The Strangest Place You've Found a Tomato Plant Growing

[Irv Wiseguy]

Last year I saw what I thought was a spider web in my kitchen sink drain. I pulled it out and it was a little, pale tomato seedling. The seed got stuck on the side of the drain pipe and germinated. Thinking back, I should have tried to save it to see what variety it was.

Have you ever found a tomato plant growing in an unexpected or unusual place?

Thanks

Irv

[Zana]

Have to admit the sink drain is definitely not one of the first places or even second or third places that comes to mind where a volunteer seedling could be found. Curiouser and curiouser...

I found a seedling growing out of the dryer vent cover at the back of the house about 3 weeks ago. How it got there, I haven't a clue, since I'm not growing any tomatoes at the back of the house...or at least wasn't. LOL It's about 3 inches tall and I put it in a tiny pot to see if it survives. Haven't a clue what kind it is, so hopefully I'll see down the road. Like the one that Tessa found at the side of the road, I'm willing to give this one a chance to see what it produces.

[bullish]

I work in an office and everyone brings in potted plants to brighten up the "cube farm". A coworker was growing an spider plant and somehow a tomato plant grew out of the same pot... it didn't do very well under the artificial light, but I think he brought it home a few weeks ago to try planting it in his garden.

It's amazing how resilient those little seeds are!

[Mojo]

I had one come up underneath the backyard faucet, must've germinated from something I rinsed out (seed-saving).

I've had them show up in the rose bed, but I attribute that to squirrels.

[jwr6404]

I have a pot that I have had a single blueberry plant for 5 years. This year it has acquired a companion Tomato plant. It is a very wispy sort of plant with thinner branches than I have ever seen on any tomatoes I've grown in the past.The flowering pattern seems to reflect a cherry type tomato. The Blueberry pot has never been closer than 15ft to a tomato. Am letting it grow.

[cleo88]

Our 2007 house addition construction project included replacing our septic tank, and there were some pieces of the old concrete tank that I raked into a pile, scheduled to be removed when all construction was finished. And guess what grew out of that pile of rubble? Not just seedlings, not just plants - by the time I realized what was growing there, it had fruit on it. But man, I ripped those plants out - just couldn't deal with plants that came from seeds that spent any time in our septic tank!

[Elizabeth]

I have a front loading washing machine. We found one in the door washer earlier this year - I have no idea how that happened - messy eater? LOL

[cornbreadlouie]

Last year there was a tomato plant growing next to this big rock arch at the entrance of a vineyard just outside of town. Some kind of small cherry tomatoes.

I have a couple seeds from it but I didn't plant them this year. I'm not sure they're even viable since I didn't know how to ferment seeds when I collected these ones. Probably wasn't that great of a tomato but I didn't ever see it get watered and it grew into a pretty nice plant.

[joni]

I've got one in with my pot of snapdragons and petunias.

[Paul R]

We sold our beef cows some 15 or so years ago and the pastures have grown wild ever since. I mowed and tilled a spot in one of the pastures and planted pumpkins. 1 tomato plant sprang up and peers to be a currant type tomato.
Letting it grow to see what I get.

Paul R

[amideutch]

Here's one growing out of my patio. Ami

[PaulF]

It just so happens this morning my wife pointed out a tomato plant growing in with the flowers around a water feature/small pond with a waterfall and lots of rocks and water plants. Sure enough there was a small tomato plant growing happily about 100 feet or more from the vegetable garden. How it could have gotten there and what it was I have no idea. I just went outside to snap a photo but the poor little thing got uprooted. Some people just don't appreciate volunteers.

[JRoss]

I have a volunteer springing up from the 1 inch space between my raised beds and a sidewalk. Even getting some cherry tomatoes off of it! Its breaking up my side walk now.

Someone posted pictures once of a plant growing in the crack between two concrete slabs on a traffic island. It was growing right below the traffic light between two opposing lanes of traffic surrounded by concrete and asphalt. It even had a couple of nice orange colored tomatoes on it.

Cleo88's septic tank plant could have been a winner. I've known of people who grow some really nice tomatoes in the sludge from the digesters in sewage treatment plants. When they empty a digester into earthen tanks for drying, the sludge is full of tomato seeds which sprout. After the sludge drys, many cities like Milwaukee; package the dry sludge and sell it as lawn fertilizer. I think Milwaukee sells theirs as "Milorganite".

They

[Zana]

Originally Posted by tedln

Someone posted pictures once of a plant growing in the crack between two concrete slabs on a traffic island. It was growing right below the traffic light between two opposing lanes of traffic surrounded by concrete and asphalt. It even had a couple of nice orange colored tomatoes on it.

They

I believe that was the one that Tessa posted last year from Perth, Western Australia.

Zana