Hot weather high humidity ,what the best tomatoes for those conditions?

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Direct Sunlight

May be off topic but does the Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomatillo do anything in the summer months? Last year my tomatillo (generic ones from a nursery) wouldn't produce any fruit until October. Then again it was the hottest summer ever. This year I actually ordered tomatillo seeds. Last year on a similar thread I got some good suggestions. Am trying Arkansas Traveler this time.

Not sure about tomatillos, but tomatoes generally produce from May through mid-July and then shut down until October or later in many parts of Texas.

[Greenhead]

Originally Posted by Direct Sunlight

May be off topic but does the Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomatillo do anything in the summer months? Last year my tomatillo (generic ones from a nursery) wouldn't produce any fruit until October. Then again it was the hottest summer ever. This year I actually ordered tomatillo seeds. Last year on a similar thread I got some good suggestions. Am trying Arkansas Traveler this time.

That's wierd. The okra farmers on our ranch gave me 20 ft of drip line to put tomatillos.
They grew huge! And they set a huge amount fruit as well, so much that I had trouble giving them away. I finally just dug them up because I got tired of picking fruit that was 3lbs for $.99 at the local market and the enormous plants were getting in the way of the okra pickers. Of course this might have something to do with the ranchers dumping liquid fertilizer every other day into their water.

This was in July when temps were north of 110 degrees.

[Jon_z7a]

I think the answer lies in RNA editing or mRNA translation. Not about tomatoes, but the same principal....
http://m.io9.com/5873689/octopuses-r...tarctic-waters

[Direct Sunlight]

Originally Posted by Greenhead

That's wierd. The okra farmers on our ranch gave me 20 ft of drip line to put tomatillos.
They grew huge! And they set a huge amount fruit as well, so much that I had trouble giving them away. I finally just dug them up because I got tired of picking fruit that was 3lbs for $.99 at the local market and the enormous plants were getting in the way of the okra pickers. Of course this might have something to do with the ranchers dumping liquid fertilizer every other day into their water.

This was in July when temps were north of 110 degrees.

This year am only doing a fall garden. My friend has tomatillos that are about three feet tall, covered with flowers but no fruit yet. The tomatillo seeds have started very slowly; if they ever get going beyond a few leaves we'll see if they do better this time around.

[meadowyck]

kurt, I've found what your were explaining in post #2 to be how I have selected the seeds that I wanted to save.

I'm no scientist either.

[GreenMist]

Originally Posted by kurt

Best bet to save seeds and let variety acclimize to your area for each season.I am into 8-10 years of saved seeds and everything has stabilized for me.I will try one or two new varieties each year but it usually wont work out.I keep searching for breeders that are rooted in southern climates but most seeds come from up north.

I asked my husband (a scientist who works in the field of genomics) about this debate regarding Kurts experience with the tomato seeds having stabilized vs some feeling that wasn't possible. My husband essentially agrees with Kurt's experience although might language it differently.

He says for a species to evolve , in the wild it takes thousands of generations. However if you are breeding plants within a very small population it does not take very long for the hybrid strain to become a pure breeding strain (pure breeding strain = children plants look like parent and grandparent plants). This occurrence does not involve new genetic mutations, what essentially happens is: as you self-cross the hybrid seeds that you bought from the seed company, the progeny of the ensuing generations that grow the best, and or produce the best fruit, will be the ones you choose to replant the following year. In this case you are selecting for the forms of the genes (alleles) THAT ALREADY EXISTED that give you the traits that you want. In a relatively small number of generations you have created a defacto/ essentially pure-breeding strain from a hybrid strain, although the genes themselves have not mutated.

I hope to try this out and see if I can get some tomatoes that are hearty to the humid conditions where I live... in the GreenMist

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by kurt

I live down here in S Florida,what I have been consistant with are Black Cherrys,Sweet Millions,Apero,Kumato(determinate)Angorra Super Sweet,Everglades Cherry,Black Prince (determinate),Black from Tula(determinate).Growing season is from Sept-March.After March we get into the 85 plus days and 70plus humidity days until Sept again.The blacks like the sun for some reason.Best bet to save seeds and let variety acclimize to your area for each season.I am into 8-10 years of saved seeds and everything has stabilized for me.I will try one or two new varieties each year but it usually wont work out.I keep searching for breeders that are rooted in southern climates but most seeds come from up north.

Kumato(determinate)Angorra Super Sweet,Everglades Cherry,Black Prince (determinate),Black from Tula(determinate).

Are you sure those are determinant ?

Gardeneer

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by GreenMist

I asked my husband (a scientist who works in the field of genomics) about this debate regarding Kurts experience with the tomato seeds having stabilized vs some feeling that wasn't possible. My husband essentially agrees with Kurt's experience although might language it differently.

He says for a species to evolve , in the wild it takes thousands of generations. However if you are breeding plants within a very small population it does not take very long for the hybrid strain to become a pure breeding strain (pure breeding strain = children plants look like parent and grandparent plants). This occurrence does not involve new genetic mutations, what essentially happens is: as you self-cross the hybrid seeds that you bought from the seed company, the progeny of the ensuing generations that grow the best, and or produce the best fruit, will be the ones you choose to replant the following year. In this case you are selecting for the forms of the genes (alleles) THAT ALREADY EXISTED that give you the traits that you want. In a relatively small number of generations you have created a defacto/ essentially pure-breeding strain from a hybrid strain, although the genes themselves have not mutated.

I hope to try this out and see if I can get some tomatoes that are hearty to the humid conditions where I live... in the GreenMist

If Kurt were breeding tomatoes, I'd agree with you. My understanding, however, is that he's saving seeds of self-pollinated varieties, which would be genetically identical to the parents. I'm inclined to chalk up his increased productivity to soil amendments and an increase in gardening skills.

Also as per Gardeneer, Black Prince and Black from Tula are indeterminate. We don't know for certain what the growing habit of Kumato is, as seeds are not publicly available, however it seems likely they are indetermine as they were designed for greenhouse conditions.

[b54red]

Yeah Feldon, I was about to chime in with my Black from Tula was the biggest determinate tomato I have ever seen.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by feldon30

If Kurt were breeding tomatoes, I'd agree with you. My understanding, however, is that he's saving seeds of self-pollinated varieties, which would be genetically identical to the parents. I'm inclined to chalk up his increased productivity to soil amendments and an increase in gardening skills.

Also as per Gardeneer, Black Prince and Black from Tula are indeterminate. We don't know for certain what the growing habit of Kumato is, as seeds are not publicly available, however it seems likely they are indetermine as they were designed for greenhouse conditions.

I agree Feldon.

Each year, we learn more and understand things better. Gardening is a never ending learning experience.

[Ozark]

Every year I include a couple of Ozark Pink plants in my garden - the tomatoes have very good flavor, they're medium to large round, uniform, pink, and the plants are very productive. It's just a good, reliable mainstay slicer/canner variety that produces well in this area.

Thing is, the Ozark region pretty much defines hot and humid in the summertime. Ozark Pink is a hybrid developed by the University of Arkansas to do well in those conditions, including some appropriate disease resistance.