Hi jmwolff,

Chances are actually pretty good. If they were hybrids, you probably won't get the same type of fruit that you did last year, but they may be good tomatoes anyway.

Heirlooms breed true about 95% of the time and if the seeds were heirloom seeds, you will likely get the same as you grew previously, if you liked them that is great.

Bets

Thanks!! So I guess I will let them grow and see what suprise tomatoes pop up...they are in the middle of strawberries and beans...so lets see how they do.

Mystery tomatoes are the most fun. Sure, sometimes once they actually show themselves they are not all that, but waiting to see what they'll be is just too fun to pass up!

Actually seed from a F1 hybrid tomato seed will breed true the first year. The next generation after that will revert back to the crosses from which it was hybridized.It is sometimes kind of neat growing "volunteers" because you never know for sure what you are getting. You may actually be very pleasantly surprised.

"Actually seed from a F1 hybrid tomato seed will breed true the first year."

That is incorrect.

jmwolff

Actually, those plants that "pop up" are known as "volunteers", perhaps somewhat affectionately giving them free will. :-)

It happens quite often and attests to the tomato's marvelous persistence. Anyway, a lot of people do think they're fun to grow as implied here, particularly if you don't know what variety the seed is!

coolvol

No, if an F1 tomato seeds are saved, the plants won't come true if planted. The break from the hybrid form occurs in the seeds of the first hybrid fruit.

I tossed a couple of withered grocery store grape tomatoes in the compost three years ago, and they've been coming up ever since. They were so good that last year I saved seeds.

They seem to breed true; the size and number per truss (up to 40) don't match any grape description I've found.

missingtheobvious

The Santa Clause tomatoes that used to be everywhere in grocery stores apparently were OPs and you COULD save those seeds and get great little grape tomatoes from them. Maybe that was your volunteer!

anney -- Yes, I considered the possibility they might be Santas. As far as I remember, the originals from the supermarket weren't labelled with the Procacci Bros. Santa hats. I know Santas have been sold by other vendors (without the "Santa" name). But until I either locate some actual Santas or some facts about Santa fruit and/or truss size, there's no way to rule it in or out. Some of mine are 1 5/8" -- do Santas grow that large?

At one point I did a taste test with, IIRC, Stramatos from the market (which I had bought so I could save seeds); family members preferred the Stramatos. Well, I'm happy with my grape, and it's certainly prolific....

missingtheobvious

Oh, that little mater didn't have "Clause" tacked onto its name. I haven't grown the Santas myself, but I sure didn't see any in the markets that were as large as nearly 2 inches! So who knows what you had.

Some of mine are 1 5/8" -- do Santas grow that large?

****

No, not when I grew them either from original F1 seed or from saved F2 seed, etc. TGS here in the US was the last place that was selling Santa F1 seed. No Santa F1 seed can be sold in the US but last I knew T and M and some others in Europe were doing so at ridiculous prices.

When there was the huge fight between the Procacci Bros and Andrew Chu, who made the name grape tomato a houshold name by using Santa F1 bred by the Known-You Seed Co in Taiwan, I was in touch with Andrew and it was he who told me that while Santa F1 was a hybrid that about 99/100 saved F2 seeds were true to type.

And I posted that widely at the places where I do read/post and I know some folks are now on the F6, F7, I;ve lost track.

The off type is round and has a lower Brix concentration.

Procacci is still marketing Santas and I think the name they use is Santa Sweets. Andrew Chu is also marketing them and gets his seed elsewhere in Europe, not from the Known You Seed Co which I guess is still blocked to him.

I am not an admirer of the Procacci organization headquartered in Philadelphia. especially after they took over the folks who were marketing the variety Ugly out of FL in a nasty takeover and started marketing Ugly Ripes, which just Marmandes with some disease tolerances bred in. So they now market both Ugly and Ugly Ripe.

Sad as I see it, to have done what they did to both Andrew Chu as well as the FL folks who were selling the variety Ugly. Just my opinion.

Carolyn

"Actually seed from a F1 hybrid tomato seed will breed true the first year."
Almost nothing could be further from the truth. F2 and F3 are where you start seeing the biggest variations depending on how wide the cross was. For instance I am growing an F2 Early Girl right this year and it is potato leaf (a very different looking plant from the F1 that is straight across from it).

Randy

I've got 2 volunteer cucurbits coming up in my sunflower patch. I'm guessing they are from the compost, but who knows what I'll get.

I have many volunteers popping up in my garden. I planted a few
and labeled them surprise, since I don't know what they are. I didn't
have any hybrids last summer. I'm hoping it's not yellow pear, but if
it is, I'll just throw them in sauce. It might be Matt's Wild cherry also.
These two varieties are the ones that produced the most last year.
Linda

Thanks for the Santa size info, Carolyn.

I've got volunteer periwinkles from about three years ago that grew before I turned the spot into a vegetable garden. Every year I see a couple new seedlings pop up.

I also have a volunteer dill from last year's seed. It came up in the middle of the beet patch and I'm just letting it grow.

My Swamp Milkweed that I planted last year dropped some seeds (I was careful to harvest pods before they burst open, but I still missed a few). I've got lots of milkweed volunteers coming up all over the place.

So far, I haven't got a tomato volunteer yet.

And on the subject of Santa grape tomatoes - if they still have them at our grocery store, I may have to try saving some seeds and growing them out sometime. Sounds interesting.

I had a volunteer in my corn patch. I let it go, in case it was some interesting flower or weed. I just decided today it had to be a tomato by the leaves. It was a foot tall, till I cut it out. I've got 14 known heirlooms and a sungold, no need for a store bought surprise robbing my corn. It also smelled like a tom when I took it out, if that makes sense.

It also smelled like a tom when I took it out, if that makes sense

I think we all are familiar with the smell of tomato foliage...most of us love it, but some hate it. For me, it is my favorite smell in the garden. And each variety smells different, too. Every time I go in the garden (more than once per day), I rub some of the stems to get the good smell. It's almost like an addiction....come on all you tomato people, who else does the same?

I love when I remove the flowers from my Mrs. Burns Lemon basil. It's my favorite thing in the garden. I was tieing up toms the other day (sounds weird doesn't it?) and noticed that along w/ the smell, I had alot of yellow dust on my hands, must be pollen.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Till some one else comments on the foliage smell. ;~)

The scent of fresh garlic just dug from the garden!

I have rows of garlic planted between rows of tomato plants. This is the time of year that I lift the garlic and the two scents go quite well together.

Don't you just love spring-time gardening.

Cindy

so now the plants are moving along...the leaves on it are gigantc! I have Matts wild cherry and cherokee purple that I purposely planted, and the leaves on the volunteer are double to triple in width....I wonder what they are!

Aunt Gertie's Gold is supposed to have humongous potato leaves. Did you grow any of those last year?

I did grow some yellow plum type tomato...I think that was last year..The closest to the place they popped up was a grape tomato, and some beefsteak type

I get voluntary tomato plants every year. Last year, I had a few growing from our burn pile. Go figure! This year I've got a few growing in one of my raised beds.