The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month! JULY 2024 Edition!

The Most Interesting Man in the World

Grow Tomatoes My Friends! So says the Most Interesting Man in the world. The world just hasn't been the same nor as interesting when he left that position behind to live the treasured life of a retired actor. I do miss Jonathan Goldsmith. I do miss his quips. I do miss his commercials. I miss his style. Even though I no longer drink Dos Equis beer, I still find time to grow tomatoes!

The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month, for the Month of July 2024 that is, may never be known. Oh, I have pictures of it! It exists. The first picture located below left is proof of this plant's existence! The problem is, I cannot even begin to tell you what this plant is. I didn't even know what it was named when I planted it last May, which is why I stuck it in the corner of the garden that I rarely visit.

Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month

Well, let me rephrase that. It's a corner that I tend to visit a lot more now. The reason why is self-evident. LOOK AT THAT TOMATO PLANT! It is positively LOADED with bright pink tomatoes. What kind of tomatoes are they? I cannot tell you. The one thing I can tell you is this: These tomatoes are really good. They are sweet. They slice well. They taste great. They do not show a HINT of disease or any other problem. There have been no LOSERS on this plant. Not a single one. This one plant is responsible for many salads, soups, gifts to neighbors AND a good portion of the early crop went into my first canned tomato sauce project.

That's the sign of a very good tomato plant. It's not over yet either. A big portion of the early crop continues to ripen. Those tomatoes formed up early in May and grew like gangbusters. Now that the harvest period has arrived, the upper portion of this tomato plant is setting and developing a rather eye-popping and large late crop. What kind of tomato plant does this? The Tomato Plant for the Month of July does.

Pink Tomatoes

This tomato plant arrived at my home in early April without a number on it. Check that, the one gallon pot had three numbers on it. Every one of those numbers had been scribbled out. There was a fourth number there. I think. But it was so badly degraded that I could not tell what it was. Therefore, it became the "mystery plant" that I tried to give away. But there were no takers for it. Which is how and why it wound up in a corner. Nobody was interested in taking my plant without a name. Therefore, it became the tomato plant that everyone rejected. Hah! Joke's on them! Everyone passed on the tomato plant of the month!

There are a couple of things that I can tell you about this mystery plant. The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month for July 2024 is a Potato Leaf variety. It is a Potato Leaf variety that yields bright pink, tasty tomatoes. This does not tell me what the variety is. But it does make it interesting. If I were to guess? This is a Pink Brandywine. I supposed it could also be another popular variety known as a Wins All. That is another Potato Leaf variety of plant that also yields pink tomatoes. But, there's just one small problem. I already have a Wins All plant in a nearby section of the garden. While the tomatoes coming off this plant are also pink, the comparison ends there. These are two different tomatoes entirely.

New Crop Forming

That is what led me to my second guess of Pink Brandywine. There's just one small problem with this conclusion. The tomato-growing friend that provides me with all of my starter plants did not grow a Pink Brandywine variety. He has in the past. But not this season. Is it possible that a Pink Brandywine seed could have slipped into his seed starting efforts this past spring? Anything is possible, I suppose. But it's also highly unlikely.

Plant scientists are beginning to pay more attention to the potato leaf variety of plant. A recent report from the The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden Planner seems to suggest that potato leaf varieties were developed in Eastern Europe. In other words, these types of varieties were not widely known in America until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Russia in 1989.

Livingston Seed Catalog

However, there's a problem with this theory as well. That problem is Alexander Livingston. He is, or was, an American. He is also known as the Father of the Modern Tomato. It was Livingston who did the groundbreaking work to develop the modern garden tomato we all know and love in North American gardens today. Potato leaf varieties could not have originated in Eastern Europe. Because Livingston developed one at his groundbreaking farm in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. He developed it a very long time ago. No, he was not trading seeds with anyone in Eastern Europe at the time.

That 1887 introduction was given the name of Potato Leaf in one of Livingston's original seed catalogs. According to historical records, however, it's a variety that did not catch on in popularity like other Livingston original tomatoes did. In fact, by 1915, the Potato Leaf was no longer listed in any Livingston catalogs. Perhaps Americans were not ready for the potato leaf yet. Not with a groundbreaking variety like the Paragon.

If there is one thing that modern science can tell us, it's this: The potato leaf variety of tomato plant produces tomatoes that are sweeter and more flavorful than your common, everyday type of tomato plant. That groundbreaking information comes to us from a group of Plant Scientists at the University of California, at Davis (UCD). The study was first published in 2019. The conclusions in the scientific analysis resulted from two years of research and plant testing on the UCD campus.

Grow Tomatoes, My Friends

To quote a small part of the final analysis: "This study revealed the importance of leaf shape to fruit quality in tomatoes, with rounder leaves having significantly improved fruit quality."

I will never know the true name behind this variety. But it does not matter. Because it grows and grows well in the 2024 vegetable garden. It is producing a giant crop and will continue to produce late into the fall season. That is all that matters. That, and the fact that this one reject is the Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month for July 2024.

Grow Tomatoes, My Friends.