Volunteer tomatoes

[Hypatia08]

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

[John McGaw]

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.

[dafla25]

[FarmI]

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.

[FarmI]

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

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.