Methodology

How we work

Tomato Almanac is a reference. It is only worth reading if the facts hold up, so the sourcing rules are public and the gaps are too.

Facts trace to sources, or stay null

Days to maturity, growth habit, breeding history, and origin must trace to a cited source on the entry. When a fact is not verifiable, the field stays blank and the gap is recorded as an open item, shown in the queue below. Null is acceptable. Guessing is not. Every published variety carries at least two sources.

Flavor notes are attributed, not laundered

Flavor descriptions are subjective, and seed-catalog copy gets recycled from vendor to vendor. We attribute flavor and grow descriptions to where they come from rather than restating them as settled fact, and we keep the frustrations alongside the praise: cracking, disease pressure, low yield, and slow ripening are part of an honest profile.

No AI images of named varieties

A fake photo of a named tomato is spotted in seconds and ends the project's credibility. We never present an AI rendering as a real photo of a named variety. Variety art is either a labeled illustration or an openly licensed or partner photo, and every image carries its credit and license in the data.

Sources are linked, never hidden

We link out to the extension databases, university programs, and seed catalogs we rely on, as normal followed links. We do not cite sources that block verification.

Published by an organization

Content is published under Tomato Almanac as an organization. There is no invented personal author.

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