Wendy's salad tomato grow out

naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan

16 years ago

In March I was starting several varieties of tomatoes. While eating a Wendy's garden salad, I began to wonder, "Can I get seeds from these tomatoes to grow?"

I decided to try and took a smear of seeds home on a napkin.

I planted the seeds and they came up in only a few days. It looked like most every seed sprouted. I transplanted three of them and eventually potted all three in a large patio container. The three plants grew well and produced lots of fruit. They tasted about as good as the tomatoes from the original salad :)

In mid-August I read about taking cuttings from tomato plants to start new plants. That sounded interesting, so I pinched off several stems that were reallly too big for the pot anyway and stuck them in water. I kinda forgot about the whole experiment for a few weeks. Then a garden I help with elsewhere lost most of it's tomatoes to fungus that took over during a week of constant rain. I really wanted to restore the pizza garden there. I remembered my cuttings and checked on them. They had lots of long roots. I stuck them in the ground, watered well, and hoped for the best. They did great. I hadn't pinched off any blossoms or small tomatoes when I took the cuttings. The cuttings soon were growing AND producing red fruit. I was impressed.

I certainly got alot of enjoyment out of my $0.99 Value Menu Salad!

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Comments (8)

trudi_d
16 years ago
Good for you!

Nice picts with happy ending ;-)
bigdaddyj
16 years ago
That's my motto too. If it isn't fun I ain't doing it! My own experiments are the one's that give me the greatest satisfaction and that's probably true for most.

I used to grow little dwarf Red Robin tomatoes in a sunny window just to see if I could get ripe ones in mid winter without any artificial lights. I certainly did! Last winter I tried a large indeterminate, 'Momotaro' and it too produced ripe tomatoes all winter long indoors.

When I first started to garden about 16 years ago I was watching Martha Stewart on TV working with tomato plants. (Hey, that's the ONLY time I'll watch Martha on TV if it's about gardening LOL)She said to remove all suckers because nothing will ever come from them. So I snipped off a sucker, threw it in a glass of water and in a few days it had tiny roots and I planted it and it grew a fine plant with plenty of tomatoes!

Many experts here say you can't grow successfully without Daconil in my humid area. I'll match my organic garden against any of them! I spray nothing.

The experts aren't always expert. It is better to think for one's self. The best satisfaction comes from beating the odds. Next year you may want to SUPER SIZE your experiment...LOL
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The are "real" tomatoes. The seeds in my Wendy's salad tomatoes grew fine. I did my own experiment in 2007. The plants that grew produced tomatoes that looked and tasted like the ones from my salad. I don't know the variety but it seemed to produce similar fruits in my grow out. I just removed them from the tomato, smeared some on a napkin and took them home. After a few days, I picked them off the napkin and planted them. Most all the seeds I planted germinated. I transplanted three of them in a large pot with container mix and grew them on my patio. With plenty of water and fertilizer, they did well. I even took some cuttings from them which rooted and produced fruits in my inground garden. Good for it. It's always fun to try a garden experiment of two. I'd like to know what experiment you have planned. Hmm, I wonder.... From Wendy's tomato grow out Well, why not try it. There's plenty of seeds. From Wendy's tomato grow out Oh, yeah, they will grow! From Wendy's tomato grow out
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carolyn137
16 years ago
When I first started to garden about 16 years ago I was watching Martha Stewart on TV working with tomato plants. (Hey, that's the ONLY time I'll watch Martha on TV if it's about gardening LOL)She said to remove all suckers because nothing will ever come from them. So I snipped off a sucker, threw it in a glass of water and in a few days it had tiny roots and I planted it and it grew a fine plant with plenty of tomatoes!

******

Ummm, errrrr, not to enrage the Martha Stewart fans here but those of us who know of her veggie gardening expertise know that it comes from others, not necessarily from her own experience.

And the person she got the info from that said that suckers don't produce blossoms and fruit was just dead wrong and Martha would not have known that and so passed it along.

I do wish she would give credit to those she gets information from, I mean when it's the right information. LOL

Carolyn, whose 30 acres are land once owned by Martha and her first DH Andy, who is one heck of a nice guy; runs the book distributing firm in NYC called Stewart, Tabouri and Chang. Yes, the search for my property has their name as former owners back a bit; I'm the third owner of the propertry since it's had this lovely home on it; before it was pasture when the Stewarts owned it and it goes back to the 1700's re ownership. They owned many hundreds of acres of land on my rural road and Andy got all the land up here after they divorced. My closet neighbors down the road apiece can tell stories, oh yes they can, as to what happened to the lovely home they now live in after Martha was through with it; the Stewarts never lived in that home, but owned it. LOL My first housewarming gift here was a plaque that reads; Martha Stewart doesn't live here....it's a Good Thing. LOL
bigdaddyj
16 years ago
That is a very interesting story Carolyn, thank you for sharing it.

I had read that suckers would produce an entire plant so when Martha said that nothing would ever come from them I just HAD to see for myself.

When someone on a Garden forum said you couldn't grow a large indeterminate in a sunny window without supplemental lighting and get ripe tomatoes I wanted to see for myself.

When WOW's first came out I had to try them for myself. (Yes you can plant out a month earlier but NO you don't get your first ripe any earlier in my zone 7. I see their benefit for colder climes though)

Now Trudi's tomato WSing plan for northerners doesn't sound logical to me but this winter I'm going to try it myself and compare results versus my traditional methods.

I guess for me the fun is in the experimenting and Naturegirl's Wendy's story sounds like something exactly I would do...:)

Back to Martha. Where can I get one of those plaque's your neighbor's gave you? Martha certainly doesn't live here either. LOL

On that insider trading deal. If only she would have admitted it and said it all happened so fast and she made a poor decision and she was sorry they would have fined her and that would have been that. But not Martha. She might not have uttered those two words in the same sentence ever. So she goes to jail and now her empire is as strong as ever. Makes no sense to me but then the older I get the less things make sense at all...:)
naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
Original Author
16 years ago
Yes, bigdaddy, I enjoy the weird experimental growing alot. Usually I don't do a good job of documenting it and end up not really knowing how things worked. And I'll fess up, the salad and seed photos were taken AFTER my initial seeds were growing well. It was then I realized I should make a photo diary. Just meant I had to return for another delicious ;) meal at Wendy's since every garden salad looks about the same no matter what time of the year you buy it.

A SUPER SIZE experiment you say....hmmm. That means McDonald's, right?. I'm not a regular there. Maybe a trip needs to be scheduled :) Perhaps a lime seed would show up in the SW salad, or an apple or grape seed in the Fruit and Walnut Salad. Maybe a viable pepper seed from a salad or chipolte "entree" (does that word apply to McD food?) Would frozen strawberries or blueberries from the parfaits still have viable seeds? Could be worth a visit....and a possible SUPER SIZE experiment. If nothing else, McD's has grape tomatoes, too.
nc_crn
16 years ago
Nice.

This past warm growing season I did a similar thing with what I now know to be a hybrid sweet pepper (those 3-color "super sweet" peppers sold by various vendors).

While it wasn't true to form (fruit was physically similar, but not as sweet though having thicker walls) it was still sweeter than most ripe bell peppers (even when green) and extremely productive. I didn't get a plant that made fruit as sweet as its hybrid parent, but its production and thick walled fruit made it a salad and cooking favorite.

In the first go around only the orange ones produced the best looking and most vigorous plants so I'm just growing those next year.

And yes...It was great fun that's lead to a full time addition to my garden. Hopefully the second generation seed I collected off what grew this year will match the plant that was grown from my original seed collection. I'd like to keep this one even if it is technically inferior to its parent.
tom8olvr
16 years ago
That's my motto too. If it isn't fun I ain't doing it!

I believe in this motto as well. if you don't do it, how do you know it WON'T work?? I think it's sad when people believe the Martha Stewarts out there and don't try things themselves. Trial and Error is a special part of gardening, a part I very much love...

Thanks for the wendy's grow out documentation... :)

Tom-
ediej1209 AL Zn 7
16 years ago
That is a WAY cool experiment, thank you for sharing... and giving me some ideas!

Carolyn, neat story ... I need one of those plaques, too ;^)

Wendy's salad tomato grow out

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Wendy's salad tomato grow out

Comments (8)

trudi_d

bigdaddyj

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carolyn137

bigdaddyj

naturegirl_2007 5B SW MichiganOriginal Author

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ediej1209 AL Zn 7

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naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
Original Author