Trader Joe’s Shopper Buys Heirloom Tomatoes and Plants Their Seeds — the Results Were Astounding
Like humans, tomatoes also have tribes and royalties. Like a human grandma passing along jewels to her younger generations, a tomato grandma also passes along heirlooms via seeds. When they do, their younger generations are called “heirloom tomatoes.” While many tomatoes rolling in the grocery carts have been cross-pollinated, these heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated. This means that they are carbon copies of their ancestors instead of being tainted with the genes of a foreign pollinator, explains UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
According to Trader Joe’s, which sells Campari variety of heirloom tomatoes, these tomatoes are firmer, tangy fruits whose ruby-red flesh often makes them irresistible for a bruschetta, a pizza roast, tomato jam, or a summery gazpacho. Enchanted by the royal demeanour of these tiny tomatoes, u/GoblinsStoleMyHouse bought them from Trader Joe’s and planted their seeds. To his utter excitement, the seeds burst from the soil, transforming into huge plants.
“As an experiment, I planted the mini heirloom tomatoes from Trader Joe’s. They grew into huge plants and are producing tons of great-tasting fruit! If anyone likes gardening, I highly recommend planting these seeds,” the Reddit user wrote in the post while sharing a screengrab of a plastic box of Trader Joe’s baby tomatoes and a picture of the new plant that sprouted from the seeds. Dangling from the new plant were clusters of teeny green fruits that looked fresh, supple, and young. “Next up, I’m going to grow tomatoes from a Burger King Whopper,” the gardener quipped.
In a comment, they shared that they followed a simple technique to grow tomatoes from the seeds. “Slice the tomatoes very thin and cover them lightly with soil. Add water, then once they sprout, thin the seedlings to the strongest one,” the Reddit user described. “So freaking cool! I want to do this,” exclaimed u/Bethany__p in a comment. Thousands of people flocked to the comments section to share personal stories of growing plants from seeds of the fruits they bought from the market.
“I once tried to grow poppies from McCormick's Poppy Seeds. They were all deformed poppies,” said u/Preesi. u/OK-Vermicelli-6707 commented, “Wow, that looks like such a wonderful tomato plant. Beautiful little cluster! I actually planted some Trader Joe’s teeny tiny potatoes in the spring as an experiment, and got a nice little harvest. I’ve never saved seeds before.” u/township_rebel shared, “I have the most delicious little red cherry tomatoes that I now call “umami bombs”. I’m like 90% sure they started from a tomato my daughter dropped on the ground in the garden. I have been saving seeds and I’m on gen 3 now.”
u/lamatitle said, “I’ll definitely be planting some next season! I’ve had beautiful production on their mini snacking bell peppers, too!” Referring to the user’s new tomato plant shared in the picture, u/BornNeat9639 wrote, “I find the tomatoes on the vine oddly satisfying to look at.” With hints of both sarcasm and lamentation, u/noobuser63 said, “The woodchuck who waits until the day before my tomatoes are ripe to waddle onto my deck would love these!”