Planned Volunteers?

[AlittleSalt]

This year, in earlier spring, we bought tomato plants and planted them in a row. Same thing we have done for 4 years now. They grew huge and produced a lot of tomatoes.

A month or so after planting store bought plants, we found a lot of volunteer tomato plants coming up here and there. Most of the volunteers grew in the full sun areas, and they grew Celebrity and Porter tomatoes. Cool, Porter tomatoes taste great. (I know, Celebrities are hybrid, but it happened)

Three of the volunteer plants grew in shaded areas along fences, Those tomato plants grew much slower. A few weeks ago, we removed all of the spent bought tomato plants and all of the volunteer plants that grew in full sun. However, the volunteer tomato plants growing in shaded areas are now producing, and the tomatoes being produced taste great. It is like they are producing what the early spring planted tomatoes did a few months back. I know this goes against everything I have read here and I have seen in real life.

I'm just wondering, if maybe, planting seeds late of varieties you hope to come up in off-seasons in shaded areas might be a way of growing ... well, a "Planned Volunteer" crop?

What do you think?

[taboule]

Not volunteers, but i noticed that on some of the latter plants I set out (leftovers that I didnt want to destroy), also next to fences (because that was the only room I had left.) They are big, green and loaded with large fruit. Some of the earlier plants, are beginning to look tired, with yellowing leaves, although they produced the early fruit.

So maybe the combination of "younger" plants and a reprieve from the hottest July sun helped a good deal. Nice to have the variety of different ripening dates.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by taboule

Not volunteers, but i noticed that on some of the latter plants I set out (leftovers that I didnt want to destroy), also next to fences (because that was the only room I had left.) They are big, green and loaded with large fruit. Some of the earlier plants, are beginning to look tired, with yellowing leaves, although they produced the early fruit.

So maybe the combination of "younger" plants and a reprieve from the hottest July sun helped a good deal. Nice to have the variety of different ripening dates.

I agree completely. Here it is August, and I am picking really good tasting tomatoes. Yes, the skins are a little thicker, but they taste great.

I was going to plant ferns and mint in the shaded areas, but after experiencing what the volunteers growing in the shade has proven, I'm going to plant early to mid-May tomato seeds instead. Our garden is strategically fenced to where early spring through late summer - the southern side shade follows the fence line. That is 35 feet long by 3 foot wide shaded bed outside of the fence line.

I should explain: Our garden is a 45' x 45' raised bed with a fence around it. Then we used cut limestone to make what looks like flower beds on the outside of the fences. The main reason for these flowerbeds is to control washouts from extreme flooding, but we plant stuff in them too. On the shaded side, I want to find semi-shade tolerant tomatoes that grow in 100F temps too.