I have volunteer tomato plants. Should I pull or will they fruit?

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
This is goofy, but I buried some tomatoes that were going bad in a planter out front (semi-composting) a long time ago. I thought I had some flowers coming up, but I just looked at them closer -- and they are tomatoes!

I can't recall if it was a store bought or a tomato from a friend's garden, it's almost a foot high - should I pull it or water it?

 
If you have planted heirloom, non-hybridized tomatoes, then yes...

If you have hybrids, then no, they won't do much at all and you should pull them if they are sucking nutrients and water from your other tomatoes.

 
I contest! I say go for it if you have the room. . .

I usually get a couple of volunteers every year. Most this year are offspring from the two types of cherry tomatoes I grew last year. I can tell they are cherries by the BIG clusters of blossoms.

BUT one of those volunteers has pretty large clusters of larger, rather egg-shaped salad-sized tomatoes. I am a keeping it to see what it tastes like, and to see how many finally grow in each clusters.

The volunteers I have grown previously have been all edible. Some have bigger cores than I might like; some have tougher skins, but they have all been tasty, especially since all of my volunteers' fruit is vine ripened.

It's fun to let a mystery fruit run, to see what turns out--if you have the patience and room grow it.

 
I agree with Mistral, especially if you have the room. Most of my volunteers

have been Sungold Cherry tomatoes and they were fine. Last year several volunteers came up but they were not pulling water from the ditch down the center of the row, for some reason and they perished. I chose not to give them separate water from the main ones I planted...water was getting in short supply last year too.

 
ha! maybe so, or visiting doggies. I hope I didn't have cherry tomatoes on my salad. as pretty as

they were, it just didn't seem right. I couldn't help but take the picture.

 
Everyone's right. Volunteers from heirlooms breed true. Hybrids tend to revert to cherry-type

tomato. If you have room, give the volunteers a chance. If you don't, buy plants of your favorite type.

 
TMI alert: Tomato seeds depend on an animal's ingestion to germinate

Seeds you buy have been scored to mimic the effect that animal digestion has on them. I'm not saying the proximity of this plant to an outhouse has anything to do with its success--any number of vertebrates could have deposited the seed right there smileys/wink.gif

 
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