In that entry, I described how one goes about saving tomato seed. You first have to mix them with a little water and let them ferment for a few days so the slimy gelatinous material around the seeds will dissipate.
So, this spring I was excited to plant the seeds I had saved and was amazed to find that almost all of them lived. I had tons of plants that produced beautiful vines. Here is a picture of the tomato plants planted behind a row of basil. The tomatoes were just beginning to bloom when this picture was taken earlier this summer.
The vines have produced very well and I've harvested a lot of fruit from them. Here is a small sample.
Now, if you look closely, you'll notice that some of them have spots on them. These are scaly places on the skins, primarily on the lighter areas that form the strips. There are varying degrees of this as you can see below.
The 2 tomatoes in the lower left are hardly affected by this condition while the one in the middle on the top has a lot of the scales. Here's a closer look.
I asked one of the men at the farmers' market who is a retired agronomy professor about this. He seemed to think it was caused by an "environmental" condition and that it was not a disease of any sort. Oddly enough, the tomatoes taste fine and the skins are not tough.
However, this year I plan to save seed from one of the tomatoes that has not been affected. And, hopefully, next year the plants will have some resistance to whatever caused this.
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