62 days until frost

[bower]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

My concern isn't even those green fruits and their ripening .. But what is annoying is that the plants often start producing new little fruits like crazy just before the frost

TOo true! What are they thinking?

[NarnianGarden]

Originally Posted by bower

TOo true! What are they thinking?

They think that by producing new fruits like crazy they can impress me and avoid the fate of being cut down...

[slugworth]

they look for sympathy

[Tormato]

but get the sickle

[bower]

This is why I normally start so early that I'm ready to cut em down in August. While they're still intact, just finishing up that main crop round of fruit.

Tomato plants are so gross as they're losing it in the fall. Foul, totally.

[slugworth]

I did threaten the sub arctic plenty because they were taking too long to get ripe.
I picked one 7 3/4 oz today but that is not the norm for that variety.
I had 4th of july hybrid and bloody butcher way before now.
It's more lik a a 75 day tomato vs 60 day.

[SueCT]

Picked my first fully ripe tomato of the year today. Surprisingly, it is a pink, 1 lb 3.5 ounce slicer, not a grape or a cherry. I had already thawed some salmon and heated the grill and went to check out the garden while i waited and found this hidden gem. I don't usually let them stay on the vine until fully ripe, especially the large ones. So I ate the salmon, rice and beans I cooked, but this one will make a nice sandwich tomorrow.

[slugworth]

Hope it tastes better than the sub arctic plenty I picked yesterday.
Looks good but mr yuck taste.
A mutant @ 7.75 oz
The smaller ones are yucky also.

[DonDuck]

105 days left in north Texas. All my plants will be large, and producing again in mid to late September after being cut way back in the hot summer. The pepper plants will be loaded and heavy with peppers. We will harvest ripe tomatoes until the day before the first frost and then harvest the large green tomatoes to ripen in the shop until mid December. I'm not sure when to stop harvesting okra so some can dry on the plants for seed. I harvest garden greens all winter and start germinating seed and plant my onions in January. Oh well, I do get December off. We get our heaviest ice and snow in January and February and that is also when I clean my garden of dead plants and get the beds ready for spring planting.


Every year, I plan on reworking my compost bin. I really, really, really intend doing it this winter before I start filling it again with fresh organics from my garden and fallen leaves. Who knows, I may actually get it done this year.

[slugworth]

Heading into drought mode so I will have to ration the remaining rain water.
It was 87 F degrees today high humidity.

[DonDuck]

87 F degrees on August 1 is called a cold front in north Texas. August is also our normal high temp and drought month. I don't do much gardening in August. It's just to bloody hot to spend much time away from the air conditioner.

[slugworth]

Had to put plants under shade cloth like they do for tobacco up here.

[hovermother22]

I think we are about three weeks behind where we normally are -- although, in Chicago, there really is no "normal" -- and a few tomatoes are finally starting to turn. I have watched a number of youtubes about when to harvest, and the opinions vary from just when they start to change color to not until they are completely red or whatever color they are supposed to be. I welcome the opinions of the experts. I am afraid if I harvest too early, they won't be as sweet as they might be from ripening on the vine. But I am tired of the critters getting to them before I do once they have completely ripened.

[DonDuck]

We harvest a lot of large green tomatoes just before the first frost each fall and let them ripen in my shop. I can't compare them to my vine ripened tomatoes because I've never thought about it. I do know they taste a lot better than grocery store tomatoes which are usually picked and shipped while still green.

[SueCT]

You don't know until you try. Its only a few tomatoes. Try one at first blush, one half ripe. See what you think. No one is saying you need to commit to doing your entire harvest that way. If you wait until late in the season you still won't know because tomatoes can lose their flavor and texture anyway late in the season. It only TWO or Three tomatoes, lol. Is it because maybe you only have a couple of plants and not many tomatoes? You can always keep feeding the critters with them. Or you can try and see what you think.