On 20 May 2003 19:07:35 GMT, (FarmerDill) wrote:

tOur local grocery store (Wegman's) sells a type tomato called
"tomatoes-on-the-vine" there are 4-6 tomatoes on a vine (go figure) and they
are about the size of a baseball or smaller. I really like these but I don't
know what kind they truly are and I want to grow my own. Does anyone here
know ?

These usually fit into a group loosely called cluster tomatoes, sort of an
overgrown cherry type. Most of these grown commercially are F1 hybrids
specifficaly bred for this purpose and are not generally available to the small
grower. they are also usually impotrted. You might seach the web sites of the
commercial seed producers such Syngenta, MontSanto etc to find a variety touted
for that purpose. As a last resort you may try saving seeds from the
storebought toamtoes. About half of the F2 generation will be true and with
todays hybrids being mostly crosses of inbred strains, you may not be able to
tell the differnce in the other half. Totally tomatoes does offer several home
garden varieties, among them Cluster Grande and Sweet Cluster

I just got a 'Tommy Toes' plant which is 'heirloom' and variously
described as producing 'large cherry' to 'apricot-sized' fruit. I'm
really looking forward to these.

Happy surprise! A neighbor put 2 rolls of new, light fencewire AND
new, sturdy metal stakes yesterday for today's garbage pickup. I
trotted over and got one roll and 2 stakes for my 2 plants, and as
soon as it stops raining, will construct some cages that will, I hope,
prove inadequate to contain the eventual growth and production. I
mean, I'd love to have 6' cages of concrete-reinforcing wire, but this
freebie is a step up from the silly little inverted-cone schlock big
box stores sell.