After growing tomatoes 40 years, I learned something new.

[Croney]

Tomatoes can sprout?! Three tomatoes we cut open today looked like this. (These are internet photos, not my tomatoes.)

[appleannie1943]

1. Some of mine did that this year too.

Like you, I had never seen any do that in the past. When I first cut one, I thought it was wormy but then I realized they weren't moving and looked more like bean sprouts than worms.

[Croney]

2. I thought they were worms too at first.

I'm stunned that I didn't know this before. I guess I don't know everything after all. 🤔

[demigoddess]

3. you just taught me something new.

but considering all the seeds in tomatoes, we should not be surprised.

[Croney]

4. My daughter is going to try growing tomato plants from the ones we cut today.

I'll believe it when I see it! I wished her luck.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. Yup! Once an older tomato starts to ferment away the

Gel, the germination inhibitor can wash off the seed and germination will follow

[Croney]

6. It's cool to know the science!

[Kali]

7. I have seen it in tomatoes and grapefruit.

My son is caring for several young grapefruit trees that were out of sprouted seeds in grapefruits from my small potted tree last year.


My sister sent this picture to me a couple of years ago.

[Croney]

8. That just looks... wrong! Like aliens, lol

[Kali]

10. I know, right?

kind of frightening.

[INdemo]

9. yes these are sprouts but see that little hole on the bottom picture

just to the right? That could be the entrance hole for a tiny little green worm that get inside the fruit.

[Retrograde]

11. Tomatoes are perennials

but they need a warm climate to survive. Mine will continue to set fruit through October, but the first frost kills the plants. Their ancestors back in Mesoamerica were perennial, and produced tiny red fruits year-long for the birds that spread their seeds.

[Croney]

13. I'm in Massachusetts, so I didn't know they are perennials.

Before the first frost, I'm out harvesting all the green ones and then the plants die and we pull them out.

[Retrograde]

15. They need a lot of sunlight to ripen

and heat to survive. The last fruits that set in October rarely ripen, even indoors.

I once kept a plant alive until December: even though I live in the San Francisco area we do get temps in the mid 20s. I've heard of people keeping dwarf varieties alive in pots by bringing them indoors in winter, but I've never tried.

[dem in texas]

12. used to pull up the plants and hang in the barn

When we lived in Tennessee, if we going to get the first frost, we'd pull up the plants and hang
them upside down in the barn. We left the green and slightly ripe tomatoes on the plants, they would continue to ripen.

[Croney]

14. I wonder if keeping them on the plants makes any difference.

Right now we have the green ones on trays, covered with paper and kept in a cold indoor porch room, away from the light. Sometimes I've had a cherry tomato on New Year's Day that was picked in November! No taste to it, but I love the ritual.