My daughter gave me a tomato plant this spring originating many years back from my son-in-law's family - a somewhat typical Italian red tomato, slightly plumper than a Roma . It's doing well with 7 or 8 normal looking tomatoes, but appears to have a 'sport', a single large bulbous tomato off one branch bearing no resmblance to the others.
Is this common with tomatoes? If not, depending on how it looks at maturity, is it something I should get excited about and pursue with a local expert?
RHR
I believe that is the stuff of evolution, namely, happenstance and survival. IT is after all a tomato.
Slice it, salt it, and enjoy.
Regards,
Robert, just one huh? That's tough. The first thing to do is get it a business agent and come up with some colorful story for its' origin (You know like being found in the garden of some hermit high in the [name of mountain here].) Be sure to get pictures. Does it vaguely resemble any known saint? Be sure to try public access TV. I mean whoop it up.
Finally, at some point it you should probably taste it. If it's any good, save some seeds.
- Bill Coloribus gustibus n> Robert H. Rosenberg wrote:
sell it on ebay!
The Cat Whisperer =E5=86=99=E9=81=93=EF=BC=9A
How about it's tastes? If it's good you can make it into tomato juice.
Well, some slug likes its taste, has made a small hole on it, avoided the other tomatoes on the vine. It's ripening - I'll keep you posted on the taste. Still haven't heard how common this might be. FYI, I've added a photo via attachment, if it comes through.
RHR
It is common in tomatoes that rest on the ground.. Just cut out the affected parts and eat it, taste is not affected.
The attachment did not make it.
Robert's two binary posts appeared on my server, though I didn't view them as I have a setting not to download binaries. But I did get the photo the first time it was mentioned. I think the OP should wait until his plant produces a SECOND 'sport' on that branch before jumping to any conclusions, because ...
what does happen quite often with tomatoes is that you'll get a fruit which is the fusion to two ordinary fruit, so it is much heavier than normal and of a different shape--often resembling two normal tomatoes melted together, but sometimes much weirder. It's usually a one-off and something to do with a particular flower rather than a whole branch of flowers.
You might have a mutant limb, though it's unlikely. Not downwind of a nuclear power station are you?? Or near a depleted-uranium weapon test site??
A migrant from Chelmsford in the UK told me that where she grew up near a golf course, the greenkeepers each year spread sewage sludge (human manure) to fertilise the grass. Then in Springtime the nearby residents would make furtive forays to the green to dig up free tomato seedlings that had sprung up everywhere. It was a lucky dip, not knowing what variety of tomato you'd end up with.
-- John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)
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