Summer is Over

[barkeater]

This weekend the forecast is a high of 61 and a low of 40. Funny how cold and wet a summer we had while everywhere else in the country but Northern New England has been hot, hot, hot.

Has the heat hurt or helped your harvests? How?

[tomatoguy]

Wow, I'll take some of that. Summer isn't close to being over here. Maybe by mid to late September it will be. We have had 100+ degrees almost every day for the last three weeks. This is the worst heatwave we have had since 1954, the year I was born. It has surpassed 1982 and 83 which I remember very well. My plants got very toasty both of those years.

It has actually helped my harvest. That is not to say that is the case in my area in general. I have seen a lot of burned up gardens. The corn down at the end of the road is turning brown as well and the cotton 1000 feet away from me is even suffering.

I think my soaker hose system has really helped. It is buried under 16 inches of topsoil/compost/sand mixture in my raised bed garden. More heat means more sun, so if you can keep the plants watered they thrive. The added benefit is lack of foliar disease. I have a bit of EB here and there but it doesn't go much higher than a couple of feet up on any of the plants save one. The plants average about 8 feet in height now. Since I work outside, I don't care for this kind of weather but it hasn't hurt my garden a bit. There are about 20 beefsteak size tomatoes sitting on a tray in the kitchen right now.

mater

[greggf]

barkeater,

I see that here, at the southwestern corner of the Adirondacks, we have a forecast low this weekend of 40 degrees as well, although the highs are listed as 68 and 70.

Yeah, this is the first hint that things are over. In my experience, it won't take much more of these kinds of temperatures to make the gel inside the tomatoes get cloudy, the taste to go off, and for mealiness to begin.

It's amazing to me how many people in northern climates continue to eat and seemingly savor these "off" tomatoes. I just can't. I guess they figure that a badly-grown and -ripened late variety is better than a well-grown and -ripened early variety.

They are nuts, of course.

But I'm amazed at how good a season we've had so far, compared to you guys up in the Northern Kingdom (is that what it's called?).

I think it's because we've grown mostly really vigorous early hybrids this season, most notably Good 'n' Early (wow, what a great new discovery) and Early Pick, that we've been so lucky. They taste vastly better than Matina/Stupice/Bloody Butcher/Kimberly, and, of course, they're "real" tomatoes when it comes to size.

Geez, we've only had a couple of weeks worth, and now it winds down...............

[Tomstrees]

Bark,

The heat in NJ slowed us for about 2 weeks, but didn't matter as fruit was coming in way more than we could handle (still getting loads of fruit now; picked 14lbs last night alone - sent em to my parents) so we almost NEEDED the plants to slow down.

Now the plants have started opening blossoms again with some fruitset ...
Should be a productive later end of the season ...

~ Tom

ps.
We drove on the road behind Deerborne Farms last weekend ...
Man, I sure would like to live back there ! (one day )

[barkeater]

Gregg, in past years here, we had nice warm weather up to Columbus Day, so I've yet to experience the flavor decline as you describe.

The weather this summer primarily delayed ripening by about 7-10 days for my 8 week old transplants, but more importantly, my 5 week old transplants never caught up as anticipated. So many of those, that should be starting now, probably won't ripen until Labor Day.

I'm surprised Bloody Butcher doesn't do well for you, it's got great flavor here. I never heard of Good 'n Early, whats it like?

Tom, I bet that heat really accelerated ripening. My mother in Little Silver sure was complaining. I bet with the prices behind Dearborn's in the hills to Holmdel must be astronomical these days. There were 2 brothers with a big geranium business back there that must be millionaires now if they've sold. Did you grow Ramapo this year?

Oh, and our area of Vermont is called the Northeast Kingdom, because this 3 county mountainous area, has always been the most rural, isolated, and independent area of Vermont.

[montanamato]

I can honestly say, I rarely notice any significant texture/flavor changes until very late in the season...And then in only a handful of varieties...I grow 70-90 varieties and this year no hybrids...I usually plant a few, but this year none made the plant out I guess.
I use the bulk of my tomatoes for cooking...Either fresh sauces or canning. I also make lots of fresh salsa and canned salsa. The late fall crops work great for that...My tomato mentor was an amazing women who produced huge crops for years in droughty , alkali flats...She wasted nothing, and was an excellent cook...I put in vast amounts of time and considerable expense to not get full use from my plants...We use all the fruit...even the green fruit....Anything bruised or damaged gets composted or fed to chickens...
I think we hold on to our fall harvest more eagerly than other parts of the country for several reasons. We typically don' t get ripe tomatoes until about a month after most of you guys. We typically get an early frost and then it is followed by 3-7 weeks of non frost weather. We don't have disease issues so our plants are still healthy, green, and loaded with fruit.
I agree that the Stupice/Kimberly group is over rated, but try some Russian varieties that Andrey has made available...I must have 10 varieties this year that are early and better than the above.
I am glad hybrids work in many areas, but they don't here. I have yet to find one that can take cold wet early summer, and then the next 5 weeks are above 100...Big Beef did ok, but when I have so many OP's that do as well or better, I prefer variety.
I still think I can serve you a red tomato from my garden in early October, and it will be the sweetest , juiciest tomato you have eaten...Maybe I am wrong, but I sure feel confident.

Jeanne

[BigdaddyJ]

Weather here in Northern Delaware has been perfect this season. Lots of sun, average rain and not too many really hot days. I can't remember a better summer. Truly outstanding!

My plants are stll cranking. They slowed somewhat but still going great.

[greggf]

Good 'n' Early has been around since about 1986. The only place that seems to sell it is Burpee. The last few years it has only been in their black and white center discount insert, which leads me to believe that discontinuation is imminent. I decided to try it before it disappears, if it does, and stocked up last spring. This last spring it may have only been available online, I'm not sure.

It looks like Early Girl, but tastes much better - we're growing Early Girl next to it, and both Good 'n' Early and Early Pick taste much better. G & E has more sweetness than most earlies, but not too much. Very nice.

Bloody Butcher does well here, but my wife has a real aversion to tomatoes that have that "in-between" size. Too much skin-to-flesh ratio, I guess. And I think EP and G & E both taste better.

I'm guessing that the decline in flavor here is because of really cold nights that maybe other northerners don't get? I don't believe townies get the wild temperature fluctuations that those of us in the countryside do? Anyway, it beats the devil out of tomato quality.

[Razorback04]

Here's our monthly weather summary:

Day Hi Lo Avg Precip

1 90 67 79 -1 0 14 0.00
2 92 66 79 -1 0 14 0.00
3 90 68 79 -1 0 14 0.05
4 90 69 80 0 0 15 0.00
5 90 69 80 1 0 15 0.00
6 92 73 83 4 0 18 0.00
7 93 75 84 5 0 19 0.00
8 94 74 84 5 0 19 0.00
9 95 74 85 6 0 20 0.00
10 97 70 84 5 0 19 0.00
11 98 68 83 4 0 18 0.00
12 99 67 83 4 0 18 0.00
13 101 68 85 6 0 20 0.00
14 100 69 85 6 0 20 0.00
15 99 69 84 6 0 19 0.00
16 98 71 85 0.00

Today, it's only about 95, and as you can probably see,
we've had only .05 of an inch of rain for the month of
August.

If you like your tomatoes extra-crispy, you're in luck.
And as Feldon has mentioned about Houston, the stinkbugs
also get much worse here as the weather gets hotter and hotter.

My late tomatoes have basically just cooked on the vine. It's
a sad, sad sight, but I'm already planning on getting an earlier start next year to try and avoid this brutal heat.

[spyfferoni]

I think having a drip system has really helped deal with the heat this year. I never thought I would have tomato plants as big as I do. Usually when it is as hot as its been I get blossom end rot a lot, especially on any paste types, I haven't seen any this year!!! This is also my first year fertilizing with Fish emulsion, and it has helped a lot. If I can get another 5-6 weeks out of this season it may be my best yet.

Jeanne,
What do you do with all of your green tomatoes? I'm just now starting to get ripe toms. The heart variety you sent me from Andrey has been the first to give me good sized tomatoes. I picked five the other day. I've also picked 2 Azoychka, 1 Kellog's Breakfast, 3 Moskavich, several Kimberly, Galinas, Rose Quartz Multiflora, and Pink Ping Pong. All of the varieties I planted this year are new to me except for Kimberly and Polish, which hasn't done very good for me this summer. I'll have tons of tomatoes if they all ripen before we get a frost, I'm going to try and protect them the best I can with blankets and sheets, and those flannel backed plastic table cloths. I'm hoping the weather stays warm for awhile longer. I want to do a lot of canning. I've heard that black varieties in the north don't get as dark---What is your experience with blacks. I'm not quite sure what to expect, or how to tell if they are ripe. I'll have to pm you, as I'm interested to hear what varieties performed well for you this year. We got our heat a lot sooner than you did, and we also missed out on your wet weather. I think the heat set me back a few weeks.

Tyffanie

[montanamato]

Tyffanie...I have a lot of good canning recipes I will get posted as soon as the fires let up.
Green tomatoes mostly turn red after picking. I place them in cardboard flats with newspaper and keep them from touching. Stick them downstairs or out of light and check every day...About 80 % turn red in a normal year...I cook with them and can with them as they turn ripe. For very green tomatoes I make green salsa and freeze it in quart bags or jars. Also chow chow and piccalilli are good. I have cauliflower this year ,so will make mustard pickles too, and that uses lots of green tomatoes. I have a recipe for curried green tomatoes and it is very good with cherry sized green toms.
I guess in my area beefsteaks are a bonus and not a given, so I grew up eating saldette size tomatoes, and really enjoy that size.
Tyffanie...Cost. Genovese is unreal for production in heat. I hadn't grown it in about 5 years and I will always have it ...Others off the top of my head that laughed at heat and wind were Dar, Early Annie, Window Box, Prescott Heirloom, Red Zebra, Aurora, Demidov, Mano, Dina, Branscomb's Orange, Basket Vee, Dubok, Canestrino di Lucca, St. Pierre, Pearson, Victoria, Yasha Yugoslavian, Sulia's Heart, Maremmano, Alpatieva 905A, Berwick German, Redskin, Sicilian Plum, Hungarian/Ital paste, Dakota Gold, Cabot, Granny Carvielles, Siletz, Purple Haze, Clear Pink Early, Saladmaster, and Grace Lahman.
You didn't see any blacks , because they don't do well for me. Cherokee Purple did superb last year, but I had to give it several tries...I only have Black Seaman now and it set very late and very sparse....I lost Slovenian Black to curly top. I am still looking for a heat loving black that has some resistance to curly top. Feel them for ripeness, as they can go over ripe quickly.
Jog my memory for recipes later or pm me and I will get out my standbys.

Jeanne

[Earl]

Frost in this area is due about Oct. 15 so we've got about 60 more days. I haven't gotten an inch of rain all told since June. It rains at times close by to the South, up North, over to the West and they get way to much over to the East. Water Bill is gonna be a monster next time it comes around. But the plants do perk up a bit when they get a couple gallons every week. Rather have a tomato from a dry patch than from a wet one. :-)

[barkeater]

Wish I could send you some of our rain, Earl. Because it has been consistent, nothing is cracking at least.

My big worry now is frost. Sunday and Monday nights the forecast is a low of 35. This will be the earliest I've ever had to bring out the frost blankets. I guess I'll have to prune everything off sticking out the cage tops. Usually I don't have to do this til after Labor Day.

[Ruth_10]

Barkeater, we'll keep our fingers crossed for you and be thinking warm thoughts.

[barkeater]

Thanks Ruth, it must be working! The new forecast is for the upper 30's tonight, low 40's Monday night. Last night only went down to 46. They also raised the daytime forecast to 65 today, 68 tomorrow, and back in the 70's starting Tuesday.