An Unauthorized Grape Tomato Caper!

What is an Unauthorized Grape Tomato Caper?

A criminal and/or a slightly immoral idea that could help you grow grape tomato plants for next to nothing.

I love grape tomatoes but having to buy them at the grocery store is killing me.
Spending money for a plastic container of tasteless, sour, red rubber balls posing as grape tomatoes just seems wrong.  Not only are these little posers tasteless but the lifespan of a store bought grape tomato is so short that it doesn’t take very long before they start to get all wrinkly. I find this more than a little offensive so I decided that I was going to look for some seeds to grow my own grape tomatoes.

After doing some research I was pleasantly surprised to discover that buying seeds in packages wasn’t my only option.
Apparently there are some gardening suspects who have had great success using seeds harvested from store bought grape tomatoes. From a taste point of view, nothing beats the taste of a homegrown tomato, however I couldn’t stop thinking that it was a way to easily stretch my seed and grocery budgets just a little bit further. Potentially it might also make a non-gardening spouse more tolarant of the additions to the seed collection…fingers crossed.

Now, it just so happens (and I speak from experience) that if you mention this gardening idea to a Master Gardener or Horticulturist they will tell you a bunch of technical stuff like it’s a hybrid, it won’t grow true to seed, it won’t taste good, blah, blah, blah.

As a Guerrilla Gardener trying to work with a self imposed seed budget, my opinion is that if you already bought some good tasting grape tomatoes and there are a few wrinkled ones in the bottom of your refrigerator or rolling around on your counter, what do you have to lose?
It’s like a potential free seed source for guerilla gardeners who like to garden on properties that they might not even own…or so I have heard!

The internet consensus on growing grape tomatoes from supermarket varieties is that the Santa Sweets® brand of grape tomatoes (the label has happy little cartoon tomatoes wearing Santa hats on it ) seems to work the best when trying to grow a plant from a supermarket grape tomato. In my opinion Santa Sweets® brand of grape tomatoes are also the best tasting of the all the grocery store grape tomatoes. They are an F1 tomato but gardening forum scuttlebutt has it that the 2nd generation (F2) seeds of these grape tomatoes are pretty stable and grow true to type.

Pre-Covid, if you happened to live in the U.S.A you were able to order 8 small 4 inch grape tomato plants from the Santa Sweets® company website for $32 US (plus shipping and handling). However, this option has not been available since the pandemic started and the company has never shipped live plants to Canada. Also the company does not sell seeds and no other seed companies seemed to carry this particular variety of grape tomato seeds.

As a Canadian Guerrilla Gardener who is always open to new adventures the idea of trying to grow a grape tomato from my favorite brand of supermarket tomatoes seemed like a brilliant money saving plan that was going to help me to get the most out of both my grocery and seed budgets. It was going to be the perfect Grape Tomato Caper!

However, there’s a bit of a hitch.
It seems that there is copyright/trademark/patent tomato-rule-thing going on with this particular brand of tomatoes.
The Santa Sweets company grows only proprietary varieties of tomatoes and boasts that this is an exclusive “100% Pure Santa Variety (F1)®. This simply means that by law they are the only ones allowed to grow them.

After reading up on all the trademark/copyright/patent and tomato drama from this company I cannot in good conscience condone or recommend using any store bought tomatoes for harvesting seeds, no matter how good an idea I think it may be. As a matter of fact, I am not willing to assume any responsibility or liability for anyone who decides to embark on their own Unauthorized Grape Tomato Caper.
Just saying…we all are accountable and responsible for our own actions and decisions.

Note-to-self: It might be a good idea to find out what kind of fine/legal costs/jail sentences might be incurred if SOMEONE just happens to get caught growing Santa Sweets® grape tomatoes.

However…..
if SOMEONE was willing to risk a Tomato Police visit and that same SOMEONE was also willing to assume all liability, responsibility or legal/financial implications for commiting An Unauthorized Grape Tomato Caper of their own, then in theory this is a how SOMEONE might go about it….

Step 1
Look around in your refrigerator or your counter for a spare grape tomato (but any tomato will do!)
If you bought a bunch and there’s a wrinkled one be sure to choose it-apparently, they seem to sprout better for some reason.

Step 2
Fill a 10-12” pot with indoor potting soil.

Step 3
Squish the grape tomato with your fingers and try to separate the seeds from the pulp.
Note-Kid’s love this job! Discard the pulp and spread the seeds evenly around on top of the soil and then cover with about 1 inch of dirt.
Alternatively you can process the seeds and save for later.

Step 4
Check your tomatoes everyday for water.
Keep the soil moist (do not let it dry out!) and in a week or two you will see a bunch of seedlings pop up. When they are big enough to grab, separate them and then transplant them into different containers.

Step 5
Harden the plants off and then plant them outside in the garden.
Before transplanting to the garden be sure to fill the hole with well rotted (not fresh) manure or compost.
Tomatoes love this type of crap!

Step 6
Add some support (tomato cage, trellis, etc) while plant is small and be sure to water and fertalize regularly.
Before you know it you will be picking and enjoy the taste of your homegrown grape tomatoes.
Note-if you used a Santa Sweets® grape tomato for your Unauthorized Tomato Caper also might want to keep your eyes out for the Grape Tomato Police…..just saying!

Additional Tomato Growing Facts and Tips for SOMEONE:

– Start tomato seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before the last anticipated frost in your growing area.
In other words if you live in the Pacific North West and you don’t have some tomatoes started you should be starting them now!

-You can also plant tomato seeds directly outdoors in May but your yield will be limited.

-Any tomatoes (not just grape tomatoes) will work using this growing method but organic and heirloom supermarket tomatoes are more likely to grow true to seed. FYI-be aware that some tomato varieties might also have a copyright/trademark/patent tomato-rule-thing, so try this at your own risk.

-Choose the best tasting tomatoes but for a variety of reasons don’t be surprised if the tomatoes that you produce do not look like the ones you bought.
Just remember, you’re most likely using tomatoes that you were going to throw out anyways, and as a guerilla gardener you should never look a gift tomato in the mouth.

-Some (but not all) supermarket type tomatoes are indeterminate –in guerrilla garden simple speak they don’t usually do well in pots as they can grow quite large so they do best when transplanted directly into the garden. Also be aware that they may need a heavy duty trellis or a fence as a regular tomato cage usually doesn’t stand a chance of holding up most indeterminate tomatoes. Here’s the catch, you will most likely have no way of knowing if they are actually indeterminate. If space is an issue, just remember it’s only a old wrinkled tomato anyways so it’s worth trying to grow it in a large pot.

-When transplanting tomatoes outside (approximately the end of May/early June) place them where they will receive 6 or more hours of sun.

-When watering tomato plants apply water directly to the roots and try to keep water off the leaves as much as possible.
Note: Planting under the eves on the southern side of the house to keep the rain off the leaves will lessens your chance of blight.

– Keep your tomato plants well watered.
Tomatoes are approximately ninety percent water and if they are not watered enough the tomatoes will end up being shriveled and sour.

-If you don’t see any bees or butterflies around the little yellow tomato flowers then pollination might be an issue.
This means that you won’t get very many tomatoes. You can solve this by taking a Q-tip or a small (unused) paint brush and start poking it in all the flowers.
This kind of works like artificial insemination for plants. Or if you are like me you can just go all guerrilla gardener and grab your tomato plant occasionally and give it a shake to distribute the pollen and then give it a good talking to. Either way pollination will take effect and you will be rewarded with more tomatoes.

My only dilemma now is whether or not I am going to the grocery store
and start my own Unauthorized Tomato Caper.

PS-I know what you’re thinking;
When it comes to growing grape tomatoes,
Does she, or doesn’t she?
Well, only my accomplices will know for sure!

Happy Gardening!

Guerrilla Garden Adventures

Inspiring Garden Rebels everywhere to make the world a greener, happier and more creative place.