Tamarillo ('tree tomato')

[salix]

Richard, how about in a very large tub, kept pruned short and in your beautiful rock "greenhouse" shelter??

[Medbury Gardens]

salix- not really enough room in there to grow them,but i'm growing a Macrocarpa hedge line with the idea to leave the higher brunches overhanging facing north towards the sun.
The plan is i'll then be able to grow a number of various frost tender plants,citrus,tamarillo etc,they'll be grown in large flat livestock water toughs on round posts,so that one,it keeps them up off the roots of the Macrocarpa and two so they can be draged out away from the hedge to allow for enough clearance for hedge maintenance.

Mt.Imagine-that's interesting reading in that link you posted two days ago,shame that so much of that imported plant material brought in NZ is now lost

[Mt.Imagine]

orflo, that is interesting that you grow some of the relatives. Apparently with just a period of selective breeding, several of them could become as desirable or moreso than tamarillo.

Medbury, glad you liked the link- I hope you can get some tamarillo growing with protection where you are.


I'm still waiting for my seeds to germinate--I really hope they do.

[John3]

Here are a few ideals that might help someone growing them in the colder clims using a green house.
1


2

[Medbury Gardens]

What an neat idea,what i like about that is now light it would be.

Thanks John

[John3]

Thanks - hopes it helps
Hi temps and should be able to store very easy.

[Mt.Imagine]

From my seeds, I've wound up with four tamarillo trees, which I moved to their permanent, sheltered place in the garden last month; they vary in size, but all are growing and starting to look good. Here are some pictures:

[Glenn 50]

I have 5 different varieties of cyphomandra. Many absolutely loaded.
3 Red Beau a commercial variety. Acidic, yellow flesh red skin.
2 The original "wild" tamarillo. Spindle-shaped mildly tart orange fruit
2 Big red fruit with dark red flesh. Unnamed hard to get variety. The best.
1 Tango a mild new red skinned subacidic variety. Will be fruiting next year.
1 Bold Gold. Virtually nonacidic Gold variety.
1 Cyphomandra fragrans. Its fruits resemble small leathery orange tamarillos. Fruit next year. Unknown potential. New cultivar.
We love them all stewed with sucryl or sugar. Frost tender which will defoliate but not kill them unless severe.
Prone to powdery milder and whitefly. Needs hard pruning after fruiting.To call this a tree tomato is doing this fruit a diservice as except for a slight similarity it is used in completely different ways. A tree tomato sandwich would be completely lip puckering.
Will last 7 years and is easy to propagate indoors from seed in the summer.
A great book on tamarillo and other Andean crops is online here.
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1398&page=316
Glenn

[Mt.Imagine]

Those varieties sound excellent, Glenn; I'd love to have seeds of bold gold. It sounds like you'll have a great harvest. I've read The Lost Crops of the Incas, it is a good guide and I'm growing several other of those plants as well.

[Glenn 50]

Bold Gold won't be fruiting until late May next year. I will try to remember you want seeds otherwise you could remind me June next year. Have a babaco with plenty of fruit coming and cape gooseberry is virtually a weed crop.

[John3]

Any one know of a USA seed company that sell the seeds?

[Frog]

I had a healthy C. betacea sapling a few years ago, but it was destroyed by rabbits and pheasants, they loved that plant, ignored all manner of other crops to get at it.

I have been looking desperately for seeds for any C. diploconos or C. cajunumensis variety for some time, does anyone know a source?

[Mt.Imagine]

Glenn; ok, I might ask you again come next June; by then I should have had a harvest as well and will be able to better decide if I want more trees. I'm also growing not just ground cherries, but morelle de balbis and pepino.

John, Baker Creek sells the standard variety:
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/T...to-757-76.html

Trade Winds also has an unnamed yellow, but I've never ordered from them:
http://www.tradewindsfruitstore.com/...-Yellow/Detail

Unfortunately, I have no idea where to find the other cymph. species.

[John3]

Mt.Imagine thanks for the links for the seeds

[Glenn 50]

The tamarillos are loaded at the moment. Possibly 100 pounds or so on the 5 semimature trees fruiting. I reckon 3 weeks until they are perfect. Then we eat them every breakfast stewed with yoghurt on top. 43f yesterday and they are loving it.