[bendipa]

I've just brought a few plants indoors to try and ripen off a number of green fruits still left. The plants still look very healthy (and taking up plenty of water) with lots of emerald green leaves which show no sign of turning brown or dropping.

Anyone know whether tomatoes overwinter as evergreens?

[sarajane]

No,  not that I know of.  They are treated as annuals, flower, set fruit and die back.  Maybe you sowed yours a little later in the year and that is why they are still lovely and green.  Mine gave up ages ago.

[Plot 6B]

No..................... Unless someone knows better!

Green Tomatoes ripen better if left on the plant/vine. Dig up the plant and hang upside down, somewhere dry and not too cold. The plant fluids then in theory goes down into the unripe fruits and helps ripen them!
Tomatoes that ripen on the vine taste better than those ripened off the plant, ie; if you put them in a draw with a Banana.
That's my opinion anyway!

_{Edited for spelling}

[stompy]

In their native tropical countries yes they are.
Not sure what you would have to provide for them (heat/light(etc)) but they can live for years.

[mumofstig]

They get very drawn indoors, on a window ledge, cos there's not enough light for them.

You'd need special grow lights and heating (like in huge commercial greenhouses) to keep them through the winter

[bendipa]

No..................... Unless someone knows better!

Green Tomatoes ripen better if left on the plant/vine. Dig up the plant and hang upside down, somewhere dry and not too cold. The plant fluids then in theory goes down into the unripe fruits and helps ripen them!

Fruits are still on the vine growing in the original pot and the odd fruit is ripening since I bought the plant indoors a few days ago. I just wanted to know if the plant naturally dies back in winter because so far it doesn't seem to be happening.

[stompy]

In our climate yes it does.

[sarajane]

In our climate yes it does.

Even in summertime sometimes 

[Trillium]

bendipa, just give it time indoors and you'll find your lovely tom plants dying down.

If growing them indoors in a house or home greenhouse during winter was that easy, we'd all have been doing it 

[A. Fallowfield]

So if tomatoes are evergreen in their natural enviroment, what about their close relatives the potato?

[stompy]

Tomatoes just keep growing throwing out new trusses and rooting where ever they come in contact with the ground.

Potatoes on the otherhand grow tubers undergroung, the original plant dies back and then they regrow by multiplication.
Also potatoes drop the top seed/fruit that forms from the flowers and also propagate themselves from them too.