Counted 47 volunteer tomato plants popping up from last year's compost pile

I hit 47 volunteer tomato sprouts from tossing old rotting tomatoes into my compost bin last fall, and I never expected such a specific number to make me rethink how much food waste could actually turn into next year's garden for free.

3 comments

3 Comments

tara6428d ago

Cross-pollinate and taste terrible"... wait, you're telling me tomato volunteers can actually mess with each other's flavor like that? I never even considered that, I thought they just grew however they grew. That changes everything about my gardening plans honestly, I had no idea they could cross and end up tasting off. So basically I'm looking at a whole summer of watering mystery tomatoes that might just taste like disappointment?

jade5177d ago

Take it from someone who accidentally grew a mystery squash patch one year - @tara642, you might end up with some weird combinations that taste like a science experiment gone wrong. I bet half of those volunteers will surprise you in a good way though, like the one time I got a random sweet cherry tomato from a plant I thought was a dud.

phoenix2468d ago

Hold on, "free" isn't really free when you factor in all the work. Those 47 volunteers aren't going to all be tasty Brandywines, they're probably small cherry tomatoes from the bottom of the bin. And you'll spend all summer caging and watering a bunch of random plants that might cross-pollinate and taste terrible. Plus they'll shade out whatever you actually planned to plant in that spot. I'd rather just buy a few seed packets for $4 total and know exactly what I'm growing.