New mystery tomato thread!

We had an open thread for mystery tomatoes but I couldn't find it when I performed a search.

I have some new ones which should be interesting to watch.

I turned my compost pile over for the first time in a couple of years. It probably has five years of assorted tomato seed in it from cleaning my garden each fall. Yep, I have mystery tomato plants popping up all over my compost pile. Some are RL and some are PL, but I have no idea which varieties they are. They are beautiful, healthy plants which I will allow to grow and produce where they germinated. I will simply water the compost pile occasionally. I hope the pile doesn't produce excessive heat which will kill the plants. I really like the fact that all of the mystery plants have their tap roots intact meaning they can extend really deep into the compost for moisture and nutrients. It should be interesting to see what results.

Ted

[VC Scott]

Last year a Brandywine Red popped up in my rose garden. It outproduced every other tomato plant. I think volunteers have some advantage because they don't have the shock of being potted up, hardened off and transplanted.

This year I have a PL in the rose garden, so it is not another Brandywine Red. Based on last year's plants it could be Brandywine Cowlicks, Hillbilly PL, Indian Stripe PL or Italian Tree. I hope it turns out to be Indian Stripe PL.

[clkingtx]

That sounds cool, hope your compost maters produce a lot! It is really exciting to have something volunteer, like a gift, almost.

I have a couple of mystery tomatoes this year. When eating at CiCi's pizza three or four years ago, I was really enjoying their(grape or pear shaped, can't remember)salad tomatoes. They seemed extra good, so I saved a bunch of seeds. This is the first year I have been able to garden since then, so I set out two of them in my tomato row. I am looking forward to seeing what they produce!
Carrie

[Deborah]

What fun, Ted ! Like a grab bag !

[habitat_gardener]

I still have 5 unidentified healthy tomato plants that I pulled out of a nursery dumpster and potted up into 1-gallon pots. I haven't prepared a place to plant them yet, but if the free space at the community garden is still there, I will make time to plant them this weekend.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

I still have 5 unidentified healthy tomato plants that I pulled out of a nursery dumpster and potted up into 1-gallon pots. I haven't prepared a place to plant them yet, but if the free space at the community garden is still there, I will make time to plant them this weekend.

I thought I heard it all, after many years here at T'ville.

But, nursery dumpster diving?
I have to draw the line somewhere.

So, there will not be a Nursery Dumpster Diving category in the Mostly Mystery 'Mater Mailing seed swap.


























...unless you come up with nine other traders who have your zeal for abandoned tomato plants.

Dr. Lve Apple

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Tormato

I thought I heard it all, after many years here at T'ville.

But, nursery dumpster diving?
I have to draw the line somewhere.

Ahem. It's the fine art of Dumpster Dipping. No diving.

Often someone else is at the nursery dumpster when I ride by, and only once have I seen someone jump in. Other people come prepared with something to stand on and something to reach with.

It's in a convenient location, and the stuff is organized into 3 dumpsters: recycling, compost, and garbage.

I'm heading off to a plant exchange with a carload of extra containers (from the recycling dumpster) as well as plants (most of which I propagated).

[Tormato]

Well, two of you, with eight more to go.

I'd like to be #3, but my "acquired" plant, from several years ago, never made it to seed stage. I'll also admit that I'm much farther gone than either of you, in plant rescues. I'm a sidewalk crack addict.

My plant was pulled up from the crack of a sidewalk. It was close enough to a building where it didn't get trampled on. The plant was larger than my seedlings at home, but it likely got an earlier start.

I'm not alone in my sidewalk crack addiction. I know of one other like me, half way around the world in Australia. There's an old thread here at T'ville that I might try to find, and reminisce about. (sniff, sniff)

Gary

[Patihum]

I had 12 plants that were supposed to be Delicious all come up PL. Planted 6 twice when the first showed up PL. They were seeds I bought this year from Baker Creek. 2 of them I went ahead and planted - the others I gave away. So far all I can tell is that they're indeterminate and late. They're just now setting tomatoes.

[Rideau Rambler]

I am willing to bet there are 90, not 9, other traders who have abandoned/dumpster plants. Hysterical category name, lol! Now it just remains to be seen who will admit to it!....... I have this tomato growing in my garden this year - I "acquired" the seeds from a tomato in a community garden under the cover of darkness....so that's two for the "dumpster diving/sneaky stealth acquired" category

[discoprincess]

Walking around here in NYC, I note whenever I find an accidental tomato plant growing somewhere.

A couple of weeks ago I pulled up one that was growing in a crack in my building's (outdoor) parking lot.

So far it seems to be growing normally. I'm curious what kind of tomatoes it will produce (although I bet it won't be an heirloom).

I saw a few of other "volunteers" growing near where I work (one even had started to bloom), but I really don't have any more room.

[gggeek]

I had a volunteer show up in a long trough pot used for growing lettuce that I had filled with some random potting mix. I saved out the OP seeds last year and grew out a good number of the seedlings this year. There was a lot of suspect looking seedlings, but I settled on one seedling that looked solid. It is flowering now and the flower clusters are looking amazing: at least 20 flowers in the one cluster. Last years crop was full of small egg shaped fruits which very much reminded me of store-bought "grape" tomatoes here locally. A chipmunk at the 2012 parent plant though so I didn't get a full season with it. Hoping for better this year!

[discoprincess]

About three weeks ago I bought two seedlings at a stoop sale a couple of blocks away. I did ask what type of tomato it was, and the seller did not know. This was a rag-tag stoop sale where a number of items had been donated by people known by the people running the sale. All the seller could tell me was that he remembered the grower saying that these tomatoes could be grown indoors if one wanted to.

I am going to take him at his word. One is sitting outside on the balcony and the other is sitting in the windowsill. I may transplant them into a bigger pot soon (but not a 5-gallon container).

[VC Scott]

Two mysteries solved, one to go.

First mystery was a nursery plant that was marked Prudens Purple. It turned out to be regular leaf instead of potato leaf, the fruit was flat, heavily ruffled and near purple when ripe. Turned out to be Purple Calabash.

The second mystery is a volunteer that turned up in my rose garden. It is potato leaf, which means, based on the varieties I grew last year it was either Indian Stripe PL, Brandywine Cowlicks or Hillbilly PL. The fruit wasn't shape was too flat to be Indian Stripe, but I had to wait for the darned thing to blush before I knew for sure.

The mystery tomato is:

Hillbilly!!!

[PA_Julia]

I have had one growing for approx two months.

It is now setting fruit and TAADAAA!!! It's a cherry tomato plant!!