What signals the end of the life of a vegetable plant in a climate like Southern California?
Question:I learned that Southern Californians can garden all year long because it doesn't get colder than 60 degrees. Apparently a pepper plant, for instance, can be productive for over a year. My question is, does the pepper / tomato plant just stop making peppers after a year but still stand there looking green, so that the gardner notices that it's not producing and then digs it up and replaces it? Or does the pepper plant get brown and die on its own?
I've always lived in the midwest, where the first frosts kill off all plant life off in the winter, so this is new information for me.
Answers:
Many of the plants that we treat as annuals -- like tomatoes-- are really perennials. In places like Southern California, you can have tomatoes year round on the same plant.
Even though daytime temperatures in So. California may be in the 50s or 60s, nighttime temps will often get down into the 20s. This will kill plants that need a lot of heat for producing fruit (like peppers).
Some plants are influenced by the changing amount of light/dark as the days grow shorter and the nights longer.
Good Luck!!
You are blessed with living in a climate that will give you productive plants year around.
Make sure you pick all of the produce~as you do not want the plant to think it is going to seed~
Fertilize on a regular schedule~
If you believe there may be a frost~water well as this will protect the root system~carefully cover the plant with a sheet or something similar~remove as soon as the temperature lifts above freezing~the light balance is important~
Treat it just as you do the rest of the year~and it will prosper
~!~Happy healthy gardening to you!
Peppers and tomatoes only produce while the night time temperatures are about 75 degrees F. During cool weather they will take a 'break'.
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