Perennial Tomato Experiment!

[Bigmallly]

Just thought I'd post an update of my Surrogate Tom from last year. I thought it would give up the ghost but no, it's still going strong, I've moved it outside into the greenhouse so lets see what it does. I'm debating how to treat it as it's had so much mutilation..............poor thing.

[Thelma Sanders]

Nice one Thelma, have you taken any armpits?

I've now got 3 small rooted cuttings, and the original plant/stump with a small sideshoot on it.
Just wish the nights would warm up a bit. Still having to bring stuff in is a right pain, had a few nights of 3C in the greenhouse *grump*

[Penellype]

Just thought I'd post an update of my Surrogate Tom from last year. I thought it would give up the ghost but no, it's still going strong, I've moved it outside into the greenhouse so lets see what it does. I'm debating how to treat it as it's had so much mutilation..............poor thing.

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Give it a good feed and treat it as normal

[Bigmallly]

2016 Update

Just a couple of pics:

Original Mother Plant..................

One of the baby armpits.....................................


Will definitely be doing this again this year.

[Babru]

Early tomato challenge

I did something similar, though not the same, last year with some micro tom plants.
I was a gardening novice (still am) and thought I would be able to sow some seeds at the end of July and be able to expect a crop from them.

Well... blight came along in September and so I took them in at that point, placed them on the kitchen windowsill and kept them in. They must have been about 2 or 3 inches tall at this point. Over winter they kept growing taller, but of course with no flowers. When May came, I put a few plants in a big tub outside and they soon flourished. Thanks to the amount of stems they had grown they were able to set many more trusses than any plants I started from seed this year. They ended up growing about 6 ft with hundreds and hundreds of toms. Not sure if a micro tom would have been able to grow that well in one season alone.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

I took part in VC's early tomato challenge this year with some micro toms. Covered in green tomatoes, but nothing edible yet sadly, though my friends have had some red ones from my spare plants.

Just reading through some old tomato posts (I've got a lot to learn) and found this. It's now July, this sounds like it might be worth trying for some early tomatoes next year!

[Urban]

I'm going to be trying this I think this year, one from a crazy gardeners delight plant, and a Rosada f1 I cant get the seeds for any more

[Babru]

I wonder if I could just overwinter one of the micro toms I am growing now. Do they just die after flowering and fruiting, or can you get a second, early crop, next year?

[Baldy]

Tom's are technically perrenials - you just need tropical heat and light. Think you need 20 degrees C or thereabouts... and probably artificial light in the winter months

I believe they tend to be quite shirt lived perrenials anyway.

I wouldn't bother - and I spent a week building a slug trebuchet a couple of years ago...

But if it floats your boat give it a go - certainly a challenge! Believe Mally got some results - unfortunately the pics are long gone.

[Urban]

Tom's are technically perrenials - you just need tropical heat and light. Think you need 20 degrees C or thereabouts... and probably artificial light in the winter months

I believe they tend to be quite shirt lived perrenials anyway.

I wouldn't bother - and I spent a week building a slug trebuchet a couple of years ago...

But if it floats your boat give it a go - certainly a challenge! Believe Mally got some results - unfortunately the pics are long gone.

what if you keep cloning a plant from armpits to keep it going, does it retain its vigour? or slowly get weaker and weaker

[ameno]

what if you keep cloning a plant from armpits to keep it going, does it retain its vigour? or slowly get weaker and weaker

Cuttings in general usually retain their vigour, as they are taken from fresh, young tissue. Certainly, my sweet potato plants this year a very vigorous (completely taking over the conservatory), and they were grown from cuttings overwintered from last year's plants.
I can't say for sure how well it works with tomatoes, though.

[Baldy]

I don't think taking from the armpits itself would reduce the vigour... its a method of cloning...

Your problems will be almost entirely down to climatic conditions...

[Baldy]

... you may have no problems at all of course

[Urban]

I don't think taking from the armpits itself would reduce the vigour... its a method of cloning...

Your problems will be almost entirely down to climatic conditions...

Going to be taking them inside for the winter. Probably with supplemental lighting

[ameno]

Going to be taking them inside for the winter. Probably with supplemental lighting

I might recommend cuttings of cuttings.
Cuttings taken this year are likely to be in a less than ideal state come next spring.
It might be a better idea to take cuttings a bit earlier this year (late August, maybe) and grow them into slightly more robust, but still reasonable compact, plants before winter, then overwinter those plants and then take cuttings from those plants in early spring to make your new plants for next year.

[Babru]

I've just sown three each of Tiny Tim and Windowbox Red, as I had seed from VC's early tomato challenge this year.

I plan to overwinter them, using my led light in the darker months I expect, and hopefully getting some early tomatoes next year. A few edibles in May would be good