Hot Set Tomatoes

[AlittleSalt]

I've seen them also called Heat Set tomatoes. I have some earmarked as ones I want to try growing in the fall garden. I'll be starting seeds around June 15, so that gives me a few weeks to get seeds if I don't already have them.

I would like your input - especially from experience on hot set tomato varieties I can grow. It doesn't matter if they are OP or Hybrid.

My growing conditions from mid July - November. July is hot and humid 95+F and 70% humidity. Then from August through September, the humidity gets very low <30%, and the high temperatures are generally from 95-100+F with lows around 80F. October and November, it starts cooling off in the 80s and 90s and about average humidity. First frost is around November 23.

Here is my earmarked list so far:

Atkinson
Arkansas Traveler
Bradley
Enduro #1
Floradade
Homestead 24
Missouri 15
MoCross Elgin #9
Monte Verde
Super Sioux
Walter

I haven't read anything saying that Big Beef is a hot set tomato. The others on the list I have read that they are hot set. However, if you know better - let me know.

[travis]

If you can find these two hybrids, I have had them set fruit in temps up to 98*F:
Top Gun
Florida 7514

[AlittleSalt]

Thanks Travis. I found Top Gun at Reimer. I need to look at that site better.

No luck with Florida 7514.

On my list above I'm replacing Big Beef with Bradley.

Adding Walter.

I have room for two more varieties - I'm growing two plants each of 13 varieties.

[b54red]

I haven't grown most of those varieties but I can say I had poor luck with Homestead as a late tomato. I did fine with Arkansas Traveler. Since I grow in similar heat conditions but higher humidity the ones I have generally had good luck with when setting them out from June through July and setting in that miserable time of the year are:
Pruden's Purple **
Big Beef **
Limbaugh's Legacy *
Sioux **
Frank's Big Red
Indian Stripe reg & pl **
JD's Special C Tex **
Zogola
Arkansas Traveler
Couilles de Taureau *
Red Brandywine
Druzba
Carbon
Spudakee **
Berkely Tie Dye Pink **
Red Barn *

All of these have done well for me in the hottest times of the year and into the dry fall months when the temps are still very hot. The most prolific are marked with ** and the ones that still produce relatively large fruit despite the heat are marked with *. Different years one will do better than the others but for me the most consistent producers during the hot months are Pruden's Purple, IS, and Big Beef.

Bill

[travis]

Walter is a good hotset, but has no resistance to verticillium wilt, if that's a problem in your garden.

[AlittleSalt]

I already have seeds for:

Pruden's Purple **
Big Beef **
Sioux ** & Super Sioux
Indian Stripe pl **
Zogola
Arkansas Traveler
Couilles de Taureau *
Spudakee **

Looks like my list is subject to change I also could add another row.

[creister]

I have heard that Goose Creek is supposed to set well in high temps.

[Gardeneer]

If fruit setting is a problem due to heat/ high humidity, look into parthenocarpics.
I know one and I am growing it : LEGEND.
Its is bred by OSU for cool PNW spring weather. But it might set in the heat too. As an OP it is also disease resistant as well. I don't remember which.
Gardeneer

@Gardeneer I've heard mixed things about Legend, but Siletz gets great reviews for heat set. I'm growing both (and Oroma) this year to find out what's true for my area.

@AlittleSalt Out of everything I've personally grown before this year, here's what has seemed to set fruit in the heat for me, so far (in no particular order):
* Early Girl F1 (Home Depot plants / bonnieplants.com, 2014; previous years, too)
* Lemon Boy F1 (Home Depot plants / bonnieplants.com, 2014)
* Roma (Home Depot plants / bonnieplants.com, 2014; previous years, too)
* Husky Cherry Red F1 (Home Depot / bonnieplants.com plants, 2014)
* Yellow Pear
* Red Pear
* Galapagos Island (Solanum cheesmanii from wintersown.org, received in the fall of 2014)
* Black Plum (rareseeds.com; grown in 2015)
* Pruden's Purple (rareseeds.com; grown in 2015)
* Grape F1
* Some F2 hybrids (Early Girl and Lemon Boy, in 2015)

Early Girl F1, Roma, the pear tomatoes, and Grape F1 have been the most productive. Husky Cherry Red F1 had decent production. My area is semi-arid in the summer.

I didn't know that Walter was heat-tolerant. I've been interested in that tomato. Is it the same Walter that timeless-tomatoes.com sells, with loads of disease tolerance?

Although our super hot weather hasn't come on yet, of the 70-110 tomato varieties I'm growing this year (2016), Chocolate Pear has set the most and earliest fruit (4 fruits so far to Matina's 1, which set right before Chocolate Pear's fourth; Chocolate Pear was transplanted later than Matina, too). Chocolate Pear is supposed to be heat-tolerant, from the Baker Creek reviews I read. It's also supposed to be mid-season, but mine is looking early so far, unless the fruits take longer than the earlies to ripen.

A local friend of mine seemed to have Black Krim set in the heat, but I could be wrong about that.

Another person I met who lives close said Celebrity F1 usually did well for him, but it didn't in 2015 (which was super hot in June and super dry, btw). So, he wanted to try Grosse Lisse (a popular Australian tomato) to see if it would be better, because he thought Australian weather was probably close to ours (he's not the only one from my area or Australia to have that thought, at least about our summer weather). I'm trying Celebrity F1 this year. I might try Grosse Lisse next year.

I've been compiling an enormous list of tomatoes with reported heat-tolerance. Most of that list is available here (but it won't let me add as many as I want there): http://gardening.stackexchange.com/q...h-temperatures

I plan to link to the full list from there, eventually. Some of these might not be on that list, either: http://heritageseedmarket.com/index....-set-tomatoes/

[oldgerman]

I live in Sarasota FL which is similar to living in a hot sponge from May - October. One that I can set at ANY level of heat and humidity is "Alaskan Fancy" Which doesn't make much sense. Grown as the shortest season producer of all, it pumps out dozens of smallish nice red 'maters, with darned good taste.
Why they grow so well at 90 degrees and 90% humidity is a mystery to me, but they do.

@olgerman I'm growing Alaska Fancy. So, that's happy news for me. I hope it does well in dry areas with cooler nights, too. I understand Florida has warm nights. I'm not sure what Texas has.

If you have Florida-like weather, you might check out the varieties that were available in Marsha's and Gardenboy's 2016 tomato SASE. They all set fruit in an unusually hot and wet year. The Florida tomatoes took a while to germinate for me, but most are doing fine now. Hopefully they'll fruit in our heat and cold, too. If not, they'll probably need further acclimatization.

[BigVanVader]

Prudens Purple indeed did set fruit for me in extreme heat, as did ISPL and Big Beef.

@olgerman It's actually not terribly uncommon for tomatoes designed for colder areas to do well in heat. E.g. Coldset, Glacier, etc. Humidity may be another matter, but I haven't researched fruit set in humidity a whole lot, yet.

Sub Arctic Plenty is supposed to be even earlier. I wonder if it's heat-tolerant. It is supposed be parthenocarpic, a little, though. It's possible that Alaska Fancy has some degree of parthenocarpy. Are the fruits ever seedless?

[AlittleSalt]

Because of what I've read, your advice, and because I have seeds for them - my list has changed to these:

Atkinson
Arkansas Traveler
Big Beef
Bradley
Couilles de Taureau
Early Girl
Enduro #1
Floradade
Homestead 24
Missouri 15
MoCross Elgin #9
Monte Verde
Pear, Black
Pear, Red
Pear, Yellow
Pruden’s Purple
Roma
Siletz
Spudakee
Super Sioux
Walter
Zogola

Oh, overnight lows here are between 75 and 85 in August. 75F is more typical.