Last year I had a huge cherry tomato hybrid growing in a corner of the yard. It was prolific in it's production, and several toms ended up on the ground toward the end of the year, when I couldn't keep up.
So this year, several seeds from these rouge cherry tomatoes came up, and I decided to just let them grow to see what they'd turn into.
So far, all are turning out to be miniature little tomato plants. Dwarf would be the best way to describe them.
Compact, small leaves, small stems. One of them is putting out tomatoes. But they're very small and football shaped. Still green, so I haven't tasted any yet.
What's going on here?
Again, the original was a generic hybrid cherry tomato plant.
Rugose leaved, tree-stem genetic dwarf tomato varieties are not generally used as parents for hybrids, and if they were you would only get 1/4 of the volunteers showing the dwarf trait. They have nearly full sized leaves that just do not expand all the way so they are a bit rough in texture. And the distance between leaflets is reduced. If your plants have thin stems and little leaflettes, and the proportions are normal it sounds more like stunting.
It not uncommon for volunteers to be stunted due to poor root penetration (they are not deeply planted) and poor soil (depending on where they fall).
It not uncommon for volunteers to be stunted due to poor root penetration (they are not deeply planted) and poor soil (depending on where they fall).