For a few weeks now, I have been searching through hundreds of photos and descriptions for the tomatoes I grew. I even checked all my seed packets and orders for the last 5 years to see if any of the tomato seed orders referred to a type in the photo. I found a few photos, close to the shape, but they were more pointed. Mine are late maturing and were all planted from seeds all started at the same time. I thought I only planted beefsteaks, big boy, and a couple of other jumbo varieties, none of which were this shape or characteristic. Oddly, I also had a few very small cherry types and a jumbo grape shape, or mini plum, depending on what you would want to catogorize them, those were also grown from seeds I have had here for several years. In any event, these big guys had only 4 narrow seed cavities about 1/4 inch in from the skin, and all through the core it was very firm and meaty. The biggest of the three had maybe a tablespoon of liquid and only a few seeds. I only found two out of my 60+ plants that had this shape tomato. The other plant has a a few that are a little smaller in diameter, and they are still green. I removed all the seeds from these three tomatoes and placed them in a small strainer and washed them under running water to remove some of the gel coating. The I dumped the seeds onto a sheet of plastic wrap for them to dry. I can't plant tomatoes again next year as I will have no space and need to give the soil 'chemistry' a rest from all these tomatoes. I do find that if I skip a year, tomatoes seem to grw much better with less losses due to fungal infections. The plants these came from are quite healthy and green, with big leaves. The tomatoes were so heavy they pulled away from the support stakes and twine and were on the ground, laying on some black plastic fabric mulch. The plants are not very productive or heavy bearers, but have a lot of foliage, and have a sweeter, milder flavor compared to all the others I grew. I do plan to grow more again from these saved seeds. Around here, these need to be started indoors very early in the season, like about March, in order to have any ripe ones. Th A similar thing happened three years ago when I planed some buttercup squash. A single plant had these odd shaped ones and were as big as basketballs, the narrow end was the stem end however. I tried growing more the following two years afterwards, but the nasty woodchuck got to them before they got ripe enough, but were exactly the same shape as the earlier generation. That woodchuck is gone now..

thanks for your comments, they are all indeterminate. i have 5 different kinds; this one in particular is a 'mortgage lifter'. i read up on heirlooms, they all seem to be indeterminate and everything i read indicates that pinching the suckers is better for the fruit formation and results in better sized tomatoes. i went ahead and pulled them off, i don't want the plant getting out of hand and becoming unwieldy. i am sure i will have more and post a picture then. thanks again for your comments.

Search 'pruning' here for the FAQ and many, many previous discussions. As already mentioned, it all depends on the support system you use. Other factors include the variety/type of plant (determinates are never pruned as spiced ham said), how big your garden is, how close you plant the plants, your climate, and 100 other things. The only thing that is important to understand completely IMO is that pruning/removal of what are mistakenly called "suckers" is that it is in no way mandatory despite claims made. It is totally the individual gardener's option/choice. Personally, I use 5 and 6 foot CRW cages and never even consider pruning off anything except for branches that touch the ground. Dave

So, back to my odd question. I am so determined to be able to diagnose my tomato diseases, that I am wondering if it is possible to diagnose; virus from bacteria from fungi by using a common microscope etc... ***** No, you can't use a common microscope to differentiate between viruses and fungi and bacteria and nematodes that are known to cause tomato diseases. Have you looked in the Pest and Disease Forum here, link at the top of this first page? There's a Problem Solver there and I'd use either that TAMU one or Cornell one, and look at the pictures b'c tomato diseases need to be IDed by plant and fruit symptoms. it's often difficult to ID diseases with pictures b'c pictures are static while disease is progressive, but most of the common foliage diseases are not hard to diagnose. If all got "Sick" at the same time, I doubt it was a mineral deficiency, rather, probably a wind or rain borne foliage disease. In new groud I don't think you'd have any soilborne tomato diseases and even if some of your nursery plants imported something it could NOT allow for ALL of the plants to die in the same season. You don't say where you live and garden, in a general sense, and that's important since tomato diseases are regionalized, some being present in some areas and not others. Carolyn