Tomatoes are technically tender perennials grown as annuals. If it weren't for frost, they'd produce for a few years. As long as it is indeterminate (which Early Girl is), they'll keep producing, once it gets warm enough and sunny enough.

You could always hedge your bets and keep a cutting (which would be easy to root in water). Keep both plants and see how it goes. You could bring the new plant inside on cold days.

I think I'll give it a try! If I don't get some flowers in spring, or I see some disease, I'll pull it.

Labradors- If it doesn't work I'll just get new plants in the spring. Just an experiment! Nancy

Definitely keep it and see how it is doing. Gardening without experimenting is like summer without flowers!

I had a Boxcar Willie last out the winter last year. It did give tomatoes early on, but finally died last summer. The tomatoes where large and delicious. I kept the seeds from one of the tomatoes and started the seed. I now have an abundance of Boxcar Willie plants growing in the window in the garage. It will be interesting to see how the "kids" fare.

@CA Kate z9: Tomatoes almost always self-pollinate. Cross-pollination can occur, but is rare. Only a few varieties of Tomatoes cross-pollinate, so if your variety doesn't belong to this group you can rest assured that the babies will be true to their parent.

Found a little tomato the other day!

How nice!

windberry: thanks for the info; I didn't know this. In this case I wasn't too worried because they were the only tomato plants anywhere near me... no one else gardens. It will still be fun to see how much they are like their parent(s). Now I just need to figure out where to plant all of them. ( I plant only in pots in my city garden.)

Why some people in a gardening forum, don't have their zones in their usernames is really strange. Tired of asking gardeners where they are located. :-/

But USDA zones are really lousy indicators of gardening weather. My USDA zone here in central Texas is exactly the same as what it was when I lived in Oregon. Summer gardening couldn't be more different between the two places. The USDA zones are all about how cold it gets in the winter, which has almost nothing to do with how hot it gets in the summer. What I'd really like to see called out by posters is a STATE, not a zone.

Two letters (a state postal code) instead of one number. C'mon, get with it.

There is also a Heat Zone chart. Once i found it i better understood why i was losing so many plants in our mid-California garden.

Yup, you can add an HZ number if you live in a big state that covers several climactic regions. I do.

State, HZ, USDA Zone....anything, I agree.

Link to heat zone map: http://solanomg.ucanr.edu/files/245158.pdf

Still have a few plants left from last year. A couple Big Beef, and an Indian Stripe PL. Not producing great, but the few January tomatoes we are getting are a luxury. The squirrels are a pain, and next week's forecast of mid 20s should finish them off.

Oops, DH was helping and pulled it up! It filled our green bin! Oh well, maybe next year.