Juliet cherry tomatoes!

I admire the tenacity of the Juliet cherry tomato. I grow them every year for my friends and family who simply want some tomatoes which were not purchased in a store. I personally think they are bland tasting, but they compliment a salad well. They also serve well when frozen in bags and tossed into a pasta sauce to cook. They produce early and abundantly all summer until the first frost kills them.

Last fall, I must have dropped one beside my garden fence. This past spring I noticed a straight line of tomato volunteers growing along the fence. Since I had no other use for the real estate at the bottom of the fence, I let them grow to see what kind of surprise may develop.

The soil at the bottom of my fence has never been prepared to grow anything. It is about two inches of rock hard topsoil over hard red clay. It never gets supplemental water or nutrients and we have had a very dry summer and now it is dry into the fall.

The Juliet volunteer plants grew better and have produced better than the Juliets growing in prepared beds with balanced moisture and nutrients. They now have the largest cherry tomatoes I have ever grown ripening on the vines. It makes me wonder if I may have had this gardening thing all wrong for all those years. Maybe all I should do is plant the seed and let them fend for themselves.

Next year, I plan on breaking my habit and growing Black Cherry instead of Juliet. I know I will have lots more Juliet volunteers which I may let grow. They are tough and resilient and I admire that.

Ted

[carolyn137]

Ted, since Juliet is a hybrid, the volunteers you speak of aren't Juliet. Originally the Known-You seed Co in Taiwan introduced Juliet F1 and then a different Juliet F1 followed, several folks have noiticed.

But if you like the volunteer fruits better, then save the seeds and grow them out next year.

Since no one knows, as far as I know, what the parental genetic inputs are for Juliet F1 it will be interesting to see what you get.Were all the volunteers you saw this past summer the same as to fruits and size and plant habit? I ask only b;c I don't think I'd expect your volunteers, fromdropped F2 seeds to be identical.

Yes Carolyn, they are like the F1 Juliets in all ways except size. They may be a little more bland than the F1's but they are pretty nice. Four volunteer plants grew about 12" apart. I have been tying them to the fence as they grew. Since my garden fence is only four feet tall, they have grown along the top of the fence about ten feet. All four plants are producing identical fruit. Early season fruit was normal size. Fall fruit are double size. The early season fruit was so tasteless, even my dog wouldn't eat them. The late season fruit has some acidity and the dog even likes them.

Ted

I thought I would post a photo showing the difference between the normal Juliet cherry tomatoes and the volunteers from last years Juliet. All four of the volunteer plants came from one tomato I must have dropped last fall. While they are not true Juliets because the Juliets are F!, I guess it's possible this large variety could be grown out, but I'm not going to because both the F! hybrid and the volunteers are a little bland for my taste. They do make good sauce though. In the background is one of my 15" "Sweet Success" cucumbers. I love the cukes because they are seedless, tender, and sweet no matter how large they get.



Ted