# Botanists, gardeners...what could this plant be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513 "2008-09-21T04:35:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/21 "2008-09-23T22:21:00Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Hybrid plants can be sterile. > > Hybrids will produce seeds that can be like either parent used to produce the hybrid, the hybrid, or something different from these three if it cross pollinates with a new variety. I guess I should have asked my question a little better… hybridism I’m familiar with. A plant of one type is pollinated with pollen from a different plant to get a hybrid, as opposed to allowing the plant pollinate itself. You’d do it with a brush or something, imitating a bee. So they do really this on a commercial scale large enough to mass-produce vegetables? To a layman, this sounds like an incredibly labor-intensive way to produce even a truckload of hybrid tomatoes. Or maybe they just propagate the shoots? Again, sorry for the hijack, it’s just something that seems incredible now that I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/22 "2008-09-23T23:00:29Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > I guess I should have asked my question a little better… hybridism I’m familiar with. A plant of one type is pollinated with pollen from a different plant to get a hybrid, as opposed to allowing the plant pollinate itself. You’d do it with a brush or something, imitating a bee. So they do really this on a commercial scale large enough to mass-produce vegetables? To a layman, this sounds like an incredibly labor-intensive way to produce even a truckload of hybrid tomatoes. Or maybe they just propagate the shoots? Again, sorry for the hijack, it’s just something that seems incredible now that I think about it. It’s next years seed that won’t be true. The current plant will have the same tomatoes no mater what plant pollinates it. Here’s a link on detasseling corn for creating a hybrid seed for next year. [http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/Detasseling-Faces-Extinction9aug02.htm](http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/Detasseling-Faces-Extinction9aug02.htm) I won’t go into sweet corn to save complications when dealing with the sweet gene. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/23 "2008-09-23T23:05:51Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > I guess I should have asked my question a little better… hybridism I’m familiar with. A plant of one type is pollinated with pollen from a different plant to get a hybrid, as opposed to allowing the plant pollinate itself. You’d do it with a brush or something, imitating a bee. So they do really this on a commercial scale large enough to mass-produce vegetables? To a layman, this sounds like an incredibly labor-intensive way to produce even a truckload of hybrid tomatoes. Or maybe they just propagate the shoots? Again, sorry for the hijack, it’s just something that seems incredible now that I think about it. [F1 hybrid seeds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_hybrid) are really expensive and well worth the work to produce. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/24 "2008-10-09T17:09:54Z")
Definitely a tomato - thanks for the ID’s! And, Whee! There’s baby 'maters sprouting out of it now!! I’ve transplanted it to a pot. Looking forward to ripe tomatoey goodness… ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/25 "2008-10-09T17:15:26Z")
> [@sangfroid](#): > > Dang sure looks like a tomato to me. I’ve been composting for years, using a three-bin setup, and have had tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cucumbers and even corn pop up in the pile. I use a cold-composting method, so this is not uncommon. Transplant it if you want, and use some of your finished compost if it’s ready. You mentioned a balcony; do you live in the city? If so, congrats on composting! It’s much easier to do than most folks think, even if you don’t have a lot of space. Thanks for helping reduce landfill space… 🙂 I cold-compost as well. I have a 2-bin makeshift system thrown together from a couple large plastic storage tubs with holes drilled in them. Yep, I do live in the city…thanks! 🙂 I would love my own garden, but living in an apartment I have to get creative. I also wanted to start the compost so I wouldn’t have to buy so much soil for my pots and window boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/26 "2008-10-09T17:18:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If it is a tomato plant (which would be my guess, too), it’ll probably produce cherry tomatoes. That’s the wild state of the plant; the varieties that produce the bigger ones don’t breed true. They’re still perfectly edible and will taste just fine (far better than the tomatoes you get at the grocery store). > > But if it’s a tomato, it also almost certainly won’t last long enough to fruit. Around here, you have to plant tomatoes as soon as possible after the last frost to get a chance of any fruit, and you’re probably even further north, so your growing season is probably even shorter. Sadly, the frost will likely do it in some time in the next few weeks. Ack…I moved them to a large pot indoors, right by my patio doors, so it still gets lots of sunlight and warmth during the day. Is it possible to still fruit indoors? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/27 "2008-10-09T17:36:34Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > That doesn’t look like a tomato seedling to me. The ones I’ve seen grow straight up for at least the first six to nine inches. Storebought hybrids and seeds usually grow like that, but second and third generation plants, crosspollinated with who knows what cultivar, can get pretty viny and wierd. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513/28 "2009-02-07T20:28:15Z")
Just wanted to check in and say that my tomato plant got big enough to have to be staked, and produced a handful of cherry tomatoes. They took a _long_ time to grow and ripen, which I don’t know could be because of being indoors or if it had watered-down genes. They tasted all right, were somewhat bland, but definitely palatable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botanists-gardeners-what-could-this-plant-be/464513.md?page=1)