Er...
The Tommy Toe cherry tomato I planted in late winter started fruiting last week, with the normal large, round cherry toms.
However now, they are starting to look like this! A miniature 'normal' tomato... Anyone had this happen before?
I'm not worried about it as such - they still taste good! - but it's a little weird.
Cheers,
18 comments:
Hi Julie
Did you collect the cherry seed tomato from your own garden? If so, were you also growing larger tomatoes within the same proximity?
It looks like a brandywine or beafsteak tomato could've cross polinated with your cherry tomatoes.
Just a guess though. :)
By the way, your garden looks fab!
Looks like some cross-pollination to me. We're getting rounder and sweeter lemons this year - on a lemon tree planted beside two lemonades :)
That's the same type I planted and mine look like regular cherry tomatoes so far, but I'll keep you posted. Poor guys, maybe they're just sick of looking like everyone else and wanted to spice things up.
I am going to post a gardening question later on today (or this evening depending on my little one's napping moods) so please drop by and let me know if you have any answers to my problems... I have a cucumber monster and I'm not sure where he is or what he looks like. xo m.
PS. Love your new banner. xo m.
they look like baby mortgage lifters! How awesome. As long as they taste great it probably doesn't matter.
That's so cool. One of the things I love about growing vegies is the possibility of creating something that is unique to your garden. I hope some of mine cross!
Hi Chris,
No they were from purchased seed, but I've been out to look more closely and my Rouge de Marmande have just started flowering, so I'd say that's what it is!
Hi Karen,
Yes, I think yo are right. I had some weird lemons last year that looked like the navel oranges my lemon is planted next to :-)
Hi Meagan,
I think cross-pollination is the cause, I didn't realise some of my other tomatoes are flowering already! I'll pop by your blog later :-)
Hi Prue,
It does! And yep, taste is all that matters :-)
Hi La Tempete,
It is cool isn't it? I love gardening ;-)
Cheers, Julie
Hi there,
I could surely be wrong, but I thought cross-pollination didn't affect the producing generation - only the subsequent generations? (except with corn). Maybe that's not true?
Otherwise my guess would be incomplete pollination - some of the ovules weren't fertilized and that would cause the funny skinner areas because they didn't fill out with seed and flesh?
Cross pollination would only show up in the seed and affect fruit grown in the next generation. It could be 'twinning' where two fruits have become fused through a quirk of nature or a damaged flower. Especially if the fruit is almost the same size as the tommy toes on the same plant. A single fruit occurring like this on a plant otherwise producing what it's supposed to produce is unlikely to be the result of cross pollination in the seed you used otherwise you'd expect all the fruit to be mini-beefsteaks. Love ytour title - I say that frequently.
ps to my previous comment - check and see if there are two calyxes - then you've dfinitely got fused tomatoes. Can be caused by sudden temperature changes, different watering regime or magic!
Hello Megs & Cosmic,
Aaah, that makes more sense, thank you both! The temperatures around here have been insanely up and down so both heat and watering could be a big issue. It's occurring on more than one tom, but I will cut the next ones open to check the innards.
Thank you :-)
Cheers, Julie
as long as it tastes good, hey?!
My cherry toms are just ripening - delicious.
I've grown tommy toes before, and not had that problem with them apart from the odd tomato - tommy toes are one of my favourites!
I agree, it't more likely something to do with temps and watering than cross pollination at this point - although if you get some cross pollination between the tommy toes and the rouge de marmands you might get some interesting results with those seed!
looks yummy. like your banner!
Hope the birthday girl had a wonderful day...
Kind Regards
Belinda
I believe it's called cat face. Usually happens with larger varieties and high nitrogen levels or cool temps. And like cosmic said, cross pollinating would only affect second generation. It happened to some of my heirlooms this past year, and they still tasted great to me :) So excited to find your blog! We have so much in common! I'm just jealous your in the midst of warm temps and tomato season :)
Oh, and I just thought, if there are no abnormalities on the bottom of the fruit, (wierd hole like shapes), that could just be the shape of an heirloom variety. Brandywines and Italian Heirlooms are naturally that way, beautiful, huh :)
hi julie, miss you, but i must admit i am tired of looking at your weird tomato, so please post soon.
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