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Tomato thriving on neglect!

Just thought I'd share this with you: when I potted up my baby tomato plants, one of them snapped off near soil level. I pushed it down into the compost, but was running out of space in the mini-greenhouse, so I left the damaged one out on the ground in its pot. It's an outdoor variety (Maskotka) but this was only mid-April. 

I took good care of the other tomatoes, putting bubble-wrap around them on cold nights. At the end of May I planted them out in the bed, and noticed that the "runt" was still alive. So I found a spot for it in another corner of the garden, just to see if it would survive. And guess what? It's now the bushiest and greenest of all my tomato plants.

So maybe we don't need to mollycoddle our plants so much. This one has been injured, left for dead and exposed to the elements since April, and it's thriving!

Has anyone else had an experience like that? -not personally! (left for dead, etc) - but with a supposedly tender plant that turns out to be a toughie?

Posts

  • artjakartjak Posts: 4,167

    Green M, I know what you mean and it is so frustrating sometimes to not know just how much TLC to give a plantimage

  • Victoria SpongeVictoria Sponge Posts: 3,502

    Not tender plants esp, but I was impressed that some waste seedlings reappeared after I'd emptied their trays onto the ground outside.

    They were snapdragons, cosmos, stock and aubrieta. I was just using the waste compost to build up some areas of soil. I feel certain that if I deliberately tipped the seedlings on their heads they wouldn't have lived.

    This spring I also had a crocus flower that had somehow ended up on the pavement, stuck in a piece of moss- so much for 3x the depth!

    Wearside, England.
  • FleurisaFleurisa Posts: 779

    Tomato seeds will survive digestion which is why they grow so well around sewage works

  • ClaringtonClarington Posts: 4,949

    Meant to be some of the best tasting too if you asked some of the older sewage workers I met on a project!!

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