take out old plants??????
I live in Los Angeles and my tomato plants from last summer are doing great. They don't produce much fruit, maybe one tomato a week (it is January), but the plants is healthy. My wife says I need to pull them out and start with new plants in the spring. I say these plants will produce again once the whether warms up and I will have a head start because I am not starting with tiny plants. Who is right?
As the tomato is a perennial I'm sure they will flower and produce fruit next year but as for size, quality and quantity that is something that could only be ascertained by experiment. Over winter them and see what the results are. My view is that it is not really worth the effort as the fruit will probably be inferior to those on a first year plant. Also you are inviting the establishment of air and soil diseases in the glasshouse which should be thoroughly cleaned annually and the soil changed every 3 years if a bed and annually if in containers.
If they are growing outdoors I would say the same - remove them, augment the soil with organic matter and next year plant with new tomatoes. Better still plant the new tomatoes in a different part of the plot.
If they are growing outdoors I would say the same - remove them, augment the soil with organic matter and next year plant with new tomatoes. Better still plant the new tomatoes in a different part of the plot.
I would wonder about taking a slip (that part that grows in the crotch of the branches) and setting it into soil to root. You'd have a new plant with a huge headstart.
I've pulled one of those slips off and rooted it in mid summer and had late fall tomatoes on a new and healthy plant in my greenhouse.
Worth a try to keep one over to next summer, take a slip off one and root it, and seed new plants all together and see what happens to each. Fun experiment. I wish I lived where the summers were long enough to try these things.
Do let us know what you decide and how it turned out k?
I've pulled one of those slips off and rooted it in mid summer and had late fall tomatoes on a new and healthy plant in my greenhouse.
Worth a try to keep one over to next summer, take a slip off one and root it, and seed new plants all together and see what happens to each. Fun experiment. I wish I lived where the summers were long enough to try these things.
Do let us know what you decide and how it turned out k?