Tomatoes in Texas

[Keger]

Thanks Ted, I'll give that a shot as well.

[Mojo]

I LIKE Spam-and-tomato sandwiches...

Planting dates are so iffy around here. Inevitably, the years you wait until March 3 to plant, the last frost will have been last week in January. And the next year, when you put out plants on Valentine's Day, you get a frost on March 1. I'm hedging my bets this year by staggering my plantings. Some went in last weekend, some went in yesterday, and some are going to wait until March 5. The peppers and eggplants are probably going to wait until Spring Break, though.

All that to say that I wouldn't get them all into the ground at once. And a late March frost is going to be a pain, no matter what. IIRC about four years ago we had a freeze hit around March 25, and there I was with 2' tall plants needing covering.

[Annie]

My grandson is growing Kellog Breakfast. KBX, Indian Stripe, Gary O'Sena, JD's Special C-Tex Cherokee Purplle, Spudakee Purple, Moreton's, and Jet Star. Have any of you heard of these? I have grown the Cherokee Purple and have about 12 of them now. I will be giving part of them away to friends and my grandson will supply me with the other s. We are here in Katy. Tex. and he has already planted about 10 plants last weekend. They are doing great, the ones he planted. He has some freeze cloth in case he needs it. My problem always comes when it gets hot. Stink bugs and wilt are my biggest problems. I don't think there is any way to get rid of stink bugs. Any suggestions. I actually saw one the other day, haven't had a good freeze to kill them out. Annie

[Keger]

No good way to do it Annie, just a good freeze. We havent had one but guess what?

A couple freezing nights next weekend. We thought it was done, but you never know.

[vintagepatch]

Any other Texans. getting those high winds today? I'm glad I held off on planting mine outside. 50-60mph! WTheck!

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by vintagepatch

Any other Texans. getting those high winds today? I'm glad I held off on planting mine outside. 50-60mph! WTheck!

Yes, our fence was almost knocked down from the wind today, there are three places for a total of about 30 feet of fence tied up. My husband has it tied to one of my garden beds for now so he can keep it up long enough to get everything he needs to fix it this weekend. I hope the 90 lbs of garden bed hangs on tight.

Surprisingly though, not one of my small containers was blown around and I am quite shocked by that.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by tedln

"What the northerners don't know is that we really don't have the long growing season they think we do. We have two short seasons: Spring and Fall/Winter. Summer is so brutal that most folks plan on their gardens being done by July 1. Take a break, and start germinating again in mid-August. That's what we do, and we've been very successful."

It's about the same in North Texas with germination started around New Years day and plant out in very early March (be prepared to protect them from late frosts into April). A few varieties produce a few tomatoes through the brutal heat of mid summer. Others are cut back to new green growth for regrowth when the first slightly cooler weather arrives. Some simply die in the heat and are replaced with seedlings started in late June or early July. Every year has two distinct growing seasons. I grow some spring veggies that won't grow or produce in the fall and some fall/winter veggies that struggle in the spring.

For me, the fall crop of stink bugs, leaf footed bugs, aphids, and spotted cucumber bugs are more destructive than the spring crop. Squash vine borers are usually gone by fall so they don't seem to be a problem. The grasshoppers have grown from 1/2" long to 2" long and one grasshopper can eat the top off a tomato plant.

Ted

Ted, I used to think I could only grow tomatoes in the spring and fall too; but when I started staggered plantings in my attempts to beat fusarium I found I could usually have tomatoes all summer. Through trial and error I have found that many of the varieties that do so well early are terrible in the mid summer heat but a few can do quite well despite the heat and pests. The tomatoes are fewer because of the lower fruit set in hot weather and they tend to be smaller. I have found that many of the black tomatoes and some of the reds are much more successful during mid summer while most of the large pinks do very poorly. The hardest thing is getting them to live through the initial plant out stage. Heat and bacterial wilt can devastate new plantings once it gets really, really hot and humid.

Bill

[Keger]

50+ gusts here. Hoophouse blown up, lost some smaller plants to wind and burn.

Gonna get cold this weekend, whatch it guys!

[Annie]

I was going to plant this weekend but changed my mine. My grandson has already planted but he has that 28degree paper around all the cages and on top so hopefully everything will be alright. The cages didn't blow over since they are tied to metal stakes but if they hadn't they would be in the next county. Wind was terrible. Annie

[checkerkitty]

The wind was awful yesterday! I got so, so lucky. I have all my seedlings/transplants in 4 inch pots with pot flats in the front yard. By chance, I had moved them up onto the front porch and into the front flower bed to prepare for the thunderstorms that we didn't get on Sunday night (sadly). I left them where they were when I went to work on Monday morning, thank goodness. I wouldn't have a plant one left. My potted tomatoes in the backyard were also fine. I think even though the back of the house faces north, our neighbors houses, our fence and trees made enough of a wind break to spare them. Sorry to anyone who lost plants and yard hardware to those winds yesterday. That was something else!

Christy

[checkerkitty]

Originally Posted by Keger

50+ gusts here. Hoophouse blown up, lost some smaller plants to wind and burn.

Gonna get cold this weekend, whatch it guys!

The low temp forecasts are all over the place here. I'm expecting and planning on cold! I hope this is the last of the cold for this year. I REALLY need to plant some of my gigantic seedlings in the ground. Plus, I just want some fresh tomatoes, dang it! BLT! Caprese salad! You know the drill!

Christy

[Algyros]

Bill,

Are there any specific varieties you like for the oven season?

Bill,

The only plants I've been successful at planting and growing in the high summer heat is Goliath Bush. They just sat in place for almost a month after planting and suddenly started growing one day. I did provide them a little shade protection. I also grew a few varieties from seed last summer and they started fine. When they were almost planting size, we had a week of 105 degrees. They all died before I could plant them out. With the exception of Fourth Of July, most of my plants seem to hibernate through the heat waiting for a cooler day past mid summer. They then spring back to life with new growth. They don't bloom until significantly cooler weather arrives. FOJ just keeps blooming and producing. It does occasionally abort some blooms in the heat, but produces new blooms in a few days which set fruit. Homestead produced similar to FOJ a couple of years ago. My black varieties also seem more tolerant of the heat than other varieties. Some people talk about how their cherry varieties stand up to the heat well. Mine don't with the exception of Juliet which I am not growing this year in favor of Cherry Roma.

I'm really curious how your grafted varieties perform in the heat. I'm keeping a close eye for your reports on those. It would be nice if grafting did more than offer disease resistance. Maybe a more vigorous root system also aids in heat tolerance.

Ted

[Annie]

My grandson is planting Indian Stripe9PurpleBlack Heirloom. It is a strain of Cherokee Purple. Suppose to have slightly smaller fruit but more productive than Cherokee Purple It's suppose to be more heat tolerant and less prone to cracking. Will see how it does since it is the first time he has planted it. He also had good luck with his Cherokee Purple last year. Morton's is suppose to be a good hybrid and Kellog Breakfast is a large yellow tomato that is delicious.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Algyros

Bill,

Are there any specific varieties you like for the oven season?

I have found a few that perform relatively well during the hottest weather. Indian Stripe has been the most consistent performer in the heat; but other blacks like CP, Dana's Dusky Rose, Spudakee, Black Krim, Gary O' Sena and JDs Special C Tex have done well. Zogola, Neves Azorean Red, Fish Lake Oxheart, Druzba, Frank's Large Red, Kosovo and Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red have been the best reds. Pinks are more problematic with Eva Purple Ball being the best followed by Stump of the World, Terhune and occasionally Brandywines Sudduth and Cowlicks. Of the golds I have only had success in the heat with Dr. Wyches Yellow and KBX. I have had only a little luck with GWRs and mostly with Grubs Mystery Green. Of the hybrids only Big Beef has been reliable in later plantings.

There are a few tips when setting out plants after April down here that help a lot. One is if at all possible plant them right after a good rain and if not during cloudy weather late in the day. Water and mulch the soil good several days before planting and then pull the mulch back to transplant them and immediately pull the mulch back in place. I have had the best luck with cypress mulch because it keeps the ground cooler than anything else I have tried. If at all possible don't water them for at least a few days after planting because that only encourages bacterial wilt which will devastate new plantings in the heat. It is also very important that the plants are very well hardened off so they can take the shock of being left in the real world. I always harden them off for two weeks if possible and let them go through a couple of good drying outs to toughen them up and encourage good root growth. Seedlings for summer planting need to get outside as soon as possible after they sprout. I will start taking the sprouted seedlings outside for a bit every day as soon as they are up and if I get good cloud cover I just leave them out. It seems that the sooner they adapt to the outside conditions the more successful they will be when planting in the summer heat.

I usually stagger my plantings starting in March with the heaviest planting followed by another big planting in April and continue putting out plants right up til early August if their is any room left in the garden. The way fusarium gets plants in my garden I usually don't have to wait too long for spots to open up. As soon as a plant starts looking sick I pull it and replace it.

Ted, I'm hoping the grafted plants will help me cut back on the amount of plantings I have to do each year. If more plants survive a bit longer I will have to space my staggered planting further apart. In the past the fusarium starts really taking down the plants by late April and May when the ground gets nice and warm. I'm hoping for better results with the grafts so I can have tomatoes the whole season without the aggravation of replanting so much. Once May arrives the failure rate of my newly set out plants is usually around 50% within the first two weeks after transplanting and it only gets worse as the heat builds through the summer and early fall. I have noticed that setting plants deep seems to result in more failures early from bacterial wilt; but planting them shallow means they grow slower for a while with smaller root systems. With the grafted plants they will all have to be planted shallow.

Bill