I think cherries have thinner stems than full-sized tomatoes. Also be aware that there is a lot of research correlating stem thickness with water availablility. I think the stem is thicker when more water is available. Interestingly, stems get thinner when the plant can't suck up water fast enough from the roots, so the foliage gets water from the stem. Vice versa when transpiration decreases. So stem thickness changes significantly with the time of day as well.

Yes it varies with variety as well as with type (indet. det., tree, etc.) but that is only one of many variables that contribute to stem thickness. So no, it is not such that you can determine the variety or even the type based on the stem thickness.

Sadly there is no guaranteed way to ID the variety of a volunteer even when it ripens its fruit. Best you can tell is it if is a cherry type or not.

Dave

Yes , it does, in my opinion.

The cherry varieties tend to have thinner stems than beefsteaks. Also tree-like dwarfs and bush types get thicker stems too. The shorter the inter node the thicker stems get. JMO

Sey

I'm starting to question if my plants are really volunteers from the
compost or just random seeds from Home Depot that somehow got in the
petunias . We bought a couple 6 packs of petunias. All petunias were
planted with a dose of our compost, but not every petunia has a tomato.
A couple have 5.

I am getting pretty good at leaf and stem ID. The salad types
seem to have bigger leaves without a lot of ruffled edges. The plum
types seem to have smaller pointier leaves. Except for one. That one
has REALLY ruffled edges, almost shredded. But it has plum shaped
tomatoes.
I
thought, after our heat wave (115 day, 95 night) we would no longer get
fruit set, but now the days are 100 and nights 69, so every day new
fruit!

The one cherry we actually bought is loaded with fruit and is a thinner stem type plant.

I don't subscribe to "companion planting", but those that do think petunias are good for tomatoes. They may repel worms, but they also compete. So if you have a worm problem, they might help, but if you don't, they'll certainly hurt.

So far no worms. Rumor has it that on this wild, rocky wilderness where we live that tomatoes are IMPOSSIBLE to grow. So, I need to prove the neighbors wrong, bought one, stuck it in the semi shade and walaaaa! Then we get these volunteers proving the neighbors wrong. The petunias will eventually die back I'm sure, but our compost is pretty good, so surely there is enough fertilizer for all. This winter I'll plant peas or something that will give back to the soil.

"our compost is pretty good, so surely there is enough fertilizer for all"

Compost isn't fertilizer, it is a soil amendment. IF there is a well developed soil micro herd it can supply very low levels of nutrients. And peas can only be a good source of soil nitrogen IF you till them back into the soil.

Dave

@najanajaking I was wondering the same thing. We do put rabbit and cow manure in ours as well as all the kitchen scraps and leaves, etc from the garden. It does seem like my tomatoes are on crack, and all they got was the compost they helped to make.

"I can understand it is not the same to chemical fertilizer, but what is
the difference of compost and organic fertilizer? I thought plant can
entirely rely on organic stuff, right? That's how crops were grow before
chemical fertilizer was invented--using a lot of manure. I remember
being told that chicken manure has a lot nitrogen. Isn't that a
fertilizer?"

Primarily a question for the Soil & Composting forum here where this is all discussed in infinite detail. But basically, all the confusion come from people using the terms interchangeably - compost, manures, composted manures, humus, fertilizer, etc. because they don't understand the crucial differences nor how composting works. They are not the same things at all.

The simplest way to distinguish between compost and fertilizer is: Compost feeds the soil and fertilizer feeds the plants. Fertilizer adds to the soil's nutrient supply, but instead of feeding the soil food web, the ingredients in fertilizers are intended to meet the needs of fast-growing plants.

First, most compost does not contain manure. Pure, normal, straight compost is nothing more than decomposing carbon and nitrogen (browns and greens) organic matter and it comes in many stages of decomposition. Whatever nutrients it may contain are locked up in the materials themselves until after it decomposes fully and turns into humus. IF it contains an active soil food web, a micro-herd of active bacteria and soil dwelling residents, then it can decompose quickly at which point it becomes humus and the nutrients that result are usable by the plants.

Compost that has had manures added to the other carbon and nitrogen materials (grass, straw, hay, leaves, wood chips, etc.) is Manuered Compost. It contains more potential nutrients but still requires decomposition (eating and pooping) by an active soil micro herd to become humus for the nutrients to be usable by the plants.

Manures that have been stock piled all on their own alone and aged is not compost but is Aged Manure. Same limitations apply.

Fertilizer is any supplement that contains nutrients readily usable by the plants in either its current form or when mixed with water. It may be synthetic or organic. But neither requires pre-digestion by bacteria or decomposition.

Experienced organic gardeners use both as they understand the differences between "composted matter" of any kind and "fertilizers". They recognize that composted material is primarily a soil amendment, a soil improver and that it is only secondarily a source of any nutrients after it decomposes to humus. But since it contains none of the minerals plants require additional supplements may also be required if lacking in the soil.

It is why we keep explaining to new gardeners that you cannot become an "full blown organic gardener" overnight, or even in one or two seasons. It takes time. An inground garden bed that has regularly and repeatedly and consistently amended with high quality compost and aged manures over several years time can easily support all the crops with no additional supplements because that soil now contains large amounts of humus as well as all the minerals and micro-nutrients plants require.

This only an abbreviated and somewhat over-simplified version of all the info required to understand the process but the first step is to learn the basic terms and use them correctly. Compost is a soil amendment and not everything called compost is equal in value. Fertilizer is nutrient food for plants.

Suggest some reading of the many FAQs and discussions on the Soil & Composting forum, reading about "how organic matter decomposition works", and learning about "the soil food web".

Dave

PS: And nitrogen is not a fertilizer, it is merely one of many different nutrients that can make up fertilizer.

Thanks Dave. That's an impressive explanation. Learnt a lot from it.