tamarillo - Tree tomato

[lzjohnson]

Hi,
My tamarillo, grown from a seed in a fruit I bought in an asian supermarket before Christmas, is massive ... filling up my window as it sits inside on a nicely warmed sill. Has anyone got a similarly sized plant and can give advice RE: safely hardening for growth in the great outdoors?
many thanks,
Lz

[lottie dolly]

Never heard of them,but after a little finger work on gogle,look on victoriana nursery site,good info for you.
oh welcome to the forum

[TrixC]

I started growing one of these last year as an experiment - it's a popular fruit in New Zealand where I grew up and makes my favourite chutney in the world. I tried overwintering mine in the potting shed wrapped in fleece. It died down to the ground but has come back and is now growing strongly. Not convinced it will get large enough in an English summer to fruit but we'll see. Mine has been outside for about a month now so you should be fine to start hardening off. Start by giving it a couple of hours outside on a calm day, out of direct sun, the next day give it a bit more time in a slightly sunnier spot and so on each day until after a week it should be ok to stay outside, unless you're in a particularly cold part of the country.