Remarkable! I never have purchased them, since I felt vine-ripened in a greenhouse was no different than hothouse-raised, a poor substitute for good old tomato plants grown in the heat of the summer. Somehow, even heirlooms lose their taste when grown indoors. But I never suspected they would lose more than that. I'm off to the grocery tomorrow to see what wonders I find within those clusters of tomatoes on their vine. I have no explanation for what you found, but I'll be very interested to see if that was par for the course. I live in Central Coastal California and will report back at a later date. Shirley Meneice, Pebble Beach, probably Zone 10 Christine Council wrote: >Hello pbs friends, >I need your help so please don't get upset about the subject matter. >We recently picked up some vine ripened tomatoes at the Super Market >which are sold with the vine still attached to the tomatoes. They are expensive >but I had a taste for the real deal. The tomatoes sat around for a while and I noticed >that they looked as if something was bulging out of the sides. I left it sitting on the counter >and finally decided to perform surgery. The inside looked like worms or maggots at first >glance but closer scrutiny showed little vines; the tomatoes looked as if they had been >pumped full of vines or roots. I let this tomato sit on the counter to see what would happen >and the sprouts kept sprouting toward the light and getting leggy like my Oxalis plants. Meanwhile >the other tomatoes had what looked like branches growing out of the tomatoes. I put these sprouts >on top of dirt in a yogurt cup, put the lid on ( clear plastic) I had to remove the lid because the >sprouts were getting to high and are turning into little tomato plants. I also did an experiment by putting the >sprouts into a yogurt cup and adding water. I gave up this idea because it really smells like fish.and turned >brown. The long and short of it is... what the heck are they doing to grow tomatoes? I have a few experiments >going on because i want to see how fast the vines will grow out side and I am dying to see the end product. >This could be easier than planting seeds because I just pull out a clump of of vines and plant them in dirt, >water, or leave them sitting inside of the tomatoes. Usually there were vines and no seeds. I saw three seeds >in one tomato. > >Please humor me, I am curious about the possibilities because I just started to pay attention to how things are >grown recently. Take Care Friends and please send your comments to the list or my personal address >scamp@earthlink.net. > >Cheers, >Scamp the un - Earth lady. > > >--- Christine Council >--- scamp@earthlink.net >--- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet. >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > > > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.6.1 - Release Date: 6/3/05