Funny little tomato seedling

This little fella had three cotyledons. So, I took a picture, and then culled it thinking that it must not be healthy. THEN...I googled after the sacrifice and found that three cotyledon tomatoes actually produce three true leaves, and tend to grow 50% larger. ( face palms herself at least three times).

I'm not so sure I could have housed a plant for ten weeks that is 50% larger, but I'm very mad at myself for not giving it a try and seeing what would have happened.

Has anyone else found this with a tomato and followed it through to see how it grew?

 

OK,, We speak English here and most of us are just simple gardeners (me) ! What in the world is a cotyledon tomato ?? I have never heard of it ! Where did you get your information ?

 

My apologies Mart - I consider myself a simple gardener as well. I was referring to the cotyledon leaves of the Beafsteak tomato. They are the very first leaves/sproinks from a seed. The leaves that follow are the true leaves.

So this Beefsteak tomato had three( instead of two) baby beginner leaves.

When I googled three cotyledon tomatoes, much information came up. Apparenlty they are even called Tri-Cots and there is a 1 in 4000 chance of getting a seed that produces more than two cotyledons. There's no way I'll plant 4000 tomato seeds in my remaining years. Wish I had kept it. I wonder if anyone else has had this happen.

 

I did exactly the same thing today. How strange. Never had a three cotyledon tomato seedling before.

 

@Daniel W - Wow! Isn't that something?! Exciting that I'm not the only one.
Yesterday I felt a little like I had thrown away a lottery ticket with all of the matching numbers. Today... thanks to your post, I'm optimistic that it maybe will happen again. Just have to keep gardening

 

I never even look at the first leaves if I have a seedling ! Mine grow big enough without making it bigger ! I have never heard of the leaves having anything to do with plants growth habits or size in general ! But you may want to experiment And compare a normal growth to the one DanielW has ! Get together on the research !

 

Wow! I wish something like that would grow out from the tomato seeds I just bought from the garden shop. If it happens, I'll post a picture here.

 

It sometimes happens to all seedlings and I don't think that they grow bigger but they're better.

 

Very interesting Melody

 

@Anita-92 I wish you luck and please do post if you find one. Apparently peppers have the same tri-cot habit and can produce twice as many peppers.