So this year I grew some tomatoes for the first time. They were small but tasty.

In November they began to die, so I cut all dry/dead parts and they got better. But they still look very unhealthy.

Do tomatoes survive the winter? Does it make sense to keep watering them? Like once a week, when it doesn’t rain.

Or maybe I should let them die and seed again next spring?

(Ignore the dog. She refuses to let me alone in the balcony lol)

  • uphillbothways@kbin.social
    2·
    11 months ago

    They definitely can overwinter. And, in your climate that should be possible.

    Couple of things:

    • they don’t grow well over the cold months and go into a sort of semi-dormancy.
    • pruning them heavily before spring seems mostly detrimental. they may try to push new growth which will suffer, and seem to benefit from a cloak of leaves/dead stuff.
    • they don’t tend to do well in subsequent years. the center of the stem doesn’t become woody and instead starts to rot out. (I’ve done it several times. They have problems.)

    If you end up with a plant with some viable shoots come January/February and you’re not expecting any frost, rooting some cuttings or layering from the original plant can give you viable starts for spring planting. (This probably makes the most sense in your scenario.)

    If you plan on starting from seed, most places that sell starts get theirs going first week of January. They have a small seed and take a while, especially in cool weather, to get good enough size for transplant.

    The other option is seeding in place, which preserves the native taproot damaged in the transplanting process. This can result in more vigorous plants, but can be challenging in terms of weeding and managing pests. (With you growing on a balcony, the benefits/challenges here might be minimal.)