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Hi /out/
I live in Southern California (Zone 10A) and I have several tomato plants that were stressed due to caterpillars, leafhoppers, spider mites, and tomato hornworms so they didn't produce as much fruit as when I had grown tomatoes in the past.
November is coming and it usually doesn't gets colder than 45F(RARE) to 52F (about right in the coldest month(s) so I want to know how to prune my plants (about 6 feet tall and I have 5 of them)... what are the 'do's and don'ts' for my plants as far as pruning them? Do you guys have guides or websites to recommend? I keep finding them for tomato plants in winter climates where there is snow and freezing so its been hard to find one specifically for Southern California's (Zone 10A) mild climate. I have one tomato plant in a pot that is a year and 6 months old and the 4 plants in the ground are 6 months old. What is a good rule of thumb for pruning the tomato plants back so they will regrow throughout winter and produce a crazy spring harvest into next fall? I know I need to mulch the 4 tomato plants in the ground and I waited too long to do it; vines grew out of control and it was too much to handle so I couldn't get to the bottom of the plants to carefully spread the mulch and since there was lots of foliage in the way. By summer, things got worse because there were bees and wasps visiting the plants during the day so it made it impossible for me to be able to attempt to prune them without getting attacked by them and the problem with little or no sunlight when the bees and wasps left for the night.
Also, I have 5 basil plants in the same area that are each about 3 feet tall and getting so big and heavy that the stems are knocking down. Should I allow the basil plants to live like the tomatoes since basil is an annual or should I do a 'final' harvest of the basil plant at some point (and when?) then regrow new basil plants from seed in the spring?
Thanks again!!
