Overwintering Tomato Plants For Next Year’s Garden

Most gardeners treat tomato plants like annuals. They are nurtured during the garden season and then tossed on the compost heap sometime in the fall, but what if you could overwinter tomato cuttings? Can you overwinter tomatoes? Overwintering tomatoes is possible but it does require some knowledge. Read on to learn how to overwinter tomato plants.

Tomatoes are a warm season crop that thrives in full sun and warm temperatures. Temperatures that fall below 60 F (16 C) prevent pollination and fruit development, which is why so many of us discard our plants as seasonal temperatures cool.

Tomatoes are native to South America where they grow as perennials. Domesticated by around 500 BC, tomatoes are more commonly grown as annuals, but what if there was a way to winterize tomato plants?

There is a way to overwinter tomatoes, but don’t get too excited. You won’t be plucking vine ripened tomatoes during the winter months. Instead, the goal is simply for the plants to survive during the winter months until they can go back outside to produce fruit when temperatures warm.

This is, of course, the most ideal way to overwinter your beloved tomato plants. Access to a greenhouse during the winter is wonderful. The greenhouse should be equipped with a heater.

To overwinter your tomato plants in a greenhouse, pot the tomatoes up and move them into the greenhouse. Do this before the first frost. Do not have the temperature in the greenhouse set for tropical warmth. Allow the potted tomatoes to acclimate, gradually increasing the greenhouse temperature if you want to grow actual fruit. If you just want the plants to survive over the winter and not necessarily fruit, the temperature does not have to be increased nearly as much.

To get your tomato