No way to know until your seedlings grow up.

Most likely they are some type of hybrid plant. Unlikely that they will have same traits as parent. ( Agree with jean ) - Typically grocery store plants are grown for being able to be transported ie firm, nice looking, holds up well in grocery store shelf....... but taste is not always one of the qualities of these hybrids.
You did not mention - Why do you want to save these seeds?
Also you do not know if these tomatoes seeds come from GMO plants.
Now --- If the store called them heirloom tomotatoes you could plant the seeds and they would come up the same.
You did not ask - My favorite - Brandywine
Happy Gardening

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Blog

Agree. Most all are hybrids and won't breed true anyway. Most are GH grown and grown for shipping so determinates tend to out-number indeterminates because of the plant size and method of crop production.

But there is no way to know since most store sold aren't even labeled with a variety name and since they are hybrids usually revert back to any of their parent stock or a mutation of them.

All you can do is grow them as an experiment and see what happens. Just depends if you are willing to invest the time and effort in to it.

Dave

With your climate, NickRose, you have a wide choice among tomato varieties which should do well for you. Don't limit yourself. If you're planning on growing tomatoes this year, you might want to buy some plants instead of starting seeds.

Nick,

I encourage you to do this experiment. Why? Just because you can. Having the result in physical form right there in front of you will be so much more satisfying than any theory or speculation. When someone else raises the question in the future, you can answer based on experience.

It will cost practically nothing and use only a few square feet of garden space. How else can you have so much fun on such a small investment?

Jim

Deleting duplicate post.

This post was edited by jimster on Mon, May 13, 13 at 14:56

@Plantman56- The reason I wanted to save the seeds was to really just experiment. Next year I will go with seeds packets.

Here are some pictures of the tomatoes. The other plants are Bell Peppers. I've been bringing both Tomatoes and Bell Peppers in at night because of cold temps, the nights have finally gotten to the mid 50's here, would it be safe to keep them outside now. I transplanted them into the bigger containers as you see in the pictures. I didn't keep a note of how long it took to germinate, but it was several weeks.

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Well they look like they're doing well at least.. I haven't had the best luck growing out seed harvest from grocery store produce.

might be a bit hit and miss but give it a go, nothing ventured nothing gained.

we have good luck with volunteers in our garden this year our first summer on new land and oodles of volunteer tom's appeared doubled our plantings from a dozen or so to 2 dozen or so. still got no idea what varieties they were, but they ate and produced well.

as they appeared in unwatered parts of the garden and with all our mulching reckon they must be the best of seeds from wherever they came.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Let us know how they turn out. I'm very curious!

Also you do not know if these tomatoes seeds come from GMO plants.

Please don't drag out that old boogyman. For one, there is nothing wrong with GMO products. For another, there has not been a GMO tomato sold in the US or in Europe since 1998. Unless this guy saved seeds from 15 years ago, there is exactly zero percent chance of him having GMO 'maters.

I swear, some of you people bring up the GMO boogyman like it was a McCarthy era communist. "Ooh, watch out! If you don't brush your teeth the commies/GMO veggies are going to get you!"

So, I have been wondering lately...

What varieties ARE "grocery store tomatoes"?

I keep hearing about how they're specific varieties bred to be easy to ship and keep well, but don't have great flavor, so I sometimes find myself wondering, well, "What variety IS it?" Can I go to my local Home Depot and pick up a packet of "Hybrid Variety X, aka 'Grocery Store Tomato'"? Not that I would want to, but I'm just curious - perhaps so I know what to avoid...

Any large scale growers out there?

There are lots of "grocery store tomato" varieties, Julia. Some are better than others. Some are good enough for home growers to cultivate. Momotaro is a "grocery store tomato" in Japan, for example.

I have a commercial seed catalog with pages of tomato varieties. I'd link it if it were on line. The Stokes website would give you another sampling of varieties suitable for shipping, picking green, picking ripe, etc. Commercial catalogs tend to be much less flowery in their language than catalogs for home growers.

"Grocery store tomato" is basically any variety available in a grocery store - usually the large chain stores rather than the Mom n' Pop stores.

Sometimes they have a variety name on them and sometimes that name is actually correct, most of the time it is just a name the grower/supplier made up. Sometimes they are just labeled by type, sometimes no label at all.

But the term is also used to denote those varieties grown commercially expressly for shipping, often machine harvested, and artificially ripened with ethylene gas.

They are usually determinate hybrids with several disease resistances bred in. EX: Cobra, Dombito, Trust, Caruso, the various Heinz varieties, Celebrity, Merced, the BHN varieties, the Mountain Series (Mountain Spring, Mountain Delight, etc.) to name just a few.

Dave

Don't forget old Marglobe, still popular today with market growers. My husband brought one plant home two years ago, to my chagrin. I know it as perfect truck farming tomato....thick skinned, disease and insect resistant, determinate, very productive, able to be harvested pink and gassed, virtually tasteless.

It was fascinating to me to grow this open pollinated tomato during a hot Alabama summer and never see one aphid or whitefly or spider mite or caterpillar! No disease of any kind and no incidence of ber. Crazy. Plus, seedlings have happily germinated each year since. (I yanked them this year before he spotted them....they really are tasteless. Heck, they don't even have a tomato fragrance picked ripe from the vine on a summer day.

Don't forget old Marglobe, still popular today with market growers. My husband brought one plant home two years ago, to my chagrin. I know it as perfect truck farming tomato....thick skinned, disease and insect resistant, determinate, very productive, able to be harvested pink and gassed, virtually tasteless.

It was fascinating to me to grow this open pollinated tomato during a hot Alabama summer and never see one aphid or whitefly or spider mite or caterpillar! No disease of any kind and no incidence of ber. Crazy. Plus, seedlings have happily germinated each year since. (I yanked them this year before he spotted them....they really are tasteless. Heck, they don't even have a tomato fragrance picked ripe from the vine on a summer day.

Here is a update on the Tomatoes. I put them in the ground about a week ago and they love being in the ground. Its amazing how fast they grow.

Also I think the tomatoes came from Houweling's Tomatoes. I could be wrong but from videos I have seen it seems like they may be indeterminate.

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NickRose, they look healthy! Wait and see what you get!
If you want to grow from the store tomatoes, I would go to a store that carries heirloom varieties grown locally! You pay $2 for a tomato, then go through all the hassle of squishing, drying and all that with the seeds.
I go to the Baker Creek store in Petaluma, or spend a little extra an go to an organic nursery (I'm in Sonoma County, they're a dime a dozen!) or one of the many plant sales in this area! Much easier!
BTW, when you say zone 9, 14 or 16???????
Are you warmer than Sonoma Co? Are you East Bay? That would be USDA zone 9 I think. We don't use the Sunset zone much here. Nancy

@Nancyjane_gardener, I've been meaning to delete the 14/16. It's basically zone 9. I live in San Mateo on the Peninsula.

The one thing you could be sure of from store bought tomatoes is that they are tasteless. Likely to be GMO as well. I'd steer clear altogether of buying or growing them.

http://youtu.be/WsqbggHPn_8

This is the place that grows the tomatoes that I got the seeds from, "I think".

I have grown several things from the fruit bought from store. Peppers, to name one.

I look at it this way: That hybrid tomato , I AM SURE, have had good and decent parents and great parents. NOBODY would want to hybridize from a BAD tomato. The chances are that what you have planted might turn out to be better than the store bought mater.

This is interesting! Please update the thread and let us know how they taste.

I'm curious as to whether what I think of as a "tasteless grocery store tomato" is so bland due to the tomato parentage or has more to do with how they are grown/ripened.

The last 3 days or so I have noticed 2 of the tomato plants are having curled leaves at the top. All the other tomatoes are doing great. Is this a nutrient problem, water, heat problem. When I transplanted them into the ground I mixed in compost and a 4-6-3 organic fertilizer and I water them every other day. There facing the south so they get 6hrs of direct sunlight.

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This post was edited by NickRose on Wed, Jun 26, 13 at 18:41

Here is another update of the Tomatoes. They have grown a lot since June 26th and they have there first tomatoes. The tallest plant which in in the corner is 70 inches tall and still growing and has 3 sets of Tomatoes growing. The one weird thing is that 2 of the plants have a different shape of tomatoes compared to the other even though all the seeds were collected from the same tomato.

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They look just fine and I think they are indeterminant.
Now, your taste will be the judge. The rest of the world does not matter.

I just love that you've kept updating us with the progress of your tomatoes! Thanks for keeping us informed. :-)

-Anne

Well it is September 1st so I will update all of you on the tomatoes that I have been growing. Almost all of them are 9' tall and still climbing towards the sky. The bottom tomatoes have been ripening and some of the tomatoes that are at the very bottom are being eaten by probably the two little rat friends that I have seen on the telephone lines while I do astronomy at night time. I have noticed in the past week or so, some the leaves on the tomato plants have been turning yellow. I don't know if that is because we are getting close to fall or what. I have noticed a lot of the trees around the neighborhood are changing to the fall color's.

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Looking at the growth habit, your seed source was most likely a greenhouse clustering slicing tomato.

They're usually (aka, always) hybrids that are designed to grow very tall and sucker very little. It looks like the growth habit desired traits have stayed mostly intact unless you've been doing a lot of suckering removal on the plant.

I actually have been suckering a lot. I assume I was doing the correct thing since they were indeterminant.

It's exactly how you'd treat a plant like that.

They're bred to be grown up huge trellises in greenhouses in tight plantings.

I actually like that these are growing 9'+ and I would like to grow that tall again next season. Is there any seeds sold to the public that grow that tall or should I just save the seeds from these tomatoes?

If you like what it grows...save it. While it may still have some genetic variation/regression to go through, there's a good chance it's mostly stable. It takes a few generations (5-7+) to know for sure, but it's worth it if you like what you're getting.

There are clustering type tomato seed sold, but others would know what the latest/greatest in that seed is...I stick to paste tomatoes, myself.

The progress reports are great! You don't need to keep the tomatoes on the vine until they are ripe, especially if you have critters in your yard. As soon as they start to blush, you can bring them in and let them finish ripening on the counter.

How do they taste, btw?

Tomorrow I will go to some of the vines that are ready and cut them off. I wish I could send plant samples to a lab to find out the name of the tomato plant. They might be from Houweling Tomatoes but I'm not positive. When ever I'm in the garden or looking out my 2nd floor bedroom window, it always amazes me of the height they are at, it feels good. We have not tried them yet, but tomorrow we are having hamburgers, so I'll update on the taste tomorrow.

Fun experiment, isn't it? Thanks for posting your updates, the progress has been fun to follow.

I too urge folks to experiment if you have the space. It can be quite fun to see the results, and you might get something you like out of the effort.

Photo shows what I got from saving and replanting seed of a hybrid beefsteak tomato. This is the third year now. IMO neither have spectacular flavor but better than the hybrid from whence they came.

I am ready to drop the beefsteak but the paste is a very useful variety to me. The pastes ripen to a wonderful "heirloom pink" color which the photo does not properly represent. Productive plants, fairly long shelf life once picked. Very meaty, very little juice, gel, or seeds (so few seeds that it takes considerable effort to save enough for next year). Makes a great bulk filler for my processing, I add my favorite heirlooms for flavor.

Regarding height of your plants, I have an indeterminate tomato plant in a container that is now over ten feet high and still growing. Never pruned the suckers. Still producing blooms and fruit at height. Was supposed to be variety "SubArctic Plenty" but doesn't quite fit the bill. 1" to 2" fruit size in clusters is similar, though. Very healthy, productive, cold and heat tolerant plant, producing many mediocre but acceptable tasting fruits by my palate. It was the first plant to produce for me up here so it has earned my respect. Being that I have no idea what the variety is, I have saved seed so I can grow it again.

Possible it is SubArctic Plenty that crossed with something else in the garden of the person from whom I received the seed. Either way it has been fun to grow and amazes family and friends who see it. Have lots of requests for plants for next year...

Have a good day,
-Tom