Fall cleanup of tomato beds helps ready them for spring planting. Gardener Scott discusses and demonstrates how he clears and cleans up his tomato beds to prepare them for winter and the next season’s planting. (Video #405)
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43 Comments
I'm so glad I found a gardening youtube channel that is in my area. Your topics are always very…uh, well, topical.
Thanks for inspiring me today, im going to pull my tomatoes up for the yr too….it was a fun first yr of gardening for us, didnt get much but did get 3 rounds of potatoe harvest, and now will do much more starting in spring. This yr we called it a practice yr. Were going to fence in the south side and buy several raised beds this winter and try to do much more this coming yr.
Did you move? It looks like a different place.
We did not freeze but we cooled off alot and got buckets of rain so I hope all my tomatoes don’t split. I love those clips I use em on tomatoes,blackberry canes,cucumber fines and all kinds of other stuff. I have four more beds going in this winter so I’ll be busy
Can I use pine chips from my hen house as a cover mulch for winter??
Thank you sooooo much sir
I just did this after the first day of below frost we got. The night before I harvested all the green and partially ripe tomatoes. I have pounds of green tomatoes. Trying to figure out what to do with them lol. Thankfully tonight is the last night of below frost temps. I’ve been lugging plants in and out of the garage that I didn’t want damaged because of the short term early frost.
I overwintered my peppers in prep for this week as well. I hope to get an early start next season.
I used sheets of garden fleece to cover my plants for two days, and my cucumbers even survived. (29-30f).
What do you think of adding a cup or two 16.16.16 fertilizer, turning that into the soil and then covering the bed with black plastic for the winter?
👍
I tried tomato clips and then clear clips probably not going to last second season but black one should last several years
Thanks for teaching ❤️
I'm in Colorado Springs… we haven't dipped below 38 yet.. my tomato plants are still looking good. But it looks like that will change this weekend. Will the green tomatoes ripen if they haven't started too off the vine.
is powdery mildew a disease or its ok to compost plants especially squashes with powdery mildew?
First frost in Tennessee. Will be cleaning up this weekend. Great tips!
Again great and timely content. I have a compost pile. With my plants I will bury the plants in my garden. In the case of tomato plants are they too woody to bury in the garden? Or would be better to add to my compost pile instead?
Well, growing Brandiwine tomatoes was a dud this year due to the late, wet and cool spring. Once mid july arrived, it warmed up and dried out as summers usually are in western Washington but living in Puget Sound has meant mid to upper 70's much of the summer this year. Add in the issues of growing from seeds this year, I got 2 starter plants, one died about 2 weeks after planting them in mid to late May and the one remaining bush grew fine and produced quite a lot of blossoms, and despite trimming some of the flowers to spur on (hopefully) fruit, I got ONE small, green tomato by the end of Sept and the plant had dried up significantly due to forgetting to water it for 2 weeks. Didn't discover that until I decided it was time to rip the plant out and toss it and not reuse the soil for next year.
Hopefully next year is more successful.
The freeze hit my area in central Alabama the last two nights, with temperatures between 29-30F. Tonight, has frost potential, but is forecasted to be above freezing at 33F. I've been covering my tomato plants and squash with sheets. The lemon squash is loaded with fruit, and looks like it is going to survive the freeze. My tomato plants have a few branch tips with frost burn, but overall look good with flowers and fruit on the vine. All of my peppers, left uncovered, in raised beds, grow pots, and a GreenStalk tower survived without any damage. My mother, and neighbors lost all of their pepper plants. I have one tomato plant without fruit, but it isn't hurting anything by letting it continue to grow. Who knows, it may produce fruit yet. All of my potato plants are undamaged by the freezing temperatures. My eggplant have some leaf curl, live or die, I don't care. I got what I want from them. I may do a chop and drop with them. Marigolds have taken over the eggplant containers, so I can't pull the roots just yet. I'm still planting for winter. Tomoprrow, I'll harvest potatoes, and plant Late Nagasaki cabbage in their place, and one other location, for a January harvest. My Asian greens, turnips, carrots, Swiss Chard, radishes, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, spinach, lettuce, endive, beets, snow peas, and everything else I planted for fall and winter are looking good, and my compost bin is filled to the rim. I'll be purchasing a few trash cans soon, to store the raked leaves in for use later in and around the garden.
'those little tomatoes that have fallen' next season's volunteers!
Is it too late and too cold to add seeds for a cover crop?
Thank you for this great information. Couple of days ago my tomatoes plants look good. Now it looks horrible and I really didn't know what to do. You helped me. Thanks
Very nice. I use leaves as well. Started gathering them yesterday!
💪😎🇺🇲
First frost also forced me to harvest my Turmeric and Ginger. Smaller roots but plentiful. Local Amish farmers gave me the tips and instructions to harvest now.
If your plants were diseased, is it fine to burn them and use the ash either in the garden directly or in the compost?
Gardener Scott – I hate to digress, but I've been dying to find out where you got that amazing windmill in your garden!! I've seen it in several videos now, and I love it!
I cleaned my tomato beds today. First frost of the year for north Alabama.
Thanks for the timely video. Here in NC we've had around 32-33 degrees overnight the last two days. I just got the last green and red tomatoes off my bushes. I left the small green ones that were about the "cherry size" like was on your bushes. My though was they are not big enough for seeds, but probably great for compost. My tomato plants this year were great and no blossom end rot like I've had in the past. Every single tomato was nice and red top to bottom so I feel good about dropping those plants into compost. One thing. I see a lot of people turn their soil around February to prep for spring plants. So I guess you prep the ground now, and turn it again before planting?
Thanks!
I like your ideas. As a suggestion, in stead of adding store bought compost, dig a trench in your garden bed and save the garden soil, pull some weeds with root balls attached, place the weeds and root balls in the trench upside down, and cover the root ball and weeds with the garden soil you just removed from the bed. The weeds and root balls will act as an organic amendment to your soil. It’s also a great filler for a garden bed. And, it doesn’t cost you anything! 💰💵💲
Today is our potential first frost date but it’s still around 9c overnight so we might get another week or so. Phew! 😂
Great video. In Florida, I am starting my beefsteak variety of tomatoes. Also filling new raised beds with my native (and sandy) soil, composted manure, and peat moss. However, it is very compact. Will gypsum work? If not, what are possible options?
89 degrees here today so the 'maters are still producing. But Oct is a fickle month and it will cool soon. Still, making my prep plans and this video helps. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
My mom was out of town all summer so she didn't garden in her raised beds this summer. Her soil is terrible and she has used Miracle Grow in the past to grow tomatoes and peppers. I dug around in the empty beds, and saw no signs of life. No worms, etc. I added a bag of organic mulch I found in the shed, and I planted a cover crop (Austrian peas). It is going to start getting into the 20's this weekend, so soon the peas will be dead. Do I dig them in? They are about six inches tall. I can bring more organic material to put on the beds. Is there anything else I should do? Can I add worms in the spring? If so, where do you recommend that I buy them? She lives in a climate similar to yours.
Always enjoy your helpful, educational and inspiring videos!!!
Greeting to you from Saudi Arabia
Thanks! I just lost my garden to the frost, so I'm glad you're covering these options for moving forward.
What harm is there in leaving the roots in the soil?
Trying to ripen all the green tomatoes now. Wish there was a way to stagger it so they don't all turn red at once. Maybe some fried green tomatoes would be good.
One spot in my small tomato garden would not support a plant at all. The leaves would curl up and the plant would die, and I put three plants, all different varieties in that spot. I suspect it's contaminated with aminopyralid from Grazon Next which has been used generously on the property and is in the manure from our 3 horses. I bought wheat straw to mulch my cover crop seeds, and the seller said he is fairly sure no herbicides were used on it. The seeds are a mixture I have not tried before. Last year I used winter rye and hairy vetch, both did just fine.
Thanks for the informative presentation. I just wonder what do you think about using cardboard to "cover" the soil during winter. Beneficial? Harmful? Meaningless?
In 9b Sacramento I have tomatoes still growing. Every end of season ( December) all my plastic tomato clips are broken from the effect of the sun, I cannot re-use them. I am overwintering my best 2 tomato plants from this season, from cuttings that I rooted in water and now are in good soil for the winter in a south facing room. I also had no disease in my tomato beds so all will go into the compost in December.
Grow tomatoes. There was a disturbing article here in Sacramento recently highlighting the California drought and tomato farmers issues. At this time 95% of processed tomatoes in the US ( pastes, sauces, ketchups etc) come from the Central Valley of Ca. They had hoped for a 12million ton crop but only yielded 10.5 million tons. Next year , with lower ability to buy water and more and more high heat days, this crop will be less and less of a farmers acreage. Tomatoes are water intensive and there is not the volume of water to go around. Prices will go up next year.
I don’t know if you have any control over ads but one I just watched offered plans to build an untraceable ghost gun 🤬
I harvest as much of the green tomatoes for relish. I agree, keep diseases out of the soils, especially the diseases from cucumbers, tomatoes, and even potatoes. I toss the roots, plants into the city compost bin.
Unfortunately I don't know if the city composting facilities get their piles hot enough to get rid of diseases. But I do know I don't want the disease here.
The peach tree got red coloured "bunions" or some kind of scab looking growths on the leaves, so the city gets all of those too. I have no idea what those are, but the "scabs" are being removed entirely.
I now have enough worm compost to amend most of the garden using both extract and tea. Using it now should benefit the soil microbes over winter, and adding shredded leaf mulch should keep the water and soil warmer.
I now have zero full sun growing area, trees aren't mine, have shaded out the space, so my plan is for herbs and leafy greens next year, no tomato, cucumbers, peppers or ant vegs requiring even part shade.