Most tomatoes self-pollinate, however there's still a chance of cross pollination from other varieties, especially by bees. Sungold has a very complex parentage, it's not a simple hybrid with 2 parents, so the chances of the volunteers being like Sungold will vary greatly. There's a chance if you get fruit that they can be orange, red, etc. If it were a simple hybrid bred from just 2 stable non-hybrid parents, you can usually expect something similar to either parent or something in-between the 2 parents. Many people attempted to "de-hybridize" Sungold and some have come up with an open pollinated stable variety, (actually a couple, Sungold Select and Sungold Select II) however they lack some of the outstanding flavor of the original F1 hybrid and many feel the original F1 is much better. There's a missing taste quality that amateur breeders & de-hybridizers cannot duplicate. Some have grown volunteers or saved seeds and have reportedly got similar tomatoes, though there's no real way of telling just how close to the original they are. And some have reported different colors and tastes. I think if you had that many plants, I'm sure they all should produce and maybe you can compare them to each other. The wild card in the mix is if they cross pollinated with the other varieties you grew last year, which would throw a monkey wrench into the predictions of what you'll get! So do grow them, compare them, and report your results. With so many plants between you and your friends, you may find one with that "missing ingredient." You'd get more replies about Sungold in the Tomato Forum at GardenWeb too, where others have grown both volunteers, later F generations, and intentional crosses. We'd be interested to hear/see your results! Hope this helps. Mark Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Web's Tomato Forum

I think that potting mix was just way too moisture retentive, for one thing. The other orders I had gotten from them in the past also had problems. Root rot, very weak plants. I remember their claim was that the special long pot was supposed to foster this spectacular root growth, but if anything, it seemed to be the opposite. Not saying it was the pot, but maybe that odd potting mix. It just seemed glued to the roots (such as they were...) when you pulled it out of the pot.

Thank you every one of you for your kind support. I knew that fellow hostaholics would be the ones who would fully understand how I feel. I just had to share with you. That was a terrible situation you had to endure moccasinlanding. I hope your neighborhood plant thief stays on her medication too. I felt that I could start a new thread ("My hosta was stolen!"), but then I thought against it---we want to stay on the positive in life not the negative, right? So towards the positive, this is what my dear husband built for me last year for my spring birthday. Needed more room for hostas and that side of the house had more sun. It was also here that my Birchwood Parky's Gold was---near the ground, on top of the window well cover. Irawon, I will still take away any hostas that are special to me. I did take away Goodness Gracious. I need to take away High Society too and maybe more.

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.