Do others Beefsteaks grow in phases?

keithaxis · July 20, 2007

This is my 5th year gardening (of 42 here) and I am concluding that at least in my microclimate/zone that beefsteak tomatoes set fruit in phases. I am able to have a growing season from June 1 - Oct 15. This is the 3rd year now that I have noticed the tomatoes set in 3 phases over the summer. The first phase seems to be a few weeks after planting out and their will be 0 to 5 fruit on a beefsteak that will grow. Then for 3/4 weeks I really do not get any more fruitset on these plants ( I grow 50, maybe 38 being beefsteak type, KB, BW, CP, EF, etc.) and that puts me to where I am today. No new fruit set since these ones came out in late June/early July. Now, getting towards later July I can almost say that within 2 weeks I will get the 2nd phase where I get many, many more fruit that set and they will get ripe sometime in early september. Mabye 4 weeks after my 2nd phase of fruit setting and growing I will see a 3rd phase kick in where a lot more fruit set (maybe 30 fruit on a beefsteak between all 3 phases) but that fruitset will not completly ripen before my season begins to end. This has been so consistant as far as my tomatoes growing in phases. I walk out there each day thinking, maybe more fruitset but there will not be any inbetween these phases with beefsteaks...So basically where I live I get the real good tomatoes from my 2nd phase of fruitset that has the chance to ripen in a still warm Northwest climate. This must be a case of where I live as I see pictures of others plantes where it appears they get weeklyl fruits setting throught their growing season..sure not like that with my plants...Anyone else have something similar? I have that one Tom's Yellow Wonder tomato that set in phase 1 back in early July and I sure hope in phase two I get 20 to set which seems to be about the average for the 2nd phase of fruit setting. In between these phases I get tons of floweres but they just drop...ONce phase two hits, probbably real soon, the flowers will hold for that two week period...interesting but odd how this works...

Keith, patiently hoping our very, very rare July rains end soon....

jwr6404 · July 20, 2007

Glad to see this thread. I also hope the July rains come to an end. I hope I get some more fruitset soon. I have the following tomatoes as of yesterday.
Brandywine - 8 ea
Rose - 8 ea
NAR - 2 ea
Persimmon - 2 ea

Productivity of Cherry tomatoes are less than normal this year as well. I plant in larger Pots and have always covered cages with clear vinyl plastic. this year I tried the Walls Of Water and consider that a mistake that I will never repeat.

Earl · July 20, 2007

My memory may be wrong, but I think Carolyn said one time that there's 17 days between flower set and the next flower set.

July 20, 2007	#1
keithaxis Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Buckley, WA Posts: 54	Do others Beefsteaks grow in phases? This is my 5th year gardening (of 42 here) and I am concluding that at least in my microclimate/zone that beefsteak tomatoes set fruit in phases. I am able to have a growing season from June 1 - Oct 15. This is the 3rd year now that I have noticed the tomatoes set in 3 phases over the summer. The first phase seems to be a few weeks after planting out and their will be 0 to 5 fruit on a beefsteak that will grow. Then for 3/4 weeks I really do not get any more fruitset on these plants ( I grow 50, maybe 38 being beefsteak type, KB, BW, CP, EF, etc.) and that puts me to where I am today. No new fruit set since these ones came out in late June/early July. Now, getting towards later July I can almost say that within 2 weeks I will get the 2nd phase where I get many, many more fruit that set and they will get ripe sometime in early september. Mabye 4 weeks after my 2nd phase of fruit setting and growing I will see a 3rd phase kick in where a lot more fruit set (maybe 30 fruit on a beefsteak between all 3 phases) but that fruitset will not completly ripen before my season begins to end. This has been so consistant as far as my tomatoes growing in phases. I walk out there each day thinking, maybe more fruitset but there will not be any inbetween these phases with beefsteaks...So basically where I live I get the real good tomatoes from my 2nd phase of fruitset that has the chance to ripen in a still warm Northwest climate. This must be a case of where I live as I see pictures of others plantes where it appears they get weeklyl fruits setting throught their growing season..sure not like that with my plants...Anyone else have something similar? I have that one Tom's Yellow Wonder tomato that set in phase 1 back in early July and I sure hope in phase two I get 20 to set which seems to be about the average for the 2nd phase of fruit setting. In between these phases I get tons of floweres but they just drop...ONce phase two hits, probbably real soon, the flowers will hold for that two week period...interesting but odd how this works... Keith, patiently hoping our very, very rare July rains end soon....

July 20, 2007	#2
jwr6404 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: University Place, WA Posts: 481	Glad to see this thread. I also hope the July rains come to an end. I hope I get some more fruitset soon. I have the following tomatoes as of yesterday. Brandywine - 8 ea Rose - 8 ea NAR - 2 ea Persimmon - 2 ea Productivity of Cherry tomatoes are less than normal this year as well. I plant in larger Pots and have always covered cages with clear vinyl plastic. this year I tried the Walls Of Water and consider that a mistake that I will never repeat. __________________ Jim

July 20, 2007	#3
Earl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 1,278	My memory may be wrong, but I think Carolyn said one time that there's 17 days between flower set and the next flower set. __________________ "Seriously think about what you're about to do/say before you do it and the outcome will always be better." Earl