Hi. I am a new gardener. I loved my grape tomato plants all summer. They have dried and turned brown. Are they winterizing or are they dead? Do I have to do something special with them, trim them down? How far? Some were drying/ dying, don't know, but their stalks became dry and broken. I just keep watering, hoping this is normal tomato behavior. Is this practical, or do I gotta give up the ghost?
They are probably dead....not a problem though, most people treat their tomatos as annuals anyway. Just get some more seedlings and start over (which in your climate, is anytime...just protect from any frost).
I actually had regrowth of a tomato plant this summer; don't really know if it was a seedling of last year's plant or a regrowth, and it did produce the identical tomatoes. There's certainly no harm done if you just trim back the dead stuff and wait to see what happens next year.
Okay, so they're probably dead. But I loved them so much, I may try to trim back dead stuff and just see what happens. Thanks guys.
Karin, if you had a tomato act as a perennial for you, propagate and patent it, you'll be rich! It had to be a seedling that grew for you this summer. Getting identical tomatos from a seedling is not unusual as many tomatoes subjected to outdoor breezes are self pollinated anyway. Heirloom varieties usually come fairly true from seed as well if you're not growing a whole bunch of different varieties right beside each other. While insects do pollinate tomatoes, the flowers are compact enough that a strong breeze will vibrate the flowers enough to tranfer pollen from the anther to the carpel.
Yes it probably was a seedling, getting rich is not likely in my cards! And I'm not so tidy with the clean-up that I didn't miss a few on the ground. Mbiumi, maybe you can grow yours from seed too.
Mbiumi, Being in Tampa, you might get some regrowth after cutting back, but tomato plants are bad to get root pest such as nematodes and viruses that can infect and kill the entire plant. If you do get any regrowth, you can cut a piece and root it to get a new plant that will be the exact same variety for the coming year. They root very easily by just putting the stem in water. Skeet
I took a few of my ripe grape tomatoes and scooped the seeds out and put them in a glass of water. I let them ferment (nasty). The water grew mold on the top and the seeds sunk to the bottom and after the jelly coating came off (about a week) I put them in a stainer, rinsed them, dried them, and planted the seeds in flats. I have grape tomatoes in my greenhouse today. Plant them in different spot....sounds like wilt or blight has hit them
Yes, due to prevalence of pest and disease problems probably wouldn't pay to try to limp along with same, now funky specimens.
