Growing tomatoes and capsicums as perennials

[t4ms]

Hi everyone,

Over on another part of the forum [https://www.selfsufficientculture.com/threads/perenial-capsicum.2724/#post-21994] I was interested to read about treating capsicums as perennials. I live in a chilly/frosty part of NSW (New England) but I do have an area that is frost-protected.

I'd like to have a crack at leaving my tomatoes and capsicums insitu over the winter as it takes forever to get them started up here (meaning a very late harvest) but I'm not sure how to prepare the plants. I don't have a greenhouse so I don't want to pull them up.

Do I prune them right back? How vigorous do I prune them? I've always ripped up the plants so I have absolutely no idea what to do.

Cheers.

 

[Vicky]

Hi t4ms,
I *think* that you would let your tomato plant do it's thing, keep tending it as though it will stay alive over winter but make sure there are no flowers or fruit left on once you have harvested your crops - whenever that finishes! Then you would just take off anything that looked bad or diseased and leave the plant as is, trying to keep it alive over winter. Not having had any experience with this, I don't know what the plant would do over winter, it may lose it's leaves and it may not. You'd have to just keep watching. Were it to survive, it will just regrow next spring? If any of my plants look and behave well this year I may try to do the same - I'm growing most of mine in pots so could move them to a sheltered place during winter. All the best with your experiment and keep us updated?

 

[t4ms]

Hi Vicky,

Thanks for the response.

I've had a search online and it seems that, because tomatoes are susceptible to all kinds of 'stuff', they aren't usually grown as perennials. I'm going to have a crack at it though if I have some healthy specimens come April. If I'm successful, I'll post some pics!

 

[KW1989]

Hi everyone,

Over on another part of the forum [https://www.selfsufficientculture.com/threads/perenial-capsicum.2724/#post-21994] I was interested to read about treating capsicums as perennials. I live in a chilly/frosty part of NSW (New England) but I do have an area that is frost-protected.

I'd like to have a crack at leaving my tomatoes and capsicums insitu over the winter as it takes forever to get them started up here (meaning a very late harvest) but I'm not sure how to prepare the plants. I don't have a greenhouse so I don't want to pull them up.

Do I prune them right back? How vigorous do I prune them? I've always ripped up the plants so I have absolutely no idea what to do.

Cheers.

If you have an area that's frost protected, you should be fine with the capsicum I think. I'm not sure how much different they are with longevity compared to chilis though. I get probably 5 or 6 days at most of frost here in central FL, and have 3 chili plants that have been going strong for 3 or 4 years now. I never prune them, they simply die back and regrow when conditions are right. I know some people do prune them though which is completely fine, I typically just snip off the dead branches that don't rejuvenate when the plant wakes back up.

The only reason they die back at all though is because of the rare few nights of frost. So in a frost protected area I would imagine you should be able to just plant them and let em go.

 

[cwinds]

I currently have a tomato in my (zone 8) hydroponic f & d system FLOWERING. It's in a cheap plastic greenhouse (like the $40 off of Amazon) but I do have a greenhouse heater in there. I think the reservoir of the flood & drain is probably saving me lots of money on the heat, but regardless, the tomato is doing great even though it is literally snowing right now outside.

I have no idea if I can actually get it to fruit, but we'll see. Bottom line, though, is if you can keep your tomato protected and at least reasonably warm, it should do fine. Put a cold-frame over it if you're worried - double-layered, if you feel the need. They're easy to build with PVC and drop-cloth plastic.