fall garden disaster

[stxgardener]

My spring garden was so much better.My tomatos were awesome and really
putting out. I planted my fall garden around Sept. 10 mostly all tomatos. I even gave them more space that my spring garden same location morning sun afternoon shade
There not as full, leaves are turning brown and they are blooming but lots
of blossoms are falling off.The days are still real hot. All thoughts welcome.
I'm real frustrated.

[b54red]

This will be my worst year ever for fall tomatoes. The plants set out in July and August started out looking great then we had over a month of daily downpours. The result of which was devastating disease problems. Usually foliage diseases are a minor concern during the dry weather that is the norm here in late summer and fall. Without the ability to keep any kind of fungicide on the plants for weeks on end the foliage diseases destroyed most of the leaves and all of the blooms on my plants. I tried keeping the diseases at bay with some sprayings of my bleach solution but frequently couldn't even apply that for long stretches. It did kill a lot of the diseased leaves and slowed many down; but it doesn't have any preventative or residual effect so I would get new outbreaks of Septoria, Gray Mold, etc. every few days. Now that the rain has let up my remaining plants are in terrible shape with no foliage on the bottom half of the plants and all of the early bloom clusters fell to the diseases so my only hope is that the first freezes will be very late this year. I now have a lot of nice blooms starting but don't know if any will have time to make before it is too late. I am also dealing with a massive whitefly infestation that is proving hard to slow down. I certainly can't complain about the pepper production but the squirrels have taken to eating them since they don't have the usual tomato crop to feast on this time of the year.

[feldon30]

I tried fall gardening of tomatoes 3 times. The result was never worth the effort. Sept 10th sounds a bit late for planting, but even planting in early August and babying the plants, I could never get ripe fruit before flavor-robbing overnight temps of low 40's.

[Sun City Linda]

Most of my seedling for Fall died. I have a total of 3 tomato plants in Earthboxes that survived the heat because I pulled them into nearly full shade most days since Aug 1. Obviously, they have not grown much, but they are alive. They are my great, last hope for Fall this year....

We had Fall temps yestarday and now the weather is triple digit over most of the next week.

[chalstonsc]

For me, frustration is the name of the game in the Fall, but I keep trying. It's humid and wet enough around here until the weather breaks so diseases take their toll, and there are still bugs/caterpillers to deal with. This year is so far one of my best Fall hopes. Blossoms stopped falling off for the most part about three weeks ago and I've got plenty of green Sungold and Black Cherry tomatoes and some larger varieties. I've got some from cuttings I rooted, some from seed and some from Spring plants I cut back late July. Fall plants never are as full, nor nearly as productive, and the tomatoes never as tasty, no matter what I've tried, but the ones I manage to get before the first frost mostly taste better than store bought ones and help get me through until the next Spring. I don't put in nearly as much effort in the Fall and get whatever I get which is never close to what I get in the Spring.

[Redbaron]

I may be the only one here in central Oklahoma, but I left my spring tomatoes in the ground, and they all pulled through and my fall crop of tomatoes looks great. Already getting cherry maters.

But for me fall crop means Brassicas and swiss chard. I lost a few but the ones that pulled through the heat are doing spectacularly. I looked out the window today and couldn't believe my eyes!

Over night my Bok Choy has doubled in size! Is it even possible? Just 2 days ago it was looking kinda wilty and the edges of the leaves were dying and completely brown. They had water but the sun was just too much for them. Rained last night slow and steady and cooler night temps and poof like magic they just kinda exploded. Looks like it's going to be a great fall! (as long as the weather doesn't get freakish)

[Rockporter]

I just planted my tomato plants around August 25th in Earth Boxes and all of mine are doing well. 4 roma, 1 mr stripey and 1 grape tomato as well as planted some yellow squash and zuchinni. I have multiplying onions and some snap peas growing too(non earthbox) and I moved my bell peppers which I planted in May(SIP) and they are still putting out plenty right now. Most everything I grow is in self watering containers of some sort and my basil I planted in May is also doing well.

I think right now it is just still too hot for your tomato plants, but if you can give the plants a small amount of shade during the hot sun day(not just evening) you might have better results. All of mine are on a patio with a bit of shade all day. I have lots of blooms and they are growing like crazy. I plan to move everything out into the new container area when it cools down, hopefully this will be soon.

Good luck and don't give up because my fall is always great here in the coastal bend.

[feldon30]

I will say if I were going to recommend fall varieties, I'd go for Momotaro F1, Black and Brown Boar, and maybe Sungold. They seem to hold their flavor longer. I haven't grown Sweet Quartz F1 in the fall (my favorite pink cherry), but I will probably give it a try.

[stxgardener]

Thanks for all the great advice. It motivated me. I launched an assault against the worms with
bt and neem oil for the fungi,then dropped $28 at the nursery and more at home depot
for more plants. I got a couple of gallon celebrities with stalks like tree trunks. The weather is cooling off and raining.Victory will me mine.