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

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

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

On Sat, 2 Aug 2008 11:45:27 -0700 (PDT), 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 get wonderful tomato volunteers every year. We are reaping the
volunteer benefit this year.of some of the sweetest grapes tomatoes I
have ever had.

My best volunteer this year is out in front, northern exposure, smack
in the middle of a large bed of impatiens. I am letting it grow as,
it flowered this week and required staking. I rather doubt it'll yield
ripe fruit,but I 'll give it a chance.

Boron

wrote in message

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?

I always have at least some volunteer tomato plants each year, but then I
also have volunteer other plants too. The volunteer tom plants usually (but
not always) grow where a tomato has fallen the previous year and rotted on
the ground. Many people who have septic systems say that toms sprout in the
leach field. We've never had that happen.

"dafla25" wrote in message

If they are volunteers from seed, and the plants were open pollinated,
they won't come true to the variety,

I've always found that the cherry tomatoes are true to type, and also Romas,
and if the Romas aren't true to type, there is no way I can tell the
difference.

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.

We've been doing that a few years now with Black tomatoes. Dunno if they
were originally Black Russians or Black Crins (??name) but they seem to be
getting better each year as they acclimatise.

wrote in message
...
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?


Yep! I had Roma tomatoes sprouting everywhere this summer. The seeds had to
be in the compost we spread everywhere. Many of them are already bearing
ripe fruit. There's also 2 watermelons and a monster cucumber plant.

"FarmI" wrote:
wrote in message
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?

I always have at least some volunteer tomato plants each year, but then I
also have volunteer other plants too. �The volunteer tom plants usually (but
not always) grow where a tomato has fallen the previous year and rotted on
the ground. �Many people who have septic systems say that toms sprout in the
leach field. �We've never had that happen.

That'sa the *real* italian tomat... romas bafongool!

On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 21:58:39 -0500, "Marie Dodge"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
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?


Yep! I had Roma tomatoes sprouting everywhere this summer. The seeds had to
be in the compost we spread everywhere. Many of them are already bearing
ripe fruit. There's also 2 watermelons and a monster cucumber plant.

Not in Cleveland, Ohio anymore, but I recall a full-size fruit-bearing
tomato growing in a sidewalk crack. Ohio has the most perfect
climate in the world for growing tomatoes. My Husky tomato
(transplant) has been the best producer this year and the cherry
tomato is producing which is a volunteer (in e.TN.)

This growing season has been strange--some plants that do better are
doing worse and vice versa. My coleus usually gets 4-feet across, but
not this year even with more rainfall. Peppers, cucumbers, and
blueberries are exceptionally strong and producing. Radishes and corn
were very weak.