Illsstep said:
I'm making the request for 2019, not for the upcoming 2018 contest. That may not have been clear.
Please keep it in mind. Not all of us have the space to run a bunch of extra plants. And while I do not doubt your isolation practices, if you felt something was enough "off" for this batch of seeds to issue a disclaimer and suggest people grow multiple plants to avoid duds, I don't think my request was "splitting hairs."
Good luck on the 2018 contest! It looks like a lot of fun.
We did this last year. We had plenty of time and the variety we voted on, Aji Lemon Drop was readily available rather quickly before our Jan 1 deadline. This year however, everyone chose YBS, not many vendors had what we wanted, so everyone said ok to me providing my own stock. Stock that happens to be from a couple of plants that were out in the cold and picked constantly for the last two months of 2017 in sub 50-60F weather. Everyone else was ok with this, so it's how we rolled with this one. I'm not concerned with purity as I don't see it being an issue considering the plants condition for he last two winter months of 2017. I literally picked these pods off of dead plants (flowers that emerged long after the bugs went into hiding). All of these factors were considered and we all agreed it was good enough for us this time around our star.
Feel free to chime in, cast your vote, and voice your opinions on NEXT year's grow down in time. The people that don't show up to the party late, have more influence in what we grow and from where we obtain it! This time however, you were just running a little late. Don't think your points weren't already considered at length by all of us, because they were, we just didn't mind it this time around.
Also, if you wanted to join in this year, there are still seeds available, germinating a few more tiny little seedlings won't take up any more space than it usually does. Any obvious crosses due to open pollination (very unlikely) will be easy enough to tell based on leaf/plant structure of early seedlings after the first few sets of leaves. If having a few extra seedlings around doesn't sit well with you, then only germinate one. Or, start your own growdown, or wait till next year. The people have spoken and this growdown is already underway. Your request wasn't really a request, because we started this competition last year choosing from a vendor (funny enough Tradewinds Fruits open pollinates and no one had crosses last year) so that's how we always intend to level the playing field, its just that this year we chose not to. Not only that, you're late to the party, so yeah, its splitting hairs...and late too...ha
