Jan, your husband is related to Lincoln??? I'd love details, if you'd share. My address is [EMAIL="DeborahLong213@aol.com"]DeborahLong213@aol.com[/EMAIL]
Thanks !

Perhaps it is just a matter of me not having been very observant in past years, but I'm seeing something in many of the OP's I'm growing this year that I've never seen before. In the past I've grown tomatoes without support and in CRW cages, but this year I'm training them up a string and pruning them to a single stem. Both procedures require paying a lot of attention to the plants. I am used to seeing stalks containing, first buds, then flowers, then fruit. Now, I'm seeing [I]some[/I] of these stalks go through the same cycle and then begin a vegetative stage in which they grow just like the main stem. They grow leaves, flower stalks (with buds, flowers and stalks) and 'suckers'. The stalk changes from relatively smooth and thin (flower stalk) to thick and sinewy (normal stem). I have 40 plants growing on strings and (at least) ten exhibit this newly observed trait. They are:

Mushroom Basket
Cherokee Chocolate
Haley's Purple Comet
Chinese (Paste)
Casino Chips
Vince P1 (experimental)
Henderson's Ponderosa
Black and Brown Boar
Heatherington Pink
Eva Purple Ball

If it's occurring in at least 25% of my plants, I have to believe it is fairly common and I just haven't noticed it before. Have you noticed this type of 'mysterious' growth?

[QUOTE=dinca;280878]
If it's occurring in at least 25% of my plants, I have to believe it is fairly common and I just haven't noticed it before. Have you noticed this type of 'mysterious' growth?[/QUOTE]
Yep, I had some weird ones like that last year. When you train to one stem, as I have the last 3 years, you will notice everything. It is one of the things I really like about doing it that way. You can see intricate growth habits that you never notice if you let them grow into a bush.

I am also growing up a string trellis this year and really like it. Like it was said you can really get in there and see what's going on. I am trying pruning to two stems.

A friend sent me some dwarves to try. ;) I used them for my "cheater" plants and they did pretty well. Another friend that does a bit of breeding sent me some seeds a while back and I'm just now trying them - could be interesting because the guy is known for coming up with some unusual stuff. And my friend's grandfather sent me some seeds - it didn't have a name so I called it Fred's Finest because he said it was his best tasting (I forget what was crossed just now). And, some of my Omar's Lebanese plants don't look true to type so that should be interesting too.

Randy

[QUOTE=checkerkitty;279747]I bought a small pot with two transplants in it. They were both supposed to be Black Krim. One is certainly NOT Black Krim. Just waiting for ripening.[/QUOTE]

Well, I don't have a mystery on my hands any more. I think it's Porter. The tomatoes are identical to the Porters I have growing in another part of the garden.

[QUOTE=cedarswamp;279975]I'm growing out 4 plants that were supposed to be Sophie's Choice. All four seedlings were tricots and have since exibited dwarf habit. So far all 4 plants have been stingy putting out blossoms.[/QUOTE]

Looks like you dodged a bullet. Sophie's Choice were my least favorite of all the tomatoes I've grown. Not even close to early, not good tasting, but at least it produced a lot of bad tomatoes. LOL.

Of course opinions on varieties are like rear ends.

My mystery plant would be what I thought was a kbx. Thats what it said on the cup when i bought it.. Well i got it home and put it in its pot and looked up kbx. It said potato leaf plant. This one is a regular leaf plant. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Ps. This is the biggest most vigoris plant i have and it has a ton on fruit on it. I wish I knew what it really is..lol

I've planted some castor oil seeds, never heard of.them no idea what they will look like anyone any exerience of them?

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[QUOTE=augiedog55;281252]My mystery plant would be what I thought was a kbx. Thats what it said on the cup when i bought it.. Well i got it home and put it in its pot and looked up kbx. It said potato leaf plant. This one is a regular leaf plant. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Ps. This is the biggest most vigoris plant i have and it has a ton on fruit on it. I wish I knew what it really is..lol[/QUOTE]

Maybe you could check back with the place where you bought it and see what varieties they carried this year. By process of elimination, between the growth habit of the plant and the fruit characteristics, you might be able to figure it out by the end of the season. In the end even if you can't, all that matters if you love the fruit is to save some seeds so you can regrow it.:lol:

kath

nope, now I do use castor oil in making my soaps as it adds to the lather of the bar.

I hope you will post pictures of it as it sounds incredible.

I haven't looked through the entire garden but at a walkthrough I have some segregation in the Sunlucky line. Of 16 plants, there are at least 4 different fruit forrms still showing up in the F5. More selection is obviously needed.

I have a Vintage Wine that is potato leaf and another that has stripes like Green Zebra. These will get some attention when they start to ripen.

DarJones

I am growing a few 'mysteries' this year:

- Lillian's Yellow RL (likely an F1 cross in my garden, Sugar Beefsteak plants grew nearby)
- Turks Muts RL (received seed), can be F1 or stray seed
- Italian Sweet RL (received seed), can be F1 or stray seed
- Grub's Mystery Green RL (from my seeds saved from a PL plant) - this GMG seems to be flipping leaf on me, very strange :?!?:.
- Lil's Favorite impostor (traded seeds, all seedlings came PL, so it must be a mixup)
- Tomadose des Comores PL (received seed, all seedlings were PL)
- Grightmire's Pride PL (received seed, Mixup?)


... and some Kozula's crosses, not sure if they are stable yet, but the plants grown from the same seeds look very similar to each other.

I don't yet know if I'm growing any mysteries this year, but I saw Heatherington Pink on your growout list Dinca and was so pleased to see it there.

It's a family heirloom, seeds sent to me in 1995 by Brian Heatherington in 1995 and I listed it in the SSE YEarbook in 1996. And I see that Tania says that more folks should be growing this one:

[URL]http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Heatherington_Pink[/URL]

I posted to make a point that's been made here at Tville before and that's that there are hundreds and hundreds of great varieties that are still available here and there from the 80's and 90's, yet most folks want the newest and latest, which was the whole point of the thread that we had here a few years ago.

For many, it's the thrill of the search to find rare varieties that perhaps no one else is growing, and I do understand that, but it also means that a lot of great varieties languish and eventually disappear.

OK, I didn't mean to go off topic here, but really was so pleased to see Heatherington Pink being mentioned, actually when I was still doing seed offers at Garden Web years ago before Tville started in Jan of 2006 it was a variety I sent to everyone one year as an extra freebie.

And onward we go with mysteries, that is , tomato mysteries.;)

I certainly will they are growing quite quick. We need some sunshine here in the UK, too much rain right now

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