If they are volunteers from seed, and the plants were open pollinated,
they won't come true to the variety, but they will probably be just as
good. I had some volunteers one year from a tomato in the garden, and
they were better and larger than the original, and so it usually is with
natural selection. If you harvest seeds from your own tomatoes, year
after year, each year you will get a tomato that will grow better in
your particular conditions. They acclimate more every year, so the seeds
that come up are stronger.

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