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John McGaw · 02-08-2008, 08:05 PM posted to rec.gardens

wrote:
Strange year!

Received seeds as usual from Canadian internet friend. They have done
well in past years (except for the year when everybody in So. Calif.
Coastal had wilt.

This year, virtually nada, nichts, rien, etc.

BUT -- they sprouted like mad in the mix I prepared for a couple of
Blue Hibiscus I planted in big
pots by the back door. Since the mix included a lot of my homemade
compost, I can only conclude that (a) it contained a lot of tomato
seeds from the past and (b) the mix is nutritious!

I kept transplating these tomatoes to the veg. garden, where they
flourish like mad. Not a clue as to what variety is what, but I trust
they will all taste good. If all goes well (no wilt, please heaven)
there will enough to can -- first time in several years. Other good
thing is that the plants are different sizes, so the smaller ones will
bear longer (?) than the big ones.

Anybody have similar experience?

Artful Dodger

I haven't had that experience but my aunt and uncle did when I was a kid.
Outside the back of their old house they had a huge badly-maintained
compost pile -- basically a disreputable heap that received all sorts of
kitchen waste. Invariably every year it produced a bountiful crop of
tomatoes, cucumbers, various melons, and occasionally peppers. Nothing neat
about it -- just a tangled mat of plants ranging over the pile which was
probably four feet tall and certainly over six feet across. Kind of a
treasure hunt when you started looking to discover what was hidden there.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com