NW July 1st NO Fruit Club?

[pdxwindjammer]

Living in the Pacific Northwest and not having a green house often means that we have fruit set MUCH later than onthers around the country.

I planted my 30 or so tomato plants in ground at my ccommunity garden in mid June, latest ever due to torrential rains and cool weather. Most have flowers but as of two days ago, I have ZERO fruit set! Plants are healthy but none are more than 2 feet tall.

I find it so interesting to see how geographic regions differ so greatly! I see that many places in the country have already harvested their crops and some are considering pulling their plants before the real heat arrives.

I know that many of you in the high heat area are experiencing blossom drop and won't get great fruit.

I tend to be an optimist and although I don't have any fruit now, I still believe that I will have a good harvest, albeit later than usual.

How is everyone fairing here in the NW? I am afriad I probably will not be much of a contender for our "Biggie Challenge" this year! Hopefully you are doing better than I am at this point!

[janezee]

Nope. Mine aren't in the ground yet, although I intend to remedy that tomorrow. Sooooo depressing!
Latest I've ever planted. In Rhode Island, I would be just about to harvest my first. <sigh>

I'm counting on summer starting by Friday!

j

[pdxwindjammer]

Janezee, did you get them in the ground today?

Awefully quiet out there! Does everyone in the PNW except for Janezee and I already have fruit?

I am still putting on a wool sweater in the mornings here in Portland. We have a week of great weather in the 70's coming up so hopefully my maters and peppers will thrive!

[troad]

Picked two golf ball sized fruit Saturday off a "Slava" tomato plant I bought from Territorial Seed in March. Have a few other different plants with green fruit in various sizes. Planted out around Memorial Day.
Kind of strange when we have hopes for temps in the 70's and everywhere else is sweltering or worse.

[pdxwindjammer]

Yeah, Troad! Wish we could give them some of our rain and cool in exchange for a few degrees!

I grow all my plants from seed without a green house so people who buy their greenhouse grown plants are bound to have ripe tomatoes before I do.

[Worth1]

Y'all need to plant Oregon Spring.

Worth

[Bubba]

Been a while since I've been on here and thought I would see what was going on in the rest of the tomato world. Certainly not good tomato weather here yet so far this summer. I started 7 different varieties from seed, and purchased a grafted brandywine just to see how it would do compared to the rest. Got them all planted in my 4'x14' raised bed the Saturday of Mothers Day weekend. I am also using plastic mulch to help warm the soil. So far, the plants are all around 3' tall and very stout but only the brandywine has set fruit so far, and 2 at that. Not many flowers either but it looks like anytime that could change. Typically I have fruit set on all of my plants by now so I know they are behind compared to past plantings. Hopefully they will know what to do when the sun comes out!

[janezee]

Tamara, thanks for asking.

I got 13 in the ground before it started raining too hard to work. The blight test bed has Bosu, Plum Regal, Dice's Mystery Black, Dice's Mystery Black x Chernamoor F2 and F3, Shadow Boxing, Schrapnellmine, Shadow Boxing, and Gru Vee. All planted, some single, some more than one.

I had to clear the grass away from the outsides of 8 raised beds before I could plant anything. Killed over a dozen slugs and two snails. Not bad! I thought I'd find more.

Tomorrow I'm planting lots of cherry tomatoes. Some are small, and in pots already, but the rest of them are monsters that need lots of room, so they're going in with better spacing. I'm growing lots in pots this year, because not all the beds will be built in time.

It sure is good to get things in the raised beds. I had to pull a dozen onions and a half dozen beets to make room today. Leftovers from last year.

I keep checking on the garlic, which shows slight signs of slowing down. 5 cherries are going in that bed. Beets, carrots, kohlrabi, parsnips and maybe rutabagas are going where the garlic is now. I hope it hurries up!

Everything is so soggy. Great planting weather!

j

[janezee]

Hi, Bubba. I hear that Summer's coming on Saturday. We have high hopes!

jane

Originally Posted by janezee

Hi, Bubba. I hear that Summer's coming on Saturday. We have high hopes!

jane

I read these posts and am always amazed at the weather variances between different parts of this country. In south and north Texas, mid June means it's time to start wrapping up our spring gardens. Everything will soon start withering in the heat including the gardener. My gardens are pretty much a wasteland by mid July. Gardeners in the northern states are still watching for fruit set and some are discussing when their first "ripe on the vine" tomato will arrive. The northern gardeners are discussing how well some vegetable varieties are performing. I can only dream about growing many of those vegetables in my part of the country. I never worry about late blight. By the time it arrives in the northern states, my garden is already dead from the heat. Growing in the south does provide a few advantages like planting out on March one and harvesting ripe tomatoes in late May. I think I should become a snowbird and move with the weather with a northern garden and a southern garden. I wonder if I could have a year round garden by moving to Hawaii.

Ted

[Lorri D]

I'm in Southern Oregon and I put my plants in around May 15th. I have 9 varietes and 28 plants in my garden. I've been able to pick one tomato a day for about two weeks now. And, yesterday I got 5, I'm hoping that the rain has finally passed for awhile now. I almost lost them all to a late frost around the 1st of June and have been fighting mildew and early blight. But, all of that aside, they are still looking pretty good and are to my shoulders in height. Next year, I'm going to try a stringing method, because they are trying to climb out of the stupid round cages I bought. I will never use a cage like that for tomatoes again. At least not for indeterminate ones.

[janezee]

Doesn't it make you wonder why they were ever called 'tomato cages'? I've never had them work out for me for anything but stunted plants in small containers, and only with a lot of pruning.

j

[janezee]

After a lovely 'settling in' kind of rain last night, I'm off to plant as many tomatoes today as my body will allow.

At 2 am today, I was out sprinkling Sluggo around my beds where I made a 3-4 inch dead zone by pulling out all the grass around them. I find it really helps not to have grass up against the boards, for the health of the wood, and to eliminate that nice slug/snail daytime hiding place.

I don't put Sluggo in the beds, though. I see no use in setting the table for them with tiny appetizers!

j

[jwr6404]

I have 9 plants in pots and 5 in the ground. Only have fruit on the Yamal which is potted. Am hoping the next couple of weeks will give me a kick-start on the rest of the season.

Originally Posted by janezee

Doesn't it make you wonder why they were ever called 'tomato cages'? I've never had them work out for me for anything but stunted plants in small containers, and only with a lot of pruning.

j

While I use concrete wire cages for most of my tomatoes, I also use the standard tomato cages in a few places. You can purchase different sizes at different stores. Some have three legs and some have four legs. The large varieties with four legs are the most stable and they can be used to any height you want by using one normally on the lowest level and turning the next one upside down on top of the first one. I have them up to eight feet tall with a single steel T post driven into the ground with the cages wired to the post for support. I like them because they are much easier to store for the winter than the concrete wire cages.

Ted