This happened to me once also, those tomatoes on the vine, left them in a warm window and the whole tomatoe was FULL of sprouts. We were in a condo at the time, so I had no luck being able to grow them.

I say go for it. Yes it normal, the tomatoe is like...a womb, I think. :)

Hi,
It is an unusual thing to happen. I forget the number, but it was like about 1 in 10,000 tomatoes this will happen in. I've seen it once. It was pretty cool looking. It doesn't happen often because tomato seeds normally have a natural sprout inhibitor on them.
I assume the sprouts will grow fine. I don't see why they wouldn't.
Remy

I found this quote:
"Seed:
Tomato seed develops in a mucilaginous gel which has germination inhibitors. During the process
of seed extraction and fermentation this gel is broken down. After the seeds are washed and dried,
the seeds are normally tan or light brown in color with a pubescent covering (fuzz). "

Wow, I really didnt appreciate the significance of this when I saw it! I wonder if the tomatoe had "spoiled" and fermented inside? I took it for granted that it meant the tomato was "really good". Very interesting, ya learn something new everyday!

BTW, am I the only person that keeps putting an E at the end of tomatoe?

Hi Doris,
The rare cases of this happening are to tomatoes that are still fresh. Once a tomato starts to rot, a fermentation process has begun, and the coating will break down once fermentation is done.
I think the sprouting seeds is just a genetic glitch that shows up every so often just like unusual genetic problems that show up in people every so often.
Remy

I would like to grow tomatos,if is sombody who can send me some seeds it would be nice and great.
I ,d like to short the plants from seeds.

Best regards

I seen this happen only once before. I really thought it strange at the time. I ate it anyway. It was a good tasting tomato, it didnt taste rotten! But, I wouldnt grow the sprouts. Not unless you are interested in growing more freaky tomatoes.

I bought a pack of them from a grocery store a few years back and was shocked to find the same thing in the first tomato I cut,even more shocked to find every tomato in the pack (all still attached to the vine),had done the same. I was too afraid to eat them and threw them out for the birds or whatever else wanted to pick at them!

Check this one out!
Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Sprouting Tomato

Dave, that's pretty cool, and to have broken through the skin to sprout/grow...

As for them germinating inside where germination is supposed to be inhibited, I wonder just how unusual that is. I found it in a Roma once, and the tomato looked perfectly normal, firm on the outside, I was slicing it to put on a sandwich.

I did plant the seedlings, in a large container outdoors and they grew just like any regular Roma/plum type tomato would....flowered, set fruit, ripened, but I had to put the pot on a neighbors deck at the end of the season where it would stay warmer and get more sun. The seeds chose to sprout a little late in the season for tomatoes in this coastal climate ;)

What makes this tomato so unique, is the skin was normal.
The mystery is how it poked through the skin.
Dave

It's Feb.1 and I've had a tomato (from Trader Joe's, organic) sitting on my counter for about 10 days (we keep a cool house in winter). I used the others from the package over the course of the week, and this one seemed to still be firm and fresh. I sliced it this a.m. to put into some guacamole and found that about 1/5 of the seeds are sprouting. I've never seen it before. From the outside, this tomato looks fresh and normal. On the inside, there is no rotting. It tastes OK, too (not a summer tomato from my garden, tho!). I may plant in a spare pot and see what happens. Likely too cool in here to grow, though.

I don't know if there is a way to post pictures here, but I have tons of pictures of tomatoes that have sprouted from vine tomatoes. They actually poked throught he skin and were growing. I experimented with them since I had 2 of them do that from the same vine.

The mother plant seemed to stay together very well with it parasite tomato plants poking out of its skin. I cut open one of the tomatoes to find a lot of white sprouts inside. The other tomato I put in a pot of soil inside. By the time it was warm enought to set it outside the mother plnt completely dried and was gone. So I left the pot on my porch and forgot about it.

The tomato started to send up brand new sprouts from the seeds that were in the soil. I planted them and got very similar tomatoes that look very much like the mother "vine" tomatoes.

I have found the sprouts inside of bell peppers before.It happens quit often after sitting in my fridge for more than a week.
Sounds like the protection of the fruit really did its job. I would totally try to grow those suckers!

Well I have never seen this before but I have heard about it. I can't wait til I open up a tomato one day and see all of those sprouts inside. How exciting and fascinating.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sprouting

I was just preparing my salad when I found out sprouts on a tomato. Not knowing if it was safe I didn't ate it.
Searching the web now I found this site and just post to share this picture with you.

Cheers

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/tomatosprouts.jpg/

Here is a link that might be useful: Check it out

Total wierd-a-zoid! I cut into a tomato I had on my kitchen counter for a couple of weeks, not in a window, just under fluorescent lights that I keep on most of the time. Inside there were these little wormy looking white things and some really teeny green things, which I understand now to be tomato sprouts with leaves! I scraped out all the "sprouts" in hopes of having a salad, but there's no freaking way -- I'm just too finicky. Instead, I'm heading straight for the extra-crunchy peanut butter! But this experience has left me gob-smacked at Mother Nature's drive to procreate! Kudos to you hardy lot that choose to chow down on those "Mater-Incubators."

Kaye, still creeped-out

I do not find it surprising that you occasionally see this. Links to pictures and discussions: The Kraalspace: Alien Tomatoes - the seeds inside had actually sprouted and the inside of the tomato was a mass of sprouts . Tomato sprouting from the inside - Tomato sprouting from the inside