How can I quickly tell the Papa Tomato’s story without so much background? Suffice it to say that I first had ripe tomatoes indoors in the winter of 2013 from plants started late summer 2012, on nice determinate plants that were meant to grow in containers.
Summer of 2014 I took a Better Boy sucker off a garden plant and started a new venture with an indeterminate tomato that would have no ending point. I’ll spare you its baby pictures.
By the end of August, it was in the greenhouse corner. 5 feet tall, corralled by shelves and GH walls with a metal fence post and a piece of PVC pipe as stakes in a 4 gallon bucket.
Before mid-December, we were eating tomatoes.
By mid-April of this year I’d already decided that first tomato plant could not last forever and had 4 rooted suckers growing, planted in containers and on their way toward producing tomatoes enough we could share with the neighbors.
I didn’t reckon with Papa Tomato’s determination. The other day I mistook some of his branches for new growth on one of the newer plants. Not so. Papa Tomato reached out and mingled and produced tomatoes, hanging onto a bungee cord that secures the roof vent.
Lower branches look dead but there is a green canopy above.
This trunk supports life and tomatoes.
I do not expect that Papa Tomato will last into next winter.
The heritage of Papa Tomato will persist as new plants put on tomatoes. These plants are experiencing stress from heat and bright sunlight — the blue is a plastic tablecloth for a little shade from afternoon sun. I’ve already passed on Papa Tomato’s DNA in tomato plants produced from suckers off these plants to Marvin’s Gardens.
Papa Tomato will soon be a year old. How many years is
that in people years?
SECRETS of a SEED SCATTERER 
babyjill7...Marilyn Griffin
/ June 26, 2015fun post…and what determination for Papa!