This Isn't a Tomato

 

Ferry-Morse strikes again.  And this time, I wasn't even mail-ordering the seeds.

I got two kinds of tomatoes to plant this year, Cherry and something called Monster.  I do admit that I started the seeds late, not until February, but tomatoes are almost perennial in my zone, lasting well into November if it doesn't get too cold.  You can overwinter them with covers, but I use the space for cool-weather crops.  If I ever have my dream garden, I can have a Nightshade bed and do that.

After thinning one of the Cherry pots down to two sprouts, I realized that one of the remaining ones wasn't a tomato.  Tomato sprout stalks are kind of purple and hairy, and this one was green.  The leaves looked a lot like tomato sprouts, which is why I didn't notice at first.  I decided to let it grow and find out what it was.

The wrong seeds do end up in packets sometimes.  I'm sure the machine that feeds them isn't perfectly cleaned between batches.  Or maybe they get airborne and fly around the room.  I wasn't paying attention when I planted.  Some seeds are easy to tell apart, but I wouldn't notice the difference between two different strains of tomato, or tomato and another nightshade like eggplant or pepper.  I think I was also reusing soil from a previous pot, so it's possible there was a cilantro plant I had let go to seed in it and not Ferry-Morse's fault at all.

As long as I've started a gardening post, here's a status report.  The artichokes loved the 20+ inches of rain we got this year and were very healthy when they started to flower.  The broccoli is working on it, as are the celeries.  The peas loved having something to climb.  I found out what parsley looks like when it goes to seed.  And I have green onions everywhere I planted them.  The indoor herbs are slightly infested with something that made it inside, but I'm trying to keep on top of that.  It's almost warm enough to transplant them anyway.