Tomatoes always late

I live in SE Washington state, can be 100+ for many days in the summer and get to -10 in the winter.

Every year I plant tomato plants, not seeds, in late April, early May. And inevitably, I end up with lots of tomatos that get hit by the frost, and not many ripen during the summer. Now neighbors and so forth have bounties of their crops all summer. My plants are about 4 feet high and lots of fruit on them. My cukes went crazy as usual, and this year I planted cantaloupe and right now have one, which is about 1/2 the normal size. That's the only one so far.

The one thing I can think of as far as soil, is there used to be a pine tree in the yard behind me. It is now gone, has been for 2 years. I understand they can wreak havoc. The garden area gets lots of sun, I water it daily. Just something that is wrong I've yet to correct.

I usually plant some variety of cherry and either an early girl or beefsteak Any suggestions on what to try next?

TIA

So you don't get any ripen during the season? Or are you concerned about how many are still fruit when frost hits. Indeterminate plants will grow & produce until the frost kills them. A determinate plant will produce a flush of ripe tomatoes for a few weeks then peter out and not produce much after that. (At least that is what my determinate did.) I do have 3-4 dozen green tomatoes on the vine but I harvested

160 tomatoes since Aug. 1st. I should have pinched off new growth and the smallest of the tomatoes a month ago to get the plant to focus on the fruits it had. Now I doubt I will have any more ripe tomatoes.

If youre not getting *ANY* ripe tomatoes, I would have thought slow growing would be a water/sun issue more than a soil/fertilizer one. Lack of fertilizer components often causes disease and unhealthy plants. Although I wonder if low nitrogen would cause small, slow growing, and less productive plants. My 4th of July tomatoes came a month late--I believe because of the excessive rains and coolness of May-June. Have you fertilized them? I used a liquid one than was

10-15-10 plus liquid seaweed 0-4-4. I had mixed some fertilizer deep into the root zone in May.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (bizee) wrote:

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound

1st Year Gardener