Tomato plants can survive winter by choosing varieties that can grow in cooler weather, such as those with more natural light and dark conditions. Overwintering tomato plants in a basement with cool, dark, and natural light is possible, but it’s essential to ensure the plants are not exposed to freezing temperatures.
Tomatoes can be grown in various ways, including choosing the right variety, winterizing garden beds, and reducing watering frequency. Perennial tomato plants can be kept alive by moving them to a temperature-controlled location that is as bright and warm as possible. To support each vine through winter, use stakes or a cage, and mulch with pea straw or garden lucerne.
Reducing the frequency of watering during winter and allowing the soil to dry slightly between waterings can help prevent root rot. Pruning tomato plants and keeping them a reasonable size to be inside is crucial, but keep pruning to a minimum. To overwinter tomato plants in a greenhouse, pot them up and move them into the greenhouse before the first frost. If you live in a warmer zone, you may be able to grow tomatoes all year long.
Tomatoes thrive in temperatures between 65°F and 75°F (18°C to 24°C), so ensure your indoor space maintains these temperatures, avoiding drafts and other potential issues. By following these tips, you can ensure that your tomato plants remain healthy and productive during the colder months.
📹 How to Over Winter TOMATOES
Can you over winter tomatoes? How do you do it and SHOULD you do it? I’ll answer all of these questions in this video!
How do you protect tomatoes in the winter?
To protect tomato cage plants, wrap bubble wrap around the entire cage and secure it with duct tape. Trim the plant and remove excess foliage before wrapping. Remove the bubble wrap the next morning to prevent heat build-up. Cover the plants with old sheets or light blankets, tied with sturdy stakes. Tie a strong string around the plant to secure it and remove it in the morning. The Spruce uses high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support its content. Read the editorial process for more information on fact-checking and maintaining accuracy and trustworthiness.
What is main season tomato?
The planting of main season tomato seeds is conducted in conjunction with the planting of early seeds, though the maturation of the former is prolonged due to the necessity of additional heat units. These plants include some of the largest, most flavorful, and most distinctive tomato varieties, including numerous heirloom tomatoes and beefsteak tomato varieties that reach maturity in late summer but are well worth the wait.
Should I cut back tomato plants?
Pruning tomato plants is an optional technique used by some gardeners to maintain plant cleanliness, control fruit size, and speed ripening. However, it is important to prune indeterminate varieties, which produce new leaves and flowers continuously throughout the growing season. Pruning determinate varieties may reduce harvest. Pruning tomatoes improves airflow and reduces disease by allowing more air to move through the plants, reducing the susceptibility to diseases that require prolonged moisture.
Additionally, fewer leaves make it easier to spot insect pests. Pruning at the right time directs energy towards creating and ripening fruit, resulting in fewer fruit but larger ones. Additionally, pruned plants can be placed closer together in the ground, providing room for additional plants to compensate for the difference in harvest numbers.
Will tomatoes recover from cold damage?
It is unlikely that Sylve’s tomatoes will recover from the frost, as they are known to be resistant to it. If the foliage has browned off, the plants are likely dying, so it is necessary to replace them or keep them away from frost.
What happens to tomatoes in the cold?
The freezing temperatures experienced by tomatoes result in the darkening of the leaf and stem tissues, which subsequently causes the plant to wilt and brown. The damage may be more readily discernible on the subsequent day following the occurrence of frost. Chilling injury in tomato and pepper plants can result in stunted growth, wilting, surface pitting, necrosis, and an increased susceptibility to disease.
How to encourage tomato growth?
To maximize fruit production, choose the sunniest spot in your garden for tomatoes. They absorb sunlight like water and need seven hours of sun a day. Plant seedlings 30 to 48 inches apart, with rows set 48 inches apart. Allow space between plants to allow light into the lower portions, improve air flow, and prevent disease. Tomatoes thrive in rich, well-draining, slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6. 5 to 6. 8, which can be determined by using a soil test kit from the Garden Center or your local Cooperative Extension Service.
What is too cold for tomato plants?
Tomato plants are unable to survive in conditions below 35 degrees Fahrenheit (or 50 degrees Celsius). Gardeners may utilize a frost date calendar to ascertain the average dates of the last frost in spring and the first frost in fall for their region.
What is winter tomato?
Winter tomatoes, which were developed for cooler, northern regions, are now available to gardeners as an extension of their harvest. Some of these tomatoes are open-pollinated heirloom varieties from northeastern Europe.
How to make tomatoes for winter?
To freeze tomatoes, it is recommended that they be washed, scored, and blanched in boiling water. Subsequently, the tomatoes should be transferred to a freezer for a period of several hours, after which they can be stored in freezer bags or airtight containers.
Should I cover my tomato plants at night?
To facilitate pollinator access to tomato cages, it is recommended to open the top or unwrap them during the day. If night temperatures remain cool, rewrap them each evening with row cover fabric.
How to take care of a tomato plant?
To ensure optimal growth and fruit production, it is essential to provide plants with sufficient water and nutrients. Watering should be done deeply and evenly, and fertilization should occur every 4-6 weeks with a balanced fertilizer.
📹 Overwinter Tomato Plants and Grow Tomatoes Year After Year without Seed
I saved cuttings from tomato plants last year when the tomatoes were done producing. I used the cutting to root new plants and …
Happy Saturday! 🌞 Thank you for mentioning us! ❤ The (indeterminate) tomatoes are still going strong! Fruiting, with fresh flowers developing also! They are over a year old now, but sadly, will not be coming back inside for the winter. There is just too much pest potential 😩 I will likely start fresh with seeds from my best determinate plant! Im still knee deep in tomatoes, in the house and on the vine though, so will wait!! ❤ You are SO right about the light requirements! I had them in a sunny room, with grow lights and even 2 grow light bulbs in the overhead light! They grew, flowered and fruited, and I hardened them off (at 11+ feet tall🤣) then moved them outside in early June! (No small feat in Winnipeg aka Winterpeg- 3b!) Our last frost date is 3rd week of May, but I always wait a bit longer! My experience taught me that tomatoes want to grow, no matter what! I cut down 2 of the one year old tomatoes last month- thought it was time, but now they are 2 feet high again! ❤ I was much more relaxed, in general, about growing this summer due in part to having them grow/produce indoors with minimal effort in an unnatural setting! If they could do that indoors, I had to trust that the outdoor tomatoes needed way less worry and coddling in ideal outdoor circumstances 🍅 I dont like to brag, but had an amazing harvest! As long as you give good sun, soil, water and amendments, and stay on top of pests, they will do the rest! ❤ Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
Keeping a plant alive through the winter works very well as a source of cuttings for the next season. Cuttings produce plants so much faster than starting plants from seed. You also absolutely know the genetics of the plants you will get when using cuttings. Hybrid varieties like Sun Gold will not produce the same plant from seed that you save but cuttings are clones with exactly the same genetics.
This year I did something different and it was extremely successful. I’m in Texas and I had a pair of cherry tomato plants that were really great and produced fruit all the way to December and I wanted to assure I could grow them again this year. I took 6 cuttings and put them in some 4 inch pots with coconut coir instead of soil and watered from the bottom. I was able to keep them this way in a sunny window in the garage and under my grow lights when it might freeze (even in the garage) for 10 weeks. The lack of nutrients slowed down growth way down. Then in mid February I transplanted them into 8 inch pots with soil for 4 more weeks. Now I’ve put them into the ground and are they doing great. One is already 2 feet tall and has a couple of flowering strands with some marble sized fruit.
Zone 6 here. In the fall, take a few of your fave tomatoes, cut them open, and place slices on top of soil in small planter. Place undernporch steps in winter In spring, take out, and you will see little green plants growing from seeds in the tomatoes. Worked great for cherry tomatoes this year. Now i do the same next month with the same tomatoes and have my heirloom tomatoes .🎉
I left all my plants to my family and friends when I moved. I’m pleased to here my mother got 29 tomatoes and a bunch of fresh herbs. My neighbor shows me the progress of the jalapeños I grew and they look amazing large peppers growing. I didn’t get to taste anything I grew but my family and friends did and I owe it all to this website thank you for feeding them and teaching me!
Back in the 1940’s my dad had a tomato plant growing in his family’s kitchen window. By springtime, the plant had grown to about 25 to 300 feet long. So he and his older brothers took it, laid it out in a trench with leafy small branches sticking out of the ground. Many tomato plants from one. Another time he placed the potatoes on the rocky ground and covered it in old straw from the barn (probably well fertilized)…. Bumper crop of easily harvested potatoes..
I have a determinate tomato that is crazily still producing fruit 12 months later! I put it in a sunny spot outdoors (zone 9B), but didn’t think it would survive last winter. Then I thought genetics would cause it to die by the end of summer. But it’s actually getting bushier and fruiting even more! Plants are amazing!!
I’m in NJ zone 7 always do my hot peppers this way. A couple of years ago I started doing this with cherry tomatoes. I cut them way back with just 2 nodes. They take a bit of time to recover from the cut and lack of sun but will grow just fine.. I like getting a huge head start in the spring because the roots are so developed they grow fast and produce quickly .
I’m with the gardener in Canada, tomatoes go out in June. We had an unusually hot dry summer this year. Our first frost date is mid Sept. It is closing in on mid Oct and still no frost. I’m loving a second growth of my indeterminate tomatoes, thanks to the string method I learned from Brian, no blight this year. I was just wondering if I could overwinter tomato plants. I guess I can. Now, do I want to 🤔. I over wintered three pepper plants last winter, thanks again to this great website. The overwintering was so successful, I have 12 peppers in containers ready to bring in when the temperatures drop. Thank you Brian for another great informative show.
We are growing a Better Boy tomato plant in a raised bed and I trimmed it a bit and all the sudden we have baby tomatoes growing. Yay! We are excited to watch it grow and hopefully will have some delicious tomatoes soon! I want to try the grow light for seedlings through our winter and hopefully get fruit too! Thank you for the tips!
I started two suckers a couple months ago. They are both fruiting now. As soon as we are done with 90 degree weather, they are going in the greenhouse, where I plan to try to train them to strings like you’ve taught. Hopefully we’ll have tomatoes all winter. I’m also going to try bringing in two of our pepper plants as you’ve taught.
we are 10a in 92105, but our back yard down hill east facing…uh does NOT do well with the tropicals, but whoooooo boy our front yard west facing top of hill top of open to ocean (far away) canyon…BAM it’s fire!…So yeah we’re a bit funky. We had bumper crops of asparagus (which is really interesting to me in that its not really a zone 10 plant … and just finished off a BEAUTIFUL crop of butternuts (biggest harvest ever for me)…I also have new tomatoes setting on, which is odd for me, but Im gonna let the healthy plants … keep on trucking. Love your articles!
Very good article. I am overwintering a habanero plant for its 2nd winter. I grew it from seed and it made it to 12 inches tall first year and only one fruit. I overwintered it last year and it grew to 30 inches tall with 24 fruits this summer. I just trimmed it back and stored it for overwintering today before I saw your vid. I will agree that tomatoes are much better grown from seed and used as annuals. I overwintered 3 tomato plants last year and they survived but did not produce as much fruit as the first year. Thanks.
My zone is 9b but as my husband says, we have several micro-climates in our yard due to the shade and breeze. But I don’t think they are in different zones. I am setting up a mini greenhouse in the only sunny winter space in our yard this year.Our first frost date has moved from November 22th to December 7. Our last frost date is supposed to be February 26 but last year it was later. Which is what motivated me to buy the greenhouse.
Bay Produce, a commercial hydroponic green house in Superior, WI, grows all of their produce indoors and will grow their tomato plants up to 24 feet long for local production before they start over. Most of the plant is just vine by that time with just the last few feet with leaves and fruit. I am not sure how old the plant is by then, but it was an interest place to tour.
Oooo! Oooo! I’m going to try this both in-house and in my temporary greenhouse as an experiment. I’m in zone 6b. I will be covering my two 2′ x 16′ raised beds and surrounding pathways with 6-mil. greenhouse plastic for the winter months. I think I’ll get some concrete pavers, paint them with black patio paint and cover the pathways with them to help retain and radiate heat.
I moved to coastal southwest 10a Florida in August and immediately starteing changing over the backyard from turf to garden. Anyway, we got hit with two nights of 30 degrees a few weeks ago. I covered my tomato plants with frost blanket but a lot of them got shocked and lost their leaves. However, now they are coming back like gangbusters. And earlier in the season we had 75 mph winds that tore up the tomates so I took the torn off branches and stuck them in the ground and they took right off growing.
Well, this gives me hope. I did buy a VS light on your recommendation and may try to give growing tomatoes this winter. I’d better get out and get the cuttings. Every year without fail I’ve gotten two or three volunteers coming back as well. Thanks for another great article, Brian. I hope you’re taking it easy on your leg Sending love and hugs! ❤️🤗❤️🤗❤️🌹🌹🌹🌹
this is funny because I am doing this as well.. I have many pepper plants I over winter for yrs now.. so I decided to take a cutting off my green zebra tomato and try and over winter it this yr.. its still outside but in a growbag ready to come in (more then likely sometime this week) .. I live in PA.. we have a very short growing season for tomatoes so wanted to see if it can be done..lol.. this article gives me hope!..I grow dwarf cherry tomatoes indoors all yr and get tomatoes from that, but to grow a good lg tomato indoors in the winter would be awesome.. 🙂
Thanks I was just wondering about that. Planted some suckers a month ago directly in the ground, now I’m wishing I would have just stuck them in a container. Grew potatoes in buckets once over winter from “seeds”. The little ones from the last year. Not a great idea, seven foot long plant unruly by April 😆. Chopped them back, moved outside and Still grew well until next fall.
I have grown Roma’s for about 16 months. I used the p2000 light, haven’t used the xs2000 for tomatoes yet, they are in use elsewhere. After about a year it started looking tired down below but it was about 8ft tall with just grow lights but the fruit was a little bit smaller than one grown in the grow beds. I finally pinched the top till it produced no more. Oh I live in Pacific northwest
Thank you! Very good info. Can you please tell us what plants, in your opinion, get better in the 2nd or 3rd year? Peppers yes, what about Okra or eggplant? Also, I love the idea of keeping them alive just to take cuttings … I think that is a great idea bc cuttings are the same plant, and they will power up, rather than tire out.
hi I have 7 beef tomato plants that germanated late and are about 6 inched tall and I don’t think we are going to get a harvest can I keep them in the green house over winter so they grow bigger in the spring / summer I love in the UK 🇬🇧 it just seems a shame to wast them and experiment xxx ps I love your website and hope you are all well you have such a lovely family xx Helen xx
Thanks for this article. I was trying a new tomato variety this year. Very poor germination so my final success at getting a viable start has me getting first flowers in October. We are only a couple weeks or so from first frost – so no tomatos for me from this plant. The seed packet was only 10 seeds I think. I will try taking some sucker cuttings and keep alive indoors so if nothing else, I have mature starts for next Spring. Zone 5a.
I tried something new. I trimmed a determinate plant back to almost nothing. It has regrown over about 6 weeks and has put out a few more tomatoes. 4, to be exact. And they are half sized. This is not a good use of space and isn’t by any means means earth shattering. But it did regrow. I also have a tomato plant of unknown variety, over a year old, which started life as a hydroponic plant last August. I’ve it outside in April, and it is a hearty plant that has given me 4 large crops of fruit. I cut this plant back and fertilized after each crop
All summer I have taken staggered cuttings of Early Girl tomatoes & planted them directly into the soil, covered them from the sun, watered well for 3 days, & they all lived. They looked terrible/wilted for the 3 days, but then perked up. Still having lots of new tomatoes forming on them in NE Tx. I did have bell peppers until Christmas one year by covering them with a plastic bag for frost & freeze & a protective south wall. If you try to overwinter tomatoes, do you fertilize them at all? I’ve been told to cut pepper plants back, repot in fresh soil, & not to fertilize peppers when you overwinter them…haven’t tried doing either. What about pepper production the 2nd year…is it worth it?
I had a cherry tomato last year that seemed like it didn’t want to quit. Lots and lots of flowers even in October in Zone 6a, so I brought it inside and made sure it had plenty of light by adding a grow light even though it was near South-facing windows. Then I started seeing mealy bugs. Where did they come from?? I still got some tomatoes and flowers but after 2-3 treatments with alcohol swabs they still allowed and multiplied so I gave up and pitched my nice plant. There were a couple of house plants within a couple of feet but the bugs were only in my tomato plant. How can this be avoided in the future?
I’m in southern San Diego and I think zone 10a. I’ve had som luck with both my peppers and my tomatoes continuing to grow and produce all year. I’ve had a couple tomato plants last 3 years in the same container without bringing them inside. They did not survive a 4th due to white flies and powdery mildew. Should I overwinter my peppers and tomatoes outside or bring them inside my garage?
Well that’s good to know about them not being as rigorous the 2nd year. As per the Farmer’s Almanac, I’m supposed to start seedlings indoors next month. But…. like…. I have a bunch of healthy tomato plants going right outside, so…. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was leaning towards leaving them, but your article made me think I should start seeds, too, and maybe do half and half. Anyway, thanks!
Just out of curiosity, you mentioned tomatoes and peppers but what about overwintering eggplant? I have a plant that struggled all year with pests but now that it’s colder the pests are mostly gone and it’s sending out these happy little healthy branches. Is it even worth attempting or should I just let the little guy go?
Not sure what you consider as winter, You mention a 5 month winter. I am also in Canada and I am guessing that the person you mentioned may live in Victoria or Vancouver BC. Likely the most moderate climate in Canada. I live and garden in the North Thompson of BC.. I would have to keep those rooted suckers alive from mid to late September until end of May when I could plant them out . . . maybe.
Yeeea i thought i saw Eucs behind u there… so figured ok no wnderthis guyz overwintering he growing in 9b. I moved out of LA basin. I now grow in Wister Lake (7b) Very intresding u got it down 2a science the hours required &u learned 2nd year pants prolly not a game plan. I guess i was just hoping 2bury th hell out of knocked over tomatoes in leaves. Did u know a human buried in leaves never gets wet or below 65° if leaves 2ft. Deep? NOW. I have discovered smthimg i suspect could be a way2 freeze a plant in both space &time. I BLEEV what i observed is that IF a plant has zero light it will get lost in time basically i buried citrus in mulch 1 or 2ft. Deep. Thway I recall it is once I dug down it looked pretty close 2thsame as thday I buried them. I wz pretty shocked. Thats what, 4 or 5 months? I bleev this phenomena needs more research. Again i could be remembering things wrong, &this would likely not work with young plants or sprouts i believe adult plants however are capable of just shutting down without even losing leaves from stress. Ofcourse if SURROUNDING TEMP drops to say 40 to 50°f too consistently, then leaves gonna start fall off in citrus, peppers 1st &then in other plants. Fulll sun or not u probably better have a room temp of 70 plus farenheit b4 u can expect attempt citrus 2fruit indoors. Ok so i gonna try yr method. I also have lots tomatoes with copious root nibs on older stems, that might be worth pursuing also. Then again i do like idea that i program seed 2my local environment.
I’m bummed out. I lost all my tomato plants over a month ago. They were in virgin raised bed soil and a brand new bed. They became diseased and failed. This has happened to all my tomato plants whether here in Lake City or Ocala…both upper Florida. I kept pinching back the old lower growth, but no luck. I’m beginning to think Florida and tomatos don’t work. We are hot and the summer was tons of rain. RATS
Thanks for this article. I have several different types of tomatoes growing in buckets on the side of my driveway. A week or two before our first frost I will cut a few suckers off each type of plant and try your process. I have already bought a few other types of tomato seeds for next year and I’ll compare the results. I bet your way will really give me a big head start on the growing season. The best part is that I will have ZERO cost by rooting the suckers. Well, I will have some cost for buying distilled water but that is not much. Thanks again for this article. At 76 I’m still not too old to learn.
You are a highly underrated youtube website! Your articles are definitely an inspiration to new gardeners and you’ve convinced me to overwinter my tomatoes! My plan is to not have to buy any plants starts next year – I’m going to overwinter/start all of my plants on my own, and this tutorial helped so much!
Amazing… In 2019 I grew two cherry tomato plants in pots and brought them inside in fall. I’ve been eating tomatoes all winter! Yesterday I replanted them both into a larger lot and removed the scraggly live stem ends and put them in water to grow more plants. It was so cool to find someone else who is doing the same thing! My friends have been surprised to find out it was possible. They also enjoyed tasting them too 😊
I have done this this Winter in Southern England with my Piccolo F1 tomatoes. Here I used a heat mat and a grow light and now in mid-Feb I have the first of many cuttings coming into flower. Saves a lot of time and also money where F1s are concerned. Great article, thank you for the work you have put in and for sharing.
thank you for showing me how to string a tomato plant. Never to old to learn. We are going into winter in South Africa, actually it is suppose to be fall in March…. (Early winter?) We have to start planting our own food to survive!! (going back to level 2???) I have to become self sustainable!! we are totally off grid already in the middle of a city!!!. Shalom to you and your family.
I’m attempting the same thing except I started a young plant just before fall started and right before it started getting too cold I brought it inside and put it under some grow lights and it’s producing a lot tomatoes which is exciting I’ve never tried this before but I am going to take some of the cuttings and try to root them so I can have a few tomato plants producing the plant I started has already needed an extension on its greenhouse that I made and I’ve also strung up some of the branches that have a lot of tomatoes so they’ll be supported and if I get teased tomato cuttings to root I’ll end up getting a bigger Greenhouse LOL I can’t wait until Tomatoes I have on the original plantar ripe to eat they’re getting so big as crazy
Thanks for your article. Very informative & I up-ticked it. Could I ask you a couple of questions please? a). You said that this works with indeterminate tomato plants; does this method also work for Determinate / bush type tomato plants? b). Here in the UK we have severe problems with blight, that repeatedly devastate my tomato fruits. Does this method also work with “Bight Resistant” varieties of tomato plants & will the propagated offspring from the parent plant also be “Blight Resistant”? c). What average temperature do you grow-on your tomato cuttings inside the house? The inside of my house can get down to 5 – 10 deg. C (41 – 50 deg. F) during the winter, which is too cold for most people. Would tomato cuttings root & survive in these cool temperatures? Thank you, regards, JohnnyK.
I started growing cherry tomatoes inside in a mason jar, under lights from a kit I got on Amazon. It’s growing amazing and I’ve cloned 2 more that are growing and rooting even more! I never planned to grow them outside but after this and last year with purple crimson tomatoes I’m thinking of planting mostly cherry and if I start them inside like this they’ll produce so early. I’m also going to over winter some pepper plants and try to graph a cherry tomato branch onto them!
Very nice article – I hope this works for me in Nebraska – The tomatoes I want to overwinter are Seedless and I have been having trouble starting and keeping them alive. This is Sept and i will be taking the cuttings soon as cold nights temps are expected next week. This means I will have them inside till about May -last frost is usually May 15th. If I take off the flowers will this encourage the plant to grow stronger? Also can i keep them in water longer then the month or how do I tell when to put them in soil? Thanks Marcia
1 tip that I’ve learned recently is a way to prevent fungus gnats if anybody has them bad where they live I do unfortunately they always make it inside somehow but to keep them from harming your indoor plants cover your potting mix with half an inch to three quarters of an inch of either play sand or some course sand like that and it will prevent fungus gnats from being able to lay eggs in your potting mix that will in turn turn into larvae that will eat the roots of the plants, I’ve done that with all my houseplants and fungus gnats can’t burrow down through that sand layer to lay their eggs. Just keep some extra sand pre-cleaned already in a bucket for when you water your plants after a while you’ll need to add some more sand also the sand helps retain moisture extremely well
Interesting article, but what zone are you in. I am in New England we do not have more than 9 hours of light and the house temp is generally 63 degrees in the winter. Not sure if this will work for me. Any feedback? I have a bed of tomatoes outside that come up every year on their own. They generally are slow to start, but produce later in the season than my other tomatoes. Am always surprised at how well they do with no fuss. Only hard part is to thin them out, as virtually hundreds of plants come up in the late spring.
I did not watch this article when I was curious to see if my cherry tomato plants would survive the cold winter in Northern California (the assume Jag is in warm SoCal). They survived in the garage. I took them out last March. Unfortunately they all died. Next time, I will not move them outside until late April or May when the weather is warmer in our area.
I over winter early girls a medium size tomato and cherry. Dont do it from cuttings I just cut the bottom leaves and keep coiling the vine/multiple vines in the container. One very bad thing that is survives the winter with the tomato is blight. And your tomato plant at the end of the article appears to be infected very bad. Did you ever try crushing aspirin with water or baking soda solution to take care of your blight issue? I also have some bell, jalapenos, cayenne & Italian long hots that are a few years old and the size of a bush. Most peppers plants make it over the winter produce a bunch of peppers in the spring then go zombie by mid June. Still worth having peppers early spring but sad to see an old friend you nursed in the dark months of winter die.
WHAT R U SAYING??? SUCKERS??!—- I am in Vegas, I live in a condo & started a garden for the first time on my porch . So, bought 30 gallon planters, those lightweight black ones with handles on the side they sale nowadays . Ok this is the deal . I have had some serious problems the entire summer . U see we actually had a wet summer – it was HUMID & we hardly got any sun! What an oxymoron if I ever heard of one bc Vegas hardly had any sun I ended up with mold on stems of my plants, stunned growth & not one plant produced vegetables 🥕!! The worse part is I have dealt with an gnat infestation!!! I have tried EVERYTHING TO GET RID IF THEM! I EVEN TOSSED THE ORIGINAL SOIL HALFWAY THRU THE SUMMER AND AFTER CLEANING THE POTS I replanted what I thought was a good plant into the fresh new soil / manure ! Not only gnats but some kind of bug 🐛 that eats its way into the stem and it somehow creates a barrier on the outside stem that kinda looks like scales and the color is a very light brown . I actually saw one FINALLY after months of never being able to locate the suckers . It was in one of my tomato plant stems and I guess they seem to like where a new stem is getting ready to shoot out or has some growth . So I broke it of BC IT MAKES THIS LIL TINY BUBBLE I GUESS THATS BC THATS WHERE ITS EATING AND THATS HOW I WAS ABLE TO LOCATE IT!! So when I broke it off I took a lighter and placed flame right under stem and I saw that sucker crawl out of there!! FINALLLLLYYYY!! After MONTHS of dealing with these things !