"Volunteer" Tomatoes

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gil1

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Last year, I had some Bradley and some Better Boy tomatoes from Home Depot in my garden. At the end of the season, I tossed all my dying plants in the compost bin. Before this season, I spread my compost out all over the garden. Now, I inadvertently have a few dozen tomato plants sprouting all over the place.

My brother said something about volunteers producing cherry tomatoes (even though I've never had cherry tomatoes in my garden). An something about hybrids and all this other gobbledygook.

I would need to replant them in the proper place, but is there any reason why these won't survive and flourish? I don't want to waste precious space in my garden if they're not going to do what I want them to do.

Thanks in advance.
 
i mix whats in my compost pile every year into my garden and i get volunteer plants of many kinds. we usually transplant them to a better spot. most of them do real good.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the Bradley is an open pollinated tomato and will always come back as a Bradley. That is, if it's not cross pollinated by a different variety growing very close by.

Being a hybrid, I'm not sure what will grow from it's seeds. Unless there's cherry tomatoes in the genetics you shouldn't get them in following generations. If you've got the room in your garden give a few a try. They might just turn out good.
 
gil1 said:
Last year, I had some Bradley and some Better Boy tomatoes from Home Depot in my garden. At the end of the season, I tossed all my dying plants in the compost bin. Before this season, I spread my compost out all over the garden. Now, I inadvertently have a few dozen tomato plants sprouting all over the place.

My brother said something about volunteers producing cherry tomatoes (even though I've never had cherry tomatoes in my garden). An something about hybrids and all this other gobbledygook.

I would need to replant them in the proper place, but is there any reason why these won't survive and flourish? I don't want to waste precious space in my garden if they're not going to do what I want them to do.

Thanks in advance.
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I had some last year, but I don't remember them really producing anything.
 
Bradley is open-pollinated. I'm growing it for the first time this year. Those seeds will grow true every year so your Bradley volunteers will still be Bradleys.

The Better Boys are hybrid so you will get a mix of different types of tomatoes that have started to revert back to the parent's traits.

I guess there's not much way to tell which volunteers are bradleys and which are F2 hyrbids until they produce fruit. You can always pick out the healthiest plants and let them grow and see what they give you. You'll probably end up with some good eating tomatoes.
 
That reminds me.....years ago, we had some pop up in the corner of the yard about 100 yards from the nearest tomato plant, and couldn't figure out how in the world they were getting there....it took a while to put 2 and 2 together, but

1) Our dog was connected at the hip with my mom when she was picking tomatoes. Ended up being "one for you, one for me" sort of deals.

2) He pooped in the corner of the yard.

Bada bing, bada boom.
 
And that reminds me of one: years ago my cousin was building a new house on his farm. He was doing most of the work himself with the help of his wife. They keep the area immediately around the house mowed so when nature called they would walk up to the edge of the uncut grass and poop. The next year they where in the house and right up there above were the prettiest fertilized red tomatoes. He would go and pick them but his wife refused to eat them�lol
 
Homebrewer said:
And that reminds me of one: years ago my cousin was building a new house on his farm. He was doing most of the work himself with the help of his wife. They keep the area immediately around the house mowed so when nature called they would walk up to the edge of the uncut grass and poop. The next year they where in the house and right up there above were the prettiest fertilized red tomatoes. He would go and pick them but his wife refused to eat them�lol
Click to expand...

Now that there is funny!
 

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