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To: US Navy Vet

Tomatoes do nothing at night when it is under 56 degrees and in the daytime, they do nothing over 86 degrees. It has been cool here (I am East of you). Everyone is just starting to get ripening. Anyone who put their plants in the end of May ran the risk of early blight from the cool, wet weather.

You may be out of luck for this season. We have a warm week coming up, but less than 5-6 weeks til frost. You may try and cover them if we do have frost, because we will likely get warm days after that for another 3 weeks. Uncover them for warm days.

Every variety has a *time ‘til harvest*. We had wet, cool weather here the end of May, which is normal planting time, and mine went in 2 weeks late. Time is counted from when the starts go into the ground or final container. The starts spent an extra 2 weeks in a greenhouse. My 56-60 day cherry tomatoes are ripening now and the larger ones, which take 75+ days, have finally begun to yellow. We have at least 2 more weeks for the slicers and Romas. Since we are down in a valley, it could be three weeks. Your micro climate is important. Open ridge-top gardens can be 2 weeks ahead of those in a valley.

Tomatoes are wind pollinated, not dependent on bees. If you have flowers that don’t drop of, watch them. They should turn upside down, the flower dries and when it is gone, there should be a small green ball on the stem, which is the tomato.

If the climate really is cooling, which seems obvious and likely, to me, for next year choose varieties bred for early bearing (55-65 days) and look for ones bred for Northern climates. Start researching and ordering your seeds
in December and January. I used to start seeds in February, but this year it was way too cold until March. 2 months is enough for good starts, but keep them in their starter pots in a greenhouse w/some added heat, if below 56 degrees, until all frost warnings are past. Some folks choose larger starter pots and let the plants develop flowers before final planting. This will give you some earlier fruit.

Tomatoes are either determinate, meaning the plants only grow to a certain size and then stop putting out flowers and concentrate on fruit, or indeterminate, meaning they keep growing and flowering even while they have mature fruit. As soon as they set fruit, pinch/cut off the extra leaves/branches, called suckers, that are not bearing flowers. You can prune off the top branches of indeterminate plants, too.

I use Tomato-Tone plant food. It is low nitrogen and is applied every 2 weeks. Keep it away from the stem, as it can burn the plant. Search for high phosphorus tomato food and use it as directed.

If there is an early frost, you can pick any fruit that is showing even a tinge of pink (called breaker stage) and it will ripen in a sunny window. You can also wrap any pink fruit in brown paper lunch bags and place in single rows in a container in a cool dark spot. Check every few days. They will slowly ripen.


43 posted on 08/17/2013 7:49:24 AM PDT by reformedliberal
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To: reformedliberal

They both(one “Big Beef” and One “Cherry”) are in large pots on our back deck so if there is a danger of frost I COULD bring them in and put them in the basement and put a lamp over them(like indoor Pot “farmers” do(or so I’m told)).


49 posted on 08/17/2013 7:56:47 AM PDT by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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