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Have you ever had little vegetable plants pop up in spots where you haven't planted anything? Or maybe you've seen a tomato plant amidst your squash. These are volunteer plants, plants that have sprouted from seeds that overwintered from the season before. It is common for these volunteer plants to be in the tomato family which can be very exciting, free tomato plants!

The best case scenario is that these volunteer plants are just like the tomatoes you planted last year but what people often don't consider is cross pollination. Some vegetable plants can cross pollinate with other plants in the same family. Cross pollination is when the pollen from one plant reaches the female flower of a different species in the same family of plants and creates a viable seed. An example of this in that animal kingdom is a ligar, a mix of a tiger and lion, which can then go on to mate with another liger, a tiger, or a lion and have more ligar babies. In the plant kingdom tomato plants in the ...