Fall tomato growers, replant or keep alive?

[Dewayne mater]

In the next week to 10 days, I'll pick the last of the good spring tomatoes. There are some new ones growing a maybe I'll get a few more, but, they are going to be small and will have very thick skin as a result of the coming heat. So, this year it appears I'll have the option to hold over the spring plants or pull them and start over with new transplants.

The existing plants are tall, and the top few feet are very hearty on probably 2/3 of them. This may or may not be a good thing as many are so big/heavy that they have topped and are bending Texas Tomato Cages, and some have already grown back down to the ground at started back up!

I have transplants available of varieties I like, but not near as many as are currently growing.

I know Ted like to keep his plants a full season, but others in hot climates start anew about now. I've been maintaining my plants though the season and some, not all, will start to produce well again when it cools off in October. What do you do and why? Thanks.

Dewayne Mater

[creister]

Dewayne,

I've done it both ways. I've had more consistent success with new transplants, but that being said, I was a greenhorn the first few times I tried to carry plants over into the fall. The more recent attempts were more successful. I like to prune the plants back to about two feet, making sure there is enough leaves left for photosynthesis to take place. This makes it much easier to treat them for disease and pests until it cools off. The last time I did that, in 2012, all the plants were quite productive in the fall. Good luck either way. I've also rooted suckers from the spring plants and planted them, it also worked.

[Delerium]

I replant. I don't like having plants that shows signs of disease to carry on for to long. If the plants are healthy still have tomatoes on them i will leave them be till ripe. But will have plants ready to transplant once the heat renders them unproductive . Also bigger plants require more water in our heat (107F today) and won't set anyway in these temps. I'd rather have fresh plants that can use this heat to grow and start to become productive when temps start to drop. I had a great 2nd wave harvest last year when i did a 2nd planting in June.

[Dewayne mater]

Thanks! Criester, when you prune back to two feet, you mean you are cutting off every stem down to 2 feet high off the ground? I've got only indeterminates I believe, fyi. Will they put on new growth from those cuts all the way to only 2 feet high? (clarifying that you don't mean top by removing the top 2 feet). As for sucker rooting, I've never tried it, but, think it might make sense because I've got a terhune plant that has been a real workhorse this year and I'd like to keep it going and perhaps get a couple of clones of it going too. Need to learn how to do that. The wife's grandmother was published in Better Homes and Gardens in the 60's as to how to do that, but, surely there are some newer takes since then!

Delerium - I was thinking of you as a put out fresh plants person. So, how are you getting plants to grow starting them in triple digit heat?

Right now I'm leaning towards a combo of removing the worst diseased and start with new plants there, keeping alive the best ones and maybe starting some new transplants from suckering.

Keep em coming hot weather folks especially!

D M

[Delerium]

Our new plants are doing great considering its over 100F right now. I just went outside and snapped two pictures to show the size of the 30 newly planted grafted plants i have out now (planted around June 14th-17th). The plants are handling the heat outside a lot better than we are.. We are indoors enjoying the aircon .

[b54red]

I always have better production out of new plants than the old ones. I have been setting out plants with staggered planting for years. I usually set out my first and largest batch in March and continue to set out new seedlings through July and sometimes August. The hardest thing about setting out new plants this time of the year is getting them to live through the first few weeks after setting them out.

My latest batch I set out the last day of May and due to some mishaps with young seedlings I didn't have any to set out in June but I hope to have some to set out in July and August. Despite daytime temps hovering around 100 lately the new plants are setting far more fruit than the older plants.

Bill

[chalstonsc]

I'd say new plants too

[ABlindHog]

I cut suckers to root a few weeks ago and will replace my spring tomatoes with clones of the best performers among them.

[AlittleSalt]

I planted 32 seeds a week ago Monday.

I am letting the spring transplants I planted back in March do their thing, and when they stop producing - I'll pull them out. They have yellow leaves due to a lot of rain lately.

Lastly, the 13 remaining volunteers that sprouted out in May are just now producing from very dark green healthy looking plants - I'm going to let them stay until frost. The volunteers do not have yellow leaves. I wonder if that is because volunteer tomato plants have a much longer deeper tap root than transplanted ones do?

Anyway, that's what we are choosing to do this time around. I'm hoping to learn from this.

[creister]

Dewayne,

I cut them down to where they are roughly only 2 feet tall. I say roughly, because I try to make sure I have some leaves left after pruning to insure photosynthesis to support growth. If I see suckers, I like to leave just them for the new growth. To answer, yes, they will grow back just fine from this. I had a Monomahks Hat I did this to a few years ago, and it did better in the fall than in the spring.

[Dewayne mater]

I'm very interested in suckering a couple of my plants that are Hoss's this spring. Is there a thread you can recommend that details this process? How long am I looking at to get a sucker from cut, to root, to hardening off, to planting out? Thanks!

DM

[creister]

Look in growing from seed forum at the thread about using diatomaceous earth as seed starting medium. It is very long, but talks about it some in there. The ones I rooted this spring, I just filled a Styrofoam cup full of de, put the plant in, and watered it from the bottom. Amazing root development. Perhaps RayR or Bill will chime in.

[Delerium]

Dewayne it will only take less than a week to root your suckers. Within 2 weeks you can plant them out (a bit of babying needed). Only problem with cutting back plants and using clones is the disease that will start to show signs around fruiting time. That's the reason i just re-start from seed otherwise I'd be doing cuttings as well. Would be so much faster to do the fall planting.

[ABlindHog]

I put my suckers in 4" pots of potting mix three weeks ago. Watered them in with a weak solution of liquid fertilizer and water. In that time the roots have filled the pots and they will need to be planted or potted up before another week has passed.