fall set

piegirl · September 6, 2007

After a rather brutal summer, the heat and humidity
have subsided and now everything is loaded with fruit
black krim has at least a dozen, jet stars are on over
load, cherokee p. has gone totally crazy. Big beef
is now ten feet and laying over the other cages loaded
with fruit. Some plants that had early blight, came
back w/ new foliage-notably black krim and big beef.
Any one else in Zone 5 seeing this? Usually I get
a decent set but this quite large. Piegirl

johno · September 7, 2007

I'm in the warm end of zone 6, and I'm having similar phenomena. We were SO dry and hot, so my garden's a little behind yours. I have some green fruits, and tons of little 1/4" babies with petals still attached. We finally started getting light rains two days ago, and a day or two before that it started cooling off.

Out of four Black Krims, one of them came back to life and is flowering on a brand new four foot vine.

I had harvested everything a few weeks ago. The plants that have developed decent sized green fruits during the triple digit weeks since then are: Aker's West Virginia, Pineapple, Hillbilly, Joya de Oaxaca, Cherokee Purple, Watermelon Beefsteak PL, Rouge D'Irak, and Baker Creek's mystery PL Rose. Soldacki and Brandywine have one little fruit in the works each...

I think the one other that deserves the 'johno's garden Surviver' award is Blackfoot. All six of them were skeletonized by blister beetles - I mean down to bare stems - and they have bounced back big time! One has already produced a decent fruit! They are the biggest plants in the garden, and had been producing the largest fruits until the invasion. It looks like they will give me a fall harvest, too.

Cherry category aside, the only plant to give me ripe fruits through the heat was Cow's Tit, a paste tomato. Oddly, it wasn't really producing much until the heat. I am curious to see if it's a good fall producer.

So, yeah, I'm seeing a whopping set of fat flowers right now, but it's due to the welcomed lower temps and light rains. That really perks them up.

September 6, 2007	#1
piegirl Tomatovillian™ Honoree Join Date: May 2006 Location: Lincoln, NE Posts: 791	fall set After a rather brutal summer, the heat and humidity have subsided and now everything is loaded with fruit black krim has at least a dozen, jet stars are on over load, cherokee p. has gone totally crazy. Big beef is now ten feet and laying over the other cages loaded with fruit. Some plants that had early blight, came back w/ new foliage-notably black krim and big beef. Any one else in Zone 5 seeing this? Usually I get a decent set but this quite large. Piegirl

September 7, 2007	#2
johno Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Arkansas zone 6b Posts: 441	I'm in the warm end of zone 6, and I'm having similar phenomena. We were SO dry and hot, so my garden's a little behind yours. I have some green fruits, and tons of little 1/4" babies with petals still attached. We finally started getting light rains two days ago, and a day or two before that it started cooling off. Out of four Black Krims, one of them came back to life and is flowering on a brand new four foot vine. I had harvested everything a few weeks ago. The plants that have developed decent sized green fruits during the triple digit weeks since then are: Aker's West Virginia, Pineapple, Hillbilly, Joya de Oaxaca, Cherokee Purple, Watermelon Beefsteak PL, Rouge D'Irak, and Baker Creek's mystery PL Rose. Soldacki and Brandywine have one little fruit in the works each... I think the one other that deserves the 'johno's garden Surviver' award is Blackfoot. All six of them were skeletonized by blister beetles - I mean down to bare stems - and they have bounced back big time! One has already produced a decent fruit! They are the biggest plants in the garden, and had been producing the largest fruits until the invasion. It looks like they will give me a fall harvest, too. Cherry category aside, the only plant to give me ripe fruits through the heat was Cow's Tit, a paste tomato. Oddly, it wasn't really producing much until the heat. I am curious to see if it's a good fall producer. So, yeah, I'm seeing a whopping set of fat flowers right now, but it's due to the welcomed lower temps and light rains. That really perks them up.