ITT FAQ 

	What are the Internet Tomato Trials?
	What are the trial's goals?
	How do the trials work?
	Who is eligible to join?
	What does it cost me?
	How do I know I will get seeds suited for my garden?
	When will I receive my seeds?
	How do I get more information?

	The Internet Tomato Trials are a strictly non-commercial gardening project that evolved out of a book scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2000. Catharine Vinson is the book's author. Chelsea Green Publishing Company is the publisher, and the book is about tomatoes and the people who grow them.
	Gardeners participating in the trials are known as the Internet Tomato Gang and have access to each other for information exchange, comparing notes, and general tomato-talk. Access to the ITG mailing lists maintained by ONEList is restricted: only active members of the current year's trials are eligible to join and participate.

	There's no one "right" way to grow a tomato! Every garden--and every gardener--is unique. ITT's goal is to discover the most productive and satisfying growing techniques for our individual gardens.
	To broaden our experience with heirlooms, newer open pollinated and hybrids varieties
	To save seed for ourselves, for others, and for posterity.
	To have a great time using the ephemeral and ever-changing Internet as a tool to enhance and deepen our enjoyment of one of our oldest and most stable pursuits: the making and cultivation of vegetable gardens.

	Prior to the beginning of each season's Spring and Fall trials, each registered grower will be mailed (snail mail!) individual seed packets of six different varieties of tomatoes. Seed is packaged for the current season and every effort is made to ensure that it is viable and true to name.
	Each packet contains at least 10-12 untreated seeds. The varieties are not identified by name. The 10-12 seeds should enable the grower to grow at least two plants of each variety. Any seeds or transplants that aren't needed are a great gift to pass along to a neighbor, a school, or a community garden so others can share the bounty, too.
	Growers plant their "mystery" seeds, grow out the tomatoes using any system or method they choose, keep simple records in a prescribed format, save seeds and return them to ITT to replenish the world's first on-line tomato seed bank.
	When the seasonal trial in which they are participating ends, growers who have completed the trial and submitted all their forms are sent the names and information about their varieties.
	Throughout the trials, growers have exclusive online access to each other, gardening experts, and a wealth of tomato-related information, trivia, factoids, recipe and general back-fence sharing of conversation and experiences that is 100% free of commercial messages, advertising, and other distractions.

	Beginning gardeners. Experienced tomato growers. Market gardeners. Teachers and students. Young and old.
	The only credentials anyone needs to qualify is a love of good tomatoes and a genuine commitment to plant his or her seeds, grow the plants (and enjoy the 'maters!), save seed for future growers, and keep records in a prescribed format so every grower's data can be shared with other gardeners around the world.
	Growers who successfully complete a season's trial, save seed (or make a small financial contribution to a listed seed saving organization) are automatically eligible to participate in future trials.

	The trials are strictly non-commercial. First-time growers are asked to pay $6.00 to cover the actual costs of seeds, postage (within the United States), seed envelopes, and packing materials for the first trial in which they participate.
	The 24-hours a day, interactive access to gardening experts, up-to-date and accurate gardening information, and plain good fun with other Internet Tomato Gang (ITG) members is absolutely free . . . absolutely priceless . . . and absolutely only available to registered members-in-good-standing of the ITG.

	Your varieties are picked by a person, not a computer. The more information you supply about your growing conditions, experience, climate and time available to devote to your tomatoes the better the person who fills your order will be able to pick varieties likely to reward you with bumper crops and a positive experience with new varieties you've never before grown.
	At a minimum, we ask United States' growers to provide either their USDA hardiness zone, AHS heat index zone, or Sunset zone (for those living in the western USA. Growers in other countries often use USDA equivalent zones to characterize their growing climate.

Gardeners around the world participate in the trials. As a result, start/stop dates for any particular season are highly variable. That being said, seeds for the Spring trials are mailed out between the months of December of one year and March of the next year. Seeds for Fall trials are mailed out between the months of June and September.

If you have questions beyond those in this FAQ, send an e-mail message to Helper. Please allow a couple of days for a reply, since this mailbox is checked by a number of gardening fanatics on a volunteer basis--and you know how gardeners get behind in their "housekeeping"!

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© 1999 by Internet Tomato Trials
Revised: December 03, 1999