Use Cold Hardy Tomatoes for Year-Round Harvest

Anyone using cold hardy, possibly Russian heirloom, varieties to keep tomato production going outdoors even in winter?

Never even knew such things existed! Do they have blight resistance too? The winters here are not always cold but are wet usually they get blight before the frost comes.

I have tried some last year and I itend to try again as they lasted until dec dont know if thats regular thing though as the weather has been very mild this year .

David

David Livingston wrote:I have tried some last year and I itend to try again as they lasted until dec dont know if thats regular thing though as the weather has been very mild this year .

David

What variety did you grow?

Thanks

copy from the catalog Germinance http://germinance.com/tomates_autres_couleurs_27-F9-E62.php
Tomate Grégory Altaï

"Variété-poplation originaire de Sibérie, de type beefsteak, plutôt précoce pour une tomate à gros fruits rouges violets (200-300 g). Très bonne saveur. (Variété population n'appartenant pas à une variété inscrite au catalogue officiel)"

Basically - origin Siberia type beef steak , early variety with redish bluish fruits in the range 200 to 300 grams . Good taste . Warning not an officially listed type .( so not for commercial production )

David

I have not had any survive freezing temperatures (32 F or lower). I had good success with (I think it was) Longkeeper, a variety which holds well after being picked and ripens slowly, so we were eating fresh tomatoes in December. All tomatoes can ripen after picking like this. Flavors suffers I think even with the storage varieties, but still better than store tomatoes. If one were able to develop a tomato with some frost tolerance, maybe with a little protection, in a warm year it might be possible to have fresh tomatoes year round without a greenhouse.

Matt's wild cherry lasts until freezes here without protection. They also set fruit in the heat of summer when my larger toms are taking a break.

Never actually grown tomatoes so trying to learn for this spring. Seems a frost will kill tomatoes of probably all varieties. I plan to get cold hardy, quickly maturing ones such as the one here

https://store.tomatofest.com/Ildi_Tomato_Seeds_p/tf-0249.htm?Click=21437

Then grow them in succession planting and cover them when it get freezes. Will see what happens since it does not actually freeze that often in my zone 8.

Also use the long maturing varieties for winter storage

I have put a LOT of effort into developing frost tolerant and cold hardy tomatoes... My trials included many Russian varieties. What that means in practice is that my tomatoes are slightly more cold tolerant than regular tomatoes. Last year I had plants that survived several frosts, and two days of being covered with snow. They definitely don't survive the winter here, or even the early spring and late fall, but they can survive the first fall frost, and a few light frosts in the spring. If 50% of my tomatoes are killed by frost in the spring, I consider that to be perfect. Because it eliminates the most cold sensitive from my breeding pool. Different traits work for tolerance to spring frosts than work for fall frosts. I have mostly only been selecting for resistance to spring frosts. By the time fall frosts come along I am pretty tired of tomatoes.

My favorite cold hardy variety is Jagodka. It is mediocre for frost tolerance, but it sure grows well in spite of cold temperatures.


DX52-12 stands up well to fall frosts because the dense foliage protects the tomato fruits from radiant cooling.

Henry Jabel wrote:Never even knew such things existed! Do they have blight resistance too? The winters here are not always cold but are wet usually they get blight before the frost comes.

This question was not yet answered. I have the same problem here. It isn't the frost, it's the rain that kills the tomatoes (through the blight)

We have taken a different approach.  We have tried to build something to store heat, which we have done, but the lack of sunlight in Oregon during the winter appears to be our next problem.  We can grow tomatoes until Thanksgiving.

To see what we have done go to:

www.TomatoBarrel.com

www.YurtCloche.com

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

Henry Jabel wrote:Never even knew such things existed! Do they have blight resistance too? The winters here are not always cold but are wet usually they get blight before the frost comes.

This question was not yet answered. I have the same problem here. It isn't the frost, it's the rain that kills the tomatoes (through the blight)

I can tell you if glacier is in a few months if we dont get a hard frost first

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
I have put a LOT of effort into developing frost tolerant and cold hardy tomatoes... My trials included many Russian varieties. What that means in practice is that my tomatoes are slightly more cold tolerant than regular tomatoes. Last year I had plants that survived several frosts, and two days of being covered with snow. They definitely don't survive the winter here, or even the early spring and late fall, but they can survive the first fall frost, and a few light frosts in the spring. If 50% of my tomatoes are killed by frost in the spring, I consider that to be perfect. Because it eliminates the most cold sensitive from my breeding pool. Different traits work for tolerance to spring frosts than work for fall frosts. I have mostly only been selecting for resistance to spring frosts. By the time fall frosts come along I am pretty tired of tomatoes.

My favorite cold hardy variety is Jagodka. It is mediocre for frost tolerance, but it sure grows well in spite of cold temperatures.

DX52-12 stands up well to fall frosts because the dense foliage protects the tomato fruits from radiant cooling.

Its almost time to try it for the winter now.  Joseph, do you have any Jagodka or DX52-12 seeds?  It does not even snow much in my area (central Georgia).  Its a big deal if it snows even a little and they will close schools because we are not used to it.   My first tomato crop planted earlier this year got ravished by the bugs.

Benton Lewis wrote:Joseph, do you have any Jagodka or DX52-12 seeds?

Yes, thousands. I also have a few experimental lines that are even more frost/cold resistant. I'm harvesting those this week: For example, descendants of a cross between Jagodka and DX52-12, some naturally occurring hybrid clades, and a few other manually generated clades. I think that S. pimpinellifolium are too small to be picking, but I've selected a line that has been very frost tolerant for me, (for a tomato). I had some Solanum peruvianum plants that survived the spring frost/cold very well, and that are still thriving in the cold fall weather. There are plenty of seeds of those as well. The fruits are small (1/2") and taste more like a ground cherry than a tomato. I really like them, even if they have to be very ripe to be enjoyed.

Long term,  I expect to generate a lot of inter-species hybrids that are likely to have more blight tolerance than currently available domestic tomatoes. When we start trialling those lines, I'll really be interested in sharing the seed. With the hope that if anything proves to be really blight tolerant, or cold-moisture tolerant  that it will be shared widely.

Here's the photo from an enthusiastic grow report that I received today regarding Jagodka:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

Henry Jabel wrote:Never even knew such things existed! Do they have blight resistance too? The winters here are not always cold but are wet usually they get blight before the frost comes.

This question was not yet answered. I have the same problem here. It isn't the frost, it's the rain that kills the tomatoes (through the blight)

I am going to say no, they lasted longer than some of the Italian varieties I had but they were not especially resistant to blight. However this year the tomatos up on the higher raised beds lasted so much longer than the ones on the shorter beds. So next year I am going to rebuild the hugelbeds to the size Mr Wheaton recommends.

Have overwintered Large Barred Boer, a seedling from green zebra.  Fertilizing late in the year and having them in protected spot helped me.  I had winter fruit from a plant surrounded by masonry, however they were mealy, watery and spoiled quickly.  In the later winter they started giving good fruit and gave fruit all summer.   I know my climate and micro-climate is likely very dissimilar to yours but I am at about 38 degrees north & floating row cover or hoop house could go along way.   I'd like to try Jagodka or another variety that thrives in cool weather and resists some frost,  work to develop resistance and tolerance is very important.

The main problem with overwintering tomatoes is getting them to set fruit when the overnight temps are in the 30's and 40's F.  Tomato plants survive in my hoop house into December and will keep growing, but stop setting fruit in November as the nighttime temps drop.  

I gave up after the winter of 1978 here in Cincinnati OH.