So what mysteries are you growing this year?

[ChrisK]

Another mystery here. I have what was supposed to be Rose Quartz from a trade. It looks like a multiflora of oblong fruits! No color yet but not the shape I was expecting!

[livinonfaith]

Multiflora AND oblong. That sounds intriguing.

Are they setting well? If so, you may have yourself a nice little workhorse of a plant there. Then all you need is a very good taste to make it a great one.

[ChrisK]

It seems to be setting a lot of fruit. They don't really look like they are going to be round and color is still unknown!

[noinwi]

Tania, I ended up with a PL Grightmire's Pride a couple seasons ago that turned out to be a large pink(I think...not good at checking skin)beefsteak(free seeds from Wintersown.org). I didn't save any seed from it though, I only saved seed from the plant next to it that appeared to be the real G's Pride and that seed grew out seemingly true.

[checkerkitty]

I have another mystery, I think. I had a volunteer pop up in the middle of my yard. I dug it up and planted it with another tomato in a container. When it bloomed, I knew for sure it was a cherry but didn't know which one. So now I have ripe fruit. The plant in short, about 3 feet tall right now. The fruits are red. I thought it was a Matt's Wild Cherry a while ago. Now I don't think so. I have three other Matt's volunteers in the ground. They are HUGE and the fruits are about half the size of the unknown. Last year I grew Matt's, Sun Gold and Isis Candy for cherry tomatoes. The Isis never set fruit that I saw and I pulled it up. It's a nice little plant. There are trusses about every 5-6 inches. I'll be saving seeds on this one, I think. Christy

[Tania]

Originally Posted by noinwi

Tania, I ended up with a PL Grightmire's Pride a couple seasons ago that turned out to be a large pink(I think...not good at checking skin)beefsteak(free seeds from Wintersown.org). I didn't save any seed from it though, I only saved seed from the plant next to it that appeared to be the real G's Pride and that seed grew out seemingly true.

Interesting... Sounds like a possible seed mixup too. It happens!
Or a cross with a PL occurred a few generations ago, and it continued to segregate...

[MarinaRussian]

I am growing 2 Grub's Mystery plants this year and they've just set clusters of cute little pointy plums or icicles ( I think that's what plums are supposed to look like, never grown them). Now that's a real mystery!!! I check these guys like 27 times a day because they're so unusual

[RobinB]

This plant has been through a lot. It got a serious pruning a few weeks ago when the temperature dipped to near freezing. Since then, I have pretty much ignored it, and it is regenerating and setting fruit. BUT, what is this? I've never grown Haley's Comet, but the photos show it as a round tomato. I'm getting something with a distinctive point. It's only about 1/4" long now. Who knows where I'll end up?

Fun stuff! I do have another Haley's that is setting round fruit, so this one will be an experiment!

[FILMNET]

Darn Cute!!! Heart shape

[RobinB]

I've never grown a heart tomato (on purpose!) The "crown" of leaves around the top of the tomato (what IS that part called?) is rather large compared to the size of the tomato so far. Perhaps the fruit will grow into it?

[Fusion_power]

Starting from the center of the flower you have:
Stigma, Style, and Ovary - these are the organs that become the fruit and produce seed
Anthers - a yellow to white cone that produces pollen
Petals - The fragile flower parts comparable to petals on a rose
Sepals - these are the "crown" of green soft leaf like structures around the top of the fruit
Pedicel - This is the stem on which the fruit develops.

Re Rose Quartz, I grow Rose Quartz Multiflora which may be what you have. It produces very large flower clusters.


I have a Gregori's Altai that is producing gorgeous and delicious deep pink cherry tomatoes. This is probably a cross since I don't have any other cherry tomatoes that quite fit the color and shape of these. The cherry gene is dominant so it would be consistent with a bee made cross.

I have 5 plants of Piennolo (seed from Nctomatoman) that are looking spectacular. They appear to be turning an orange color which is typical of tomatoes with the rin gene for ripening inhibition. The plants have relatively open potato leaf canopy with medium fruit set of pear shaped tomatoes with a distinctive nipple. I have 2 or 3 that are nearly ripe.

I have a few other unusual plants in the garden, but most of them will have to wait

DarJones

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Well, what was supposed to be a yellow determinate turned out to be a red one this week, but thats not an interesting mystery. It was my first ripe non-cherry at about 50 days from transplant, but the first couple of fruits are only average in flavor.

A new mystery for me is this plant I noticed today. It was supposed to be Nepal but is mostly silver dollar or slightly larger ribbed tomatoes that are cute enough I didn't rogue it out until I see how they taste. Strangely enough it's setting fruit like mad and almost every truss has one megabloom on it that makes a small fist sized fruit.

[nctomatoman]

A few non-planned mysteries are showing up! Cherokee chocolate (saved in 1998) is not Cherokee chocolate, but instead a super-prolific (and tasty) 2 ounce round red - indicative of a cross of course. Looking back, that particular Cherokee chocolate was growing quite near Anna Russian and Eva Purple Ball. Of course I saved seeds....so this will be a future mini project.

Then there was what I thought was Cherokee Purple from 1999. But I made a cross-reference transcription mistake - and what I am actually growing is seed from a bicolor I got at the Raleigh Farmers Market back then!

One more....Tennessee Britches, purchased from Victory, is a large pale yellow, nearly white oblate beefsteak type...not sure what's going on here - recessive traits showing, so suspect just stray seed.

All three of the Indian Stripe X Purple Smudge (my guess) F2s seem to be round tomatoes that are still quite small - two of the three have fruit, the other blooming (that's the one with the most purple in the stem). Maybe I will know something more in a few weeks.

[RobinB]

It's been at least 4 years since I last attempted to grow Paul Robeson. It's a favorite, but I usually don't get ripe tomatoes before the first frost. So, this year, I started one plant in a Wall O' Water, and now it's covered with tomatoes, but they are not the shape I remember. I Googled it, and the photos all show what I remember... an oblate shape. These are not oblate.... What you see is the largest one on the plant, so no ripe ones yet.

[PA_Julia]

As an update my mystery plant has two tomatoes currently growing on it.
They appear as a regular tomato shape thus far.
Will keep everyone updated.


Julia