Mystery Cherry Tomato Plants

I found some mystery Cherry Tomato plants growing in my garden today!

I had cleared out an area of my garden a few weeks ago where a diseased Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato plant was growing (see this blog entry).

I did not do a good job clearing the area afterwards and there were many Cherry Tomatoes littered on the ground afterwards.

Well, the seeds from one or more of the Cherry Tomatoes have germinated and now I have several Cherry Tomato plants of unknown parentage. I think the seeds came from the Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato that I had removed, but the seeds could have also come from a Sugar Snack Cherry Tomato that was adjacent to it.

Even if the seeds came from a Sun Sugar, the seedlings are probably not true Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato seedlings. This is because Sun Sugar is a F1 hybrid and is a cross breed. Sugar Snack is also an F1 hybrid.

Nevertheless, I decided to pot up the seedlings and see what develops (see picture below).

I needed to pot up the seedlings today, before the roots from the seedlings become tangled together. If I had waited longer, I would not be able to seperate the seedlings without damage.

The timing is right to start seedlings for a Fall/Winter crop of Cherry Tomatoes anyways. Here, in Southern California, I can grow Cherry Tomatoes almost to the end of the year.

These five seedlings will be ready to transplant into the ground around August. By then, I will probably need to take down some of my giant Cherry Tomato plants. No matter how hard I try, my Cherry Tomato plants eventually sucomb to disease.