Growing tomatoes in Winter

[Grub80]

Hi All,

need your advice as to my tomatoes growing in my garden in the late autumn. Should i persist or pull them out? They are still flowering and growing fruit. Should i pull all the fruit off and ripen off the vine?

i have never grown tomatoes late in the season.

thanks in advance, Leann

[Jason]

Hi @Grub80,

Great to see you make your first Workshop post! We hope it's the first of many and look forward to reading more about your projects and plans.

Can you tell us where you are based? I can then tag some users who should be able to provide some advice.

Thanks,

Jason

[Grub80]

Hi Jason, I am based at Aldinga Beach South Australia

[Jason]

Thanks for the update @Grub80.

Let me tag some of our green thumbs on the community, including @Adam_W, @CathM, @robchin, @Branchy249 and @Noelle for you.

I'm sure they will be happy to give you some advice on ensuring you get the most from your tomato plants at this time of year. 

Jason

[Adam_W]

@Grub80tomatoes are technically a sub-tropical plant so outside of warm zones they need long hot days to grow.

In your area they'll start slowing right down so ripening on the vine will take a long time & the plant will likely be suffering, bordering on dead, before the remaining fruit even ripens.
Once it starts to get cold overnight (below say 10˚) then you'll find the plant shedding leaves & looking ratty.
You can keep it warmer for longer by mulching well with a pea straw or garden lucerne.
They still look pretty healthy now, probably because the paving and colorbond fence are radiating some stored heat overnight so I'd persist for a little longer until you start to see lots of leaf drop and leaf yellowing etc.

[robchin]

Hi. Im with @Grub80 on this one. Might be a bit late to hope they'll ripen at this stage. Maybe some Green Tomato Chutney