Tomatoes in Texas

[texasjack]

Originally Posted by Vespertino

I used an electric toothbrush. The problem seems to be blossoms that didn't open after the last cold snap. They stayed closed even though it warmed this week, and are now dropping. It's about 1/3 of them. The ones that opened are pollinated and setting fruit

We have had the same big shifts in temp, but no where as severe as DFW and North. My plants are doing great.....blossoms, buds and a fair number of set fruit that are 3/8" or larger.

Took a beating last night from high winds-gusts to 40-50 mph. I'm on the 17th floor of a downtown hi rise with little protection. Lost the top 12" of my Black Krim.

No complaints from me. Hope the June to Sept jungle climate isn't all that bad. Sticky pollen and low fruit setting are the biggest problem in Houston. Started to use an electric tooth brush last year in mid summer with outstanding results. IMO you should give it a try.

I've had some problems in the past with tomatoes that set during cold spells. Many of my early beef steaks were catfaced and it supposedly was the result of uneven pollination during cold weather.

I have a lot of blooms on my smallish plants right now. I hope they are not affected by the next cold spell.

Ted

[tlintx]

I will definitely get an electric toothbrush next time I'm out. I have lots more foliage than I expected, as this is my first successful year in ground, and I've been finding lots of little fruits hidden in there without ever seeing the flowers!

I suspect I have a bit too much nitrogen in my main bed. I left town for a week and my pruned plants bushed out to a ridiculous extent. Not too concerned since that bed will be brutally hot in a month or so and I'll be refocusing in the backyard where there's some shade!

And I'm still getting lots of flowers, well, lots in my experience.
.

Tl

When you use the toothbrush, don't actually touch the blossoms with it. Gently touch the truss the blossoms are attached to. The entire truss will vibrate and you can sometimes see a burst of yellow powder (pollen) erupt from the blossoms. If you apply the toothbrush too firmly or too long, you can shake the blossoms from the truss. It will definitely increase your fruit set.

Ted

Originally Posted by tlintx

I will definitely get an electric toothbrush next time I'm out. I have lots more foliage than I expected, as this is my first successful year in ground, and I've been finding lots of little fruits hidden in there without ever seeing the flowers!

I suspect I have a bit too much nitrogen in my main bed. I left town for a week and my pruned plants bushed out to a ridiculous extent. Not too concerned since that bed will be brutally hot in a month or so and I'll be refocusing in the backyard where there's some shade!

And I'm still getting lots of flowers, well, lots in my experience.
.

Tl

[Stvrob]

Originally Posted by tedln

..... Gently touch the truss the blossoms are attached to. The entire truss will vibrate and you can sometimes see a burst of yellow powder (pollen) erupt from the blossoms....

Ted

My flowers burst their pollen as soon as I turn on the electric toothbrush, before I even touch them! I swear this has never happened before!

[Cindyb1969]

I'm reviving this thread a bit. I hope that is okay.

I'm rather new to gardening in general, but I'll say that growing in the DFW area has quite a learning curve. Our first year, we had beautiful plants, but no tomatoes. We heard that hardly anyone did well that year. But we were relative beginners. Last year we had raised beds and Earthboxes. The Earthboxes blew the raised bed out of the water. Mortgage Lifter was our best producer. This past winter, I did a lot of research on what heirlooms work in the area. I planted in January indoors under a grow light. It took some time to plant outdoors due to the weird late freezes we had, but I think we finally planted outside on April 20.

Again, the Earthbox tomatoes went wild. The raised bed ones, just so-so. I'll take whatever I can get at this point as we have had every kind of imaginable weather this season already. I also won't rule out any varieties from this season because it wouldn't be fair.

So far, I have tomatoes on an Arkansas Traveler (which in previous seasons didn't do well for us), Homestead 24, and Carbon and one that I lost the label on when transplanting. (Grrrr!)

Others that look great (mostly in Earthboxes) are Mortgage Lifter, Aunt Ginny, Porters Pride and a Green Zebra.

The in-ground ones are starting to flower with the Ark. traveler being the only one with a tomato, but an Akers w. Va being the most healthy looking with a single stem and lots of flowers.

We are also growing okra (great harvest last year when it was too hit for anything else!) peppers, and cucumbers.

[OldHondaNut]

April 20 is real late. I did wait a week or so this year and when it did get cold again, I put water bottles around them. A few were inside milk jugs that had their bottom cut off. It worked but the overall development in my DFW garden is at least 3 weeks behind last year.

Let me know if you get good production from the Homesteads. Mortgage Lifter failed every time I planted - lots of green, not one fruit. I have had good luck with smaller fruit like Rutgers.

[Dewayne mater]

Cindy - welcome. Have to agree with OHN, April 20 is too late for plant out in DFW by about a month. The truth is that heat greatly impedes fruit set, so beating the heat is imperative for tomato success in Texas. There are quite a few threads along this lines and I commend them to you. Especially look for some threads by Suze who is one of if not the most successful Texas tomato growers.

I hope you'll read lots of posts on Tville because the stores of knowledge are the difference between success and failure in my experience and opinion. Good luck!

Dewayne mater

[Urbanfarmer]

Down here south of Houston, we start indoors Jan 1 and go outside mid-Feb. As long as we cover them for a few cold nights they're fine. They don't grow fast, but they grow. Then when it warms up they're off and running. We got a very late start this year, but we still began harvesting May 1. Now we're inundated.

The usual results: heavy production from the modern hybrids, and inconsistent results from the heirlooms.

We were surprised by the quality of a new variety this year.....Bush Champion II. Normally we don't plant determinates, but this was a lark. The tomatoes are large, 14-16oz, and delicious. It produced a first round, we thought it was done, and now it's setting again.....with temps in the 90's.

[Cindyb1969]

Yes, we knew it was late, but we were afraid they would be lost when we kept seeing highs in the 40s and lows in the 20's. We are in Frisco, so we are on the low side of those temps. Live and learn and keep trying! My seedlings seemed really small still in late March compared to the garden center's plants. Is that normal?

Do you all do tomatoes in the fall as well? I planted seeds yesterday (a week later than the blog I read said to plant). I can't help but wonder how they could survive the late summer heat here when it suggests putting them in the ground.

Here's a bit of a beginner question. I've searched for the answer, but end up reading ad nauseam about suckers, which I know to pinch. I thought I read somewhere that lower,older branches needed to be cut back or pinched off altogether to keep from using up too much of the nutrients/ over shading the lower part of the pant/ circulation, etc. I did limit to 1-3 main stalks, but next year I think I will limit to one based on my reading on this forum.

[b54red]

One reason you may be doing better with the earth boxes is they may be getting a more steady supply of water and fertilizer than those planted in the ground. I have noticed that tomatoes will drop blooms whenever they have an inadequate supply of moisture especially in high temperatures.

When you set out your fall tomatoes it is good to water the ground they are going in very well a day before planting and have it heavily mulched to keep the soil temperature down. Don't water immediately after setting them out but wait for them to show signs of needing water then keep them well watered and sprayed with fungicide to prevent foliage diseases. When blooms first start showing up then increase the water and give them a boost or two of fertilizer to keep them going in the heat of late summer. Your goal is to have some good fruit set before the cooler weather arrives. They will set good once it is cool but that is sometimes too late for them to have time to mature before the first freeze. Some type of partial shade is also helpful when setting out plants in the heat of summer. Make sure the plants are thoroughly hardened off before setting them out or the shock could kill them. If you can set them out right after a good rain or during cloudy weather it will also help more plants survive. I always have extras for the ones that don't make it through the shock of planting in mid summer.

Bill

[OldHondaNut]

I may skip the fall tomatoes cause of vacation this year. Normally I do and I start them June 1. Maybe I will get lucky and find some local nursery that carries transplants when I need them.

[decherdt]

Planted out the first of March this year, again, covered repeatedly, lost 2/3 of the plants on 3/27, but picked our first Mortage Lifter today. Got about 2 trusses set per plant across the board and don't expect any new fruit to set this season. Figure to ripen and pick these, then pull them and go again. Started 36 seeds of 25 indeterminate varieties with DTM 49 - 85 this weekend for late July plant out. Might even start a few determinates next week. If they make, we will have to can most of them, but we usually finish them off by mid Winter.

[Annie]

I am in the Katy area and we have a fantastic crop of tomatoes. We planted the first part of March. Had to cover twice because of the temperatures at night were in the 40.s and then we had threat of freeze. All of my tomatoes look beautiful but the taste is not the same as last year. I don't know if it is due to weather but they just do not have the flavor that we had last year. My Cherokee purples are beautiful but the first tomatoes have very little flavor. I wonder if others in our area are having the same problems. I,m hoping the next tomatoes coming on will have a better taste.

[tlintx]

I started a bunch of seeds in April just to see what'd happen! Answer: lots of beautiful seedlings in plastic cups. All late varieties, so I guess it's a good thing I got an early start.

I'll start my official fall crop seeds tomorrow, with a goal of mid-July plantout. I read to use that timing in a post by Suze, I think.

My goal for fall, since I got a few very nice tomatoes and a lot of greenery, is to fertilize better, prune better, and trellis better.

I also found most of my pastes (Heinz Super Roma and San Marzano) are suffering fom BER. Disgusting-looking, and such a nasty shock when you pick an otherwise pretty fruit.

By the way, Homestead is such a nice tomato! Smells great, reasonably big, delicious. Can't say a bad thing about it. It's really whetted my appetite for red slicers, which I had thought were kind of boring!

Tl