Over-wintering Outdoor Plants

Overwintering outdoor plants is as simple as bringing them indoors and potting if necessary.  This is an ideal method for having ready-to-use container plants for the following spring.  We spent the month of October at our vacation home in sunny Florida.  Before we left, I gathered up all the potted geraniums, annual herbs, the potted herbs and the hibiscus tree to bring indoors for the winter.  Normally, I bring in a couple of pepper plants and tomato clippings but this year decided not to.

Now, bringing in outdoor plants is not as easy as it sounds.  Logistically, I need to find suitable space for them among my houseplants and continuous garden.  At the same time I have to be very careful not to introduce disease or pests from the outdoor plants to the existing indoor plants.  Complicating the issue is some of the outdoor planters I bring in are rather large, not easily moved around indoors as required for sun exposure and watering.  Here's a few tips for what I did this year:

• the prep - All plants intended for overwintering were brought onto the deck.  The pots were hosed down well then allowed to dry.  The plants were cleaned up (eg. dead foliage removed, trimmed if necessary) and checked for any insects.  Normally this isn't much of an issue with most herbs but I have found spiders like to spin webs over the openings of certain style self-watering pots.  Pill bugs and earwigs are also rather common in some potted plants.  Once I was sure there were no living bugs on the plants, I brought them indoors.
• isolation - Even though there may be no signs of infestation on outdoor plants or any newly purchased plant for that matter, all plants new to the house must be put into isolation.  This gives me time to be sure there were no insect eggs or larvae that hatched to cause any kind of infestation.  I put the plants well away from the other plants, in one of the spare bedrooms.  After a two week period, I move the plants to where I think they will do well which means plenty of natural sunlight.
• large planters - I put the large planters on wooden plant dollies that I get at the dollar store for $2.  They come un-assembled but all that is needed is to attach the caster wheels.  The wheels are a heavy plastic that doesn't mark up our hard flooring so for the price, a rather good deal.
• watering - I water as the plants need it as well as use self-watering planters and water globe for some of the plants.
• fertilizing - I wait to fertilize plants brought indoors until they have adjusted to the indoor environment, usually three to four weeks.  I fertilize monthly with an organic fertilizer from that point onwards. 

Tomatoes

This is a wonderful time of year in the garden! The garden is blessing with it's abundance daily. I am dealing with a couple of problems and the ADFF (average day first frost) is quickly approaching. The days are getting shorter and cooler. The evenings have been fairly cool as well. After such a cool, wet summer it is hard to know whether we will have a nice autumn although that is the prediction. I'm not taking any chances in case we get frost earlier than expected.

Vine Ripe Tomatoes

Pictured is yesterday's tomato harvest. There are Sweet Millions (cherry), beefsteak (upper right), Lemon Boy (bottom right) and Heinz 1429 (bottom left). By far my best producers are the Sweet Millions, beefsteak and Heinz 1429. The Sweet 100's have produced very little. The Lemon Boy has once again proved itself to be somewhat problematic, low performers.

Recently the rain has been less resulting in less tomato splitting. By far the cherry tomatoes have been most affected by splitting. Tomato splitting occurs when the tomato roots take up too much water causing the fruit to plump quicker splitting the skin. The next problem is some tomatoes simply falling from the vines. This is primarily affecting the Heinz 1429 tomatoes although it has happened with the cherry tomatoes as well.

Late Blight

Throughout the entire growing season there have been horror stories of late blight. Late blight is a fungal disease that rapidly spreads through tomato plants. This year it has been particularly bad. True to previous experience Lemon Boy was the first to be hit with blight. Late blight is controlled by removing damaged foliage and not composting it. Washing your hands well after working with an affected plant will also help control the spread.

I noticed the first signs of late blight a couple of days ago. At this late stage in the outdoor there is little point getting too stressed about it. I'm removing as much damaged foliage as possible while trying not to knock of immature fruit so there is a bit of a trade off. I also noticed a couple of tomatoes with blight damage so I removed those as well.

Tomato Clippings

At the same time I am taking a lot of clippings of the healthy growth for growing indoors. Pictured is the first grouping of clippings to come indoors. As you can see the foliage is quite healthy. It is important to ensure any foliage used as a clipping is healthy to prevent any disease from spreading through the indoor garden. I cut a clipping and put it into a water filled container then wash my hands and repeat for 4 clippings per container. Then I set the container on the patio well away from the main garden and other clippings for a week. As long as there are no signs of disease, I check for any insects and manually remove them then bring the clippings indoors. The clippings are checked daily for any signs of insects. Indoors I use manual removal combined with a homemade soap spray if necessary. Once roots form the clippings are either planted in soil or left as individual plants in water. I use an organic fertilizer for the plants. As the plants grow the process for rooting clippings is continuously repeated throughout the winter.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Over-wintering Plants

Our ADFF was October 12^th this year meaning on that date there was a 50/50 chance of a damaging or hard frost. Unfortunately it came earlier than predicted spelling disaster to local tomato farmers. There were hundreds of thousands of dollars lost due to the early frost. Our property is water front so tends to be a bit protected from frost longer into the season still it is time to bring in plants for over-wintering. These include any herbs grown in pots, geraniums and any plant I want to try over-wintering. Over-wintering allows you to save some potted plants that you want to use the following year but at the same time if you do it correctly some plants will provide you with a bit of fresh produce while giving you any easy way to propagate some plants.

My method is relatively simple. I clean the plant of any dead growth, inspect well for any signs of infestation and wipe down the pot. Then I fertilize using an organic fertilizer and water well until the water runs from the bottom. Once the bottom of the pot is dry I bring the plant in where it is isolated from other house plants until I am sure there is problem with infestation. Potted plants can introduce spiders, earwigs and pill bugs to the home so I check carefully under the plants for a few days to be sure there no introduced bugs.

Tomato Clippings

If you have a sunny location in your home do consider taking clippings from your tomato plants before a frost hits them. This technique will work for hybrids that don't breed true through seed so it is a good way of keeping plants going from one season to the next. For best results cut from the terminal end of a healthy tomato plant and keep the clippings less than 1 - foot in length. Place the cut ends into water where they will root. In about a weeks time take each clipping that will now have generous growth of roots and pot them. As the plants grow make more clippings from them. Keep the vines clean by removing any dead or yellowing foliage. Pinch feeders (stems that form between a Y branch) to encourage bushier grown. The feeders can be rooted as well. Continue in this manner and you should have a rather lovely supply of tomato plants in time for planting in the spring. They will simply need to be hardened before planting. Choose the hardiest plants for this purpose. At the same time you will have enjoyed a few fresh tomatoes if you have hand pollinated. Cherry tomatoes when used this way can give you a nice supply of cherry tomatoes throughout the winter and since the vines are smaller they are easier to grow indoors.

Impatiens

Impatiens are a beautiful low growing flowering annual in our area with flowers ranging from white to red and shades of pink. Several years ago when I was learning about ponding I came across a reference that said us use impatiens clippings for shading. It was a simple, inexpensive solution to poke holes in thin styrofoam sheets to allow the impatiens clippings to reach the water. They would form a good root system within a week or so, ready for planting in the garden. That year I had more impatiens than I knew what to do with.

The same technique can be used for over-wintering impatiens as well as propagating for spring planting. Choose healthy plants then cut two or three 4 - inch clippings from the plant. Place the clippings in room temperature water and allow to form roots. Plant in soil. As the plants grow you can take further clippings to start more plants but do not take more than ⅓ of the total foliage when clipping. In the spring you will need to harden off the plants after the ADLF and when the soil warms a bit.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008