Mystery Tomato

[Vinca]

During the winter we buy some really good tomatoes from Maine called "Backyard Beauties," so just for the heck of it I saved some seeds to see how they'd taste fresh in the summer. I usually put in tomato plants of various kinds, then start a half dozen from seed to have late tomatoes if we have a late frost. In any case, I just checked the garden and the seedlings from the saved seeds look more like cabbage or broccoli plants than tomatoes. I thinned one out and squeezed it and it doesn't smell like a tomato or anything else. I've never seen anything like it in all my years of gardening. Last winter I emailed the company in Maine inquiring about the variety, but they wouldn't give it up and only said it was a long and vining greenhouse tomato. Anyone care to venture a guess about what the tomato is?

[trud]

1. are you sure the seedling is from your seeds?

Did you direct seed in the garden?

You know if it's a hybrid, it will not breed true. But I wouldn't expect a cabbage :-)

Does it have the not-looking-like-a-tomato-leaves that Brandywines have, maybe?

[Vinca]

4. I did direct seed . . . good point about the hybrid. I had forgotten that.

The original tomato is almost like an overgrown cherry tomato they sell on the vine in boxes and I don't think it's an heirloom tomato. We'll see. I love a mystery!

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Just let them keep growing and see what happens.

I have planted some varieties of tomatoes that did not look at all like tomato leaves, but I just let them go and damned if I didn't get tomatoes. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see what you get.

[Vinca]

3. That's what I figure. I can't believe I'm trying to grow "winter" tomatoes in the first place.