kinda weird shaped

[rtvvvv]

what causes this weird shape on tomatoes? these are better boys , they also have this weird bottom. it doesnt look like BER. otherwise the seem big and healthy. usually they are just a normal round tomato

[slugworth]

don't look like any better boy I ever seen
more like a costoluto genovese heirloom
and I think better boy is RL not PL

[rtvvvv]

rl not pl?? sorry i dont know what you mean

[slugworth]

potato leaf regular leaf
heirlooms are usually potato leaf
unless your pics are fooling me.

[rtvvvv]

ahh i see...i will have to read up. have not heard of this. thank you

i suppose i might have gotten a weird seed from the pack.

[ddsack]

Don't worry about the bottom, it doesn't affect the flavor and many big beefsteaks have it in various degrees, especially early in the year on the first tomatoes. It's called catfacing and it's just scars and depressions from pollination problems. Your tomato also looks like a double from a fused blossom. People who grow giant tomatoes for competition look for these megablooms or fusions of several blossoms which grow the largest tomatoes, though they are not the prettiest. Flavor is just fine.

I see some serrations in the leaves farther from the camera, so unless those leaves are from another plant, would not definitely call the plant potato leafed. They may or may not be Better Boys.

[rtvvvv]

thank you!
i will post a pic of the leaves. have you heard of the wrong seeds in packets often?

[rtvvvv]

here are the leaves on that plant..what do you think?

[slugworth]

Regular leaf but the tomato doesn't look like better boy

[ddsack]

It can happen that sellers sometimes have incorrect seeds. I've had it happen several times from different sources. It could be just a stray seed in a packet, or an unexpected bee cross for the whole batch. I would think it should be very rare with hybrid seeds, since they are a planned F1 cross of parents that should be under strict control.

Did you grow more than one plant from the same packet? Do they all look alike in leaves and tomato shape? Is it a new packet, or did you use it last year?

[rtvvvv]

the seeds are a new packet. i germinated 4 and kept 2 . the other plant
is very much more "normal" looking but for reasons i cant explain they are growing
much faster and bigger fruit than i am used to. i've been growing early girl and

better boy's for many years. i put the seedlings into the containers on 3/22 and they are already filling the greenhouse with tomatoes

[ddsack]

Sounds like there was a supplier seed mix up somewhere along the line. No way to know what other tomato might have been involved, so just enjoy what you have! It does look like it may have crossed with some unknown big beefsteak heirloom, if it's not just a stray seed. If you gave your extras away, it might be fun to wander over and see if the other two are like your "normal" or more flukey. To complicate matters more, it's possible for a blossom to be pollinated from more than one source, so seeds from that fruit would not all have the same genetic package and could produce different fruit and leaves in future generations. In theory, I suppose one of the parent lines of the F1 could have unknowingly been contaminated. Bet it will still make a great BLT sandwich!

[sic transit gloria]

That's a mild case of catfacing. Won't affect flavor.

[rtvvvv]

thanks! i hope you're right..it certainly will be one of the biggest better boys
ive had. the others on the plant look more normal but still slightly different.