Blossom set in the heat.

[luke]

Originally Posted by b54red

Carolyn, I don't know why it works but it does. I am just assuming that the stress from high heat causes the blossoms to drop and the added water helps reduce plant stress. I found this trick by accident last year in late July when I thought all of my plants in one of my beds were finished producing and I didn't feel like pulling them out right then because I didn't need the space for my fall tomatoes. So I pruned them heavily and gave them a good dose of MG and turned on my soaker hose. I forgot to turn it off and it ran for nearly two days and made a huge mess. It was nearly a week before I could get near the plants because of the mud. When I did they were loaded with blooms and many had set fruit despite temps above 100 degrees. As soon as my fall tomatoes got to the blooming stage I started heavily watering them and they started setting in the 100 plus weather. I did the same thing this year since we had unusually high heat where it actually got over 100 in May and we have had temps consistently from the mid 90s to above 100 since that time with few nights below the mid 70s. Once the plants start producing I cut back on the watering so the flavor will be better. I am still setting out plants and will continue to do so til mid August. I do not water the new plants heavily but instead plant them deep in moist ground and then not water them until they start suffering; but as soon as they start blooming I start very heavy watering.

luke, I will try to get out and take some pictures this morning of some of the plants that were set out late and have not seen any cool weather. I have been planting through the summer with staggered plantings for several years and the heavy watering when they start blooming has boosted my production significantly. I used to think that tomatoes could not be grown in the heat of mid and late summer. It is not easy nor do the plants or fruit get as large but it is definitely doable. I only started the staggered planting because of my huge losses from fusarium wilt and just continued right into the fall once I saw some success with this method. I really like having fresh tomatoes all season and not just a huge crop for a month or so which I was getting with my previous method of putting out all my plants the same day in early spring.

Thanks for the help. This MS heat has put the brakes on my garden, and I'm scrounging for tomato sandwiches for the kids.