Some Different at The Muddy Bucket Farm

[ContainerTed]

Something I have never tried to do, but will certainly do again. Back in the late fall, I had two of my backup plants that just refused to die, even though they were set into the garage without even access to water. One day I'm getting ready to clean up the dead leftovers and saw that these two were still green. I decided that if they were tough enough to refuse to die, I was going to overwinter them using only enough care to keep them alive. If they could make it thru sitting in a west facing window, I would use them for an early spring planting. I didn't think I could get fruit or even blooms, but this morning I found this 3 pod bloom truss full open. There are two plants in this 3.5 gallon bucket, which was free from a local pizza shop. The one shown has a working name of "Compost Pile Stripe". I found it in a neighbor's compost pile back in 2017. The only tomatoes my neighbor will grow are Rutgers and Bradley. And he isn't afraid to tell you so. So, this plant showing up is not quickly explainable.

Anyhow, I immediately vibrated that bloom to give it the best chance to pollinate. This afternoon, I'll give it a shot of Miracle Grow for tomatoes. And perhaps put up a grow light to enhance the lighting quality.

There are four pictures below. The first two are the original fruit and the other two are the bloom I found today and the bucket in the window.

BTW, the other plant that survived was Karen's & Marsha's "Karma Pink"

CompostStripe1.JPG


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[KarenO]

Is the little stripe a PL also?
Happy to hear about your KARMA Pink survivor
I have overwintered a cutting or two from October in a window with a desk lamp
( very high tech) lol
, they look shabby and stretched but if they make it, I prune back, repot and fertilize and put it in my greenhouse as soon as I open it for spring and voila first tomatoes of the year in the greenhouse.
Any tiny season extender is worth it I think. I take cuttings rather than bring in the plant because they must come in the house and I don’t bring soil inside that’s been outdoors. Prevents buggy hitch hikers from taking over the place.
Alive is the goal, not tomatoes but they just want to survive and make seeds so I have had a few ripe ones from this homely fella in my kitchen.
Karen

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Is the little stripe a PL also?
Happy to hear about your KARMA Pink survivor

Karen

Well, I'm not sure what to call it. I guess it would be in the regular group for most folks. Here's a picture. What do you think???

[KarenO]

Potato leafish imo. There are some that aren’t smooth along the edges especially of the large leaflets The small leaflets are def. PL shape. There is debate.
Some call it “ serrated potato leaf” but that seems a misnomer to me in that in order to be called PL it should look like the typical leaf of a potato plant. It also might look different in good growing conditions
It’s neither really and yet sort of both
It’s a relato.

Interesting that both the survivors are not the most common regular leaf in any case.
Karen

[ContainerTed]

Hey, maybe we should invent a new word for what we are seeing. How about maybe "Potagular". I also thought about "Seratulapot".

Seriously, I have accepted the idea of Serrated Potato Leaf. I think we need a way to properly describe these big fat round leaves that do have some very minor serration.

[KarenO]

HaHaHa potagular!

a rose by any other name...
makes no difference in the grand scheme of things

I hope you get some super early fruit for your table!
Karen

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by KarenO

HaHaHa potagular!

a rose by any other name...
makes no difference in the grand scheme of things

I hope you get some super early fruit for your table!
Karen

Each year, I usually buy some very mature tomato plants from a local vendor. He gets them from Grainger County greenhouses (Grainger County has lots of commercial greenhouses). I usually get beefsteak types and they will usually be about 24 inches tall and lots of blooms and some fruit set. I don't know what my vendor pays for them, but I pay $3.00 each or 4 for $10.00.

Most times, I get known hybrids like Big Boy or heirlooms like Cherokee Purple. But sometimes I get others like Pink Girl, Fantastic, and Empire. They give me very early large tomatoes. I hope my local vendor stays in business. Otherwise, I'm really gonna miss him.

You take care, dear lady. I'll let you know what I find with the new releases from the KARMA project. Nice work and a couple of solid gold "ATTA-GIRLS" for you and Marsha.

[ContainerTed]

Okay, I think it has set a fruit. I've vibrated it twice a day since discovering the bloom. This morning, it did not reopen from the scrunched look it had the two days before. I'll keep documenting this one even if it's just for my own records.

[ContainerTed]

Here's an update on that little baby. It will be interesting to see when the striping becomes evident to the naked eye.

Can’t wait to see!

[zipcode]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

Well, I'm not sure what to call it. I guess it would be in the regular group for most folks. Here's a picture. What do you think???

Is the leaf in the background from the same plant (the one top most left, only the last leaflet visible)? That one is potato leaf.

Because from just the full one in the middle I would have sworn it's regular leaf, I mean the last leaflet is clearly different from the one on the left, unless the angle is weird.

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by PlainJane

Can’t wait to see!

Well, here's today's picture and the stripes are easy to see. I hope I can get this one to a point where the taste is way up there. Otherwise, It might make a good breeder to cross with others.


CompostStripe.JPG

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by zipcode

Is the leaf in the background from the same plant (the one top most left, only the last leaflet visible)? That one is potato leaf.

Because from just the full one in the middle I would have sworn it's regular leaf, I mean the last leaflet is clearly different from the one on the left, unless the angle is weird.

That was a second plant in the same bucket. Since then, I have moved that "Karma Pink" plant to its own container and only the compost stripe is left. Here is the way it looks today, about an hour ago. Seems it has decided to ripen and I'm now anxious to taste it.

Edited to add: I confirmed pollination on March 07 and now we have first color breaking on April 28. That's 52 days.


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[ContainerTed]

And here's a picture taken today. Color and stripes very prominent.

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[ContainerTed]

Yeah, we finally harvested the ripe fruit and it was pretty good. I kept it on the vine until the outsides felt softer. From the time I judged it to have full color, until the time I plucked it was almost three weeks (great hang time). I'd give it an 8/10 with a good firmness, but not what we could call "hard".

The plant has two more fruit set on it now and I will get back to you folks on how they taste.

I guess I need to come up with a name for it. Below are a couple of pictures to show how it looked just before it was devoured. I did harvest the seeds, but all of those had that black coloration on them and they haven't germinated yet in my test cell. I'm inclined to focus on the two new fruits and seed harvest a bit earlier.

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