One-Year Old Tomato Plants
My tomato plants are turning one-year old this week.
I didn’t plant them. They sprouted up from fallen tomato seeds from a stray tomato that was unpicked the previous year.
When I saw the little seedlings coming up, I decided to protect them from the winter frosts in hopes that I would have a jump start on the growing season in spring.
I covered them with sheets when temperatures dipped below 32 degrees and even put a light bulb underneath the sheets to provide additional warmth.
In the spring, I did get a jump-start on the tomato growing season. They performed very well.
In May, as summer temperatures arrived – I put up shade cloth to shield them from the sun and keep them from burning up.
My hope was to be able to enjoy a fall harvest of tomatoes once the temperatures cooled.
Now that November has arrived, my tomato plants are covered with flowers, just waiting to form into new tomatoes.
I checked over my tomatoes today and this is what I found…
A single ripening tomato.
I’m not too sure I will see any more tomatoes form because soon we will be getting too cold.
I must admit that I have mixed feelings about working hard to help my tomatoes survive another winter.
I’m not sure why I feel this way. It was worth it because I did get a jump-start on the growing season and as a result, got more tomatoes.
Even when working to protect tomatoes from the occasional freeze – there is no guarantee that they will survive. A colder then normal winter will kill them no matter what protective measures I try.
Oh well. At least I don’t have to make a decision for a few weeks.
**How about you? Have you raised tomato plants for over a year? Was it worth it? Or was it easier to start off fresh with new tomato plants in the spring?
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Grand Canyon University is getting ready for their third Run to Fight Children’s Cancer, which is a 5k/10k run that will raise money to support children and families dealing with childhood cancer.
The run will benefit the Children’s Cancer Network & Phoenix Children’s Hospital (a wonderful hospital – our son, Kai, had surgery there on his hip).
Please take a minute to check out the video link
which shows childhood cancer survivors in an honest, heartfelt way that will leave you inspired.
Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
I did keep a tomato alive for nearly a year in a container, and it resulted in a couple of really wonderful tomato sandwiches in December last year (plus an un-wonderful infestation of aphids in my sunroom). I've grown carrots for 14 months until they matured (but they are biennial anyway), onions for over a year, and leeks for a year before. Sometimes, you go with the plant's schedule rather than your own, and then it becomes your own personal quest.
I have had tomato plants grow over a year. I grow Nichols Heirloom tomato from seeds from Native Seed Search in Tucson. They re-seed easily. Easy to grow. You get wonderful grade pink cherry tomatoes.