Tomatoes are perennial plants, but they don't grow perennially in all areas. Gardeners in warm climates may be able to keep tomatoes outdoors year-round, but growers in cooler regions will need to propagate tomato cuttings in fall or keep their plants indoors in winter if they want their tomatoes to survive.
Yes, tomato plants are typically grown as annuals, meaning they complete their life cycle in one growing season. This means that you need to replant them each year.
Those seeds sprout all on their own the next year. They come back yearly, just like perennials, but it's from their seeds, not their roots. They're playing a game of tag with themselves! I've had tomato vines in the same spot every year since I put four plants in a couple of years ago.
All determinate variety tomatoes produce fruit over a two-to-three-week window. Indeterminate varieties continue growing and fruiting until the plants are killed by frost. Indeterminate varieties can produce fruit for 2 to 3 months. Add weeks to the end of your tomato season by planting several indeterminate varieties.
A tomato plant typically lives for one growing season (6–8 months) when grown outdoors, but when nurtured in ideal or controlled growing conditions indoors, tomato plants can survive between two to five years.
Water correctly: Do not overwater. The first week tomato plants are in the ground, they need water every day, but back off watering after the first week, slowly weaning the plants down to 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week.
Tomato plants are sensitive to cold temperatures, and exposure to frost can damage or kill them. However, in some tropical and subtropical regions with mild winters, tomato plants can behave like perennials, especially if they are protected from cold temperatures and continue to produce fruit for multiple years.
In the very least, a new central leader will emerge and become the new main stem. Tomatoes are notorious for producing lots of “sucker” stems throughout the season, so you can count on something taking over for the lost main stem. You just need to be patient while the new stem develops.
Store in a cool, dry place
Place dry seeds in a labeled container or bag. The best storage place is cool, dry, and dark, such as a cabinet. Seeds don't need to be refrigerated and are viable for years2.
Tomatoes are perennial plants, but they don't grow perennially in all areas. Gardeners in warm climates may be able to keep tomatoes outdoors year-round, but growers in cooler regions will need to propagate tomato cuttings in fall or keep their plants indoors in winter if they want their tomatoes to survive.
Crops such as zucchinis and cucumbers are known as annuals because their natural lifecycle only lasts a season. Other plants, such as garlic and kale, are biennials. Their natural lifespan takes two years.
Some gardeners pull the entire plant from the soil and hang it upside down in a dark cool area like a basement or garage, while others remove the fruit and then allow it to ripen. Either way, do not wash the tomatoes!
Tomatoes are considered perennials, and as long as they're protected from the frost, they can continue to grow.
Asparagus. The best known of the perennial vegetables, asparagus is usually planted by purchased roots in sunny, well drained beds.
No, if a tomato plant's branch is cut off, it will not grow back.
Tomato plants require approximately 1 inch of water per week. Plants may wilt badly when soils are dry, but will revive rapidly when they are watered. A thorough watering once a week during hot, dry weather should be sufficient.
Pruning at the right time directs energy toward creating and ripening fruit instead of making more leaves. Overall, you will probably have fewer fruit on a pruned plant, but it will be bigger.
Is it possible to overcome tomato wilt? The answer to this is, if it's caused by an environmental factor – yes, you can recover your plant. However, if the plant is wilting because of a pathogen, it is unfortunately, almost always necessary to uproot and destroy the plant.
Keeping living or decaying roots in the soil whenever possible helps to build soil health and sequester carbon. Learn the details here! Regenerative farmers and gardeners aim to keep the soil planted as much as possible.
In most cases, they complete their life cycle within a single growing season, lasting approximately three to four months. However, with proper care and favorable conditions, cherry tomato plants can exhibit some perennial characteristics, offering the possibility of extended harvests for multiple years.
"Consistency is key here because you don't want to allow the soil to completely dry out or become overly soggy." Expect to give the plants between 1 and 1-1/2 gallons of water each week, in total, distributed over two to three watering sessions.
Choosing the best soil
Tomatoes like well-draining, nitrogen-rich soil. This means extra compost, blood-meal or crushed eggshells will make them happy. You want to make sure they have a steady source of calcium carbonate throughout the growing season, which is exactly what eggshells are made up of!