How are your Fall Toms doing?

[mysidx]

Just about all of my young plants fell prey to the imminence heat we had in July and August. I did have two JD Special T, and four Indian S. survive and are doing well.
I did get them out in containers late due to the heat, so we will see how soon cold weather comes to L.A.

Has anyone else had any problems?


Rob

My survivors from spring are growing like crazy and full of blooms. The Jaune Flammes are putting on some small fruit. They seem to fruit quickly after blooming. I also planted some grown from seed fall plants and a few grown from cuttings plants which are growing well and starting to bloom. I should have four to six weeks before the first frost so I should be able to get a lot of tomatoes. Everything else is doing well and I should have a lot of veggies this fall.

Ted

[mysidx]

Ted, it sounds like you have your fall planting down to a science. This was my first fall planting from seed, and the combination of sweltering heat and pesky leaf miners, many seedlings just did not hold up during the hardening stage.

[Keiththibodeaux]

Mine are doing OK. Tomatos were golf ball size last week, and doubled with that little rain we finally got. Heat Wave II, Solar Fire doing best. Creole and Big Beef struggled, but now gaining strength fast. My unnamed heirloom is going gangbusters and flowering like crazy, but no fruit yet.

[mysidx]

Originally Posted by Keiththibodeaux

Tomatos were golf ball size last week, and doubled with that little rain we finally got.

That rain (storm) nearly destroyed my plants with the combination of wind and quarter sized hail.

[Keiththibodeaux]

Originally Posted by mysidx

That rain (storm) nearly destroyed my plants with the combination of wind and quarter sized hail.

We got lucky on those storms. They had fairly burned themselves out by the time they got here.

We got lucky on last nights storms. They built south and east of us and moved south and east, so we didn't get anything but the much cooler air behind the front. It was 100 degrees again yesterday and should stay in the low eighties for the foreseeable future after the front came through.

I don't have the fall gardening down to a science. I just stumble through it. The only real lesson I have learned is don't try to grow anything outside until the high temps are in the past. I tried to plant a few heat resistant tomatoes while it was hot. They withered and died in the heat. This cooler weather with an occasional hot day seems to work well.

Most years, I can prune most plants back when it gets hot and they don't die. This year, many of my spring plants didn't survive the extended high heat, so I had to replace them with new plants. I have a mixture of revived spring plants, grown from seed plants, and grown from cuttings plants. Many of my spring plants are now over six feet tall after being pruned back to sixteen inches tall. Two of my dwarf variety plants survived the pruning and heat and now look as good as they did in the spring.

With me, it isn't superior knowledge that provides a nice garden. It is superior good luck.

Ted

[Dewayne mater]

Mine look incredible, but fruit set is minimal and tiny so far because of the heat that was so intense for so long. They range from 3-4' tall, lush green, full of blooms. Just wondering if I'll have enough sun time before frost to get ripened good tomatoes. The race is on.

[biscgolf]

mine never learned to swim so they drowned...

Dewayne,

I normally have a couple of weeks of harvest in the fall before the first frost hits. I listen to the daily weather forecasts and typically pull a couple of five gallon buckets full of greenies before the frost. This year, the intense heat lasted so long, I'm not sure how much growing and blooming time I have before frost. Most years, August has a lot of 90 degree days and the tomato plants will grow and bloom in the nineties. This year the August ninety degree days were replaced with one hundred ten degree days. Nothing would grow or bloom in that heat.

Ted

[b54red]

I just went out this morning and watered again. We are still in a terrible drought despite the 2/10ths of and inch we got 3 days ago. Septoria and whiteflies are still a problem but the spider mites seem to have taken a real beating from the IGR I applied a few weeks ago. I have a lot of small tomatoes and a few fruits up to medium size but none of the big ones I had last fall. It is supposed to drop into the 40s tonight and end this awful heat we have been having. Last year I didn't see 40s at night until mid November so I may not have as long as usual this year to get in fall tomatoes.

[sheysd1]

Mine are doing great now that I seem to have solved the rat problem I had. Darn rats sure do love the Cherokee Purple tomatoes! I have 36 plants and all are bearing fruit right now, not ripe, still green but large and really nice.

Here in So. California I still have plenty of time to grow all mine out. I still have two clones that I haven't even planted out yet.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by b54red

I just went out this morning and watered again. We are still in Septoria and whiteflies are still a problem but the spider mites seem to have taken a real beating from the IGR I applied a few weeks ago.

Red, what IGR did you use and where did you obtain it? Thanks.

Red,

I saw a news report this morning about the difficulty farmers are having in Alabama finding people to harvest their crops since the new Alabama immigration law was upheld in court. In the news report, they focused on tomato farmers with chest high tomato plants loaded with large, green tomatoes ready for harvest.

I know the summer heat in Alabama effected your tomatoes as negatively as mine were in Texas. I'm curious how farmers with late season tomato crops can be so productive while home gardeners struggle to keep their plants alive in the heat. I know farmers plant varieties which are more heat tolerant, but I can't believe that is the only difference. Do you have any idea which varieties the farmers are growing in Alabama?

Ted

[Talon1189]

Septoria has really set in on my 5 plants over the last 2 weeks. My plants are well over 11 feet tall and still have several 6-12 ounce green fruits left. I stopped spraying Daconil 6 weeks ago on a regular program. Hopefully this recent warmer weather will help to ripen a few more of my green tomatoes before the frost hits me or the Septoria gets them first....... LOL!