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)

  • batmaniam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    11 months ago

    IMPORTANT EDIT: Determinate or indeterminate: A hard frost murders all tomatoes. Bring them inside for the night if thats a risk.

    Edit: Lo siento, mi espanol muy malo, pero: Alguno tomato no muerte, alguno muerte. Es possible sus plantas no produca comida durante navidad pero mas fuerte en verano. Ten mucho cuidado durante un noche con nieve o otro.

    First, there are two types of tomatoes: determinate and indeterminate. The words mean exactly what you’d think in terms of life cycle. A determinate plant will grow, flower, produce fruit, then die. An indeterminate plant will keep living and keep flowering, although they sometimes need “cues” to flower.

    If you’re plants are still alive my guess is they’re indeterminate, or a hybrid. They may not produce fruit over the winter but you’ll have a head start in the spring! You may need to pay extra attention to fertilizing though as they may have used up all the good stuff in that soil.

    Also, check out some youtubes on tomato pruning. There are branches that don’t make fruit, and especially with an indeterminate, you can increase the yield by having a long living plant that you’ve pruned into mostly fruit baring branches over the years!

    • vsis@feddit.clOPEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      I don’t expect to get subzero temperatures. But if I do I will get them inside. Hopefully they’ll survive the cats.

      I know the soil won’t be as nutritious as last spring, but didn’t know about special pruning. Now I know what I don’t know, and can search info about it.

      Thank you very much!

      • batmaniam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        You bet! and yeah, it would just suck to take care of them and have that one night with a hard cold kill them!

        Also: given your climate and the fact you got enough sun to keep tomatoes happy… you may want to try capers! They’re very pretty, very drought tolerant and LOVE the summer heat. One note if you do though: Make sure the soil drains VERY well. They are border-line allergic to water. I’m in the states in NY, and despite not watering a single time over the summer, the rain was to much for them.

        You can either pick the buds to get the usual capers, or let them flower (they make beautiful, semi-fragrant flowers!) and pickle the berries, or a little of both! They just go really well with tomatoes obviously, and despite being a picky plant, in the right conditions (which you have) they’re incredibly resilient.

  • uphillbothways@kbin.social
    11·
    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.)

  • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    It depends on where you are, and what your winters are like. Where we are they’re already dead and gone, but friends who are closer to the equator still have theirs producing. There isn’t information in your post to give an accurate answer, but if you provided your location there would be more to base an answer on

    • vsis@feddit.clOPEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Oh, you’re right!

      I live in northern Spain and I don’t expect to get subzero temperatures over here. 5°C should be the minimum.