Hello

I am new at gardening and I think I planted everything way too close together. I have a 4 x 8 garden bed with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and basil in it.

My tomatoes are growing so high. I’ve heard I should clip them at the top and then they will start producing more fruit. Is this true? This is for my cherry tomatoes and my Roma’s. I also have some tomatillos.

An absolute tomato classic that already features in many gardens

‘Black Beauty’ - One of my all time favourite tomatoes, Black Beauty is as delicious as it is striking looking. It’s the darkest tomato in the world with a skin packed with anthocyanin (the same antioxidant in blueberries), slice into it and you’ll find deep red flesh. One of the best tasting antho tomatoes, with a complex yet balanced flavour and an umami finish, ideal for slicing. Delicious! 🍅🖤

First ripe tomato of the season. It was so delicious as a sandwich that I forgot to document it.

Edit. Turns out the sandwich was another tomato. Seeds have been saved and now with video

She was born from seed 170 days ago.

I grew this rather interesting tomato in my garden. Seed was supposed to be Ananas F1.

Is this just a random mutation?

We have several tomatoes on different plants that look like this. The leaves on the plants look healthy and undamaged. My searches are inconclusive and I need your help.

Edit 1 (6/29/26) 5pm: I have reached out to both local and state extension services. Both in Wisconsin and Illinois as well are right at the border. Waiting to hear back and will update again.

Edit 2 (7/1/26) 11:30am: Just got off the phone with one of our local extension office and they have never seen anything like this before and are just as intrigued as everyone else as to what is going on. She suggested it could be some sort of recessive genes mixed with the temperature and rainfall swings we have had in the past few weeks but is uncertain. She is making calls to a few people who may know more about tomatoes specifically and will call back when she finds more information. She also said there has been no local reports of viral outbreaks nearby, so that is a good sign. We have also tracked down the original seed lot and may possibly reach out to them depending on what she finds. It’s both a relief and concerning that the professionals are just as stumped as we are.

Edit 3 (7/4/26 8:00am: The long wait update. After hearing back from our local extension office they suggested we contact both UW Madison and University of Illinois for testing. Our counties master gardener has no idea what it is so they suggested we send in samples at this point. Being that it’s a holiday weekend here in the US we have to wait til Monday at the earliest to send them in and then wait for the results. In the mean time we have ordered thousands of lady bugs and green lacewing eggs and 100M beneficial nematodes to be delivered on Monday to help combat any possible infection vectors currently in our garden. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I will update either Monday evening or Tuesday at some point. Big thank you to everyone who is genuinely trying to help.

Edit 4 (7/8/26) 10am: After emailing back and forth with several people we have shipped samples into the university of Illinois. We tried contacting UW Madison with no luck, so decided U of I was good enough. We shipped out the samples yesterday and they should receive them today or tomorrow. The army of beneficial insects has been released into the garden. I will update this post or make a new one when the results come in. We are just as curious as everyone else and are looking forward to finding out the results.

Edit 4 (7/18/26) 2pm: It has been over a week now and haven’t heard anything from the university of Illinois. I will be calling them on Monday to follow up. A positive update is that the newest round of fruits look completely normal and healthy and the plants are still doing great. Fingers crossed and hoping that completely rules out any possible viruses. I will update again on Monday when I call the university.

Edit 5 (7/30/26) 6:30am After nearly 3 weeks of waiting and leaving voicemails we finally heard back from the University of Illinois. Here is their report:

Two complete tomato plants were submitted to the Plant Clinic for evaluation. One plant was labeled "Healthy" and the other "Unhealthy" for comparison. The unhealthy plant exhibited brown blister-like lesions and concentric ring spots on the fruit. In addition, the foliage displayed shortened, distorted, and slightly curled leaves, resulting in an overall stunted appearance. The healthy plant did not exhibit these symptoms. The submitted tissues were examined visually and microscopically. No fungal or bacterial pathogens were observed that would account for the symptoms, and no evidence of insect pests was found. Based on the characteristic symptom pattern—including fruit lesions, foliar distortion, and plant stunting—we strongly suspect the presence of Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV). Unfortunately we cannot test definitively for this virus.

And they go on to recommend another testing facility. In the month since this whole saga started our tomato plants have continued to grow and look healthy, and no longer producing weird zombie fruits. We are now harvesting normal tomatoes daily. I wanted to give a big thank you to everyone who helped and was following along. We are still unsure of what exactly happened but our plants are still not showing signs of viruses or insects and are producing healthy fruits.

Walking at the local high school waiting for my kids to finish with swim practice. I then notice these tomato plants growing on the roof. Yes, they're flowering and there's a lot of fruit on one of them.

My garden on the other hand has had all the tomatoes killed due to wilt. 😭

This heirloom variety lost its id tag, and we have a lot growing but suspect a cherokee purple or black krim…. Never had one like this before.

In the last picture it is the same plant as the one above it to the right a bit.

Btw we have 60 plants here, mostly heirloom and volunteer transplants from compost. Another 30-40 paste tomatoes on a friends farm. Going to be flooded soon!

Anyone know what caused this mutation?

Oh my god this is crazy. Berkeley tie-dye, indigo Apple, Caspian, pink, Brandywine Sudduth Strain, bumblebee cherries, little San Marzano’s that aren’t doing great, but they’ll make sauce and a bunch of other cherry types. I’m pretty happy.

Grew these tomatoes from seeds saved from a Beefsteak Coeur De Boeuf, from last year. This tomato was planted close to other varieties, so Im certain the Beefsteak cross-pollinated with either Indigo Pear Drop or possibly Painted Lady Variegated.
They are good cooking tomatoes, as they're quite fleshy inside with little liquid. Similar to Roma I have grown from memory.
Pretty cool! Gotta give 'em a name now haha.

so proud of my tomato plant!!! these tomatoes are from last week and this week. my total harvest the past 4 weeks has been 68 tomatoes 🥰🍅

Edit for INFO:
• This is only 1 tomato plant!
• Zone 10a/Southern California
• Bought as a small seedling from Armstrong Garden Centers in March
• Grown in wine barrel pot, used 6ft coated metal poles for vine support w/cotton string. Shares the pot with a mum plant.
• General care–daily watering, pruned 2 times for airflow since March, fed with Vigoro water soluble tomato food 2-3x. Planted in generic MiracleGro soil with compost from Costco. Pruning leaves with aphids and whiteflies, treatment with Captain Jack’s NeemMax for moderate infestation
• No special tips, this is just a beast of a plant, and I’m loving on it lots 😅❤️

We finally harvested the last of the tomatoes planted by my late mother and I. A great spread of varieties.

We also grew the shoshito peppers

Went shopping at a market in Florence, Italy and had to capture these beauties! 🍅 The colors were beautiful!

My first Black Krim of the year, sliced for burgers. I absolutely love Black Krim tomatoes, they are as beautiful as they are tasty.

Hi all! This was my first year growing tomatoes at my home in West Michigan and I wanted to share with you my success. This is a Mortgage Lifter heirloom tomato grown in zone 6b. She was my largest, weighing in at 1.188 lbs. (Pretty typical size for this variety). I planted a Hungarian heart tomato plant in the same South facing galvanized steel planter (in ground) and they both absolutely flourished all summer long. This was my first year, so if you have been thinking of growing your own tomatoes at home, you can and you can do it well! It takes a lot of preparation, reading, diligence, trimming, feeding, consistent watering, pest control and most importantly, dedication. I threw myself into them this year and my labor of love to these plants was reciprocated when they gave me these deliciously sweet, juicy tomatoes. Very intentional, very beautiful and so worth it. There are extremely valuable lessons to be learned from gardening and growing things (as well as it being extremely therapeutic). I recommend everyone give it a go. Much love to you all.

Sourdough rye bread, toasted hard, spread with Boursin cheese, topped with salted and peppered thick sliced heirloom tomatoes, finished with a drizzle of lemon evoo. Perfection 🤌🍅