Tomato season so far?

In North Texas, we usually have a long season from early April to mid or late June for tomato plants to grow, bloom, and set fruit. Once the high temps of late June arrive, tomatoes normally either die or become dormant. They stop growing and blooming, but the fruit already on the vines ripens through July. In late August, we normally start having cooler nights and the plants still alive start growing and blooming again producing a fall harvest.

Last year I planted some seedlings in mid July in the middle of the hottest part of the summer. They started growing and blooming in early August and produced large tomatoes until the first frost in November. I harvested about forty lbs. of green tomatoes before the frost and we still had some ripe tomatoes at Christmas.

This year, in mid May; it felt like someone threw a switch and turned the heat on that normally doesn't arrive until mid June. The tomato plants immediately slowed their bloom production and I now have less than 1/2 the small fruit I normally would have growing on the vines. The plants are very healthy and growing rapidly, but the blooming has almost stopped. It looks like my spring tomato season will be a bust, but I can hope for a robust fall season.

Since I had success last year with plants planted in the middle of the hottest part of the summer, I am trying to put out new seedlings of different varieties about every four weeks and see how they will do.

Next week, every day is forecast to have high temps in the mid 90's with low nightly temps in the mid 70's. To the best of my knowledge, that is not tomato growing weather. They can take the day time temps but the high night time temps seem to stop them in their tracks. We may still have a small cool spell before the real doldrums of summer set in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ted

[duajones]

Our cooler temps this spring helped me some this year but the heat is here now and all plants are struggling to set at this point. Stink bugs are showing up now and the whiteflies are getting thick as well. Cant complain as I ended up with a decent season even if I dont harvest another tomato. Non cherries I am at around 27 per plant already harvested and I have 3 plants that I harvest the first fruit from in the past few days.
Within a couple of weeks the stinkbugs will be so bad that most fruit will be damaged. I usually begin pulling plants at that point

[frogsleap farm]

In southern Minnesota we have been blessed with unusually warm weather in April and May. I put out plants 2 weeks earlier than normal, and just this week have first fruit set. If it stays warm I'll be harvesting before July 4th - which happens rarely.

[veggie babe]

Ted, I'm having the same problems you are, it has been a very tuff year so far. I have 3 varities planted with their first true leaves: black cherry. kosovo and cherokee purple. I will pot them up and then transplant to the garden, I may try some in containers too. I'll try anything to get good tomatoes.
Neva

duajones,

In the United Kingdom, they call aphids on their broad beans "black flies". When you say the "white flies" are getting pretty heavy, are you talking about aphids also?

Ted

[GoodDog]

Here in the Hudson Valley I was able to get started a week after Mothers Day. Mothers Day is the unofficial last frost date but I waited because up till then we had lows at night in the 20's & 30's. So far so good, I purchase small transplants except for a mature early girl and bell pepper transplant which have fruit set now. The others are starting to flower.

[b54red]

Ted I have been doing something similar for years. Instead of just a spring and fall planting I try to continuously plant tomatoes through the summer. I used to do just two different plantings but found I could never time either perfectly. A few years ago I started planting seed every few weeks and potting them up and putting them out to replace other plants as needed.
Sometimes I get the best results from plants that are put out in the garden at times that seem foolish. Last year I had an Omar's Lebanese make a dozen nice toms that was set out in the garden in the middle of July while the one in the spring was three times the size with only one tomato. I end up throwing away a lot of plants that don't get used but I usually have tomatoes from mid May til January.
The biggest problem when setting out plants in the heat of the summer is keeping them alive long enough to make fruit because of the multiple problems of heat, pests, and disease. It helps if I can plant just before or after a nice rain otherwise I always plant very late in the day and water well early the next morning. Keeping the whiteflies to a manageable level is critical in having a good harvest in the fall. I always make sure to really harden off my plants before setting out in the heat of the summer. Nice soft young seedlings can't take the transition to the blistering heat of the garden. Fall tomatoes rarely get as large but their taste is frequently better.

[AZRuss]

Fruit set has ended here in Tucson, probably until late September. Still many tomatoes left to ripen, but most of them are small this year. Bloody Butcher produced fruit no larger than cherry tomatoes. The biggest Akers WV (best tasting award for 2010) was 2" diameter. Break O'Day (runner-up for best tasting) were also tiny, about 1 1/2". Big Beef--very prolific but also small and lacking in flavor. I have one good size Ramapo waiting to ripen on the vine. I'm chalking up this rather disappointing season to an extra cool and wet late winter/early spring and less than wonderful soil conditions. If I don't have time to do the soil right next year, I might not do it at all.

[rnewste]

Russ,

I just bought a 8 ft. by 20 ft. Sun shade 60%. I am going to string it over my tomato cages come July when it really gets hot here in San Jose. For about $90.00 on Ebay, I thought it was a good investment.

Here is a link to what I bought (actually special ordered the 8x20 size for my specific garden area).

http://cgi.ebay.com/8-x-12-GREEN-SHA...item3f003dba8d

Raybo

[AZRuss]

Thanks Ray. I have considered sun shade, particularly one marketed as Aluminet. I decided not to bother because it really would only extend my tomato season a month, six weeks at most. Here, come July and August it's 106 during the day and a toasty 92+ at night. Every night. Tomatoes don't have a chance with those night time temps regardless of how much they are shaded during the day. Then there are the monsoon rains and winds that can rip shade cloth to shreds.

The sun shade should be great for you in reducing daytime heat, and then you can count on San Jose's deliciously cool nights! Tomato plant heaven! I envy your sure-to-be abundant harvest!

I learn something every season about at-home growing in the desert. Last year I learned that it's too expensive and labor intensive for a home gardener (who also has to work a paying job) to fight the weather elements from July through September. Best to give in and relax about it. This year I learned how important it is not to neglect soil maintenance--even the potting mixture for the earthboxes.

[roper2008]

b54red, that sound like a good idea. I'm going to experiment and plant some
seed for a few varieties that was on next years list. Gary O'Sena, Aker's West VA,
and Snow White. We have a long growing season here, so I'm going to try it.

[discrepancy]

My tomato season only started about a week and a half ago, but it's more or less gone like this:

Check forecast. Is forecast free of rain for the next few days?

Rain in the forecast: Check leaves for signs of disease or bug damage. Do nothing otherwise. Ends up not raining.

Sun in the forecast: Spray plants with scheduled dose of insecticidal soap/fungicide. Wake up the next morning to discover that it's raining cats and dogs. Discover threatening clouds doesn't work. Write angry poetry instead.

Rain, rain, go away
Please stop drowning my !&#@ing plants
When humanity learns how to control the weather you'll be very sorry

I have one baby Sungold fruit. I'm wondering how long it's going to survive before lightning strikes it/$diety rises from its eternal slumber and steps on it by mistake/a grand piano from a Looney Tunes cartoon drops from the sky and lands on it or something.

[creister]

It seems for the forseeable future, tomato season will be suspended until further notice. Cold spring, then June turns into August temp wise. Next year, I will try b54Red is doing. Have a staggering of extras, and start early, and plant some later.

I kind of did that with one plant. I bought a solar fire from walmart. Planted it a few days ago. I am not expecting much for taste, but if it is better than grocery store, I am ahead. Supposed to be heat tolerant. We shall see.

We have triple digits forecast for Fri., Sat., and Sun.

[duajones]

Ted, I wasnt referring to aphids. These are whiteflies

[Qweniden]

Originally Posted by rnewste

Russ,

I just bought a 8 ft. by 20 ft. Sun shade 60%. I am going to string it over my tomato cages come July when it really gets hot here in San Jose. For about $90.00 on Ebay, I thought it was a good investment.

Here is a link to what I bought (actually special ordered the 8x20 size for my specific garden area).

http://cgi.ebay.com/8-x-12-GREEN-SHA...item3f003dba8d

Raybo

What happens if you dont put this up?