Remember back when we had all that snow and I was showing off the germinated seeds from the Campari tomato I bought from Aldi’s? Well, today we have a little Campari tomato growing.
When I first noticed the flower bud growing, I made sure I gave the plant a few thumps a few times a day (this is supposed to help release the pollen). Out of the many I started, I’m down to four plants today. I’ve got one in a bucket I’m going to grow upside down, one in a large pear can (this one has always had the deepest green color), and two growing in 6-inch pots. I removed all the flowers except one from the plant that’s growing the tomato today, and I removed all the flowers from the other one growing in the 6-inch pot.
The potted plants are a couple feet tall and very leggy, but I’m not really worried about that because I always bury my tomatoes as deep as I can…although two feet is pretty deep. The plant that’s growing in the can has always had the most compact growth besides being the greenest, healthiest looking Campari. The plants have been enjoying the outside air. The acutal tomato went from being barely able to be seen to the size of a pea in less than two days.
Here’s a little slideshow showing the progress:
Looking forward to seeing how it tastes.
Happy Gardening!!
Cheryl's Garden Goodies 
Jennifer said,
May 18, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Hi Cheryl,
Just found your blog. I’m really impress with your garden. What climate zone are you gardening in? Reason for my question, I like the idea of bramble orchard in containers. I’m in zone 5b and I’m wondering if I plant raspberries in containers if they would survive the winter. Happy Gardening to you!
Jennifer
gardengoodies said,
May 19, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Hi, Jennifer:
I believe we’re in Zone 5b too, Chicago. I’ve been taking the containers in after the first hard frost and bringing them back outside when they start showing some growth in the spring. In one of the pots almost half of the soil has worn away, but that container is doing the best. I’m sure if you plant some you’ll be happy. Now is a good time to find somebody with an established patch and “help them out” by taking some of their suckers off their hands. The plant I just talked about came from a lady that was thinning her herd through FreeCycle.
emily said,
May 21, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Hi Cheryl, Congrats on that first little tomato! Do you mind updating my link on your blogroll? I moved to a wordpress blog a few months ago and my hew address is just http://www.greensandjeans.com. Thanks so much!
Emily
gardengoodies said,
June 7, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Absolutely. Forgive me for taking so long.
al said,
December 31, 2011 at 8:53 pm
How did your tomatoes taste? I’ve planted seeds from campari’s for a couple years. The first year I got smaller than usual for campari’s but they tasted very good.I wish I kept that vine going because the next year’s planting turned out larger, but unsweet. 😦 The problem with seed saving from campari’s is that they are a hybrid- so anything goes with the seedlings grown from them. I wish I knew what they were a hybrid of! I saw campari’s on sale the other day and bought them, planning to plant as many as possible to compare/contrast the variety produced- and then select from these the best for next year and so on, i hopes of getting something true breeding down the line….
gardengoodies said,
January 12, 2012 at 12:03 am
Hi, Al. Please forgive me for taking so long to get back with you. I had real intentions of updating before the year ended, but I didn’t…still haven’t. Hopefully this year will be better.
Anyway, my Campari’s didn’t do so well. One I had planted in a little bitty upsidedown bucket (an experiment). It grew and made tomatoes until the roots filled up the container. The other one I cut the bottom out of the pot and half buried it in the dirt. I don’t think the soil stayed moist enough with it planted like that. They tasted all right, not as good as the chocolate cherry or the sweet 100s that I planted. I gave a plant to my daughter’s boyfrien’ds mother. Theirs did really well. They sent me a picture of a huge plant and said the tomatoes were the size of golf balls and tasted good. Good luck with getting a stable seed.
Casey said,
February 1, 2012 at 9:11 am
The reason your Campari tomatoes didn’t taste the way you thought they should are because Campari’s are a hybrid and revert back to one of the original parents. What you got was either Mom or Dad – not little Campari . The seeds are only marketed to a couple of growers (Eurofresh and Village Farms, and not sold to home growers. How do I know? I tried the same thing you tried and disappointment sent me researching. Growing from supermarket seeds is fun and works sometimes – but … no homegrown Campari’s for a while.
gardengoodies said,
March 13, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Please forgive me for taking so long to reply. I’ve got no good excuse for abandoning my blog baby. This year all heirlooms, except for one (or two) Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. No more supermarket seed experiments for me. I’ll still cheat a little and replant my green onions. I’m going to try replanting a celery…I’ve heard they’ll keep growing if you replant them, and I’ve got a piece of ginger in a container as we speak. But that’s it for me from the grocery store, probably 😉