I planted all my tomato seeds within a week or two this spring, and planted the seedlings within a few weeks as well. Over the summer we got tons of tomatoes, and then despite my misting the plants, our 100+ temperatures in August sort of wiped them out. The vines are still growing, and now that temps are cooler we seem to have a little more flowering and fruiting activity, but overall the vines just look pooped.
I am wondering if there would be any value to starting 1/2 or even 1/3 of my seeds in the spring, and starting more a month or two later, so that I could plant some young plants very early, plant some a bit later, and then plant some in mid-summer. I know that tomatoes generally produce until frost, but I wonder if I would have more luck with continuously planting new, fresh plants several times rather than doing one big planting in the spring. Do younger tomato plants typically have better production than older ones?
--S.