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.
Thanks for the reply!
Everything about Mortgage Lifters seems “slowed down”, but apparently they eventually “get there” (and how!)
I still have 3 ML plants in little 2” starter pots, inside, and they seem fine, even healthy, just “Bonsai-like”! Like little 6” tall bushes.
If I like the taste, I may try either over-wintering these 3, or (and?) starting a few plants from seed very early, and then be sure to get them transplanted as early as I dare. The 6-pack ML’s seem more “Bonsai-able” than the ones I started from seed.
Bizarrely, ONE of the weaker ML’s planted in soil (not in a pot) outside has produced smallish fruits already ripening. They are kinda bland, so, they can’t be a “got mixed up” Cherry Falls — those are always pretty zippy tasting for me. Plants in that spot never do well - I suspect something in the soil from before I owned this place. Since I bought 16 cu. ft. of nutrient enhanced garden soil on clearance at Wally World, next spring I may dig a large hole in that spot and dump in some mixed compost and garden soil.
Our space to ripen fruits inside is very limited, but, the long range weather forecast still looks warm, so, yes, I may get lucky with the vine-ripening. I look forward to giving away a couple huge fruits to each of our friends. :-)