[Pollard]

While grabbing all the tomatoes showing any signs of ripening this morning, I found something interesting.

That tomato in the middle is off one of the same Chadwick Cherry plants as those globe shaped tomatoes that surround it. All the others on the same cluster are globe shaped but as you can see by the two to the right, they have the same mottling effect as far as how they're ripening.

Did a couple of different plants cross yet it only affected this one tomato for shape and one cluster for ripening color pattern?

If a tomato ripens indoors, are the seeds just as viable as if it ripened on the vine?

I would imagine so. I'm thinking about saving seeds to see what happens next year. When I save seeds from this one or these three, I'll try a bite to see how it compares to the rest.

These are the same plants that shoot out a sucker from the main stem with no branch armpit involved or the main stem splits into 4-5 unidentifiable shoots. Not sure what's going on here and/or at Baker Creek where the seeds came from but it's interesting if nothing else.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Did a couple of different plants cross yet it only affected this one tomato for shape and one cluster for ripening color pattern?”

Probably not. Was this ‘ridged’ tomato up against any of the guide wires you set up? Was is ‘squished’ between others? That can cause this.

“If a tomato ripens indoors, are the seeds just as viable as if it ripened on the vine?”

Yes.*

And, yes. Those were some weird ‘suckers’ on that plant. I wonder if the fast onset of HEAT made them do that? I’ve never seen that before.

*If a tomato falls off the vine and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? ;)