Oh No not again

[NM_Dirt_Digger]

I have had my tomatoes, cucumbers and squash out since 3/25. The weather has been cool, windy and dry. Days have been low 70's. Not too bad, but nights have been in the mid to low 40's. Which doesn't help at all. Now next week we will have weather in mid to upper 90's, with Thursday maybe hitting triple digits. Guess I won't have tomatoes till mid September. And last year we had I first killing frost on 10/15. The plants were full of half grown tomatoes. Please, not again!

[dmforcier]

You're in Las Cruces. What do you expect? Triple digits are gonna happen.



Does the heat really delay tomato production like that? It makes my peppers produce more!

[NM_Dirt_Digger]

Triple digits happen, at the end of May not the end of April. And yes triple digits stop production. The plants grow and grow, but no tomatoes. Usually we can get 1 1/2 to 2 months of nice temps. This year we will get 2 weeks!

[decherdt]

You could get some good 'uns in June and July. Starting earlier and protecting from Spring frosts is a hassle but it is a common enough practice to get more fruit set before the high overnight low temps come to stay (July though Sept for me) Also helps to include some smaller earlier varieties along with or instead of 95 day wonders. b54red posts some favorites, and some practices he likes. I tend to start early and stick with the ones that did best for me recently.
http://tomatoville.com/album.php?u=6756

[b54red]

For that kind of heat you need to get some Indian Stripe PL and Prudence Purple. I get tomato fruit set on them and some others when the temps top 100 during the days but it takes more than the right varieties. It takes very heavy mulching, weekly feeding with TTF, keeping spider mites off the plants, keeping disease down by spraying every week and never letting the soil get too dry.

Last year in this area we had a tremendous drought worsened by temps topping 100 starting in May right through September. It wasn't over 100 every day but very few days were below 95 and after mid June most days topped at over 98 and we only had 3.5 inches of rain the whole time. Almost every band of showers coming out of the Gulf near Mobile would either go above us or below us and it was really frustrating. My water bill was a bit steep but I did keep most of my tomatoes producing but not nearly in the numbers I was used to getting but I must say the flavor from the overall crop was one of the best I have had. I had to start fighting spider mites in late May and they were a problem off and on all season but other than a few stinkbugs and leaf footed bugs the plants were almost pest free and diseases were nearly non existent except for a burst of EB in mid June into July. It was also the first season in over 40 years of gardening that my bell peppers didn't have any Bacterial Leaf Spot. I did have a bit of TSWV mostly ruining a few bells and even fewer infected tomatoes.

I really prefer our normal sweltering humid weather with all the spraying of pests and fungicides to all the watering and spider mite activity that the low humidity and extremely high temps brought with it. After an inordinate amount of rain this winter I am hoping we will be back to normal this season.

I have posted some of the techniques I use to insure some fruit set in the most difficult weather situations previously and in much more detail. I have also listed more varieties that have done well in the heat for me. Nothing is guaranteed in getting good fruit set but so far the little things I have used have been pretty effective on most varieties; but nothing will get you massive fruit set in extreme heat. At least nothing I have found. All the tricks that help with fruit set won't do much good if you allow diseases and pests to become a problem.

Bill