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GVGO Discussions

Find a wealth of GVGO grower history in these groups, and join the discussion to share your own stories!

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Getting the germination box cleaned up and ready for the season

I dragged out my homemade germination box the other day to give it a good cleaning and sanitizing before the season starts. Figured I’d share a few photos while I was at it — always feels good to start getting things ready, even with all this snow still around.

The temperature/fan is controlled with an SHT 1000 controller mounted in the wooden box on the floor
The temperature/fan is controlled with an SHT 1000 controller mounted in the wooden box on the floor

Here is a look at the inside. I use an incandescent light bulb as the heat source and a small computer fan that comes on every time the light comes on.


To sort of dissipate the heat I made a stand to hold a ceramic pot over the light bulb.


Basically this is just an insulated box with a wooden floor that is covered with ceramic tile. The inside of the box is lined with aluminum metal. I have an old refrigerator wire shelf that sits in the middle of the box. This shelf actually determined the size that I made…


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GVGO seed auction 2026

The GVGO silent seed auction is now running on the Big Pumpkins message board. The auction will be ending promptly at 12:00 noon EST on Saturday January 24th. A huge thanks to all the generous seed donors and bidders without whom this auction could not happen.

View the auction :

bigpumpkins.com/msgboard/ViewBoard.asp?b=125

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Rebecca Mercer
Rebecca Mercer

Test Post January 2026

Hi everyone,


I am just double checking that new posts are active through my personal profile (no admin access etc)


-Rebecca

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2023 Mike Demars Memorial Mater Contest

The GVGO will be running the “2023 Mike Demars Memorial Mater Contest” again this year. This is a free contest for any paid GVGO member. The GVGO will provide prizes to each member of the winning team at the end of the season.

Growers that sign up will be asked for their personal best tomato weight, if they have one. If you were in last year’s contest I have your personal best recorded already. Once we have the final list we will put the growers in categories A, B or C depending on their personal best weight. Growers will be picked at random to form a team of three, so that each team has a grower out of each category. The whole idea of this contest is to have some fun, meet new people and learn some growing techniques from some of our veteran tomato growers. I encourage new tomato…


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2023 Mike Demars Memorial Mater Contest

The GVGO will be running the “2023 Mike Demars Memorial Mater Contest” again this year. This is a free contest for any paid GVGO member. The GVGO will provide prizes to each member of the winning team at the end of the season.

Growers that sign up will be asked for their personal best tomato weight, if they have one. If you were in last year’s contest I have your personal best recorded already. Once we have the final list we will put the growers in categories A, B or C depending on their personal best weight. Growers will be picked at random to form a team of three, so that each team has a grower out of each category. The whole idea of this contest is to have some fun, meet new people and learn some growing techniques from some of our veteran tomato growers. I encourage new tomato…


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GVGO on CBC Radio Show Today

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2025 GVGO Growers/Members Post Results and Photos Here Please

Hi Folks, the weighoff season is upon us and our members are starting to make the news and email photos of their new personal bests, etc. Please help revive some traffic to our messageboard and post your photos and a brief comment or two about your accomplishments. Feel free to also post them on our GVGO Facebook group page as well but keep in mind, some of our members don't go on Facebook.

I'll start by posting a photo of by largest tomato so far this year. I hope to improve on this as I still have a possible new PB growing. This one was grown off my 5.05 Watson seed from a few years ago.



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TheFireGuy
TheFireGuy
Oct 13, 2025

FYI, this tomato was kept in the fridge and taken to Port Elgin for an offical weight as an EXH only tomato. The official weight is 8.15 Watson DMG grown off my 5.59 Watson 2024 seed.

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2025 Mike DeMars Memorial Tomato Contest teams

The wait is over! The Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario are excited to present our 11 participating teams for the annual Mike DeMars Memorial Tomato Contest.



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GVGO Spring Seminar 2025

Hi Folks,

My apologies for not posting this earlier, I emailed the information to all the members but a few don't have email. The spring seminar is planned for April 5th in Breslau Ont. See the attached agenda for details. Some of the growers are coming on Friday night and we have dinner reservations at the Borealis Grille & Bar in Kitchener on Friday night (April 4th) at 6:00pm. Please let me know if you plan to attend.



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TheFireGuy
TheFireGuy
Apr 06, 2025


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