Tomato

[StaceyB]

Last year I grew tomatoes from plant in my front garden. I decided to leave the plants in ground over the winter to keep the soil from washing away. In the spring I removed all the old plants and disposed of them to replant new plants this year. Since the area was not the best for producing tomatoes, I decided not to plant them in this garden spot. I set them up out back this year where there was more sun. I decided to plant a couple of tropicals in the space instead. I noticed today just outside the rock bordered garden several tomato plants growing, one already with flowers.
Has this ever happened to any of you where you have tomato plants grow in the area where the previous years plants were growing.

[Luba]

Get lost, really?

Wow is it directly in the sun and did you have any containers/lean on the soil over winter..this is very interesting. Ottawa is so cold in the winter.

[melanie]

all it would take is for one of last years tomatos to fall on the ground and the seed to be released, i find when you grow tomatos in any spot you will probably get them comin up for years, especially if its a big patch...their good self seeders really...

remember tomatos love acid, so find your best acidic spot and go for it, if your soil is basic and not acidic try growing them in pots or polystyrene boxes, that way you can create your soil conditions and the seed wont spread....

another thing i saw recently was using a bag of potting mix, and plant the tomato plant drictly into the potting mix, tie up at top nad pop out in the sun, and this way you can move it around too so you dont killl grass.... i am going to try this style this year as were renters and its too hard to grow in a garden you dont own...

[Luba]

But we're talking Canadian winters here Mel

That still holds true my botanically knowledgable genius friend?

[melanie]

genius, why i certainly am a self declared, lol...

oh yeah forgot that, so the ground freezes there does it, i wonder if the seed has good protection and dormancy????

hey do your bulbs survive the winter alone or do you cover them???

[StaceyB]

There are about 5 plants growing so far, the sun is not very good in this spot but it is not the worst. I know you can plant by seed but you always buy them here and the seeds are usually started inside and then transplanted outside. I have never heard of tomatoes growing the following year. I think if anything they would be cherry tomatoes. If this was a regular thing everyone would be doing it, never heard of anyone. Yes, we do cover the bulbs. It is very, very cold here in the winter.

[Luba]

Sure Stacey, I'm no expert but I'll share what I do know.

Herbicide toxins for example are spliced into the DNA of a variety of crops. Having said that the plants start producing the chemical themselves, and inturn you injest it. There is a potato, produced by Monsanto that is currently registered as a pesticide. I can't remember the name of it though but I'm sure a search on google could turn it up.

The herbicide toxins are present in every gene in these crops they cannot be cooked, washed, peeled off by any means. This is even worse then spraying the herbicide on the plants as the dosage is multiple times higher this way.

This effects not only the crops but the entire food chain. It's a very interesting topic that I've become more concerned about over the past 4/5 years.

[melanie]

oh prin, lol lol your too funny, god you make me laugh chic, yoru georgous my friend and im so glad we have ppl like you in the world that goes for the rest of yas too

now although i dont agree i think you should work in that industry prin, jsut because its worth lots of money and i would love for you to get a great paying job and have it all like you should and deserve so its not an enviro reason, but jsut personal desire , lol..... im so bad

um, ok how do i say this, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology are a great interest of mine and a fascinating topic. ethnobothany is the study of bush food, um how do i say it so you will understand in canadian/american, not aussie, um, oh 'wild food' sort of... but wild food or medicines that have been used by indigenous ppl throughout history.

and actually one of my major study topics in my last year at uni, my last major work i produced a 'bush food/tucker book' for a specific region, it was designed for the general public using a colr system to determine habitat type and plant locations, was fun but crap alot of hard work.....

anyways the point being that its not that sort of genetic modification, that is the type that happens over night and in a man made environment...

all modern food is derived for wild food varieties. the selection activities of humans has resultedi n the modern varieties we have today, for example the selection activities of ppl in countires such as africa has resulted in the less bitter cuecumber we have today.

BUT it was only selection for physiological features such as flowering or fruit and essentially the plant has its original DNA, a cuecumber is still the cuecumber, but it may have evolved its physiological features to suit humans or its seed distributors activities but over a very very long period of time, were talking hundreds and thousands of years, not 1 year....

but when you alter that DNA in the lab you are changing it dramaticlly in a short space fo time, not over long periods of time which is natural and evolution ahs been found in many plant and animal species. throughut history or existance... but then again you could say human intervention is evolution in a way, then my arguments stuffed right and royally, but oh well i will stick to it, yahooooo...

but for example there are GM wheat varieties being grown in australia and have for a while now. studies have shown that in certain conditions these GM plant varieties can mix with its cousin wild variety and modify it, and often not to its advantage, such as producing sterile seed in wild varieties.... so its not good,

BUT (full of them today) if where talking GM rice such as drought hardy or such for the starving in africa with added vitamin such as iron and such, i would consider it, its hard but it would be a considered action i suppose... btu then again...


BUT BUT BUT

[Prin]

That's why people say I should be in involved in it- there are so many ethical issues that arise when altering DNA. Like the vaccines in Bananas that they wanted to ship to Africa. It's only good if you eat the exact right amount of bananas...

Monsanto has WAY worse stuff going on than anybody in the media is aware of. They had one grass seed that would emit a pollen that would leave other plants sterile, such that nobody could use the seeds-- but if that ever gets out, everything, every plant around it would die.

I'm not saying altering DNA in funny ways is great, but in some ways it is. If the ethics committees that are around would actually have some sort of power, we'd get somewhere with all this a lot quicker...

So much to say, so little time...

[Luba]

Vaccinations in our foods as well. There is no end. Do you say this is ethical? to produce foods that contain these poisons? I think you meant unethical right ?

Monsanto is an evil company true that Prin! Their gmo forced farm fields to destroy many crops due to cross contamination.

[Prin]

No, I think plants that are engineered to produce vaccines are a horrible idea. How will you know how much to eat? How will you know how much each banana has produced? Not all will produce the same amount.

I do think that plants that are fortified with certain vitamins can be a great idea for developing countries, though. If you can get the boost of 4 apples in one, why not? We do it with power bars all the time.

Monsanto products should be banned. Too bad we're not willing to pay more for not-so-beautiful produce...