What Do I Do With Tomato Plants at the End of the Season?

Once the tomato season ends, it’s crucial to take certain measures. These steps can help your tomato plant survive the winter and produce crops again in the spring.

One of the most frequently asked gardening questions is what to do with their tomato plants at the end of the season. There are a variety of options, and each can play an important role in ensuring your tomatoes thrive in the future.

Remove the Tomato Plants

At the end of a season, doing things correctly can make all the difference in the success of your next year’s crop. If a plant is dying, you should dispose of it quickly and efficiently by burying it in an area such as a trench or hole; this method encourages plant breakdown and returns its nutrients back into the soil.

The initial step is to take any leaves off the plant. This is essential as many diseases can be spread to tomato plants through leaf-to-soil contact. Depending on the variety, this could mean clipping off any leaves that are still lying around or up to 18 inches away from the ground.

Alternately, you can cut the growing tip off each main stem (indeterminate plants only) about four weeks before frost arrives. This signalizes the plant to stop flowering and focus its energy on ripening any fruit already on the vine.

Another effective pruning technique is to take out tomato suckers that develop on your plant. These are small, thin shoots that protrude between the main stem and various branches of the plant.

Unpruning can be a problem if left unchecked, as they add lots of foliage and may eventually outgrow their space in the garden. Pruning them helps prevent this from occurring and also helps control tomato size.

Tomato suckers that are under two inches can be easily pinched off with your fingers; however, larger varieties require the use of clean gardening pruners. Be sure to disinfect these tools after each plant visit in order to help prevent disease spread.

The final step is to eradicate any weeds or other plants that have taken root in the tomato bed. You can either compost these materials or burn them.

When composting tomatoes, be sure to do it carefully so the contents of the pile do not get mixed in with other yard waste. This is especially critical if your fading plants have signs of pests or diseases.

Cut the Tomatoes

At the end of the season, you may have an abundance of tomatoes on your tomato plants that need cutting down. Often, this task can be accomplished without needing any garden tools – just use your hands!

Start by slicing the tomatoes down about 3/4 of the way, and then make another slice. Doing this will help hold the slices together and retain some of their juices.

Next, you’ll want to scrape away the seeds from tomato flesh. Doing this helps prevent your dishes from becoming overly soggy and unappealing.

For this step, you’ll need a knife with serrated edges – similar to what you would use when mincing meat and bones. Additionally, make sure your knife has been washed before beginning this task.

Cut your tomatoes into wedges, dice or half-moon shapes for salads and other dishes where the tomatoes don’t need to be too chunky or large.

To prepare the tomatoes, rinse them thoroughly and pat dry. Then, lay them flat on a cutting board, top side up. If your tomatoes are very large, you may need to stack two cutting boards atop each other for even cutting.

Once your tomatoes are on a cutting board, ensure they have been chopped up and rinsed thoroughly prior to eating them. This is especially essential if you plan on using them in soups or salsas.

Cutting tomatoes requires a sharp knife with serrated edges, similar to what you might use for cutting meat and bones. Be careful not to slice all the way through them!

Tomatoes contain extra moisture which can result in soggy and unappealing meals. To prevent this, remove the seeds from tomato flesh before you slice it.

Indeterminate tomato varieties should be pruned about 30 days prior to the first frost, as their blossoms won’t mature and ripen before temperatures drop in mid-August. This pruning will redirect sugars produced by the plant into developing fruit, providing you with a larger harvest of red tomatoes as the season nears its end.

Dispose of the Tomato Plants

If your tomato plants have stopped producing fruit, there are several methods to get rid of them. Composting them is one option; however, it’s essential to do this properly as this will prevent any diseases or pests which might have affected your tomatoes from infecting the new crop of tomatoes.

Another way to dispose of your plants is burning them, which will destroy any pathogens that have infected your crops as well as any seeds. Unfortunately, this method requires more management than creating a compost pile and may not be ideal if you plan on growing tomatoes again in the future.

Some people have had success with overwintering their tomato plants indoors. If cared for correctly during the winter, these plants will survive and produce fruit early in the springtime.

But you must ensure you properly dispose of your old plants, as they can still be a breeding ground for disease or pests the following season. Some people opt to compost them and use them as cuttings, but be cautious not to let your plants infest the soil with fungi or other diseases if this route is taken.

You could also try to destroy your plants by burning them, but this method carries significant risk. The ashes contain disease-causing organisms which could spread the bacteria to other parts of your garden, leading to an extensive issue next season.

Other options are to mulch your plants with leaves or other organic material, which will supply them with essential nutrients for a successful harvest. It’s not necessary to cover the entire plant, but it helps keep soil moist and suppresses weed growth.

Tomatoes require regular, deep watering to keep their roots healthy and strong. In hot and dry weather conditions, you may need to water more frequently.

Additionally, tomatoes require calcium in their soil. You can achieve this by testing the pH level before planting and adding some lime, gypsum or crushed eggshells to the mix.

Save Tomato Seeds

If you have a favorite tomato variety that’s doing well for you, why not save those seeds to use in the future? That way, you can continue enjoying that delicious fruit for years to come.

One of the advantages to saving your own tomato seeds is that you can pass along the desirable genetic traits from this year’s plants to future gardens without having to purchase new packets every spring. Plus, it saves you money from having to purchase expensive seeds every spring!

However, there are some pitfalls to seed-saving that can make it difficult to maximize the benefit from your saved seeds. To avoid such issues, keep varieties separated and adhere to a few basic guidelines.

1. Selecting the Best Tomatoes

For optimal flavor and freshness, select tomatoes that are just about ready to fall off of your plants. This means they won’t be overripe but may start becoming soft and less vibrant than before.

2. Verify Your Tomato Variety

Before saving any tomato seeds, be sure to know which variety it is. Heirloom tomatoes typically produce seeds identical to their parent plant while hybrids often produce pips that are not quite as true to the original fruit.

3. Dry the Tomatoes

Once you’ve harvested a large number of ripe tomatoes, it’s time to begin drying them out. This simple process may take one or more weeks depending on what seeds need preserving; just remember that not all seeds dry out evenly!

4. Ferment the Tomatoes

Fermenting tomato seeds is the optimal method for increasing their germination rate. This process neutralizes any anti-germination compounds present in tomato seeds and eliminates some seed-borne diseases as well.

5. Store Tomato Seeds in a Dry Place

Once fermentation has finished, you can now store your tomato seeds in a cool, dark spot. Tomato seeds last longest when stored dry with low humidity levels. You may want to also insert a silica gel pack into your storage container for even longer shelf life.