Tricks to be sure all Tomatoes grow to slicing size

[jmarconnet]

Besides growing Tomatoes that are reported to grow large, are there any particular tricks to having all your Tomatoes grow to nice slicing size?

This year my Tomatoes were nice size early on. Then when it got Hot and Dry for several months, despite my watering and fertilizing them, they stopped producing altogether. Now that it's less hot and we got some rain, they are producing again, but all the Tomatoes are much smaller.

Anything to do to keep them producing all season-long, and to stay of a nice slicing size?

[b54red]

The real heat of mid and late summer will definitely shrink the size of your tomatoes and now that the plants are producing again they will tend to be smaller than in the spring but you may get a few larger ones. The largest fruits tend to come from the first few trusses in my experience. I try to do staggered plantings so that I have newer plants producing all season long so I'm not stuck with just tiny tomatoes from big old bushes. Even with plants set out in June, July and August they rarely produce the very large fruits you see in the spring.

[rockhound]

I agree. The bigger fruit come early.

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by jmarconnet

Besides growing Tomatoes that are reported to grow large, are there any particular tricks to having all your Tomatoes grow to nice slicing size?

This year my Tomatoes were nice size early on. Then when it got Hot and Dry for several months, despite my watering and fertilizing them, they stopped producing altogether. Now that it's less hot and we got some rain, they are producing again, but all the Tomatoes are much smaller.

Anything to do to keep them producing all season-long, and to stay of a nice slicing size?

I find that older Heirloom Tomatoes keep producing the same size tomatoes to the end of the season right up to the first frost. Are you growing indeterminate- or determinate tomatoes?
for some reason I feel real bad to see a healthy determinate ends it's season when the plant is very healthy. Some times I will try very hard to get them to produce knowing their short life span. They just become apart of the garden lay-out because I can never pull-up a healthy plants even it there is no tomatoes on it.

Farmer, Joyce Beggs

[ElementalDomain]

I live in the High Desert of California. My trick is to put them in an aluminet (80%) shade house - the higher the aluminet, the better. I keep fans that are spinning at a pretty brisk rate aimed at the maters. I also have one shade house that has a evap cooler - wouldn't work for those areas that already have high humidity though. In late July I cut the ones I want to keep, down to 12". In late Nov when the temps start to dip, I put them in the greenhouse. If you take care of them they can keep producing for at least 2-3 years. Mine produce pretty much the same size early or late. Interestingly enough I have found that the early varieties (50-60 days) created for colder climates (Oregon Spring, Alaskan Fancy) do exceptionally well and pump out tomatoes for as long as you keep the plants around