The stems don't look fused to me so I bet you can gently tease the plants apart and end up with two plants each with the right number of leaves.

Usually one sees tricots and rarely quadcots at the seedling stage and refer to the number of cotyledons, the first structures that appear when the seed germoinates and they aren't true leaves.

Occasionally when two seeds are stuck together you can see what you show, so try teasing them apart since the main stems are not fused, which does happen from time to time and it's easy to see such thick stems that have striations showing where the stems are fused.

Carolyn

Agree most likely 2 stuck together seeds when planted. You see it often with machine seeding in the greenhouse.

Dave

Digdirt - I am positive its not 2 seeds stuck together. It's one plant that looks like its joint by the hip. I wish i took a picture when i first spotted it during germination but never thought to take a picture. Maybe i can take a closer shot to show that its fused and not two separate seedlings.

I had the same thing happen this year to a Better Boy seedling. Had quadcots on a single stem. I too was meaning to take pics and post as I had never seen this happen before. I've started hundreds of tomato seeds over the years and this was a first. I'm also positive I didn't have two seeds stuck together. I am very careful about choosing seeds when planting. I will try and post a pic in morning.

This one is a Cherokee Purple. Like i said this is not 2 seedlings. You can see the Seed leaves in my first picture. The seed leaves fell off as the plant matured.

Thanks for that much better picture showing that yes, just joined at the hip, as you put it.

So two options.

With a sharp knife amputate one of the arms and stick it in your soilless mix to get a new plant or leave things as they are and let the plant go since it's fused down low and should be OK.

Carolyn

Really wish I had taken a pic at an earliest stage. It had a single stem that looked like all the rest of the seedlings starting out, but it had four cotyledons coming from the top. Never seen anything like it. Didn't look the least bit like it was fused starting out. It certainly looks a little more confused as it matures. I didn't see anything suggesting that this could be split up into two different plants early on.

Thanks Carolyn! I am going to let it go and see what happens. Just thought it was pretty cool to share as i have never seen this happen before.

@ foose4string - Very Cool! Are you going to grow it out and see how it turns out?

Yeah, I'm going to let it go. As I said earlier, I am very careful when choosing seeds. I avoid seeds that are stuck together and only plant one seed per cell. The stem has thickened more so than the other seedlings and almost looks like two plants now. More so, now that each set has grown to different heights due to crowding and light source,

can you post a updated pic? And if its no trouble would you please keep me posted on your progress?

I just took that pic this morning. I wish I had taken one in the very beginning when the cots first appeared. I'll try and keep you updated.

I just had a tomato seed to sprout that has 4 seed leaves. This is the very first one I have ever seen. I decided to google it and found this forum, so I am now posting. I took pictures and I am posting a picture showing its very first seed leaves. I am very curious to see what its next growth will turn out like. I will let it grow out naturally to see what happens. This is the "Delicious" variety of tomato, from a seed I ordered online from Remier Seeds.

My roma nano with 4 cotyledons!