Tree Tomatoes

[barbara]

I have been reading about the tree tomatoes and just read that Heirloom has one..Has anyone ever grown one of these and if so how did it do and where do I find a plant.. your input please if you have tried anything like this...Thanks

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by barbara

I have been reading about the tree tomatoes and just read that Heirloom has one..Has anyone ever grown one of these and if so how did it do and where do I find a plant.. your input please if you have tried anything like this...Thanks

Barbara, what is your reference to Heirloom? Is that a seed site?

The words tree tomato can refer to several different possibilities. There's an actual real tomato variety called Giant Tree, which isn't a tree, I've grown it, just a typical large pink fruited variety.

Then there's the ads in the Sunday Supplements and elsewhere that usually show a picture of a tree with red roma looking fruits on it. It's really Cyphomandra betaceae and is not a tomato at all, and is a tender shrub that takes a couple of years to give fruit. It's also known as Tamarillo.

The original so called tree tomato was found in France in the late 1800's, called Tomato de Laye and it has a very thick main stem as well as rugose foliage( beautiful puckered deep green) and we call them Dwarf varieties now and there are many that are commercially avaialable and if you look in the Dwarf Forums here you'll see that there's been a huge project going on to breed new Dwarf varieties that extend the colors and shapes of what's been known until now. Seeds for the ones that are almost stable are not yet available.

Hope that helps. And what is the place called Heirloom?