A mystery in the vegetable patch!

Discussion in 'NEW Gardeners !' started by FrenchBean, Jul 6, 2020.

  1. FrenchBean

    FrenchBean Apprentice Gardener

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    hello everyone I have a little mystery to solve and I would love some help!! We built some raised beds and created a vegetable garden (potatoes, cucumber, peppers, lettuce, butternut squash and of course tomatoes. We had tomatoes last year too and I used some of the soil they grew in to put in a raised bed and put my seedlings of mixed carnations in there. My butternut is in the lower tier of bed and has now taken over the box, garden, and is threatening the village!!

    Now where I put the seedlings I seem to have very leggy tomato plants where none where planted!! Can they walk and replant themselves? !
    My carnations are struggling underneath.

    Are these tomato plants and are they worth transplanting somewhere or are they just the leaves that have self seeded (if that’s possible)? It’s all very strange to a newbie!! I’ve enclosed some photos.
    Thanks for reading this and have a great day.
     

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  2. NigelJ

    NigelJ Total Gardener

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    @FrenchBean
    They are tomato plants. Tomato seeds are very durable and were probably in the soil you transferred. All it takes is one tomato splitting and spilling seed onto the soil and you have tomato plants next year. With me they generally don't appear early enough to give anything but green tomatoes.
    Worth transplanting? Out of interest yes, but they will not be a named variety so what you get will be random.
     
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    • pete

      pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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      Apparently, never proved it myself, but in the old days tomatoes grew very well at sewage outfalls.
      The seeds survive most things including passing through the human body.

      I often get seedlings on my allotment that are from last year.
       
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      • FrenchBean

        FrenchBean Apprentice Gardener

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        Thank you for your reply, I shall move them to a sunny wall and see what happens! The butternut squash will be able to spread out even more
         
      • shiney

        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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        @FrenchBean I never recommend anyone to plant butternut squash in a small enclosed area. They're like triffids and will try to take over everything. :yikes:

        This was just four plants and they covered a length of 30ft :rolleyespink:

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        • FrenchBean

          FrenchBean Apprentice Gardener

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          Oh no that’s incredible! We have an enclosed veg patch (wire fence) I’ll try to keep it in there!
           
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          • shiney

            shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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            They can be trained upwards if you have a sturdy enough framework. :blue thumb: You would need to support the squash if you did so.

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