volunteer tomatoe seedlings

Discussion in 'Fruit and Vegetable Gardening' started by hillbilliesue, May 31, 2006.

  1. hillbilliesue

    hillbilliesue Member

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    duncan
    I guess I bought some very seedy tomatoes last year, because I have them popping all over my garden. Most of them are in my zuch. patch(very near my old compost pile) but many are @ my new bean rows. I don't know much about volunteer tomatoes-is it worth my while to transplant these into a new bed? I know tomatoes & zuch. are heavy feeders so I don't want to leave them there. Some are @3" away from grn. bush beans-would it be okay to leave these ones there? I love the fact that I have "Tons " of tomato plants(I already planted 10 bought ones), but I don't know anything about the "volunteer" ones or if they're even worth my while. I'd really appreciate some info. Thanks, Sue
     
  2. cormac

    cormac Member

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    the problem with volunteers is that so many plants are hybridized these days -- simply put, they mix the best characteristics of several tomatos and make one plant with those characteristics ... however, the seeds in those tomatos can't really be used for saving (or volunteers) since a hybridized plant seed will typically only grow the dominant (usually the mother) trait of the hybridized plant (hope that's not too confusing) -- so if for example you are growing the better boy hybrid tomato and the next year there are volunteers you won't get a better boy but only the dominant trait of the mother plant ... usually the tomatos are poorly formed, etc ...

    organic or heirloom plants however can be left to volunteer or you can collect the seeds and use them again ... i've been switching over to organic plants through the recent years since it is far less expensive and very rewarding to keep your crop going from year to year with a little bit of work ... i have some organic calendulas for example that i never have to worry about or replant ... they seed themselves rather thoroughly and the only thing i do is transplant a few here or there to fill in the space a bit better :)
     

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