I saw a magazine ad for a "tree tomato." How well will that do in Colorado?

Advertisements, such as these are common in magazines and newspapers, particularly in spring. Ads extol the virtues of "wonder grass" mixtures, trees that 'grow 20 feet a year" and strawberries "as big as softballs." Most of these adds are clearly fraudulent. The truthfulness of other ads, such as the one promoting the "tree tomato,' is more difficult to determine. The tree tomato (Cyphomandra betacea) is a native small tree of the Peruvian tropics, related to garden tomato. Planted outdoors, it cannot survive a Colorado winter. Kept indoors as a houseplant, it can reach 10 feet, but prefers much higher humidity than found in a typical Colorado home interior. The "tomatoes" produced are about two inches long, very high in pectin and more suited to making jelly than for slicing on a salad.**

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