Wild tomatoes

Hi all.
I was wondering if anyone had tried growing wild tomatoes and how much success you'd had.

Mike, John Polk mentioned a wild cherry tomato patch in this thread.

https://permies.com/t/18049/permaculture/trellises-tomato-beans-cucumbers-melons

I will be trying all sorts of things , in a wild state ,on my land just to see what happens. I will have to remember to come back here and post if any tomatoes grow.

Thanks Miles. I've just had a look and all that was mentioned in that thread was black cherry tomatoes. I was specifically wondering about germinating them. I've had no luck so far this year

OH, so you have already tried planting seed but they are not coming up ?
What is the weather like there? How wet? etc. Are the seeds competing with other plants? What type?

I've had the tomato species lycopersicon pimpinellifolium reseeding in georgia clay for years with no care other than careful mowing and no soil amendment for years. Tiny little currant tomatoes, the best for salads and the best flavored tomato even if it is labor intensive to harvest. Just one little seed pocket burst of sweetness.

Thanks for the replies. I actually started them indoors because I live in the UK and it's not exactly ideal to sow tomatoes outdoors here! By the time the ground is warm enough, it's too late to sow them outdoors as far as I know. Same goes for peppers, aubergines, and other plants that need heat and take a long time to fruit. Seems like there's tons of info on growing normal tomatoes out there, but very little on wild tomatoes.

I've had no problems germinating other tomatoes, just not the wild ones

Strange. Tomato seeds keep their viability for around 10 years in good conditions, so I'm not sure what it could possibly be. Maybe some sort of dormancy? I direct seeded my first ones and they still are coming back. Remind me later in the year and I'll mail you some seed. I have little red ones, and tiny little yellow ones called 'coyote tomatoes'.

Here in upstate South Carolina, wild tomatoes (Matt's Wild Cherry) have become well established in my garden's soil seed bank and comes up everywhere as a plant that I weed out of beds where I wish to grow other crops but allow to grow anywhere else. Its a totally carefree, useful weed to have growing in the garden, producing fruit all summer until frost, not bothered by insects, and that doesn't get the leaf spots that the domesticated tomatoes sometimes get. I've found they work well in the asparagus bed as a second crop vining among the asparagus ferns and that doesn't reduce the springtime asparagus crop.

I hesitate to post this , but - A couple of times a year the local sewage treatment plant gets its tanks pumped out and the 'sewer sludge' is then spread on ground
that once contained our own 'town dump'! Every spring we get volunteer tomato plants that no one wants to Transplant into their garden ! Best, Big Al !

Thanks Bob! That's such a generous offer. I've got some little yellow ones growing fine on top of a hugelbed (yellow currant tomatoes that I got from realseeds.co.uk: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/tomatoes_vines.html ), but those other ones don't want to play ball! Will try again this year but may take you up on that offer

Shame the British climate isn't favourable for sowing tomatoes outdoors. I'd love to have them sprouting up everywhere!

Allen, so where are the tomatoes coming from? Are people putting seeds down the sink? Are the seeds passing through people and the treatment plant and then growing?

Miles F. :I expect that the first, digestive process 'may' be bypassed due to seeds being washed down the sink, irregardless, their survival of the second digestive
process and what it is digested in/with is so repugnant to local mores and, dare I say it - Tastes that NO ONE will admit to doing any replanting !

If you want to you can google 'Most Expensive Coffee in the World', which passes through the digestive tract of a South Asia Civet Cat , before being picked up off
the ground, then being shipped to Coffee Houses for final Roasting and being processed into your favorite grind !

For the Good of the Craft ! Be safe, keep warm! PYROLOGICAL Big AL ! - As always, your Questions / Comments are solicited and are Welcome ! A. L.

I do know for a fact that tomato seeds survive viable through the human digestive process, and can definitely grow if one doesn't worry about fully hot-composting their thunder-bucket waste.

Wow those are some tough little seeds.

Yep. One has to remember that the main reason a wild tomato evolved to be so delicious is so animals like us would enjoy them, and deposit them later in new locations with a built-in fertilizer supply.