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Boy howdy but I hates me an infernal cut worm. Last year he got five. But that was in the heat of Summer. I didn't figger they'uz out this early but something cut one off even with the ground last night. Thankfully it was only one and now all of the remainder have been protected with water bottles that have had the tops and bottoms cut out.

Lesson learned.

Really interesting experiment George. The leaves vs. hay thing is cool. We don't have oak here, or, not native and not many, but I wonder if maple leaves would perform the same way? I know one good way to find out. I took a page from your book and used a clear plastic soda bottle as a cloche for on of my tender plants as well. Great idea.

The first of the direct sown seeds have sprouted.

The race is on.

Now that its mid September, how did they do George? Did the direct sown seeds produce anything for you? Did they do as well as the trans-planted tomatos? I would love to hear about your results.

Guy, the experiment was successful in a limited respect.

While the drought in May/June was ongoing, the amount of time taken in the failed attempt to save the walnut patch precluded the kind of attention required to appropriately document the results. Having said that, I did observe enough to form an oninion. That opinion is that seeds started indoors do in fact possess a significant advantage over those directly seeded. That advantage manifests in two ways:
1. A MUCH higher producing plant to seed planted ratio and
2. Those plants directly seeded never caught up to those started indoors.

Next year, time permitting, I may attempt the experiment again but even if I never get around to doing so, I've at least trailed it enough to answer the question sufficiently in my own mind.

Having said all that, I did have some other tomatoes that came up voluntarily and the work to harvest ratio was infinitely higher than either of the other methods because inputs were zero. I may play around with some volunteers next year and see how they perform relative to direct seeded and those started indoors.

I had many Vol. Tomato plants spring up this year. I pulled alot of them out as weeds because of what I wanted to have growing in that spot in the garden. I did let several of them grow however. They produced small crops and produced much later than the plants I had transplanted into the garden. They are producing now though and my transplanted tomatos are all but finished. If space is not an issue the Volunteer tomatoes do eventually produce, and as you say the imput is 0 so the output ratio is quite good. The reason I let some of the volunteers grow is that I was hopeing to get a yellow cherry tomato plant. All of the ones that I grew from seed this year died and I love how sweet they are. One of my Volunteers is a yellow cherry, not sure if it is a Sun Gold or a Sun Sweet, but they are both very good.