Winter Tomatoes

I have been given some tomato seeds that are part of an experiment for a gardening magazine in Australia, that are grown in cold climates in the winter, in Russia and Poland.
The varietes are "Siberia" bush variety
"Russian Red" tree type bush to 1.5m
"Giant Tree Tomato" tall variety
"Stupice" bush variety

The idea is you grow them and report back results.
I have them all up and just planted out in my garden. We are in the fall in Australia.

I am interested to know if anyone has grown these varieties and how they went ?
I don't get any snow here where I live but we do get an odd frost.
I will keep you posted on how they go.

Cheers from Ray down under

Outdoor tomatoes in the winter time-how fun would that be. Half of my summers aren't hot enough for a good crop!

Oh wow can you imagine having yuletide tomatoes? Talk about a great present! Do keep up informed on how your tomatoes turn out. If they work I know another late fall crop I'll be trying to get ahold of.

Hi Deborah,
Thanks for your comments, the plants are about 3 inches tall now and growing well.
I will take some photos and post them as they progress. I have 16 plants in the ground and about another 8 seeds to plant this weekend, so I have a staggered crop.
Our summer crop of tomatoes has been ordinary as we had "bronze rust" on our plants. It is an airborn disease that turns the leaves bronze and the plants just die. There is no cure at the moment, about half my plants died.
Still got enough to make some pickles.
Cheers Ray in Aus

I hope your experiment turns out well. I'm drooling at the possibility of harvesting tomatoes for Christmas someday. That would be GREAT! Keep us posted.

ooh sounds wonderful! as others have stated PLEASE do let us know how they perform. I have a feeling there will be many folks ordering those seeds come fall! *grin*

bettyann
who just a few minutes ago planted 4 squares of peas and a small window sill seed starter thingy of cherry tomatoes. .. (the seed packet was 20cents - who could resist?) and i had the seed starter thingies in the basement just waiting for a use. ..

You mentioned a tomato tree. I'm really interested in trying one. Years ago my son brought one home from the Landlab greenhouse. It got really tall and was doing well until we had a snowstorm. Ran out of fuel and trucks couldn't get through for a couple of days. It froze and I never got another one so I wonder if it would live up to expectations.

If anyone has or has ever had one, I sure would like to hear how it did and if you felt it was worth trying again.

Winter starts on Tuesday and hopefully I can upload some photos of my garden now full of winter vege's.

My winter tomatos now 4ft tall, all have flowers and some getting fruit.





Fruit about the size of a golf ball



Cabbage, broccoli, carrots, red beet, cauliflower

A few more pictures of my garden seeing the upload worked okay (thanks Boffer for clear instructions)

Broad beans and peppers


new strawberries


general view of the garden


broccoli


Temperature is now down to about 40F at night but won't get much colder except for the odd night. About 60F during the day so not bad winter temps.

I planted more raddish and broad beans today.
Also emptied the worm farm for the first time today, I have had it about 9 months and got 2 buckets of castings. All my squares got a trowel of castings.
Cheers from Down Under

I am sure you are ahead of my late spring garden. You might also be warmer ..... way kewl (trying to think of what Americans say in response to cheers)

I've never even heard of this variety, Ray; where would I get some?

Looks great Ray!

Hi The Cynergist.
If you look at the first post in this thread you will find an explanation of what I am trying.
So far the plants are great and producing small fruit.
I got the seeds that were stuck on a garden magazine here in Australia.
Cheers Ray

I look forward to your experiments We can all learn and see how it will work for me here in a winter garden. I will have to hot house, but hey If I get tomatoes Im happy.
Ha-v-v