October 31, 2024

VIDEO: What is a Volunteer Plant and Why I Love Them | MIgardener


The name volunteer plant gets tossed around quite a bit, but many people do not know what that even means. Also, is there a benefit to volunteer plants besides just getting free plants? all that and more will be discussed in this episode.

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24 thoughts on “VIDEO: What is a Volunteer Plant and Why I Love Them | MIgardener

  1. I love the volunteers, my strongest plants are the volunteers.  They have a will to live and are very well adapted. Most of my cukes this year are volunteers, the ones I planted didn't make it and had leaf miners.  Great points, here ,Luke! 

  2. I have so many  volunteer tomatoes. they are in the grass, in the flower beds, in the beds that tomatoes were rotated out of, in the steps on the patio. EVERYWHERE.

  3. Great video, Luke! The main cherry tomato varieties I grow now came from volunteers in father's garden years and years ago.  I figured since they'd basically become "wild" that they would be good seeds to save and grow myself, and they were.

    I struggle a bit with volunteers, though, because I like to have a good, clean crop rotation strategy and generally volunteers aren't thoughtful enough to move themselves to the next block in the garden.  I like your idea of giving the plants away – particularly with tomatoes and other plants one can reasonably be sure will be true to their original variety – but that doesn't work so well with squash (since one never knows what sort of frankensquash will be born from the plant).

    Tomatillos were my number one volunteer this year; there have been literally thousands of them in the garden this year.  I've allowed a few to grow where there was space for them, but most of them had to go. They grow way too big, and my garden is way too packed for them to all be left to do their own thing.

    My favourite is volunteer lettuce, it's always so early, and it grows when the ground is cold and before we really get much in the ground…  it's such a treat in the very, very early season!

  4. So true about volunteer plants being stronger.  I have a volunteer black cherry that has come up this year very strong and vigorous more so than any other tomato plant that I have this season. Thx nice video.

  5. some volunteer plants harbor or hasten disease–such as tomatoes and even squash. crop rotation is really important for these crops and is hindered when volunteers happen–like i said, especially tomatoes. this year we are battling tobacco mosaic caused most likely by planting squash in the same place for too many years. in this light, be careful of which volunteers you allow to grow.

    however, other plants like lettuce thrive as volunteers. i shake some plants which have gone to seed over the garden in the fall for the earliest greens.

  6. It sure does help me know what will grow in the juglone laden yard. Two huge black walnut trees at the back of the property make gardening a challenge. So, I will clear out other things to make room for the strong successful volunteer. Thanks for your video channel.

  7. I planted tomato suckers last year and got so so much fruit off of them and at the end of season some began to rot so I forgot about them and about 2 wks ago I noticed I have about 6 or 7 volunteer tomato plants growing..so I have 7 free plants that came from free suckers I got from a plant that was given to me!!

  8. I can agree on the strawberries and tubers. But tomato volunteers come up way to late. I have 3-6 foot transplants established in the garden by the time they sprout. I also grow a mixture of hybrids and heirlooms and I don't want hybrid volunteers. When I have let a tomato volunteer grow it is always tiny, late maturing and not very productive. Most of the time I get a far better harvest by eliminating the competition and growing my main plants.

  9. My volunteer tomatoes this year didn't produce squat!!!!!  And when  I say that, I am not exaggerating. We didn't get even  one tomato per volunteer. We will be ruthless next year and weed  them out.

  10. Volunteer plants are every single one of my cucumbers every year after the first year I planted them and I love it. Like Luke said, they've gotten more and more vigorous every year, it's at the point where they climb the lattice until they're on the roof of my sunroom

  11. I let my volunteer plants grow where they appear ; I have a volunteer basil I've nicknamed the "General" ; the General is thriving and growing tall in a bed of zenias !!!!

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