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Post by jocelyn on Jan 5, 2017 5:47:07 GMT -5
I took a slip off a tomatoe and it has rooted and is blooming. How long is it likley to grow, to live? Will it bear next spring, or is that too long away? Anybody know?
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 5, 2017 6:39:14 GMT -5
It should. I wintered a tomato plant last year and it produced like CRAZY come spring. Tomatoes are actually perennials in their native territory; it's the frost that kills them up her in the US. If you are any good at hand pollination, you may actually get it to bear over the winter as well (it won't do it on it's own, it need insects to set it off)
Only thing you might want to watch out for is that tomato vines keep growing as long as they live, so the plant could get a little leggy if you don't pinch it back.
And this all really only applies if your tomato is indeterminate. If it is a determinate type, it's basically has a set amount of fruit it will make before conking out. Look up whatever type it is you have and you should be able to find out.
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Post by jocelyn on Jan 5, 2017 8:33:33 GMT -5
Ah, OK, thanks. It has a tiny tomatoe now, I shook it. It's detirminant, Defiant, seems to be making new side shoots with flowers though. I just didn't realize it could live multiple years.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 5, 2017 12:52:28 GMT -5
In that case, just remember to keep any pinching you do to the point BELOW where the first flower group was (you probably wont have a problem with overgrowth or legginess if it is determinate) or you cut down on your harvest.
I usually find a spot by a window works well over the winter so it can get some morning sun (just remember to turn the pot from time to time to keep it from bending over) If you have grow lights, that's even better.
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Post by richardw on Jan 5, 2017 13:38:31 GMT -5
you may actually get it to bear over the winter as well (it won't do it on it's own, it need insects to set it off) No you dont need insects, i always grow three seedling plants in the autumn and winter over inside the house behind a large sunny window, they grow fruit during the winter by just gently shaking the flowers
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Post by walt on Jan 5, 2017 14:35:52 GMT -5
Commercial greenhouse tomato producers used to use electric toothbrushes to jiggle the flowers to pollinate them. Always seemed like overkill to me. How much action it takes to self-pollinate a tomato flower depends some on the variety. Those bred for greenhouses, or for commercial production generally, have short styles so the stigmas are way down among the anthers. They self without any attention. Those with stigmas way outside the anther cone will need some jiggling. Many cultivars have stigmas about even with the end of the anther cone. Any little bump will pollinate those.
I don't remember ever rooting a cutting and growing it on. But a man that worked a few years at Heritage Farm, SSE headquarters, used to keep a favorite cherry tomato going that way. He would take a cutting in the fall and grow it over the winter in his living room, tied upright in front of a huge window. In the spring he'd take a cutting of it again to grow over the summer. He had that plant for several years. He said it produced summer and winter. I was in a group that toured his garden and saw the huge plant in his living room. It was late winter and it had had all winter to grow. He gave cuttings to people in the tour who wanted them. A friend of mine kept her cutting going for a few years.
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Post by reed on Jan 5, 2017 16:19:45 GMT -5
Tomatoes grow pretty well over winter in my south facing windows but I don't think they taste very good. I think maybe the nasty hothouse flavor and texture comes partly from being grown so artificially rather than just the varieties they use. Haven't done it for a long time but don't remember having to do anything to get them to set. Maybe just getting jostled around while watering or opening / closing the curtains did it.
It is also pretty easy to just bury a stem and make clones to plant out.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 5, 2017 19:39:23 GMT -5
you may actually get it to bear over the winter as well (it won't do it on it's own, it need insects to set it off) No you dont need insects, i always grow three seedling plants in the autumn and winter over inside the house behind a large sunny window, they grow fruit during the winter by just gently shaking the flowersThat's true, I just counted that as "hand pollination". All I meant was it won't make tomatoes it you simply leave it still and don't touch it. At least the one I had (some unidentified cherry) didn't.
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Post by steev on Jan 5, 2017 23:08:12 GMT -5
Right. As Joseph has posted, an adult vibrator can be multi-purposed; an electric toothbrush?, rather mono-purposed; no disrespect meant to electric toothbrushes; they're just not as potentially useful/fun.
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Post by richardw on Jan 6, 2017 0:21:05 GMT -5
I Dont know if i need to resort to dragging out the misses suitcase from out under the bed steev, might just stick to a gentle shake.
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Post by steev on Jan 6, 2017 1:37:43 GMT -5
Whatever floats your boat, bloats your goat, coats your throat, or moats your stoat; it's all good. I don't doubt your misses enjoys your gentle shake. Be well and prosper, down under, mate.
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Post by jocelyn on Jan 6, 2017 6:04:48 GMT -5
Since I now have a second fruit coming along, I'll just shake it to set fruit. I don't want to load it up on fruit now, I just want a mature plant to set out in the spring so it will set fruit right after hardening off. Now, it's 4 or 5 weeks after setting out from a new seedling. This gives only one flush of tomatoes before frost...frost can come mid Sept here. It's about 8 weeks till I can set a tender potted plant in the porch, and June 10 till last frost.
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andyb
gardener
Posts: 179
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Post by andyb on Jan 7, 2017 17:22:09 GMT -5
I meant to make a tomato cross last summer, but didn't manage it until it was fall and late blight was nibbling at the bottoms of the plants. I took a few cuttings from unaffected parts of the plants and plopped them in pots in my indoor grow area. They rooted quickly under the lights and started growing, but within a week or so I saw the beginnings of late blight spreading on the leaves. Apparently, I have bad enough air circulation and high enough humidity that the leaf surfaces are damp enough for it to grow.
I wonder if it would have happened if I'd just put them in a window or if I had a small fan in the grow area. I also wonder if a short bleach bath for the cuttings might have helped.
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Post by Al on Jan 12, 2017 17:14:50 GMT -5
Rosada is a mini plum indeterminate F1 tomato which comes from a breeder in the Far East, new stocks are no longer being shipped into the E.U. It is s great tomato so I thought over wintering cuttings might be a way to keep them going without needing seed at all. I took a few nice looking shoots before the first hard frosts & stuck them in a jar of water on a window ledge. They rooted & are now potted up & looking like they will survive until Spring. I will then take a few more cuttings & hopefully get several plants ready to set out in the greenhouse in May. I don't know if there is any reason why these plants might lose vigour in time, but I hope to repeat this process in future years all being well. Unless someone outside the E.U. can send me fresh seed (hint, hint)? Maybe the U.K. will be able to import them after it is disentangled from the E.U. regime?
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Post by steev on Jan 12, 2017 23:43:16 GMT -5
On their ancestral turf, many Solanums are reliably perennial, if only relatively short-lived, unless cloned; I've seen several-year-old chilies that were 6'+ and fruiting well, so it's not about their potential to keep going; it's just about not letting them be killed. If you can treat your babies well, they will "live long and prosper", to your benefit.
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