Litchi tomatoes -- how cold hardy are they? And are they self-fertile, or not?

There's very little information here on Permies (or anywhere, really) on growing Litchi tomatoes (not true tomatoes, but rather Solanum sisymbriifolium).  I got some seed from Baker Creek , along with the total growing information "grow litchi tomato just as you would grow regular tomatoes."



Well, I did that, but I got low germination and about four of the six seedlings I ended up with never grew more than an inch high.  Eventually I got one plant that grew about thirty inches tall and started flowering (pretty!) about a month before our first freeze, but it never set any fruit, to my disappointment.  We finally got a hard freeze, maybe 29 degrees for several hours, enough to pulp every tomato plant in my garden, put a skiff of ice on my smaller water containers, and even damage the few green tomatoes I had not picked.  Imagine my surprise to discover that my Litchi plant was completely unphased, just shrugged it off and in fact popped open some new flowers.

So, not at all like regular tomatoes.  What else is different?  How much cold can it tolerate? Should I have done more about pollination than leave those showy white-and-yellow flowers to my pollinating crew?  If I take it inside (ouch ouch, very prickly) how will it do as a houseplant for the winter?

Really, I'm soliciting whatever you know about this plant here.  Permies doesn't seem to have a thread, just a few passing references.  This one does mention their Litchi plant surviving a 23-degree freeze, which raised my eyebrows.  There are winters we don't get that cold here until December.

Please share your Litchi knowledge!

Oh, that's so interesting. I have one in a pot that has about 6 half-ripened fruit on it that I brought in when it looked like a frost. Maybe I better put it back out again.

This is my first time growing them and I have pretty much left it alone, so I don't have much information to share, but I'm following this thread and will update with any information.

i’ve grown these a few times, but i don’t really have much to add. i wasn’t paying too much attention to what temperature killed them, and they seemed at the time that they froze out about the same time as peppers and tomatoes.

Hi Dan,

I am sorry that your post got so few reactions. I think this is a very interesting plant, that I might be growing some day. I did not reply because I have no experience yet, but I did find some interesting on the internet that I would like to share with you since nobody reported this from actual experience. It was mainly on Dutch and Belgium sites. I would send a link, but you might have some trouble reading it.

This plant is so interesting because it is a natural protection against certains potato pests. The roots attract parisites that harm potatoes (Globodera pallida en G. rostochiensis), but they find nothing to feed of and die. Therefore it would be useful to plant them in combination with potatoes or before potatoes.
The reports on the taste varies per site: some call it "the most delicious thing ever eaten"  and other "awful taste" The latter do plant it because of the benefits in combination with tomatoes.

Your request on winter hardiness: The plant perenial, but not fully hardy, but it makes rhizomes that might survive the winter if your freezing is not to deep (maybe some cover might help?). In the Netherlands they do stand a change and they appear in the "wild" as well.

The downsides of this plant are nasty thorns; so don't plant them near a path and wear gloves during harvest. The rhizomes might result in some invasiveness in your garden as well. If it is tasty  it might balance with the thorns.  Maybe somebody on permies can breed out the thorns?

I missed this thread the first time around. Now I'm curious if it could be crossed with other Solanums?

I may need to add that to my list.

I wanted to wait to answer til I could find you a decent resource aside from my own observations. This plant is a common field weed where I live, loves disturbed earth (especially after fire). I see it in zones 8-9 and up, but apparently even despite temperature it is simply a short-lived annual. This page has some info you might find interesting, just run it through google translate, you should be able to get the gist).

Dan Boone wrote:Eventually I got one plant that grew about thirty inches tall and started flowering (pretty!) about a month before our first freeze, but it never set any fruit, to my disappointment.

...

Should I have done more about pollination than leave those showy white-and-yellow flowers to my pollinating crew?  If I take it inside (ouch ouch, very prickly) how will it do as a houseplant for the winter?

I answered one question last winter: this is the most bulletproof overwintering-indoors plant I've ever taken inside.  It grew well throughout the winter, although the foliage was spindly due to lack of great light.  I whacked it back when I brought it outdoors, and it is already flowering again, has been for weeks.  Still no fruit.

I now have a second plant, also in flower, that I made by cloning the first; I had to prune the thorny stems to fit it indoors last fall, so I rooted one of them in a pot.  It didn't *flourish* indoors but it did not die, and now is very happy.

Unfortunately I am still perplexed about pollination.  Some sites say these plants are not self-fertile, but require two different ones to set fruit; other people swear they grew one plant and got fruit.  I'm thinking Litchi plants are, or can be, self-fertile, but perhaps pollination is not straightforward, or depends on particular insect species.

So I am bumping this thread specifically to ask about pollination.  Has anybody got any insight or anecdotes to share?

Dan Boone wrote:
Unfortunately I am still perplexed about pollination.  Some sites say these plants are not self-fertile, but require two different ones to set fruit; other people swear they grew one plant and got fruit.  I'm thinking Litchi plants are, or can be, self-fertile, but perhaps pollination is not straightforward, or depends on particular insect species.

So I am bumping this thread specifically to ask about pollination.  Has anybody got any insight or anecdotes to share?

I haven't found any new information on this, but both of my widely-separated overwintered plants now have a small number of fruit on them.  So I guess they are self-fertile, at least to some minimal degree.

Hi there. I won't be able to contribute much to your questions, but might give some info...

I've grown some of them a couple of years ago, had two plants going reasonably well. They were not very close to each other, and had a nice fruit set. Their first flowers didn't set fruit, and I got some impression that it might be related to temperature or humidity, but it's just an impression.

The flowers are quite pretty, and if I'm remembering well, they got some pollinator activity. I do believe they're self-compatible.

Interesting thing is that now I'm getting some volunteers around the garden, some 10-20 meters from where I originally had them (and it's been about 2 years, so the seeds are rather resilient... maybe the low germination is related to this?). The volunteers seem to be a bit slow, but I have given them zero attention and love...

Flavor-wise, it seemed to me rather like a low-acidity kiwi fruit. Pleasant, but not very remarkable. I only ate them raw.

Regarding cold resistance I can't help much, as we don't get below 0C around here.

And now a question of my own: how to deal with the thorns? I haven't planted it recently because interacting with this plant is quite masochistic...

Guilherme, thanks for your info!  

Guilherme Marques wrote:
And now a question of my own: how to deal with the thorns? I haven't planted it recently because interacting with this plant is quite masochistic...

Honestly, I have not worried about the thorns.  Everything here is thorny, it feels like; so I just accept that stuff is thorny and I am careful.  This property has honey locusts (the tree with thorns on its thorns) and osage orange (thorny when young) and various thorny canes like wild blackberry, and a bunch of smilax (thorny vines), and horse nettle (a weedy solanum species covered in thorns, very similar to the litchee tomato except with useless fruit), and, and, and.  Thorns everywhere.  What's a few more among friends?

I guess I just need to cultivate a different attitude towards the thorns!

I also have som blackberry that I'm hesitant to plant in the ground, due to their thorns. But I love their fruit, so I'm missing it...

I have 2 close by each other, waiting on some to ripen now. They take way longer to finish than tomatoes.