Homegrown Tomatoes

Posts Tagged ‘White Bush’

I have a tomato I am calling Red Bush, for lack of a better name.  I bought a pack of White Bush seeds from a major seed-seller (Johnny’s).  I planted some of the seeds, and got a surprise.

Red Bush – Who Are You?

When it comes to tomato colors, red is dominant over white.  So my red tomato has to be a cross from White Bush and an unknown red tomato.  Yes, it’s a hybrid tomato - the result of two different parents.

Now there’s no telling what variety the red plant was, especially since these seeds are from an old packet.  But it’s an excellent chance to experiment!  You see, when I save the seeds and plant  them, I should get several different kinds of tomato plants, with different kinds of tomatoes.  Some should be red, some white, some who knows what — depends on who the red parent was and if it was a hybrid!

(As an aside, I have another tomato plant growing from the same packet, and it is indeed the variety White Bush.)

Saving Tomato Seeds

Now I’m torn — do I eat that first red tomato off that plant, or do I save the seeds?  The answer is – both!  Since I have one ripe and one almost ripe, I can start the seed-saving process with some from the first tomato.  Then some more from the second.

Since I’m saving these seeds for my own use, I’ll save them on a paper towel.  But if I was saving  tomato seeds to give to another person, I’d use the normal process that gets rid of any unwanted pathogens.

Having an obvious cross like this tomato makes it quite interesting to see what grows out.  And while it’s fairly unusual to get an obviously crossed tomato in a commercial seed packet, it’s fun when you do!

Tomato Red Bush – who are you, really?  I may never know, but I sure will have fun with its “children”!

In my previous post about germinating tomato seeds, I mentioned that I had planted quite a few seeds that were at least 10 years old.  While I expected some of these seeds to germinate (I do have some rare seeds in my collection), I wasn’t expecting a high germination rate.  At most, I was hoping 25%.

Wow, have I ever been surprised!  For some of  the varieties, the germination rate has been in the neighborhood of 75%.  Brandywine is one of them; Yellow Cherry another.  Then there are varieties in the 60% range, like Pineapple and White Bush.  Of all the varieties I planted, only Big Rainbow has had a low germination rate.  Then again, it might be that it’s been slower and more seedlings will start popping their heads above ground today or tomorrow.

I’m trying to decide if the Terracycle I sprayed on the soil on Sunday helped the germination, or at least hastened it.  Sunday hadn’t shown much action with the seeds, but Monday a whole bunch showed up.  Tuesday a whole lot more.  And even today I see some more new seedlings starting through the soil.

The next batch of seeds, I’ll remember to spray the Terracycle sooner (my fault, my plant sprayer had disappeared and I had to go get a new one…and was a bit slow about it).  But now I have a new sprayer.

There’s a Problem, Though…

I have a problem now, but it’s a good one to have.  I planted way more seeds than I had needed, because I thought the germination rate would be really low.  Yikes!  I now have way more tomato plants than I have containers, by a large margin.  Time to gift my family and friends with some seedlings, or maybe take them to a farmer’s market to sell, in another month or so (after the second transplant).

So, don’t throw out those old seeds without giving them a try, and keep in mind that they may take somewhat longer to germinate than newer seeds.  Remember, when germinating, tomato seeds like warmth and humidity. 

I’ll give another update next week on how the seedlings are faring.