Cherry Tomato Plant Life Span!

I usually grow four and sometimes five cherry tomato varieties. Black Cherry is usually the first variety to blossom and produce ripe tomatoes. It is also usually the first plant to die while covered with green fruit by the first week of July. Last week, the plant looked healthy and strong. It was about seven feet tall. This is our first week of the summer to experience day time temps over 95 degrees F every day. My Black Cherry plant is dead. It is covered with small tomatoes, but doesn't have a leaf on it from top to bottom.

Sweet Quartz and Isis Candy appear to be ready to follow the pattern of Black Cherry and die very soon. Risentraube looks totally healthy and continues to pump out very nice, red ripe tomatoes and doesn't seem to have a care in the world. Juliet is performing the same way it performs every year continuing to grow and produce it's little plum shaped tomatoes while a few leaves turn yellow and fall from the vine. As the summer progresses, Juliet will amass a jungle of vines near the top which will eventually start hanging down towards the ground and probably touch the soil before fall arrives.

I wish I could get Black Cherry to perform like Risentraube and Juliet. I had planned on covering the cherry varieties with shade cloth before the real summer heat and intense sunlight of summer arrived. I never seemed to find the time or inclination to do it. Maybe next summer I will.

Ted