David Good is doing a eight variety tomato trial and direct seeding

Hey check it out, David is planting some tomatoes in January. Also he is direct seeding.

Ordinary tomatoes are so low genetic diversity though- this might be painful to watch in the coming months. I bet he has all kinds of cool tomato pathogens. Maybe he will get lucky. Wonder if there are local heirloom tomatoes there like the local squash he bought and then grew.

In an update David planted two more beds and Lucid Gem made the cut. I've grown Lucid Gem in Montana. https://wildboarfarms.com/product/lucid-gem/

Looks like David has seedlings up with cotyledons from his recent updates.

Oh great, it is a great reminder for me as well, time to get cherries started.
Has he mentioned what his growing season is for tomatoes, in terms of rainy/non rainy season? (I've learned that tomatoes here in southern hem don't do well in summer, too much bug pressure, they do better in winter. If I start now I should start getting strong plants by the time the bugs give up.)

He says it's the start of the dry season and he is spacing accordingly.

I do enjoy his videos... haven't read his books yet, but intend to.... he can strum and sing, too...

Sad tomato deaths.

Very different from my direct seeding technique here in Montana. I use massive amounts of mixed up seeds, plant it thick, then weed but don't thin. Wish I could send David some seed. In this video he shows some larger tomato plants in one of his kids gardens from a local plant nursery- transplants.

Oh no!!
David is basically replicating my experience here in the semi-tropics. I would never dream of direct seeding anything except for winter squash. Everything else has to be started elsewhere. There are a million things that want to eat that delicious baby you just put out there. Generally for me between the slugs and the leafcutter ants they are toast, but then there are the beasts digging out the seeds, drilling and cutting bugs, etc etc. Starting seeds in flats (wrapped in screen, to stop the mice and ants) is the way I have to do it.
Then once the plants are strong enough to be a bit resistant, you can put them out to die (we have a drilling bug that waits til the fruit are on the plant, so you can be extra depressed thinking about your fruit that could have been). Plus all the bugs are different (he's talking about cutworms. I also used to assume the bugs were things I knew. The bugs are a whole new ball game in the tropics) and you have no idea how to get rid of them or repel them. My new game is planting tomatoes in the winter, when most of the bugs are gone. It worked well last year!
If I were him I would put collars on the remaining
tiny seedlings (toilet paper roll), and maybe tent them with bird netting as they get bigger.

I also have noticed that cherry tomatoes seem to be more pest resistant. I will be interested to see how the remaining plants do!