All my carefully planted starts stunted this year and haven’t produced much. Meanwhile the fruit that rotted in the garden last year produced tomatoes that are going bonkers. Life…finds a way. 🦕 Car keys for scale.
by Positive_Throwaway1
31 Comments
Positive_Throwaway1
I should note my ‘keys for scale’ was poor work. That tomato closest to the keys is a good 6-8” behind it. It’s huge.
OscarImposter
Careful, it’s trying to steal your car.
qui-gon-gym501
Could this partially be due to the “direct seeded” nature of volunteer plants. I feel like I here this a lot about how volunteer plants outperform starts
ConsiderationOnly430
About 3 years ago, after painstaking care of starters to fill a 20×30′ plot, ~50% were died naturally or got nipped off by critters in 2 weeks time. A week or two later, I saw all the volunteers from the prior year coming up. It was more than enough to replace everything that was lost. It was nice, but made me really question why I bothered with the starters at all.
robotdebo
*cries in squirrel tomato theft* 😭
These look beautiful!
ajohns90
Variety of factors but you can’t deny natural selection.
Sick_and_destroyed
I like volunteer from undetermined, you don’t know what kind of tomato you are going to have.
RealPropRandy
It’s a slippery slope once you let them borrow the car. Just saying.
bigoledawg7
I discover this every year! The volunteers that I neglect go on to produce healthy tomatoes and the seedlings I plant, prune and weed around often just succumb to blight or produce smaller tomatoes. This year my seedlings were really struggling and I transplanted some volunteers without even being sure what varieties they were. This is a good year for me and its a late harvest but I have a LOT of big green tomatoes on the vine that look like a winner if I can bring it home for a few more weeks without a severe weather event.
100percent_NotCursed
The car keys made me cackle lol
HeyPickleRick
Those ‘maters are goin’ places.
NewManitobaGarden
They are like getting a dog from the pound. That thing is going to live until 18 and have no health issues!
Fall93
Vroom vroom
TheAmazingFinno
Where does the plant intend on driving off to?
Sozzcat94
It’s scary when they are old enough to drive
bearur
When are they able to drive?
Gourmetanniemack
They look great. This was the first year, I trimmed up all my stems. Illinois is a lot cooler than Texas….glad u still have some. Will netting keep out critters??
PondWaterBrackish
I’ve had the opposite experience
ElderRaven81
So this is 100% correct. I mulched my leftover tomatoes unto the garden last fall and i had a whole patch of them come up that are doing crazy good.
Prior_Elderberry3553
Kind tomato plant holds your keys. How kind.
Scrappyz_zg
05 Honda keys?
organicgirl811
Can confirm!! The volunteer cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes in my garden are putting out more tomatoes than I have EVER picked! The ones that I planted myself look so pathetic in comparison. I am picking 2.5 POUNDS of cherry tomatoes every few days!
PurplePenguinCat
I often save seed from the volunteers. I figure if they were strong enough to survive a winter in the Northeast completely unprotected, that’s a strain I want to keep going. Plus, as you said, volunteers are often the healthiest and larger.
Uncanny_ValleyGrrl
I don’t think they’re old enough to drive yet. 😎
samj00
r/cantparktheremate
Pxlfreaky
So that’s where I left my keys!
lilly_kilgore
A friend gifted me a moldy tomato. I chucked it in the yard thinking that the deer or raccoons would get it. A tomato plant is now growing out of a pile of construction rubble overrun by weeds. It is verrrry unlikely to give me any tomatoes before frost this year. But I certainly wish it would give me just one so I can save the seeds because this dude *wants* to grow.
ferretfamily
Some chipmunks planted some seeds for me and their volunteer tomatoes are thriving- giving us both a snack.
judijo621
Free food!
BigJSunshine
DO NOT GIVE A TOMATO PLANT YOUR CAR KEYS
-thecardiffkook-
This is literally just Artificial selection vs natural selection
31 Comments
I should note my ‘keys for scale’ was poor work. That tomato closest to the keys is a good 6-8” behind it. It’s huge.
Careful, it’s trying to steal your car.
Could this partially be due to the “direct seeded” nature of volunteer plants. I feel like I here this a lot about how volunteer plants outperform starts
About 3 years ago, after painstaking care of starters to fill a 20×30′ plot, ~50% were died naturally or got nipped off by critters in 2 weeks time. A week or two later, I saw all the volunteers from the prior year coming up. It was more than enough to replace everything that was lost. It was nice, but made me really question why I bothered with the starters at all.
*cries in squirrel tomato theft* 😭
These look beautiful!
Variety of factors but you can’t deny natural selection.
I like volunteer from undetermined, you don’t know what kind of tomato you are going to have.
It’s a slippery slope once you let them borrow the car. Just saying.
I discover this every year! The volunteers that I neglect go on to produce healthy tomatoes and the seedlings I plant, prune and weed around often just succumb to blight or produce smaller tomatoes. This year my seedlings were really struggling and I transplanted some volunteers without even being sure what varieties they were. This is a good year for me and its a late harvest but I have a LOT of big green tomatoes on the vine that look like a winner if I can bring it home for a few more weeks without a severe weather event.
The car keys made me cackle lol
Those ‘maters are goin’ places.
They are like getting a dog from the pound. That thing is going to live until 18 and have no health issues!
Vroom vroom
Where does the plant intend on driving off to?
It’s scary when they are old enough to drive
When are they able to drive?
They look great. This was the first year, I trimmed up all my stems. Illinois is a lot cooler than Texas….glad u still have some. Will netting keep out critters??
I’ve had the opposite experience
So this is 100% correct. I mulched my leftover tomatoes unto the garden last fall and i had a whole patch of them come up that are doing crazy good.
Kind tomato plant holds your keys. How kind.
05 Honda keys?
Can confirm!! The volunteer cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes in my garden are putting out more tomatoes than I have EVER picked! The ones that I planted myself look so pathetic in comparison. I am picking 2.5 POUNDS of cherry tomatoes every few days!
I often save seed from the volunteers. I figure if they were strong enough to survive a winter in the Northeast completely unprotected, that’s a strain I want to keep going. Plus, as you said, volunteers are often the healthiest and larger.
I don’t think they’re old enough to drive yet. 😎
r/cantparktheremate
So that’s where I left my keys!
A friend gifted me a moldy tomato. I chucked it in the yard thinking that the deer or raccoons would get it. A tomato plant is now growing out of a pile of construction rubble overrun by weeds. It is verrrry unlikely to give me any tomatoes before frost this year. But I certainly wish it would give me just one so I can save the seeds because this dude *wants* to grow.
Some chipmunks planted some seeds for me and their volunteer tomatoes are thriving- giving us both a snack.
Free food!
DO NOT GIVE A TOMATO PLANT YOUR CAR KEYS
This is literally just Artificial selection vs natural selection