How to Over-Winter Your Tomato Plants

Did you know that tomato plants are actually perennials? They are! I started experimenting with this in the winter of 2012 and have honed my methods until now I'm able to keep them alive over the winter with a pretty good success rate. Here are my secrets.

I woke up one morning last week to a low temperature of just 37°! Yikes! The forecast was for 42° and I hadn't worried about the tomato and pepper plants at all. I threw on a jacket and ran out to the garden at first light,  but fortunately it wasn't cold enough to frost-nip the plants - yet. This just reinforces the fact that we can't count on that "average first frost date." It is, after all, just an average.

So, in order to keep my tomato plants going, I took cuttings from my plants that very afternoon. I wasn't going to let winter claim my plants. My goal is to keep these cuttings alive indoors over the winter and plant them in the garden in spring, as a kind of tomato clone.

I take more cuttings than I want to plant in the spring. Inevitably, some of them will die over the winter. On the other hand, I know from experience that I will also be pruning these plants as winter progresses to keep them from getting too tall and leggy, which gives me more cutting that I also nurture until spring. I never know how many I'll have when spring arrives.

Since my plants were sprawling across the lawn, I pruned off the longest branches and took my cuttings from those. That left the main body of my plants to continue ripening the last green tomatoes.

Oh, about those green tomatoes. Here's what you can do with them.

On the cut-off branches, I looked for suckers that were long enough and cut those off. Suckers are new stems that will grow at a junction point, such as in the image above. It looks sort of like the middle spike of a fork.

I cut off any flowers (above) and the lower leaves (below), and discarded those.

It isn't necessary to have a leaf node on the stem you will keep; tomatoes will root from the tiny hairs along the stem. So I just cut the stem to a good length.

You might be tempted to use the leafy branches you cut off the bottom of the cuttings, but if there are only leaves on the stem - like the one below - don't keep it. It will root, but it won't ever divide and grow into a plant that will produce tomatoes, and it will be a waste of your time and energy. There needs to be a "fork" or a split stem in the cutting that you keep.

Then I just stick them all in jars of water. Yes, these are crowded and I'll need to divide them into a few more containers. Once they begin growing roots, I'll spread them out into even more jars. The roots tangle easily and it can be difficult to separate the plants later. You can use whatever containers you have on hand: jars, tin cans, plastic cups, etc. I like glass so I can see the level of the water inside.

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Change the water in the containers daily. If you have city water or rural water, let the water stand uncovered for at least 24 hours before putting your cuttings in it to allow any chlorine to dissipate into the air. After losing all of my cuttings one year for no apparent reason, I think it was the result of our rural water. I use filtered water now and let it stand for 24 hours before I put my tomato cuttings in it.

As soon as the tomato cuttings form roots, I plant them in plastic cups filled with potting soil. I poke a hole in the bottom of the cup for drainage.

I've been asked if I only use suckers but I don't discriminate, I use both the tops of branches and suckers. I've only used indeterminate tomato varieties, so I can't vouch for the success of using a determinate variety.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so they benefit from some diluted fish emulsion, compost tea or other plant food occasionally over the winter.

If you are growing a rare heirloom, or a variety that you really don't want to lose, please don't keep all your eggs in one basket, in other words, save seeds too. Things happen, and you could lose all of your cuttings before spring arrives. It never hurts to have a back-up plan.

Related posts:
Can you keep tomatoes alive over the winter? The experiment began here!
How to Can Tomatoes, No Matter What Kind You're Growing
An Easy Garden Trellis
A Comparison of Five Heirloom Tomato Varieties

This post has been shared at some of my favorite blog hops. 


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