Self-seeded tomatoes

B3

Early on in the year, I did all the right things to grow tomatoes from seed and they're doing well as far as I can tell.
What is slightly irritating is that, some self-seeders (probably from supermarket tomatoes from my weedy compost) are only two or three weeks behind the ones that I nurtured and coddled.😐

purplerallim

🤣 Isn't it fated that what we try to look after struggles and those we neglect thrive.

B3

True. 

steephill

I think I should only plant one tomato seed next year. This year I tried planting side shoots as I remove them and they are as large as the parent plants now. Planting was no more caring than just poking a hole in the greenhouse soil and sticking them in.

I am also tempted to try a Guyot type system, just let the main plant flop over and run the side shoots up strings. One plant would probably fill the greenhouse!

josusa47

A couple of years ago, I didn't sow any tomato seed but just transplanted the ones that grew from the compost.  There were lots, because I'd been scraping out the seeds before feeding tomatoes to my mum who finds the pips irritate her insides.  They were slow, which I put down to them being commercial varieties which would normally be grown in glasshouses, and I was growing them outdoors.  They had a lot of fasciated flowers, which produced some strange-shaped fruit.  You can see one of them on the "Fascinated by fasciation" thread.

Hippophae

I’m never wasting my money on grafted tomato plants again. What a scam. They are far behind my ungrafted tomato in terms of size and productivity yet were the same size when planted at the same time. How James Wong can put his name to them with pride I don’t know.

Skandi

Grafted tomatoes are only worth it if you know you have a problem that they can help with, such as disease or soil born pests that the rootstock is resistant to. I find self sown tomatoes start flowering about now, which is way to late to get anything to ripen.

B3

Well on its way this year. But not every year.
They seem to be a bit pointy, so maybe plum tomatoes?

neilbradburn

Hi hippophae,
I bought a gifted tomato and a grafted aubergine. The latter really outshone the  I grew, paubergine plants producing a number of good fruits before mine even started to develop one. However, like you I have found the grafted tomato to be behind on fruiting compared to the ones I grew - although they look large, healthy fruits. Mine are in a GH, so I wonder if there would be a benefit to the grafted plant outdoors. Also, I was led to believe a grafted plant can be grown with 2 cordon stems and produce double the yield.
Kind regards.

Fairygirl

They did a tomato trial on Beechgrove a few years ago, and the general consensus was that grafted plants weren't worth the price.

Hostafan1

I've removed side shoots and dropped them on the bed and found they've rooted later.