Did you ever....

lakelady · April 9, 2013

plant out, somehow lose a tag beforehand, and not know what the heck you had growing in that one spot? Last summer i had this plant that had no tag, a little wispy thing. I thought it might have been a cherry, so I stuck it in the ground and pretty much neglected it. Well, it produced tons of gorgeous delicious pink fruits. I ended up loving it, and looking forward to those tomatoes. I'm still trying to figure out what it "might have been" as it was not like anything else I had growing.

So I saved seed. And this year, I sowed some seed for it as I really enjoyed it and called it Pink Potato Leaf old garden (the location) so I'd know which plant I was referring to.

Came up looking great, but today I noticed out of the 3 plants, 2 are potato leaf, and one is regular leaf! cripes. Now I'm really confused because I don't know what it was to begin with, and now I'm wondering if it was seed in a trade that got mixed in, or a cross, or who knows what. All I know is I ignored it, and it pumped out fruit like crazy. Now I have to grow 2 of them to find out if they are the same fruits, and then I can go back to wracking my brain to figure out what the heck it was.

Please tell me this has happened to someone else so I don't feel like such a ditz.

RebelRidin · April 9, 2013

I once had some starter containers all planted with tomato seeds and humidity covers. I had diligently labeled the humidity covers. The covers were all the same and once removed......

Well you can guess the rest of the story...

TightenUp · April 9, 2013

my first season starting from seed i got a bunch of 4 inch pots and wrote the name of the seed type right on the 4 inch pot. when i planted in the garden i just tossed the 4 inch pot into the cage. came back an hour later and all the 4 inch pots were in the corner of the property blown by the wind.

i was able to guess a few but some i just couldn't differentiate from each other. anyway i learned my lesson to write down immediately on paper and then back that up on comp

DirtyDan · April 9, 2013

one year I made a nice little map of the plants and I' m stilll looking for it.

kath · April 10, 2013

I feel your pain, Antoniette- the first year I grew a lot of heirlooms was also my first time saving seed and I couldn't manage to get bagged blossoms to set on my two favorite tomato plants which I'd purchased. It never occurred to me that I should at least save some unbagged seed.

Since then I've tried seed for these plants from different sources and have yet to find a match to those first amazing tomatoes so I still don't know if they were mislabeled at the nursery, a cross or what. Why does this seem to happen with the best ones?

Then there was the year I used sticky labels on pots which fell off when they got damp. Most unfortunately I didn't realize it until after I had moved some of the pots around before noticing some of the labels loose on the bottom of the tray.

I've also made flags on toothpicks to label jiffy-7s and had some of them fall off overnight.

Another time when I was planting out in a hurry before a rainstorm, I decided to set the empty cups next to the plants because I didn't want to take the time to go and get the labels...one good gust and I had some mystery plants for months.

Somehow during plant outs I've managed to just "lose" plants completely- don't know what happened to them or where they went. My guess is that they must have gotten mixed up with the "extras" that I gave away.

I've also used water soluble marker by accident but luckily had a map already made up.

In a slight variation of George's trick, I labeled the outside of the 72-cell tray with numbers along one side and letters along the other along with an accompanying list of which variety was A1, A2, etc. but I didn't label the individual 9-packs... a plan that could have worked nicely except that when I removed the 9-packs filled with new little sprouts for their first bottom watering I forgot to put them back in the same place.

I nearly lost my mind trying keeping track of all the possible configurations based on the gradual emergence of wispy, regular and potato leaves! It was a very happy day when I finally realized that there was only one arrangement that worked so that I was sure which was which.

At least you're not the only ditz...

kath

April 10, 2013

I use printed labels on my germination pots and strips of blue painters tape on pots for up potting. I use white stakes pushed into the soil to label them in the garden. I've had garden stakes disappear and I had to wonder all year what those varieties were. Fortunately, I plant my tomatoes in groupings by type. All my blacks are in one bed and my cherry, orange, red beefsteak, pink beefsteak. and hearts are grouped the same way. It makes it easier to narrow the variety down if the stake is lost.

One year, I used a red magic marker to label those plants I wanted to save seed from. A Black magic marker was used for those varieties I didn't plan on saving seed from. After about two weeks, I noticed the red coloring on the labels had almost faded away in the sunlight. I could barely read them. I had to rewrite the labels in black and hang strips of red electrical tape on the cages of the "save seed" varieties.

Ted

kilroyscarnival · April 10, 2013

I once clipped off a few suckers while moving around from plant to plant and then had no idea which were which. Not quite the same thing, but I was waiting to see if they would root so I could figure out which they were. Since they were small red cherries it could have been either the Mexico Midget or a bit of the Sweet 100. Not saving those seeds.

Deborah · April 10, 2013

It's so good to be safe among other dorks. I'm home....

lakelady · April 10, 2013

LOL Deborah! My kids like to compare me to crazy old ladies that talk to their cats, except for me it's tomatoes (I DO talk to the cats too though).

I still love that Pink tomato though so I'll keep saving and planting it, whatever it is. Maybe in 10 years or so I'll realize it's really so and so. Unless it was a crossed seed I got somehow and then, well, that's just the way it goes!

April 10, 2013

Deborah, we knew you would feel safe and secure with this group of people.

Ted

Deborah · April 10, 2013

Yes, I'm quite comfortable here.

April 9, 2013	#1
lakelady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: northern NJ zone 6b Posts: 1,862	Did you ever.... plant out, somehow lose a tag beforehand, and not know what the heck you had growing in that one spot? Last summer i had this plant that had no tag, a little wispy thing. I thought it might have been a cherry, so I stuck it in the ground and pretty much neglected it. Well, it produced tons of gorgeous delicious pink fruits. I ended up loving it, and looking forward to those tomatoes. I'm still trying to figure out what it "might have been" as it was not like anything else I had growing. So I saved seed. And this year, I sowed some seed for it as I really enjoyed it and called it Pink Potato Leaf old garden (the location) so I'd know which plant I was referring to. Came up looking great, but today I noticed out of the 3 plants, 2 are potato leaf, and one is regular leaf! cripes. Now I'm really confused because I don't know what it was to begin with, and now I'm wondering if it was seed in a trade that got mixed in, or a cross, or who knows what. All I know is I ignored it, and it pumped out fruit like crazy. Now I have to grow 2 of them to find out if they are the same fruits, and then I can go back to wracking my brain to figure out what the heck it was. Please tell me this has happened to someone else so I don't feel like such a ditz. __________________ Antoniette

April 9, 2013	#2
RebelRidin Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Maryland's Eastern Shore Posts: 993	I once had some starter containers all planted with tomato seeds and humidity covers. I had diligently labeled the humidity covers. The covers were all the same and once removed...... Well you can guess the rest of the story... __________________ George _____________________________ "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure." Thomas Jefferson, 1787

April 9, 2013	#3
TightenUp Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Jersey Posts: 1,183	my first season starting from seed i got a bunch of 4 inch pots and wrote the name of the seed type right on the 4 inch pot. when i planted in the garden i just tossed the 4 inch pot into the cage. came back an hour later and all the 4 inch pots were in the corner of the property blown by the wind. i was able to guess a few but some i just couldn't differentiate from each other. anyway i learned my lesson to write down immediately on paper and then back that up on comp __________________

April 10, 2013	#5
kath Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: zone 6b, PA Posts: 5,664	I feel your pain, Antoniette- the first year I grew a lot of heirlooms was also my first time saving seed and I couldn't manage to get bagged blossoms to set on my two favorite tomato plants which I'd purchased. It never occurred to me that I should at least save some unbagged seed. Since then I've tried seed for these plants from different sources and have yet to find a match to those first amazing tomatoes so I still don't know if they were mislabeled at the nursery, a cross or what. Why does this seem to happen with the best ones? Then there was the year I used sticky labels on pots which fell off when they got damp. Most unfortunately I didn't realize it until after I had moved some of the pots around before noticing some of the labels loose on the bottom of the tray. I've also made flags on toothpicks to label jiffy-7s and had some of them fall off overnight. Another time when I was planting out in a hurry before a rainstorm, I decided to set the empty cups next to the plants because I didn't want to take the time to go and get the labels...one good gust and I had some mystery plants for months. Somehow during plant outs I've managed to just "lose" plants completely- don't know what happened to them or where they went. My guess is that they must have gotten mixed up with the "extras" that I gave away. I've also used water soluble marker by accident but luckily had a map already made up. In a slight variation of George's trick, I labeled the outside of the 72-cell tray with numbers along one side and letters along the other along with an accompanying list of which variety was A1, A2, etc. but I didn't label the individual 9-packs... a plan that could have worked nicely except that when I removed the 9-packs filled with new little sprouts for their first bottom watering I forgot to put them back in the same place.I nearly lost my mind trying keeping track of all the possible configurations based on the gradual emergence of wispy, regular and potato leaves! It was a very happy day when I finally realized that there was only one arrangement that worked so that I was sure which was which. At least you're not the only ditz... kath

April 10, 2013	#6
tedln Guest Posts: n/a	I use printed labels on my germination pots and strips of blue painters tape on pots for up potting. I use white stakes pushed into the soil to label them in the garden. I've had garden stakes disappear and I had to wonder all year what those varieties were. Fortunately, I plant my tomatoes in groupings by type. All my blacks are in one bed and my cherry, orange, red beefsteak, pink beefsteak. and hearts are grouped the same way. It makes it easier to narrow the variety down if the stake is lost. One year, I used a red magic marker to label those plants I wanted to save seed from. A Black magic marker was used for those varieties I didn't plan on saving seed from. After about two weeks, I noticed the red coloring on the labels had almost faded away in the sunlight. I could barely read them. I had to rewrite the labels in black and hang strips of red electrical tape on the cages of the "save seed" varieties. Ted Last edited by tedln; April 10, 2013 at 11:46 AM.

April 9, 2013	#4
DirtyDan Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: missouri Posts: 28	one year I made a nice little map of the plants and I' m stilll looking for it.

April 10, 2013	#7
kilroyscarnival Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 614	I once clipped off a few suckers while moving around from plant to plant and then had no idea which were which. Not quite the same thing, but I was waiting to see if they would root so I could figure out which they were. Since they were small red cherries it could have been either the Mexico Midget or a bit of the Sweet 100. Not saving those seeds.

April 10, 2013	#8
Deborah Riding The Crazy Train Again Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: San Marcos, California Posts: 2,562	It's so good to be safe among other dorks. I'm home....