Save A Tomato Plant From Brutal Winter Temps With This Savvy Gardening Technique

Fresh tomatoes can improve everything from salads to sandwiches or become the main ingredient for incredible homemade sauces. While tomatoes are generally thought of as summer annuals, they actually grow as perennials if temperatures are warm enough. Since they can thrive indoors for an abundant winter harvest, growing the productive crop year-round isn't impossible. You could dig up your entire plant and bring it inside if you wanted to enjoy it through the snowy season, but the vines are often unwieldy.  A more practical option is to take a cutting before it gets too cold outside and grow it indoors in the winter.

Tomatoes are known for their amazing ability to quickly grow roots from stem cuttings. When you grow from a cutting though, it will be a clone of the plant it was taken from. So be sure to pick a plant with tasty fruits and a growth habit you like. You may also want to opt for a cutting from a plant with a small mature size if you don't have enough space indoors to grow a large indeterminate tomato variety. Because the vines are killed by frost, it's important to plan ahead and take your cuttings before temperatures get too low. 

The suckers that sprout off the intersection between the main stem and the leaf branches of tomato plants are perfect specimens for cuttings. Many gardeners remove these anyway, so saving one to grow as an indoor plant is a great way to repurpose what would otherwise be composted. You can clip the suckers when they reach about 4 inches in length. Be sure to put your freshly clipped sucker immediately into a few inches of water or moist potting soil for it to begin rooting.

Finding a good spot to grow tomatoes in your house is important if you want them to thrive all winter. It should be in a location that gets bright light from a south- or west-facing window and supplemented with 100-watt or higher grow lights. It's also essential to keep your tomato in a warm spot where temperatures don't go above 90 degrees Fahrenheit or below 50 degrees. Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so you'll need to fertilize your indoor container tomato regularly for the best growth and fruit production. If your plant does well all winter, you can bring it back outdoors the next summer when temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees Fahrenheit again.