Solving The Funky, Multi-Lobed Tomato Mystery

Last year, we had ourselves a real garden mystery! Two of our tomato seedlings grew to produce mysterious tomatoes. The size and shape of these tomatoes were baffling to me.  The tomatoes didn’t come from any of the tomato seeds I owned!  I was stumped. I went back over my seed list, my seed orders, and the online photos of tomatoes that I purchased seed for. I couldn’t figure it out — the tomatoes were a mystery. And I grew up reading Nancy Drew so I know about solving a mystery….

I tried in earnest to match the tomatoes up with our tomato seed source for the seeds I purchased to trial for 2011, but I was unsuccessful. I figured one of two things occurred since I had no tomato seed to match those funky, multi-lobed tomatoes. I decided that I must have grown the tomato seedlings using some unknown seed I didn’t think I owned, or the seed company marked the seed packet incorrectly.

I took it on the chin, just like a gardener would do. And I ate those funky, multi-lobed tomatoes without complaint.

The seeds that I ordered were for the Plate De Haiti tomato and the tomato seedlings I grew were labeled that way.  When I transplanted them into the garden, the labels were hole-punched and attached to the big wire cages….there is no chance the labels can blow off using this method. So what was up with those tomato seedlings? I grew the seedlings….I knew them when they were just seeds….. and the seeds were ordered from Amishland Seeds. But they weren’t Plate De Haiti cluster tomatoes. And they sure weren’t small, smooth tomatoes, either.

In the above photo, do you see the multi-lobed tomatoes in the rectangular harvest basket on the left? We had quite a few of those tomatoes — they just weren’t Plate De Haiti tomatoes.

But that didn’t stop us from eating them….

In August last year, in a blog post, Mike even asked, “Such a beautiful selection of tomatoes, what variety might those funky looking multi-lobed ones be?”

At that point, all that I could do was answer honestly: “Mike, I really wish that I could tell you what those tomatoes were but I’m stumped! My records say one thing, those tomatoes tell me differently! I have been to the website where I ordered the seed and I’m still stumped because nothing matches well. I have decided to save seeds, though.”

This morning, I was looking over some of the new seed listings at Amishland Seeds and I read this:

BACK FOR 2012! PLATE DE HAITI TOMATO aka HISPANIOLA TOMATO – (Lycopersicon esculentum) SUPER RARE- Only 1 of 2 USA Seed Sources- PLEASE NOTE: Last year’s seeds (2010) that were sold until August 2011 were incorrect. I was given the wrong original seeds from my usually reputable seed source. If you grew them last year from the 2010 seeds,and they didnt look like this photo, please contact me with proof of purchase so I can make it right. I am truly sorry. This has never happened to me before. I guarantee the new for 2012 seeds are absolutely the correct “Plate du Haiti ” tomato.

The mystery is now solved! And hats off to owner Lisa Von Saunder for her dedication and honesty. If you’ve never ordered from Amishland Seeds let me say that the seed offerings are exciting and unique. (Especially when you wind up with a mystery tomato.) The seed packets are small — intentionally small. With 5-10 seeds per packet, there are enough seeds to have a nice sampling of unusual heirloom seeds without going broke.

And yeah, I’m a happy customer, mystery and all.

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