I've wiped snow off roma tomatoes and made a pot of sauce. Of course, you only do that once, but they can usually take a little punishment from mother nature. Some varieties more than others, obviously.

They are perennials, but are known as tender perennials (I.e., won't survive long at cold temps). If you can keep them warm and well-lit, they'll live for years and keep producing - the indeterminates will, anyway. I've taken cuttings at the end of one season, rooted and kept under lights through the winter and replanted in spring and they've done fine, but those are clones, not the parent plant. Some of my indeterminates get 12' or so tall, so there's no way I could keep the parent plant under my lights without such heavy pruning it wouldn't be worth it. The original plants (prior to the massive hybridization and selective breeding that's given us our tomatoes of today) are huge tropical vines that are something like 30+ feet long and live for many years.

I have a 2 year old Kumato plant in upstate NY. Producing well. Got leggy during the winter so I cut it down to a stub but with a developed root system, it shot back up in no time once I put it outside.

Seems they can last longer than what most of us tend to think of as a "normal" growing season.

In zone 6, I had some that were still had red tomatoes on it one Thanksgiving (wasn't the nicest looking plant and wasn't really making new fruit). That's almost 8 months from the time I put it in the garden (mid April).

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The massive "tomato tree" growing inside the Walt Disney World Resort's experimental greenhouses in Lake Buena Vista, Florida may be the largest single tomato plant in the world. The plant has been recognized as a Guinness World Record Holder, with a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes and a total weight of 522 kg (1,150 lb).[52] It yields thousands of tomatoes at one time from a single vine. Yong Huang, Epcot's manager of agricultural science, discovered the unique plant in Beijing, China. Huang brought its seeds to Epcot and created the specialized greenhouse for the fruit to grow. The vine grows golf ball-sized tomatoes which are served at Walt Disney World restaurants.
Unfortunately, the world record-setting tomato tree can no longer be seen by guests along the Living With the Land boat ride at Epcot, as the tree developed a disease and was removed in April 2010 after approximately 13 months of life.[52]

they must have replaced the big tomato tree with another one like it because we were there in december and if i remember correctly, we saw it on the "living with the land" ride. i'm sure they have more than one of that varity ready to go if the one on display takes a turn for the worst though. it is the big attraction on that ride.

I want a seed from that plant.....

Disney did indeed replace that plant with another. I was there in June/July of last summer, and the plant that they replaced the old one with was already pretty big with lots of tomatoes on it.

nordfyr315

They grow a lot of food for their restaurants.
Head to DW, start ordering salads and look for golf ball-sized tomatoes. :-)

tn_gardening,
I heard that before. Hmmmm, I kinda hate amusement parks but scoring a few seeds from that plant might be worth it. :-)

I have a volunteer cherry plant that started about this time last year. It just kept growing and producing-got several tomatoes each month, even all winter. We named him Mac-his picture is in the picture thread here. I live in S. CA with no frost this past winter. I intend to cut him back at the end of the season and hopefully he will grow again come spring.

Hi

I live near Orlando and I go to Disney very often. I was at Epcot recently and I did the behind the seeds tour, they charge you extra for it and you get to see the what is growing from inside the greenhouses. I did asked about the tomato and is a plain variety little bigger than a cherry and they always have the replacements ready when they go down. Gets perfect nutrition and they told me they sprayed for bugs, it is also covered in a dome , so no stinkbugs there, lol. However when looking close to the tree, I could see some light foliage diseases on the leaves.

Here it is a picture taken in February from outside the tour

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And taken last May from inside the greenhouses

Here is Epcot in February, it was cold!

{{gwi:25160}}

Silvia

I had the same question last year about carrying over plants from year to year. I live in Southern California where we don't get frosty temps in the winter, but it does get down into the 40's. I kept 4 plants going through the winter in pots outside. By the end of the winter they were looking pretty rangy and unhappy, but they still had some healthy bits of growth. I took three of the plants and clipped off the healthiest limbs and replanted them in new potting mix. One of the plants I just left in its original container but added some compost and other amendments. 2 months later they are all healthy and bearing fruit again. In fact, they bore fruit before my new plants did this year. So I guess with the right weather conditions its possible to carry your plants from year to year.
Don

I have had this with multiple types of "annuals" including squash. Of course living in a country where temps never go below 55 s useful. I have had a squash plant last several years. Cabbage too. Tomatoes will let them go until they give up. Separately, cuttings I took May 25 are flowering already...