Growing tomatoes in Austin, TX

[newgardener_tx]

Just spent two minutes to get my plants (4 flats) home from a sudden thunderstorm and got all wet. Sounds like some hails too. This texas weather! Hopefully everyone's plants are OK.

[Worth1]

That weak little storm just passed by the house but I foresaw the rain and hauled mine in 30 minutes before it hit.
All 200 of them, I cut back from about 400 last year.

Today I was transplanting and got soaked, it felt great.

Worth

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by ArcherB

I hate to venture off topic, but does anyone know where I can pick up JD's Special C-Tex seeds?

You mean for next year?

[travis]

Archer, go to the Walmart on Ben White west of I-35 and ask the garden center manager if they are going to get JD's SC-TX transplants again this spring. They had them last spring from a local source.

[ArcherB]

Originally Posted by feldon30

You mean for next year?

Next year, this year... doesn't matter. I would prefer this year. I know it's a bit late, but I believe I could still get them sprouted and in the ground by mid to late March. If these plants produce in the heat as well as I hear they do, it won't matter. If I could just get one tomato, that would supply me and a few others with enough seed to plant next year.

Archer, go to the Walmart on Ben White west of I-35 and ask the garden center manager if they are going to get JD's SC-TX transplants again this spring. They had them last spring from a local source.

Thanx. I'll have to check them out. I pass by there every day on my way to and from work.

[feldon30]

I've given up on trying to find tomato varieties that taste great and produce tomatoes in the heat of August. That is why I preach starting early, planting early, and protecting plants from frosts.

Best of luck whichever course you choose. Some of the other posters in this thread may even have extra JD's plants this year.

[Plantersville]

I'm looking for JD's seeds or plants as well. I dont think its too late to get 'em in the ground. The first plant that goes in the ground for me is Early Girl....this mater has consistently outperformed every other mater year after year. Last year I had one of the best years ever. Dont know if it was the rain or cool weather or what but I eventually had to pull up all my still producing plants in October so I would have a place to burn the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

[ArcherB]

Originally Posted by Plantersville

I'm looking for JD's seeds or plants as well. I dont think its too late to get 'em in the ground. The first plant that goes in the ground for me is Early Girl....this mater has consistently outperformed every other mater year after year. Last year I had one of the best years ever. Dont know if it was the rain or cool weather or what but I eventually had to pull up all my still producing plants in October so I would have a place to burn the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

I did Bush Early Girl last year and had similar results. We had weeks of 100 degree weather and it didn't seem to bother the plant at all. I'd grow it again this year, but I'm sticking more or less to heirlooms. I want to see if I've been missing something.

[newgardener_tx]

All the plants from seeds now have true leaves. Since I don't have greenhouse and the weather is nice (60-75C day and 40-50 night)I left the plants outside. But it seems the plants are growing very slow. The stems and back side of the leaves are purple. I repot some of the plants yesterday to a 4 inch cell with potting soil. It doesn't look like I will have a big enough plants to go in the ground at the end of Febuary or early March. So I went shopping. I found in Austin, the Natural Gardener on old beecave, Red Barn (lots of choice for tomato and pepper) on 183& pond springs, Great Outdoor on Congress ave, Home Depot on Mopac& Braker lane all have tomato plants for sale. Very nice size. I got Cherokee purple, brandywine, big beef and celebrity. Natural Gardener has a big shipment of tomato plants today (~300 flats). So I may go check out again tomorrow.
Have fun to be tomato addictive.
New gardener in Tx

[feldon30]

Have you fed your plants at all?

[newgardener_tx]

I only fed them water. Do I suppose to fertilize them? What should I use? I read it somewhere fertilizer may burn the little plants. All plants were in miracle-grow seed starting mix or Jiffy seed mix. I am assuming they contain some kind of nutrients.

[feldon30]

I feed seedlings once during the seedling stage with a half strength fertilizer. I use Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed or Alaska Fish Emulsion.

[simmran1]

Our son lives in Austin and tries to grow Super Sioux every year, (because his girlfriend works at a garden center and that's what was recommended by them). He's at zip 78722 near the old airport, for those that live there. He had good luck with this variety in 2007, but in '08 nothing produced.
(I guess because of the lack of rain). Anyway he gets seed from Lubbock TX. Seed Kingdom I think.

[feldon30]

I am a bit puzzled at the statement in '08 "nothing produced". From most accounts it was a very good year for tomatoes. The lack of rain and lots of warm sunny days (rather than hot muggy days) meant less disease.

The only reason I had problems in June was I got lazy and didn't water as much. I had hundreds of tomatoes still on the vine, but they started to get tough from not being watered enough.

Is your son looking at irrigation options?

[newgardener_tx]

Last year was a diaster for tomato in Austin. We got heatwave (100F) around mid-June then all plants stopped producing. I got my plants in really early and harvested some tomatoes. Lots of people didn't harvest much tomatoes. The whole July and August are tomatoless. Got fall tomatoes in late August and killed by ealy freeze (Nov. 17th) when just started to harvest. So again I am putting any plants on my wish list that I can find in the ground now. I have five already. (CP, brandywine, lemon boy, sweet 100 and celebrity)