some exotic seeds like you did.
Could I please request you to mark it on google map. Thanks. GG
Hey Krinish,
There is already a post written about locations of various places in Bangalore where you get gardening materials. Search for “So you want to start a kitchen garden part 1”.
Hope it helps
gg
I had visited DOH hulimavu some months back after reading about it on your blog. I had bought various tomato and capsicum seeds. I am not sure if I had not stored them properly but none of them germinated except for a few of the tomato varieties. I am not sure what went wrong. I used cocopeat and compost as the growing medium.
How do you store seeds which are not sowed in a season?
Roy,
Recently the seeds from DoH don’t germinate at all. I have complained about it to them. Lets see what happens. I store seeds simply in a ziplock bag and store it in a shelf..(away from direct light)..
GG
Many items are not known even. I am a retired C.A and used to take interest in my garden at my inddependet house at Kochi.I wish I had a friend like you. In fact even family members used to discourage me . Thanks for sending mail.All the very best to your garden
Hi,
I have started my first Hydroponic system growing spinach. Started a week ago beginner at the moment.
My main being to bring some automation so that PH and nutrients required are maintained by the system automatically.
Good to hear that. I am working on automation too for parameters like that. Keep us posted of the progress.