Jim Fredricks, San Diego, CA: So far, so good!

"Hi Stuart,

Just wanted to shoot you the first picture of my plant this year as of yesterday. The 991 Urena plant lives!!! LOL. Anyway, don't ever let small ugly, deformed seedlings depress you. My 991 seedling had one seed leaf when it came up, the other one was shrunken curled into nothing and it had a "club" root. Club roots are deformed root systems that don't develop normal at first. Let's just say she was an ugly duckling. This is a picture of her today, nice and normal looking. I was encouraged by other growers who told me Ron Wallace's 1502 world record a few years ago was a club root too.

 

Weather is cold and not so good for this time of year, so growth is moderate for now. Hope to pollinate by July 1st! I also had a change of plan, I will be growing totally organic for the first time in many years, including my insect and disease control. I will explain why later, but it is a good thing. Just more work!

Jim"

Thanks! Jim's off to a great start! (The "Urena" referred to by Jim is Leonardo Urena, one of the famous growers in the Napa area, and mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article of the last few weeks.)