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#49858 July 21st, 2006 at 10:18 AM
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Thanks to Weezie and the gang over in Mystery plants...I learned I have a tomato plant in my "garden". MY Partner and I have decided to call her "Annie". Now, I can't tell you with certainty when it was planted, and I honestly only just recently noticed it. We were weeding this past weekend, and I almost pulled it up.

I left it. It's rather small compared to a lot of the other tomato plants I have seen on the board.

[Linked Image]

I'm not sure whether it's too late in my zone (6) for it to really do anything before the frost hits. Should I tend to it, or just wait until next year when I will actually plant my own crops?

Thanks

#49859 July 21st, 2006 at 10:35 AM
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It can't hurt to tend it Nick. If you put some support around it and give it some water and a liquid feed occassionally, you may get a feed. It may be a small 'cherry' type tomato which are always popping up in strange places due to wild birds eating them and depositing seed. If you let it dry out a bit, it'll stress and put out blossoms a bit early and you may get some early fruit and beat the frosts.

#49860 July 21st, 2006 at 02:54 PM
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Yep, give it a cage..
Or a stake or something..

A wee~bit o'liquid fertilizer...

or maybe find some FISH EMULSION,
and do a foliar feed on the leaves..

Tomatoes' love acid soil too!!!

I still have little one's here too,
and am eternally hopeful I will always get a crop..

Although I do know that the one's that volunteer for me, are always a later crop than those that were started by seed or nursery bought???
Not sure why, but then I look at it as all of
my tomatoes are not ripening at once..
so that's a good thing..

*only problem I have sometimes (in growing zone 5) here in Western New York is a early fall eek *

So Welcome to the Gardening World,
"Little Orphan Annie"

*start thinkin' of some names for the plants for next years season early* thumbup

#49861 July 21st, 2006 at 11:04 PM
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I do know that the one's that volunteer for me, are always a later crop than those that were started by seed or nursery bought???
Not sure why
+++++++++++++
Weezie, i know what you mean and i reckon it's because the self sown ones never get any stress. So they don't look to reproduce until the weather or season demands that they do so. Ones we plant ourselves are constantly stressed in their youth with transplanting etc and so are shocked into reproduction much earlier. A gardening guru of mine supports the idea of shocking or stressing plants to promote early flowering . For example, a tomato is leftto dry out when about a foot high to shock it into flowering. A non-productive citrus is said to get the bejesus frightened out of it and cause it to fruit by whacking it with the back of an axe. (Madness perhaps but strongly supported madness). I advised an old neighbour of mine that this was the case re a self sown citrus he'd had for 10 yrs or so. It had never flowered. He beat the poor old tree trunk with a hammer for a while and it actually produced its first fruit the next season. He decided it was a mandarin and as he already had a few he ripped it out. Strewth, crikey and hump my bluey whaddya reckon's goin on there? Anyway. I reckon it was a bush lemon. Fair dinkum!

#49862 July 22nd, 2006 at 01:19 AM
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Where's my Aussie Dictionary lol. Or are those words allowed in the Aussie Dictionary for ladies?

Hey Longy, love your posts as always. Just decided to tease you a little bit.

Thanks for the information on the tomato plants. I learned something new as usual.

Hey Nick,

Even if Annie doesn't produce this year. You can top her and grow the cuttings indoors and then have nice mature plants for next spring.

It's said that cuttings produce more fruit than plants grown from seed.

#49863 July 22nd, 2006 at 03:39 AM
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I do attest to Tammy's last sentence..

I had 3 volunteer cherry tomato plants last year
in a place I usually do pumpkins, and I had
never seen sooooooooooo much fruit..
I was pickin' them and pickin' them..

In fact there were sooooooo many, I couldn't eat them all and I now have about 100 volunteers in
the one spot..
Haven't had the heart to yank some of them,
and not any extra space in my raised beds...
and they're still there..
and a few look like they've already got some fruit starting on them...

***Longy,
That's unbelieveable that someone would have a tree for so long, then not want it..
*I'd love to be able to grow one of those... eek

#49864 July 22nd, 2006 at 03:50 AM
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Ciao all,

Here's a pic of my Annie, who will be 18 human years old on August 4th:

[Linked Image]

Taken last year when the Munchkin grew catnip in one of his raised beds. His carrots got trampled because of it so we moved the catnip into a container used by both cats (the other is Mario Le Mew) as a bed.


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