Volunteer Tomatoes 🍅

In this short chapter I’m going to be talking about tomatoes. But instead of going into endless and complicated details about the subject, I’m proposing an alternative no-nonsense, simple and exciting way to grow tasty tomatoes in your container garden

Have you ever heard of volunteer tomatoes?

These are all the self-seeded plants or weeds that sprout up in your pots or your garden when the temperature conditions are most favourable.

Unlike the plants gardeners sow and plant, volunteer plants grow more strongly and are little bothered by so-called pests and predators.

Every year, I add homemade compost to my vegetable container garden. And every spring and summer, tomato plants by the hundred sprout up in my pots and containers.

Many times I have sowed tomato seeds in March when temperature and light levels are low. The plants have grown poorly only to be overtaken by volunteer plants germinating outside in April, May and even June.

This year I decided to let some of these plants grow on and I have been pleasantly surprised.

Unlike gardeners that force plants to germinate artificially before conditions are suitable, these tomato volunteer plants grow by deciding when conditions like temperature and light availability are optimal for germination and growth.

How to grow volunteer tomates

If you want to try this method, you just need to do the following 3 things:

1. Eat different varieties of tomatoes and discard parts including the seeds in your compost bin.
2. Just before spring arrives, spread the finished compost from your bin on the surface of your containers where you want tomatoes to grow.
3. Remove the weakest plants or the plants not growing exactly where you want them. You can try to move the plants to another location by carefully digging them up with the root ball intact, but they might not like it. It’s not recommended.

If you don’t have a compost bin you can take a bucket filled with soil or compost and put the tomato pieces in there. Mix everything together and put it somewhere in a corner out of direct sunlight. Continue adding tomato pieces and in spring, spread it out where you want tomatoes to grow.

During the warmer months of spring and summer, you will see tomato seedlings and other plants sprouting from where you spread the compost.
As the tomato plants grow you will need to stake them. I just use poles without even tying the plant in.

As regards pruning, some people recommend removing side shoots but I just let them grow wild.

This is because every summer, I have to leave my garden unattended for 2 weeks while I go away on holiday. It doesn’t seem worth the bother of pruning as during my absence, my tomato plants will grow completely out of control.

Above, I mentioned discarding different varieties of tomato scraps and seeds in your compost bin and this is the exciting part.

Unlike buying and growing a particular variety of tomato, you will never be sure exactly what type of tomato you will get until they start producing fruits.

And that’s the exciting part, will your tomatoes be red, orange, yellow or black, cherry or a beef-heart?