About Volunteer Tomato Plants

[ContainerTed]

My question is "Why are volunteers always Regular Leaf, and why are they always some kind of cherry tomato???" I cannot recall ever seeing a potato leaf, wispy leaf, or rugose leaf volunteer. This year, I had two Regular leaf types come up. I accidentally tilled over the one that came up at the bottom of the garden. But the one near the top edge I have managed to miss with the old "Garden Machine" tiller.

This is the only kind of foliage that I ever see, and some years I've had a couple dozen or more plants show up.

[Tracydr]

I've had dwarf,rugosa leaf volunteers.
I think cherries are more likely to get missed and dropped on the ground than big tomatoes. Especially little bitty ones like MWC.

[AlittleSalt]

Ted, all of my volunteers are RL too - always are.

[digsdirt]

RL is a dominant gene for one thing so any regression can show up as RL. Not to mention that it is the most common leaf form by far. But yeah you can get the potato leaf volunteer now and then. All depends on parentage lines of whatever dropped the source fruit. Can't say I have ever seen a rugose volunteer but it's possible I suppose.

And you only get cherry volunteers IF you grew cherries. One reason why some growers refuse to ever grow them since the little buggers are so prolific when it comes to littering the soil with dropped fruit and subsequent volunteers. When all else is gone cherry tomatoes will still be around to take over the world.

Dave

[ContainerTed]

Tracy, Matt's Wild Cherry is a good example. I've always thought that the small cherries like that are genetically closer to the wild plants from Ecuador and Peru, and those "first" tomatoes had to reseed themselves.

Anyhow, it'll be good to hear from others about their experiences. This subject ties in somewhat with the concept of "wintersowing". It also ties in with Tville member "Joseph" who is trying to select tomatoes with more resistance to cold and frost. Maybe the data we gather here in this thread will help point out some common characteristics.

So far, here in my garden, the volunteers have been dominated by a few cherry types, with Sungold, MWC, and Sara's Galapagos being the most frequent,

[carolyn137]

For many years when I was growing my tomatoes in my own field near thefarmhouse, when volunteers would come up after Charlie had prepared my field for me I would dig up 10 of them and transfer them to my side garden where I grew the smaller stuff, to see if I could ID them, which was difficult since while I always had a plot plan of varieties as the were from the last season, preparing the field could move them around.

I'd say half of the time I could, and maybe half of the time I could not.

But I never got predominently cherries. I got beefsteaks, I got wispy hearts, I did get mostly RL's but then statistically that was Ok with me b'c I grew far more RL's than PL's.

Also remembering that in the Fall Charley would plow under that field, and pretty darn deep at that, and sow winter rye as a cover crop. Whether it was b'c that field was plowed so deeply in the Fall that I did get so many different kinds showing up the next Spring, I don't know, but it could be related.

Just my own experience with volunteers.

Carolyn

[Gardeneer]

and why are they always some kind of cherry tomato???"

Perhaps, because a lot more cherries are spoiled than beefsteaks.

Why RL ? Dave already explained. But that is about hybrids. If the seeds came from an OP/HRLM PL, you would definitely get PL volunteer.
So I think that " Statistical Probability" is the best explanation.

Gardeneer

[NarnianGarden]

Why no volunteers in my garden / yard? I guess our winter kills any tomato seeds that end up in the ground... I even sowed some cherry variety seeds a few years back, but nothing came back in the spring

[joseph]

Tomatoes don't generally volunteer in my garden. I typically till 3 times after fruit fall: Once in the fall that probably buries a lot of the seed too deep to germinate, once in the early spring, when it's way too early to germinate tomatoes, so the weeds take over, and once just before planting tomatoes. By then it's too hot/dry for tomato seeds to want to be germinating.

One year my brother's garden was filled with volunteers. He has sandy soil I have clay. They looked like they were descended from Celebrity. I saved the seed, and have been direct sowing them, and lots of other varieties, but alas that doesn't seem to work for me. One year I direct seeded 1000 row feet of tomatoes and only about 3 plants survived the seedling stage if they even germinated. I have lots of invertebrate animals in my garden. Perhaps they are eating the seeds.

I watch like an eagle for volunteers, but alas...

[Tracydr]

I doubt winter kills the seed but tilling deeply could certainly put a lot of it too deep.
Probably, letting tomatoes sprawl, where some of them are lost due to damage/rot. For example, the year after I was sick and let a lot of mine rot, since I couldn't get to the garden in my wheelchair, puts more seed on the ground. I had a lot of volunteers the next year. Some had obviously been moved around by birds and irrigation.
It's probably a lot like winter sowing, the plants start to come up when conditions are right.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

I doubt winter kills the seed but tilling deeply could certainly put a lot of it too deep.
Probably, letting tomatoes sprawl, where some of them are lost due to damage/rot. For example, the year after I was sick and let a lot of mine rot, since I couldn't get to the garden in my wheelchair, puts more seed on the ground. I had a lot of volunteers the next year. Some had obviously been moved around by birds and irrigation.
It's probably a lot like winter sowing, the plants start to come up when conditions are right.

And I'm thinking the reverse.

Yes, some fruits at the end of the season drop to the ground and that's where they stay and when freezing weather moves in the seeds, for the most part, are destroyed, the remaining ones showing up as volunteers.

But if in plowing deeply in the fall, the plow does turn over the soil and then the soil is smoothed with another piece of equipment before the rye is seeded, even if the seeds have a few inches of soil over them they are more protected, especially for those of us who live where it snows which also insulates the top part of the soil

Just my theory, take it or leave it.

Carolyn

[greyghost]

I probably grow 50/50% regular/potato leaf plants and do see many pl
volunteers.

[bower]

My Mom had a PL volunteer - in the fall! She dug the mystery plant out of the garden bed and potted it up, and it lived in her house over winter in a tiny pot in the dark, and did fine in her garden the following summer. It was a Chernomor of course, she loves them and hardly wants any other kind. It probably came from a stray bit of fruit that went to the compost, maybe moved by birds. Or possibly ghosts. My mom has volunteer vegetables in the strangest places. Kale and Bok Choy and other greens are like weeds in her garden. Rainbow chard too. A bunch of red russian kale came up under a rose last year. Yep, I think she's haunted.
I only had a tomato volunteer once, myself. It was early summer, and Mom was complaining that I didn't start her any Peacevine cherry. That afternoon I spotted a seedling where I grew Peacevine in my garden the year before. I potted it up for her. Indeed, it turned out to be a Peacevine.
Like I said, she's haunted.

[patty_b]

I had several PL volunteers this time, more RLs but I grow many more varieties that are RL. Looking forward to seeing what the transplants will be. (Prob. Pink!)

[Cole_Robbie]

I'm growing Warren's Yellow Cherry next to my front door. I don't especially want to be, but I still am. The variety is like guest who can't take the hint to leave.