Overwintering tomatoes

[RobinOfTheHood]

Has anybody ever tried this? I'm considering trying it for the Sungolds, I'm sick of getting a 6 week harvest period.....

[RobinOfTheHood]

That's probably a no, then.

[Sholls]

I've never tried it personally, but my grandfather used to take cuttings from the top of his favourite plants & overwinter them.   

I reckon his success rate was in excess of 75%... He always had  selection of 12-18 inch plants by the beginning of March.

[Eristic]

Have you considered investigating as to why you are getting such a low harvest rate?

If you have the facilities to successfully overwinter a tomato plant, you should equally be able to start and grow seedlings very early in the season, sowing Feb-Mar for cropping from mid June onwards into October.

[thifasmom]

I'm going to try but not in any expensive way. I took cuttings in June from my outdoor toms to grow on in the greenhouse to help extend my season into early winter.

two of those plants are in the kitchen on a sunny window sill and one of them (a cherry called 'Galina') are showing root buds six inches or so from the tip of the plant so i plan to nip it off and root then pot up keeping it on the window sill. the plant already has fruit which are beginning to colour up so this should speed it up although i am still harvesting my outdoor ones and the tip has flower buds so more fruit is possible if i can keep the cutting healthy.

i think anymore cuttings i take will only be from the cherry varieties (i have 'gardeners delight' and 'broad ripple yellow current' in the greenhouse) as they are earlier fruiting.

I'm in Kent, if you try it too maybe we can compare notes.

[northener]

I can't see it working not enough daylight hours, not warm enough so the taste won't be good.

[Deb P]

One thing I tried last year that seemed to work was cutting down on watering the tomato plants in October, and stopping watering altogether after that. This way I was still harvesting tomatoes after Christmas....not a huge amount but it kept them going!

[RobinOfTheHood]

The idea was just to get an early start next year and to get plants that were a bit stockier by taking cuttings rather than sowing seed early, not to keep harvesting - the plants are about 9 feet tall and in the border now! 

[chriscross1966]

Try one of the eastern european varieties and sow them in January... I grew Black Krim beefsteaks this year indoors and they were astonishingly early for me, I'm going to really try to push these forward next year both outdoors (under fleece in a hotbed) and in the GH and see how early I can get them..... it shouldn't take too much time as they'll be starting after the big onions but before the standard maincrops, for the first batch, then again in the gap between the standard onions and the hardy veg for anther set.... I've got tons of seeds so if they fail I'll still have plenty to run through "normally"

chrisc

[cjb02]

I am having a go at this. the gardeners delight that I planted this year have just about done. so I have trimmed some of the plants down to 6inch (but still have leaves on and a sucker growing at the side), took them out of the buckets they were in and trimmed the roots so they fit in a 1litre pot, I might bring them inside and keep them slightly moist or keep them in the garage again slightly moist, I have green zebra as well, but they still have lots of toms on, but once they are finished, again I will trim down and try and keep them some where warm.

i want to also try this with a bell pepper and chilli plant too.

[thifasmom]

The idea was just to get an early start next year and to get plants that were a bit stockier by taking cuttings rather than sowing seed early, not to keep harvesting - the plants are about 9 feet tall and in the border now! 

oh!

I am having a go at this. the gardeners delight that I planted this year have just about done. so I have trimmed some of the plants down to 6inch (but still have leaves on and a sucker growing at the side), took them out of the buckets they were in and trimmed the roots so they fit in a 1litre pot, I might bring them inside and keep them slightly moist or keep them in the garage again slightly moist, I have green zebra as well, but they still have lots of toms on, but once they are finished, again I will trim down and try and keep them some where warm.

i want to also try this with a bell pepper and chilli plant too.

so i am not on my own then . i didn't think about simply cutting back the plants, that a good idea.

One thing I tried last year that seemed to work was cutting down on watering the tomato plants in October, and stopping watering altogether after that. This way I was still harvesting tomatoes after Christmas....not a huge amount but it kept them going!

i am assuming they were in a greenhouse, was it heated or unheated?

[Deb P]

I have an unheated greenhouse.......the years I have tried to get plants to fruit earlier , the plants that went in later always caught them up really quicky and negated any advantage, so I don't bother trying to get super early crops anymore!

[RobinOfTheHood]

Update:

of the 4 plants that I tried to overwinter from cuttings, only one survived the lobby windowsill. From that I got 5 cuttings and now have 5 sungolds, 2 of which have flower trusses, and one of these has a sideshoot almost ready for taking as a cutting. The other 3 are healthy enough too, so I'd call that a success, so far at least. 

[tonybloke]

well done, thanks for the update!!

[chriscross1966]

Try one of the eastern european varieties and sow them in January... I grew Black Krim beefsteaks this year indoors and they were astonishingly early for me, I'm going to really try to push these forward next year both outdoors (under fleece in a hotbed) and in the GH and see how early I can get them..... it shouldn't take too much time as they'll be starting after the big onions but before the standard maincrops, for the first batch, then again in the gap between the standard onions and the hardy veg for anther set.... I've got tons of seeds so if they fail I'll still have plenty to run through "normally"

chrisc

Hah the best laid plans of mice and men eh?.... Given that broad beans keeled over from the cold I can't see even a POlish tomato surviving what we've just had.... I'm still finding frost inside the GH most mornings.....

chrisc

[zigzig]

It sounds rather a good idea to keep a tomato plant indoors over winter and keep taking cuttings. Might try that next year.

[RobinOfTheHood]

Well, here they are, the original surviving plant had a single flower truss on it when I took cuttings. All 4 now have them, and the greenhouse is warming up nicely which along with the increasing light gives me hope for fruit fairly soon.

Might need to get a water spray on the trusses later today to be sure though.



Crap picture I know, but you get the idea. 

Might try to see how many years I can keep a single plant going...

[cornykev]

Nice one Robin.   

[Sparkly]

I planted some 'balconi yellow' in Nov (the year before last) in the conservatory. They did stop growing over winter, but I think it was May we got the first tomatoes. They went out into the greenhouse in spring. They did keep cropping through to Nov. These are very small dwarf plants.

[tonybloke]

Well, here they are, the original surviving plant had a single flower truss on it when I took cuttings. All 4 now have them, and the greenhouse is warming up nicely which along with the increasing light gives me hope for fruit fairly soon.

Might need to get a water spray on the trusses later today to be sure though.



Crap picture I know, but you get the idea. 

Might try to see how many years I can keep a single plant going...

well done Robin of the Hood !! keep us updated on their progress?