Growing Tomatoes -- has anyone had this happen?

[jennyema]

I have always grown tomatoes in the front yard on the side in the sun. This spring, I enlarged my back yard garden area and moved the tomatoes back there so I could grow more of them.

I moved the pepper patch to where the tomatoes had been in front, so I could grow more of them.

My tomatoes are very tall and producing fruit. So are my peppers.

BUT, I have in the past week discovered two small tomato plants growing amid the peppers! One now is about a foot tall and is starting to flower. I don't know what kind they are, but I hope to find out.

How did this happen? Tomatoes that fell from the bush and left their seeds there? Anyone had this happen before?

 

[GB]

You caught me Jenny. I snuck into your yard late one night and planted those. Wait till you see what else pops up

 

[Claire]

You got it, Jennyemma. They are called "volunteers".

 

[Loprraine]

I always plant mine in the same place. This year, I found one growing with the sage, and another by the compost bin.

 

[pdswife]

yep. Happens... enjoy!!

 

[kadesma]

Sure Jenny it happens here too, birds eat tomatoes, birds deposit seeds behind, tomatoes fall smae thing. I get this all the time. We rotate our plants from year to year so they don't get nematodes.So each year we get tomato plants coming up all over the place.
kadesma

 

[jennyema]

nematodes

what do they look like?

 

[kadesma]

nematodes

what do they look like?

Jenny they are hard to see, they gather round the roots of the plant. They are tiny and are pear shaped and similar to worms, but very small. It causes the plant to have patches of stems and leaves tha brown, and die, the plant wilts easy..There are ways to take care of the ground before the next planting, but, that is why we plant in a different spot each year. Course it's pretty easy here as we line in the country..But, if I had a small garden, i'd seek out the best nursery and get help from them.
kadesma

 

[vagriller]

We rotate our plants from year to year so they don't get nematodes.

I think that is what happened to mine. I had some plants that started from a buried tomato. I planted them in pots, and they were doing great. Then one after the other they just wilted and died. I was bummed!

 

[kadesma]

I think that is what happened to mine. I had some plants that started from a buried tomato. I planted them in pots, and they were doing great. Then one after the other they just wilted and died. I was bummed!

When I buy plants and something goes wrong I take the plant back and the nursery I deal with will tell me if it's a pest or if I did something wrong. I 've learned a lot from them and from my dad who always had a garden. Gardening is something both sides of my family has always done, and loved.

kadesma

 

[amber]

Yep, I get those "volunteers" too but I have to pull them because my vegetable garden is small, and dont have room for extras. It's hard to believe that the tomatoes actually winter over in Maine, it gets so cold here. Hardly little buggers

 

[jennyema]

Nemetodes.

I think I might have them or had them. Last year one of the nicest, biggest plants just up and died almost overnight.

I have a lot of yellowing/browning leaves. I thought that was leaf rot. Could I have nemetodes in the back yard, too?

 

[bethzaring]

I wouldn't know a nematoad from a centipeed. But my tomato plants regularly have yellowing and browning leaves. The plants start out beautiful but soon start to look pretty ragged, starting at the base of the plant. I try to plant virus and disease resistant plants, but my plants fizzle out anyway.

 

[VeraBlue]

yes, it's like the tomato fairy came..

I have always grown tomatoes in the front yard on the side in the sun. This spring, I enlarged my back yard garden area and moved the tomatoes back there so I could grow more of them.

I moved the pepper patch to where the tomatoes had been in front, so I could grow more of them.

My tomatoes are very tall and producing fruit. So are my peppers.

BUT, I have in the past week discovered two small tomato plants growing amid the peppers! One now is about a foot tall and is starting to flower. I don't know what kind they are, but I hope to find out.

How did this happen? Tomatoes that fell from the bush and left their seeds there? Anyone had this happen before?

I was quite surprised to see tomato plants growing amidst the flowers one year...

 

[Constance]

The little old men who came in the greenhouse always called me the Tomato Queen...LOL. I grew over 16,000 a year, for 22 years, so I guess I have a pretty good claim on the title.

In regard to your volunteer tomato plants: Whether or not they will produce decent tomatoes depends on what kind of plant they came from. If it was an open-pollinated plant, (not a hybrid) they will be usable plants.
On the other hand, if they are from a hybrid tomato, you never know what you will get. I'm not an expert at genetics, but what it comes down to, basically, you may get a tomato like one of the parent plants, or you may get a sterile plant.
I had a friend who fertilized his garden one year with dried sludge from the sewer treatment plant. It had no odor...just looked like gray dirt. It did a good job, but he had all kinds of volunteer tomato and corn plants.

For those of you with plants that are yellowing and dying, there could be a couple of reasons.
#1 reason: A lot depends on the variety you planted. Those old heirloom tomatoes have great taste, but they have no resistance to disease or adverse conditions. They seldom hold up all season like the hybrids.
#2 reason: You may have "wilt" in your soil. If that's the case, you need to be very particular about the variety of tomato you buy. They may have some newer ones since I quit business, but Celebrity was the most resistant to disease. It is a determinant plant which bears nice round, crack-free med/lg sized fruit. Generally, a slice is just the right size for a sandwich.

 

[CharlieD]

Ah, tomatoes, that's nothing. One year I forgot or missed to cut of, probably, one poppy and next year my whole front yard was covered with poppys. It's a good thing nobody acused me of growing them for heroin.

 

[Constance]

Lucky you! I think poppies are one of the most beautiful flowers there is.
It's only a certain type of poppy, Papaver somniferum that exudes opium from it's seed pods.

 

[CharlieD]

Yes they were beautiful, but how would you know which one are good for opium, huh? ( i really wish we had wink smily here)

 

[Constance]

Here's info on that, Charlie.

http://www.erowid.org/plants/poppy/poppy.shtml

HOWEVER, I recommend that you just enjoy the poppies for their beauty.
Opium based pain-killers are a blessing for those suffering from terminal diseases, but they are extremly addictive, and not to be played around with.

 

[buckytom]

lol, i like the term volunteers.

i took over our garden after my fil passed away, and have desperately tried to change it from a dupont special to an organic garden.

one thing i have done, tho, is keep a small area in one corner undisturbed every year, and without fail, an few cherry tomato plants come up as "volunteers", from his plantings.
my fil loved cherry tomatoes, and each year a few of his plants still come up from seeds from the year before. it's been alomst ten years now.
still, there's a weird albeit deep connection, between him and me in his garden. so long as they grow, so he lives between the plants, in the sun and soil.

as much as i want to sell this house, i'll be sad to let things go like that.

gardeners really do put down roots, don't they?