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Last year, I took a cutting off a clematis and over wintered it in the green house. As the weather warmed up, a rogue tomato seedling appeared at the side of it. How it got there is anyones guess. It sprouted even though it had been in that pot, dormant, all over the winter. When it reached a decent size, I repotted it on its own. That seedling, with all the odds against it has developed into the strongest tomato plant I have. Far better than the mollycoddled ones I set in the normal way. It's also much darker green and has a more hefty stem. Do we pussyfoot about too much with our toms? I'm certainly going to try some autumn set seed this year!
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All winter I have scraped tomato seeds from the chopping board into a seed trays. They sprouted and are growing better than the ones that were under the grow light. Strong and not leggy. No idea what they are though
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Aren't there three points here.
First, the fact that seeds that germinate on their own with no "help" from us are likely to be stronger (at least at first) than ones that we've mollycoddled;
Secondly, the fact that they're strong plants doesn't mean that they will crop well, they might have lots of leaf growth and not a lot of fruit; and
Thirdly, you don't know what they are. I try to grow a range of sizes, colours and tastes. If you collect random seeds you have no idea what they are or what they will taste like. The tomato breeders (particularly those who create open pollinated varieties rather than F1 hybrids) select over a number of years for particular characteristics and whilst you might be lucky and get "the worlds best tomato" by chance, in all probability it will be something "average".
Having said all that, in the past I've let seedlings in the polytunnel grow and I've been growing an accidental cross for a while trying to get it to run true because it does taste fantastic.Comment
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They are strong and healthy because they start to grow when greenhouse conditions are right for them, that is true - but they wouldn't give me as big a crop as I get from giving them an earlier, indoor start.
I also think that you might loose many seeds which would die over winter in bad conditions.
Seeds (from last year's dropped fruit) don't seem to germinate until much later than my window-ledge sown ones and my aim is to get home grown for as long as I can. Much more work, I agree - but worth it, to me
By the way I already have some small green tomatoes on my toms, it would be interesting if you let us know when your one does.Comment
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Going by the colour of the leaves, the nearest it is to any of my "properly" set toms is Black Russian. Most of my toms have a lime green foliage, whilst this one has a really deep emerald green colour.Comment
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Here's my self-seeded tom, found in the GH earlier this year. It looked so healthy I couldn't ignore it!
It looks like a bush tom and had some megablooms - now removed. Streets ahead of the conventionally sown toms alongside.
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