Dead and Alive

If you live around here and tried to grow tomatoes this year, you were probably very disappointed. It turned so hot early in June and stayed that way until just recently that tomato blossoms would not set fruit. We got a few scrawny tomatoes for a couple of weeks and nothing after that.

Last spring I planted some of our extra "Sweet 100s" tomato plants in large pots and set these on the south side of our new little greenhouse just off our patio. I love these little bit-size tomatoes and envisioned myself stepping outside on our patio and having them right there to eat by the handfuls. As the weather got hotter and hotter, I tried to make sure that I watered them every day, hoping that it would cool off and I'd get some tomatoes.

I had 4 plants to start with.  But, they died one by one as we suffered through day after day of 100+ degree temperatures.  Then the other day  I noticed one of them was beginning to put out new growth.  Here is a picture of it.  It's the one on the right!  :-)

I am amazed at the resilience of this one plant.  It definitely has some drought tolerance that the other ones did not have, even though they were all the same variety and from the same packet of seed.


If this plant produces fruit before it freezes, I will be sure to save some of the seed and plant it next year.  It was by noticing desirable traits in plants that early man was able to domesticate wild plants.   And, over the next 10,000 years, humans created a vast biodiversity in our food supply by selecting certain plants and saving seed from them just like I hope to do with this tomato plant.