Starting to enjoy natures bounty... :-)
I've been pulling yellow cherry tomatoes off all week. Very tasty though he skin is a bit tough.
I took a medium sized yellow heirloom (been ripening in a paper bag) and will take a large red big boy off the vine this evening to make Caprese.
Hope the fruit on my Brandywine heirloom starts to ripen soon.
Jon
I hope the fruit on any of my tomato plants starts to appear soon! We've had a lousy summer so far for any of the heat loving vegetables, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc.
Ross. Southern Ontario, Canada. AgCanada Zone 5b
43º 17' 26.75" North 80º 13' 29.46" West
Isn't it great? I am bringing in about 20 tomatoes daily now. We are almost having trouble keeping up with them. (There's a box of eight red and yellow tomatoes on the desk right now that didn't get eaten the last few days. The peach, orange, and white ones go fast, so we are always left with the red and yellow.) Every time I pull off handfuls of small tomatoes, I get bummed because the new fruit productions doesn't appear to be keeping up with the harvest, so I know eventually we are going to run out!
--S.
Wow; it's just about over here: Peninsular Florida, USDA zone 9. Greens and curcurbits long gone; eggplant, peppers (Jalapeño, California Wonder), okra, collards and peanuts still going strong; red beefsteak tomatoes still growing apace and blossoming but not setting much fruit; patio tomatoes done and gone; lima beans, snap beans and cowpeas done and gone. Will replant peanuts and cowpeas in vacant beds but likely they'll be turned under before they amount to much in order to make room for fall planting of "English" garden peas (Little Marvel). When tomato blossom drop becomes a "problem" (any day now), I'll layer a couple of canes so they'll root to make fall tomatoes come Nov/Dec. Last season's container-grown bell peppers and eggplant overwintered so they fruited very early, as did the "Little Marvel" peas, which also overwintered. From-the-vine peas and a Samuel Adams make a wonderful Feb/Mar morning treat! I had to cover those plants, as well as an assortment of "greens" but needed no supplemental heat. This year, I'm going to see whether I can shepherd the bed-grown eggplant and bell peppers through the winter. Jalapeños are grown as perennials, but protected from temperatures in mid-40s or lower.
Makes me wonder how Bungadora is doing over near Calgary. We finally have tomatoes on all 21 of our vines, but they are all green. We have had about 5 Koralic tomatoes (1" dia.), probably before they were fully ripe.
We're in London ON and IIRC one degree south of you and I'd guess 40K=20 away.
I feel your pain.
Our cold weather crops are doing better than usual and we're planting=20 more for the fall
Tomatoes etc. are 2 to 3 weeks behind. We're seeing fruiting though the=20 fruits seem to be marking time due to the cool and *dim*. There hasn't=20 been much sun this year.
Why are the continuous-bearing plants like tomatoes and cukes done in your area? Too hot?
--S.
That's simply cruel, posting that kind of information where the no tomato people can read it ;-). The only plant that has any fruit is a volunteer that I didn't have the heart to till under this spring. I have no idea what variety it is, only that it should be an heirloom as that's the only kind we grow.
Ross. Southern Ontario, Canada. AgCanada Zone 5b
43º 17' 26.75" North 80º 13' 29.46" West
Yeah, basically. Long, hot humid days and nights. The squash have to be got in as early as possible to avoid heat and insects. Down here, the best defense againt squash vine borers is an early crop. Same for cukes: Heat, humidity and insects take them out fairly early. I've never had any success with pumpkins and not enough success with "winter" (hard) squash to make them worthwhile. The patio tomatoes, of course, are determinate and began setting fruit very early. Not being much of a purist, I just buy a few well-developed sets from my local nurseryman or from the local handy homeowner store, depending on who has what in February or early March. The hot weather finally gets to the ("indeterminate" or "continuous") beefsteak tomatoes, causing the blossoms to wilt and drop on about their second day. Distinctly different from being cut off by grasshoppers, also a problem this time of year. Constantly high humidity makes fungii a threat. July, August, January and the first part of February are probably the most difficult gardening months here. The collection point for the data presented here:
Where I live (southern Utah) we get really hot days (about 105 this week), so I sprinkle my tomatoes during the hottest art of the day, to cool them down and fool them into setting fruit, But it's very dry here, so the leaves evaporate right away and there is no threat of mold. I guess with you being in Florida, that wouldn't work due to the humidity and possibility of fungus.
--S.
Makes sense. I'm in USDA Zone 7 (SE Pennsylvania) and am just getting ripe yields and the folks in Canada are just getting first fruits appearing.
Newbie question, what is the problem with tomato blossom drop?
Jon
Well it doesn't get nearly that hot here; the problem is the very long period of high temperatures. We have no prolonged "cool" or even temperate season. I joke that Spring here is ten days in late Feb and then it's summer. Actually, we do have chilly nights and cool days well into March but just enough to bring down the average. Yes, as a rule, I avoid wetting foliage; however, I do use a water spray to dislodge aphids but only during the brightest part of the day. I water almost exclusively with those soaker hoses that are made from old tires and never wet foliage late in the day. Onset of rainy seasons stops tomatoes from blooming too. Yes, the humidity and frequent thunderstorms make fungii, particularly early blight, anthracnose, and powdery mildew constant concerns. I apply copper fungicides and, this year for the first time, neem oil. The primary purpose of the neem oil is an attempt to control those shield-shaped stinky bugs. They love tomatoes; damage fruit and foliage. Living, as I do -- surrounded by acres of undeveloped land, cleaning up debris and habitat is not exactly practical, even if it were desirable.
Oh, it's generally believed that prolonged exposure to high temperatures causes tomato blossoms to drop off instead of setting fruit. However "prolonged exposure" and "high temperatures" seem to be subjective terms among gardeners as well as among tomatoes, it seems. If you search the Web, you may find some actual data on the subject. Off-and-on, blossom drop has been the subject of much discussion on gardening forums.
In
Have you read differently?
Only anecdotally. And then, there's this:
A little while back, I posted about my tomato plants that were growing vigorously but not setting fruit. We had a very hot June, 90s almost every day. People here mentioned the heat problem.
After things cooled down, the plants began to set fruit. There're now about 50 green tomatoes. A bit delayed, but there should be some good eating down the line.
Brian
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