Monday, October 26, 2009

Keeping tomatoes beyond the first frost

Does everyone know what to do with your green tomatoes in late fall? Pick them before it freezes, obviously, and then place them one layer deep in a cool part of the house out of the sun. They will ripen over the next several weeks, thus extending your season for fresh fruit. Some of the smaller ones will not ripen, and you may want to learn to appreciate some of the green tomato recipes, so they don't go to waste.

Have you all seen the picture of the Zoo Garden tomatoes growing up strings using T-Frames? It's on the home page of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com group. I recommend you look at it, especially for the PVC "roof" I put on it. In late September I covered the whole thing, consisting of about 80 tomato plants, with 6 mil greenhouse plastic. With just a little heat during freezing weather this Should let you continue to grow and harvest fresh tomatoes at least into November, and maybe even December!

Beyond that, by covering it in the spring, you can transplant your tomatoes into the garden a month or so earlier - thus extending your harvest season on both ends! And the entire thing, including T-Frames, costs only about $200.

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