Slow year for tomatoes here

[TomatoDon]

Haven't posted in a while but thought I'd do this quickly.

This has just been an off year for tomatoes in n MS. No one is having much luck with them. A local tomato grower barely can pick enough to sell, and some of the stores are having to get theirs from Florida. None of the local gardens are doing as well as they normally do. Very hot and dry here, and has been for a good while. Many have just abandoned their corn. Mine looks like a dwarf variety it's so small.

It's almost July and I haven't picked a ripe tomato yet. For the first time some of my plants just withered up, some died, and all are sort of stunty. Lots of leave curl, etc. I tried growing from seed, planting small plants, and planting large plants. Nothing seemed to work like it usually does. People here complain about drought and blight, and I guess we have that and more. It just hasn't been a good season for tomatoes....at least not in this location.

I have enough plants that are doing Okay to probably have some tomatoes in a couple of weeks, but it sure has been disappointing. JJ sent some seeds and I planted quite a few and held some back. I just couldn't get the germination I wanted, and I don't blame it on the seeds, but me. I had them out side a good bit, and they just never seemed to come alive that way I wanted. Some came up, some didn't.

Anyway, sounds like a lot of you are having good results. I probably have a couple of dozen plants left and will let you know when I start getting some fruit and what it tastes like.

Don

[Rena]

Don, Sorry to hear about your year. For me Drought is always a good thing. Nothing kills them quicker then rain and some humidity. Just pick up a tomato catalog and start dreaming about next year!-Rena

[feldon30]

Bein' in MS maybe there's time for a fall crop.

[TomatoDon]

Well, you can water and water, but nothing beats an old fashioned rain. Cloudy and no direct sun for a day or two, it just lets em cool off a little and get some real water. You just about have to water every day here, especially in raised beds. Never had a tomato patch quite like this one.

Will keep you posted.

[Gimme3]

Don...like Feldon said...You Got plenty of time. Like IMISS said...it could be a quagmire of rain an heat, an Rapid disease.

Got a suggestion...go get you a good pick-up load of composted chicken litter, or hog manure. Go buy you about 10 bales of wheat straw. Take a shovel...dig out a hole about 12 inches down...throw the dirt on the side.then take a fork an bust up the pan below . Throw 3 good shovels of composted manure in the hole, then stick a new plant in it. Break off all lower limbs...force it to root.Then...spread some of that dirt back in, then 2 or 3 more shovels of composted litter, then cover all this up with wheat straw,THICK... an water it like hell. Give that plant 2 weeks, an re-holler back on what it's doin.



in times of hot dry weather, a raised bed aint the problem, it's the lack of OM in the Soil, and/or Mulch. Believe me...))) Mighty Best Wishes...)))

[daylilydude]

I'm sorry to hear that don06 but i just can't say the same thing. I live in tish. ms. and have been pickin tomatoes for a couple of weeks now and my sister in iuka has been canning hers! Now we are just growing big boys,celebrity's,miracle sweets,lemon boy, big beef and sweet 1oo's but they are better than those store bought . but i will admit we have a large water bill but my wife says we can tolerate that just to have good tomatoes.And we do use alot of composted manure and lots of straw it does cut down on the watering a little.But i also will admit its HOT AND DRY here this season not like last year . but anyway hope they rippen real soon !
Richard

[TomatoDon]

Well, a couple of folks here are doing Ok, but by and large, its a pretty sub-standard year. We're getting near a hundred degrees some of the time and have been for a while, etc. Not much rain. I just went out and pulled up two more withering plants. I've gotten one golf ball size tomato so far on what started out to be 36 plants I believe. Glad you are doing much better in the north part of the state Richard. Pretty slim pickings in this area.

Thanks Gimme3. I may just try your suggestion. I saw a guy a little north of us in another county that has set out what appears to be a couple of hundred new plants. Nice looking field he has. He's certainly looking toward the fall.

I got sort of a late start this year due to some knee problems and just couldn't get around for a while. The year I got my earliest start I was picking half pound tomatoes in late May. Not a lot, but some. This year it will be early July.

Oh, well...as Scarlett said, Tomorrow is another day...

Don

[Plantersville]

Don
I did have a little success from May til mid-June but I am fixin to plow my maters under next weekend and start getting the garden ready for fall planting. I did not have the year I had last year. Last year I had Brandywines that were 10 feet tall and none of them this year barely made it to 6 feet tall. I got lazy this year and do my prep like last year. I put 500 pounds of Krazy Kow manure down and mixed it in with the soil and I didnt do that this year. I also planted in the same spot but I'm gonna change locations this year. Last year I had 135 plants in and this year only 65 so I will move my garden for fall and do it right this time.
Good Luck!

Chuck B

[TomatoDon]

Sorry to hear you are having troubles, too. It's been an unusual year here. Lawns and pastures are already drying up. Tomato gardeners are saying about the same thing you and I are.

I'm going to have some tomatoes, but they are really late, and the plants just haven't done what they normally do. I'm got some that are getting ready to turn, but don't remember having to wait till July to have them.

Daylillydude is in n MS too, and seems to be doing Okay with his, but he's nearly 100 miles north of me and their weather might be better there this summer for tomatoes.

I've managed to get a dozen or so from a couple of tomato guys here, but each planted 125+ plants, and still their pickings are slim. Partial crops.

I should be able to pick a few in a week or so and I'll let you know what they taste like. The others I've had so far were very good.

Don

[garnetmoth]

ayup. mine from seed are SUPER SLOW for the most part, bought a Cherokee Purple out of desparation.
theyll be worth the wait? just finally installed the drip irrigation! we harvested till maybe mid-sept last year, so im not going to fret yet.

[TomatoDon]

I still haven't picked a ripe tomato yet. More vines have withered up and I'll pull them, too, I guess.

The lawns and pastures are drying up, and the tomato people here are either giving up and planting for the fall, or are trying to nurse out the best they can from the remaining plants. Most plants are living, but just not doing anything. It's just so hot here...day and night...and so little rain. I ride down the road and see the pastures and wonder how a cow can even make a living on those slim pickings. People are scrambling for lad to cut hay on to feed livestock through the winter, which they won't be able to do as they usually do, so the cattle market will probably change with people selling off what they can't feed when winter approaches, and I guess the beef prices will drop. Reminds us how much we have to rely on Nature to provide for us the things we need.

Oh, well. There's always fall.

Don

[dexygus]

this is my first year growing tomatoes (well, growing anything, actually), so i don't have anything to compare it with. but i'm not getting as many tomatoes as i expected. so far i've harvested the following...

juliet - 119
jaune flamme - 19
early girl - 16
black krim - 12
black from tula - 9
paul robeson - 3
aunt ruby's german green - 3
cherokee purple - 2

my plants don't seem particularly healthy. in fact i think some have tomato spotted wilt, but i'm leaving them in because all the plants seem to be on the decline anyway. the argg has quite a few fruit about to ripen, and the juliet is still producing, but everything else is sputtering out.

i was quite discouraged for awhile, and didn't even want to think about the fall season. but i figure, the more practice i get, the better my tomatoes will be. i started my seedlings last week. fingers are crossed.

[Worth1]

Dexygus
Don’t get discouraged, in this area you should have been getting tomatoes back in the last part of May with the rest of the crop finishing off in mid June, or earlier.
The sad part around here is they don’t sell tomato plants until it is really too late to get much from them.
The best luck I have had here is to plant in the last of February and cover for any frost that might happen in late February.
Except for a few Cherrie types and some others the heat really kicks in around here and puts production to a halt.
If you can take cuttings from the plants you have and root them you should have pretty good luck in the fall.
If this is your first year here it won’t even think about cooling off until November.
There have been many years with no frost until December.
So it’s not even close to being too late for planting seeds I will the next time I come home in two weeks.

That’s why I have 45 rosemary plants 5 types, and counting LOL (it loves this Texas heat.)

I have about 25 years of growing plants in this part of Texas alone and have made a lot of mistakes and still learning, so I for one don’t mind helping out someone starting out new.
Good luck and welcome to central Texas.

Worth

[feldon30]

* Start seeds December 31st under intense fluorescent lights (40W x 2) indoors.
* Pot up to 4".
* Pot up to 1 gallon.
* Start hardening off mid-Feb. Bring in at night, take out during the day.
* Plant out huge transplants (18" and very bushy) late February
* Protect against frost.

That's the ticket for Austin, San Antonio, and Houston.

Might even put black plastic over the soil starting Feb 1 to warm the soil a bit.

[dexygus]

worth,
thanks for the encouraging words and the tips.

and feldon,
i would try that method and timeline next year, but...
we're thinking of moving back to california.

this austin heat and humidity are really getting to us.