I’ll prolly post this on the October thread too, once it’s up:
Hi, Diana! Happy October to all!
Sorry for more questions, but in particular with regard to Mortgage Lifter (”ML”) tomato plants, you are the only person I know who has experience with them. (Anyone else, please chime in!)
To the best of your recollection, once your ML’s started flowering, did they:
1) “One and done”? That is, produce one round of flowers and fruits, and then rather quickly die off?
Or,
2) Produce perhaps 3 rounds of fruits in several weeks, or maybe one surge of fruits for a month or so, and then gradually (or maybe not so gradually) die off? (Usually when I see this, the 1st or 2nd round is best.)
Or,
3) Once fruiting, produce a fairly steady but somewhat modest stream of flowers and fruits for at least a few months?
Also, once fruits are set, did they (ML fruits) seem to grow slower than many other varieties, but eventually get very large?
What I’m seeing so far, on my ML’s that have fruited, is slow growth of the fruits, and the plants seem to have ceased flowering. That last is ok, as, the better plants have quite a few fruits growing (esp. if they get close to their vaunted size potential), AND, given the slow fruit growth, I doubt fruits setting this late / after mid-September will mature by our 1st serious frost.
Mortgage Lifter: I always got a bunch of HUGE fruits late in the season, then enough green ones, but smaller, to ripen inside well into the fall and sometimes the winter.
Zone 5 - my growing season is shorter than yours. Our first freeze is mid-October. You may end up with actual vine-ripened fruits from your Mortgage Lifter.