Tomato Maturity?

[Usenet2007]

Geeeezzz...

It is the last day of official summer in my part of the world.

And I still don't have any ripe tomatoes (pout.) There's a somewhat reasonable quantity of green ones. "Moneymaker" breed, chosen at random in the spring.

There were problems this season with the weather. Incessant, obnoxious wind (even worse than usual for this town.) Dark. Cold. I had to keep them indoors way beyond Labour Weekend (late October - almost end of spring.) And was still worried for their health later. I live in a place known for it's sucky weather, but this season has been infused with a bonus of extra suckage.

Fortunately, the tomatoes have been getting much better sun and heat lately, and are looking OK.

But, I'm thinking of how to start eating sooner next year.

I am thinking of taking a bit of extra effort to get cherry tomato seedlings next year. Since they are smaller, do they mature sooner? Are cherries the answer?

[George.com]

don't know where you are posting from but here in NZ the summer has been late and tomorrow IS NOT the last official day of summer. That will be the end of march. It doesn't end until MY tomatos have ripened. Only in the last month have we had tomato weather, hot and sunny. In fact we have had aboput

3 weeks with no rain after a cool and dampish january. Blight got stuck into the tomatos in Jan and only in the last 2 odd weeks have I started harvesting anything. The small yellow bell shaped tomatos are ripening by the day whilst my grosse lisses, which were planted at the same time, are still green. The cherries I put in later than the other 2 are just starting to show any signs of red. If you are anywhere me it has been confirmed by nearly every home tomato grower that this summer has been s**te for tomatos (apart from my parents who had a crop earlier than mine, bastard. Thye grew already propogated dwarf cherries in grow bags if that is a lesson for you). I started 3 plants late and have them in pots intending to put them in the green house during autumn to see how they go. Only prob for me is with the red cherries coming on I am off overseas for a month and will likely miss them all.

rob

[hvt]

Try a healthy dose of dolommite.

[FarmI]

But Autumn is often such a nice long productive season - don't despair yet.

I must admit that I got a shock when I heard on the news that it was now officially Autumn. I'm not ready for it.

Here where I live, it's not advisable to plant tomatoes out until the first Tuesday of November. I planted out whilst the famous race was on and because it was so cold I put them in plastic shelters and on cold nights covered then with more plastic and old sheets and they still got hit by frost. But now................

Masses of tomatoes and I'm dealing with a great tomato glut.

Yes they do produce earlier but every year is different even in places with sucky weather. This year my zucchini are woeful whereas normally they produce in huge quantities. My advice would be to try a lot of different varieties in addition to a variety of tiny toms. I normally can't grow beefsteak type toms becaus e of the short growing season but this year even my one beefsteak ( "Monster" variety) is growing well. I find that Grosse Lisse is a good variety.