I had seeds of sungold and a couple of others last year haphazardly planted on an empty pot that I left out over the winter. One of them grew into a prolific plant that I would best describe as “sun giant” because they tasted as good as the best sungolds I’ve tried (here in our area anyway) but they are about 50% larger in diameter. Assuming the seeds are not true to type, has anyone tried to keep a tomato grow over the season by just growing a marcotted/rooted cutting during the winter and planting that for the next spring? This is really that delicious!
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I’ve got a three or four year old Pineapple Tomato that I’ve kept a cutting from going through the Winter indoors. It’s less because it’s unique and more because I bought a plant at a nursery and don’t have/didn’t save any seeds from it.
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Sounds easy. Just cut a few and root them in water. Plant them in pots and give them some sunlight to keep them alive
My main concern would be disease control – I wouldn’t want to bring anything that might spread last year’s tomato problems into contact with this year’s seedlings. But if I could keep them isolated from my seed starting area, I see no other reason it wouldn’t work.
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I just stick mine on a South facing window sill. I just want them to stay alive and grow roots over the Winter. I generally prune back to a sucker once, maybe twice if it’s growing fast.
There were a few tomato vines grown hydroponically in Epcot center in Florida that were well over 60 feet on length when I visited many years ago. They must have been a few years old.
That popular youtuber from UK with content on no dig garden has a video on this topic. In that video i wont try to find atm he has a f1 tomato he has kept alive for i think 3+ years by taking cuttings in fall and continuing it in a pot and then planting out, repeat etc.
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I grow many tomatoes, and make many cubic yards of cold compost every year. Unfailingly, in early winter tomatoes start sprouting in the potted seedlings in the greenhouse, for which I only use compost to pot. Since last year, I repot these volunteers, and eventually plant them in the ground inside the greenhouse, 2 to 3 months before last frost. Then I start cutting suckers and potting them in compost (I don´t bother rooting in water). By Spring I have dozens of plants ready to go out, before the varieties I make from seed. I have no idea what I am planting with the volunteers, but I must have liked them at some point so I take the chance.
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