Questions on no winter grow zones?

[nao57]

So I live near the Rockies. We get very long winters, due to altitude and a number of factors. Our grow season is typically 6 or 7 months long.

Anyway, one time I saw there's this cool plant call a tomato tree. No joke. it sounds cool. Its basically they get a tomato that grows really big and put it in these climates where there's no winters.

I had questions about that... the concept sort of, but it doesn't have to be limited to tomatoes...

So if you were to plant these tomatoes, or another vegetable in an area like Florida, Hawaii, or whatever... could you get the plant to just live forever, always producing forever (assuming its indeterminate, since determinates would stop)?? And is there a way to keep them producing ... non-stop or tricking them somehow in these grow zones that have no winters?

And part of what made me also wonder about this is, watching The Expanse, one of the characters is the botanist guy in Season 3... and so I wondered, is there really a way they could have kept the plants producing forever also in those places? (haha...)

See in a place that I come from where winter kills everything every year no matter what there's not been a chance to toy with this idea or evaluate it.

Very curious what others thing on this.

 

[Chris2018]

With the Tamarillos or "Italian Tree Tomato" there not a tomato but a perennial shrub from and mostly grown in greenhouses were everything in controlled.

There are "Giant Tree Tomatoes" that can get 18 feet tall and say if in a controlled environment could produce indecently to a point like most Indeterminate tomatoes.

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[Birdsonghill]

I grew Italian Tree tomatoes many years ago. I found that in my zone 7 location they grew vines from 91/2 feet to one over thirty feet long in our long grow season! I picked tomatoes off the longest vine that I ran down the aisles in my garden after they grew back down my six foot cages, ran down the row on the ground , all season long. They were not a great tasing tomato. They were mostly 4 to 8 oz round fruit slightly mealy and lacking in flavor or any sweetness at all. They were like winter time store bought tomatoes. Ok , but not great! It may have been my techniques back then that resulted in low flavor. I was using commercial tomato fertilizer in those days.

 

[nao57]

I grew Italian Tree tomatoes many years ago. I found that in my zone 7 location they grew vines from 91/2 feet to one over thirty feet long in our long grow season! I picked tomatoes off the longest vine that I ran down the aisles in my garden after they grew back down my six foot cages, ran down the row on the ground , all season long. They were not a great tasing tomato. They were mostly 4 to 8 oz round fruit slightly mealy and lacking in flavor or any sweetness at all. They were like winter time store bought tomatoes. Ok , but not great! It may have been my techniques back then that resulted in low flavor. I was using commercial tomato fertilizer in those days.

Very cool. Thank you for the input.

If you want to improve taste... its my opinion that higher frequency of water per day as well as natural fertilizer (compost, etc) will improve taste significantly. This is because... chemical fertilizers lack carbon chains in them and they aren't fully connected to the food web. Food produced naturally will always taste better than chemically or mechanically (or both) grown. And higher watering per day means the tomatoes, etc have a bit more water and taste juicier.

But having said that. My intention was only to help you and provide feedback from you helping me already. I wanted to give back. And its actually great that you are gardening and improving yourself when only 2% of our population has any idea of how to grow food at all. And I suspect that that 2% doesn't know the entire process, or can run a full process on their own but more like they have an idea of a few things...

 

[nao57]

I grew Italian Tree tomatoes many years ago. I found that in my zone 7 location they grew vines from 91/2 feet to one over thirty feet long in our long grow season! I picked tomatoes off the longest vine that I ran down the aisles in my garden after they grew back down my six foot cages, ran down the row on the ground , all season long. They were not a great tasing tomato. They were mostly 4 to 8 oz round fruit slightly mealy and lacking in flavor or any sweetness at all. They were like winter time store bought tomatoes. Ok , but not great! It may have been my techniques back then that resulted in low flavor. I was using commercial tomato fertilizer in those days.

Could someone in theory... take some cuttings on a tomato tree or something like that and take it inside for winter and then regrow it in spring, transplanting it back outside and have it produce indefinitely? Had to ask...

 

[Birdsonghill]

Could someone in theory... take some cuttings on a tomato tree or something like that and take it inside for winter and then regrow it in spring, transplanting it back outside and have it produce indefinitely? Had to ask...

I have definitely taken cuttings(suckers) from tomatoes and grown them indoors over the winter under grow lights. Tommytoe heirloom and Red Pearl grape tomatoes did well inside. I do not know how long they might produce as I got rid of them to make way for new plants when they got a bit worn and over grown and slowed down. Try It! I would be interested to hear your results in year two. I had a cayenne pepper produce two years indoors and more may have been possible. About natural fertilizers/compost being superior as to taste of the resulting fruit is unquestioned by me! More resistance to disease and insect attacks, handling drought a bit better and heavy rains not washing away all the nutrients or locking them up as bad is also a positive. Compost/natural sources of nutrients seem to "temper" or compensate soil Ph problems fairly well if not extreme. Like a buffer to possible problems it's biological living activities are a work around for the plants systems to absorb what they need more efficiently/effectively even under stressful conditions that chemical fertilizers can even worsen or at least need more product to be effective or less to relieve additional stress. I can rest knowing my compost will aid my garden plants at all times in the best ways possible under the environmental conditions they may encounter. It never burns if compost well managed, adds organic materials/nutrients/biological beneficial organisms, loosens my soil and improves the absorbing and the draining of rainfall in my heavy clay/silt native soil. happier plants make happier gardeners and cooks.

 

[nao57]

I have definitely taken cuttings(suckers) from tomatoes and grown them indoors over the winter under grow lights. Tommytoe heirloom and Red Pearl grape tomatoes did well inside. I do not know how long they might produce as I got rid of them to make way for new plants when they got a bit worn and over grown and slowed down. Try It! I would be interested to hear your results in year two. I had a cayenne pepper produce two years indoors and more may have been possible. About natural fertilizers/compost being superior as to taste of the resulting fruit is unquestioned by me! More resistance to disease and insect attacks, handling drought a bit better and heavy rains not washing away all the nutrients or locking them up as bad is also a positive. Compost/natural sources of nutrients seem to "temper" or compensate soil Ph problems fairly well if not extreme. Like a buffer to possible problems it's biological living activities are a work around for the plants systems to absorb what they need more efficiently/effectively even under stressful conditions that chemical fertilizers can even worsen or at least need more product to be effective or less to relieve additional stress. I can rest knowing my compost will aid my garden plants at all times in the best ways possible under the environmental conditions they may encounter. It never burns if compost well managed, adds organic materials/nutrients/biological beneficial organisms, loosens my soil and improves the absorbing and the draining of rainfall in my heavy clay/silt native soil. happier plants make happier gardeners and cooks.

Thank you! I do think it would be interesting to try to overwinter cuttings. I think it would work with indeterminates at least.