Pulling plants, or keeping them
Again a stupid question, but in Florida we have a longer season. When the spring season was over, I did not pull all my tomato plants. I actually just cut them back and have watched them all summer, and now they are looking good. My question. Is this a good practice, or should I start with new plants each season. Do any of you trim plants back and have them come back. Sometimes they seem to do fine, my limas have gown back twice. The Okra after cutting it at top produced on the sides and I am getting more Okra. I also have a pepper plant that I nursed all summer and it now has peppers, but they don't look as nice as they did before. From experience would it better to just plant new plants each season? I realize that I need to rotate so some have to come out, but what about plants in pots like the tomato. Thanks for advice in advance.
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thanrose
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- Posts: 716
- Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:01 am
- Location: Jacksonville, FLZone 9A
For Floridians, most of our larger tomatoes are toast. I suppose if you kept one limping along, and it has side shoots that are showing some life, you could prune the top off and feed it. I've done that with my lone surviving husky cherry. It's growing in a pot as are all my nightshades.
Peppers can continue to do great in ground at the end of the summer if you have good soil and no root knot nematodes. RKN will destroy any solanaceae I have within a few weeks of planting, including peppers. I might get some production, but the roots are so mangled that subsequent crop will be limited in size and number, and take much longer to mature, giving leathery skin and sometimes bitter taste. The bitter taste may be due to the reduced water uptake caused by the root damage.
Try it both ways. Grow on what you have and add a couple of new plants.
Peppers can continue to do great in ground at the end of the summer if you have good soil and no root knot nematodes. RKN will destroy any solanaceae I have within a few weeks of planting, including peppers. I might get some production, but the roots are so mangled that subsequent crop will be limited in size and number, and take much longer to mature, giving leathery skin and sometimes bitter taste. The bitter taste may be due to the reduced water uptake caused by the root damage.
Try it both ways. Grow on what you have and add a couple of new plants.
That is what I need to hear, I can see the thought behind that. The roots may take a beating. So maybe it is better to start with new ones. I have enough seeds, they just seem to take forever to grow. I do have some I started from seed, others I cut way back and they re-grew. I will see how they do. Thanks