Two different leaf types on one seedling

[JosephineRose]

I bought some seeds for pineapple tomato last year from Sustainable Seed Company, who is local to me.

I started seed 4/17 and my seedlings have been very slow - it's been unusually cool here this spring.

Last weekend I potted up (finally!) when I had two sets of true leaves. Four of the five seedlings were clearly potato leaf, and one was regular leaf.

I assumed the RL was the stray seed and potted it on as well, to see what treasure comes up.

Imagine my surprise last night when I read on Tatiana's site that Pineapple is an RL tomato, which means the four PL seedlings are the mistake, not the other way around.

This morning I went down to check the seedlings again, and look at the second set of true leaves that are coming up. One of the four PLs looks like it is now forming some RL leaves in the newer bunch.

This is a new one for me. Can anyone shed any light on this odd turn of events?

[PlainJane]

[mention]JosephineRose[/mention], by chance can you attach a picture?

[Shule]

I've never heard of a single plant with both RL and PL foliage. Young leaves can be kind of indistinct-looking, though, and might be easy to confuse with the wrong leaf-type. If it still has multiple types when it's big, that ought to be interesting.

If you hadn't grown them from seed, I might have guessed that it was grafted onto a rootstock with a different leaf type.

The RL plant is likely not the true variety either. It's hard to say what actually did happen with confidence, though. If a cross happened, these would be F2+ hybrids (not F1s, nor a mix of F1s and the true thing). It's likely that the F1 cross wasn't noticed, since they were all RL in that generation.

It's possible the RL is true if all the PLs were mixed up seed, and the RL wasn't, but that's unlikely.

It's possible they mixed up all the seeds, and the RL one is a stray one, while the PLs are some random PL variety.

I don't know, though. I'm curious to hear about what the plants produce.

[bower]

I seem to remember Carolyn saying, never judge a plant's leaf type until they have at least two full sets of true leaves.
She had grown so many kinds, she must've noticed that some had 'off type' leaves in the first set.
So... it could be a wierd kind of normal.

As regards the PL, if they do continue to be PL as they get bigger... hmmmm.
Mutations in leaf type are not unheard of, as you know we have some classic tomatoes available in both RL and PL because of that.
But you wouldn't expect to see that in all 4 seedlings, more likely just one.
Unless your seed supplier has a mutant type. You could check their website to see whether they advertise it as PL or RL.

One thing we know for sure - this is not a Pineapple RL cross in the F1. If these seeds just crossed, they would be RL, cause it's dominant.

[JosephineRose]

Thank you to all for the fascinating replies, and the reminder on waiting for both sets of true leaved to develop.

Apologies for not rejoining the discussion sooner, my utility is tearing up the street in front of my house for a massive repiping project and my indoor cat escaped in terror from the sounds of large machinery and has gone into hiding. She was under my deck and unreachable for 48 hours but has now gone completely missing. I haven't slept in two days, I kept vigil outside. She managed to go missing while I napped during the day yesterday, so I am kicking myself for sleeping at all. I am hoping she will come back now that we have three days off from the chaos. I am beside myself with worry. At my family's suggestion, I am trying to focus on the garden to regain my calm.

I will email the seed company to see what they say. They are under new management and are rebuilding, so I don't know how much attention to detail they've paid. I always grow these things out because they often lead to happy accidents. I have three such accidents from last year I am regrowing this year myself. I will update on those varieties in another thread later this season.

I do find it fascinating that the majority were PL. That is what got my attention. I was very careful in seed starting, so if there was a mistake, it happened when the seeds were packaged. I cannot always say that, but after the three "wrong" varieties last year, I was very cautious. at seed starting this spring.

I will attempt to get pictures next week, hopefully when my baby girl is safely back at home.

[PlainJane]

I hope your kittie turns up soon!

[JosephineRose]

Hello all, apologies for being AWOL. This has not been my best season.

Kitty has been missing since Memorial day weekend. I have devoted much of my energies towards the search for her and my plants have suffered from neglect. Needless to say, I am out of my mind with worry and let many seedlings die during the last two months. Thus, the seedling that was showing signs of both leaf types did not survive. Just as well, it was weird looking and something was wrong.

I have also been battling a massive fungus gnat problem that I realized came from my mushroom grow kits, and I generally planted our super late in two groups. One group went in late June and another in late July. I have NEVER planted out this late, but local garden experts said we can do so here. With all of this, plus the germination issues I had earlier in the spring, I am just going with what I've got and we will see what grows. So I now have an unintended late growing experiment fully under way.

I have had several seeds come up with different leaf types than advertised. Sugar Plum Fairy was supposed to be RL and came up PL, Pineapple was the same. I had hoped to grow out side by side with the true to type RL seedlings, but in both cases the single RL plants died from my neglect. So I planted out the PL plants and we will see just see what kind of fruit each produces. Usually I chalk these up to stray seeds and happy accidents, but since I am unsure of what kind and volume of crop fate will bring me this season, I am less delighted than usual.

I did take copious notes at sowing time, so I know what PL varieties were sown at the same time as these: Taiga and Japanese Black Trifele. Both are very distinctive and different from what was intended, so if either of those fruits come up, I will know it was my fault!

In addition, I saved seed from the three "Not varieties" that came up last year and am growing them out. I hoped to have more plants, but I have one each of: "Not Apricot Brandywine," which came up as a beautiful RL red tomato; "Not Amish Paste" black heart-shaped tomato and "Not Amish Paste" black roma (plum) shaped tomato. Both of the last two were grown on separate trusses of the same plant, so I am very interested in seeing if they produce fruit identical to their parents. It was suggested last year that instead of a stray seed, I may have had a chimera, so I especially look forward to these fruits.

Finally, because I have not made things difficult enough for myself, I have begun to clone my existing plants from suckers as a backup. It has been a very cool spring and early summer so far, and our heat generally hits in September and October so I feel somewhat confident the clones will produce. Besides, I pulled my tomatoes with ripe fruit in November the last two years, and another dry la Nina is in the forecast. I'm thinking I will be canning around Thanksgiving once again!

[MissS]

[mention]JosephineRose[/mention] I am so very sorry that your cat is still missing. Hopefully someone is putting food and water out for her and she will find her way home soon.

It sounds as if you have some great mystery plants growing. It would be nice if at least one of those came true for you.