It's spring, when a girl's thoughts turn to...

[Jenise]

...gardening.

I've got in front of me an ad that reads:

60 LBS OF
TOMATOES
FROM ONE
SINGLE PLANT

GIANT TREE TOMATO

ZOONS TO AN AMAZING
8' TALL IN JUST 3 MONTHS

For an illustration, it shows a woman standing next to a 'tree tomato' in a barrel that's many feet over her head that's just so profusely covered in huge red-ripe tomatoes that it reminds me of the overly glorious depictions of the Garden of Eden in the Jehovah's Witnesses tracts of my childhood.

These yahoos offer to send you two plants for $7. The actual variety of tomato is called Giant Tree. Anyone ever grow a Giant Tree tomato?

An 8' tall tomato plant isn't unusual. Many indeterminate varieties will have that much growth and more, given the right growing conditions.

[Jenise]

An 8' tall tomato plant isn't unusual. Many indeterminate varieties will have that much growth and more, given the right growing conditions.

So that's all this would be? I had an indeterminate yellow pear that got 16 feet long once in our short summers here. But it wasn't a four foot wide "tree".

My kneejerk reaction, Jenise, is that "size doesn't matter." How do they taste? What is their consistency like? It's easy to get a big plant: overwater and overfertilize to promote vegetative growth. Since I grow tomatoes to eat rather than look at, though, I want plants of moderate vigor from varieties known to give rise to fruit of character and flavor. Heirlooms varieties, of course, but also this year we'll try some "San Marzano" plum variety that's supposed to come close to the real thing. We'll see.

Mark Lipton
(Still awaiting Spring here, let alone Summer)

I think it might be a tamarillo plant. I remember seeing the fruits in New Zealand years ago.

http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/expert/tree_tomatoes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarillo

On a related note, I swear I saw an ad or short informercial for a hanging tomato plant that delivered gargantuan fruit.

On a related note, I swear I saw an ad or short informercial for a hanging tomato plant that delivered gargantuan fruit.

I've seen it too, Mike. Like most late night blandishments, I'm not exactly responding by running to the phone.

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

I think it might be a tamarillo plant. I remember seeing the fruits in New Zealand years ago.

http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/expert/tree_tomatoes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarillo

Larry, interesting link--thanks. And you know what? You'd think that would have dampened my interest, but in fact it makes me even more curious. I may have to place an order....

Probably be smarter to just get a packet of seeds or find some tamarillos and use their seeds.

http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Garden-Berries/Tamarillo-or-Tree-Tomato

[Jenise]

Probably be smarter to just get a packet of seeds or find some tamarillos and use their seeds.

http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Garden-Berries/Tamarillo-or-Tree-Tomato

It would certainly be cheaper. Problem is, where I live, without your own hot house our growing season's too short to not begin with nursery starts.

BTW, there are a few varieties of tomatoes developed specifically in and for your area (check your local county agent). Plus there are some others from cold parts of the world.

And here's a good tomato source: http://www.tomatogrowers.com/

The catch is probably that there is only one tomato....