Well, today I stopped by my favorite nursery and began to speak about my seemingly expiring tomato plants and found that there is still hope for them.
It is now nearing the end of June and the local temperatures are averaging in the mid to upper 70’s with daytime temps regulary about 100 degrees which are not favorable for tomato reproduction or growth. Since pollination occurs within a range that requires lower temperatures, even if the tomato plant survives the heat it is not likely that adequate pollination would yield fruit.
So, if I have enough garden space and desire to keep the tomato plants alive until late september when temperature begin to fall, I can expect to have viable plants again, effectivly getting a second tomato season this year.
So that is what is happening with my tomatoes. To find out what I will be doing in the garden follow this link (Stay tuned… link to come)
I’ve never had a tomato plant make it the full summer. But I have had them make it through the winter and the “old” tomato plants that did live more than 7 months or so had greatly reduced production and quality of tomatoes. I usually weighed my options and decided not to waste the water or time on a spent plant. It will be very interesting to me to see how yours do in the “2nd” season.
Thank you for you comment and the experience that you bring.
I will also be interested to see!
I’ve done some reading and have found information that supports your position and experience. My thinking that the tomato plant would continue to produce later in the summer – early fall is based on my conversation with the nursery “guru”.
Since the comment you posted inspired me to research this I am still not sure if one positon precludes the other. My preliminary assessment is that (supporting your statement and experience) there is a finite amount of fruit that a plant can produce, that even in ideal situations of inviroment and nutritient, that there is only so much that can be yielded and that the quality of the fruit will deminish as the life of the plant matures. On the other had (supporting the perspective that I bring from the “guru”), I wonder and am hoping to see, if a plant continues to produce flowers but cannot pollinate because of the high temperatures, will -after the temperature receede, will it bare fruit and would the said fruit be worthy of the effort and the resources used to keep the un-fruiting tomato plant alive over the heat of the summer?
I certainly don’t want to keep water and wasting ground space if this is not hopeful.
I will do some additional reading and will share my findings.
Well, the 2nd season for tomatoes in Tucson begins around the middle of August, so you’ll only have a month and a few weeks to test the guru’s theory. I wonder if side dressings will “encourage” the older tomato to rejuvenate somewhat and improve the output? I would love to have enough room (and water) to experiment with this idea, but alas, I have a small planting space…so I have already pulled up 2 tomato plants that were on the decline. From this season, my findings were: the Heatwave tomato plant (determinate) did admirably, great tomatoes, great size and great taste. The Plum tomato (indeterminate) didn’t produce enough quantity nor size tomatoes that I was expecting, even though the taste was good. I won’t do that one again in the summer, although, in the winter it has always done very well for me. Maybe the temperatures. Lastly, the Early Girl…still producing…not beefstake size, but not cherry size either. It was the first to produce in early May and is still putting out. Very reliable plant. Good stuff to know for next February.
Yes indeed “good stuff to know”!
I will reduce my tomato plants and leave a few of them for the experiment, and as you’ve state I will better utilize my resources for known producers. The fact that replacing the plants is of little expense is enough reason to not wast the resources on the old plants.
Of the six type of tomatoes that I have, I am most impressed with the Roma, Plum, Sweet 100 and the Purple Cherokee, in that order.
If lettuce is recommended by the nursery I will also repeat them, planted in another area outside of my fenced area and in direct sun
I have a thought about trying this experiment on bell pepper plants. I’ve read somewhere…can’t remember now where…that bell peppers “revive” after the summer heat is past, the same way your guru says tomatoes will. I wonder if them both belonging to the nightshade family has something to do with this. I have 2 that are in pots that I’m willing to experiment with. Let’s test this theory. You your tomatoes, me my bells.
I’m game!
I will keep a few plants, hopefully a few determinate and indeterminate and see what happens.
Started crop sharing last Monday. My version of crop sharing is taking the bird netting off of the dying tomato plants so the birds can have their share (at last) of the remaining tomatoes. Before you think I should harvest the remaining green tomatoes, they are too small to be of real value for cooking, and if they reach maturity, their skin is thick and they aren’t what I call prime eating value. So, come and get it cactus wrens. It took 3 days for one plant to be picked clean, but the birds still haven’t found the remaining plant. I’ll continue to water it until they have finished it off. Then I’ll pull it out and prepare the beds for the next round of planting.
Lamont, You may be interested to hear about an article I ran across in August ’09 issue of Sunset regarding the “2nd” season of a tomato plant. It says during August “Rejuvenate your tired tomatoes by shearing them back to a height of 1 foot, then fertilizing and watering them deeply. This will spur new growth, yielding a crop that will begin to ripen in September.”
I have never seen this in print, althought it certainly agrees with the Mesquite Valley Guru. This, of course, is what I accidentally did with the green pepper plants I’m experimenting with. Wonder if we stumbled onto something that will enable our plants to make it through the heat of a Tucson summer??
This is very good news. I had begun to have thoughts that maybe I would be wasting time and resources… Good news to keep the “wind in my sail” on this project.
Looks like we will see fairly soon just what our tomato experiment will bring.
I think that it may be the cooler nights that I’ve been experiencing on my side of town (Speedway & Harrison), it certainly isn’t lower daytime temperatures because that has not been the case here, that is bringing some blooming back to my tomato plants. I’ve got blooms that are not the healthiest looking that I’ve seen but definitely blooms!
Along with the tomatoes showing some new life, my beans and my okra are taking off too. These seeds were planted three weeks ago and broke ground in about four days and have been standing about 3-4 inches, with not much change and in the last few days they have doubled in size and the leaves have also doubled in size! I am so excited!
I am not an okra fan (yet) but am hoping that I will enjoy them. I planted enough that I will have plenty to give away. And if anyone would like some seeds, just say the word, I think that I used approximately half of the envelope.
Tomorrow I plan to prune and fertilize
Me too, I’ve got blooms galore and 2 baby bell peppers on my “experimental” plants. Not the one that I cut to a stub, but on the other 2. Perhaps your guru may be right about the 2nd season thing. I’ll give mine another 2 weeks before I make my call on whether it’s worth the water to keep them alive, but things are looking up for the bells of summer. This may have been one of the most productive experiments I’ve tried. Certainly beats the blueberries, which were expensive and the first to die of heat exhaustion. I’ve heard that Thomas Edison failed hundreds of times before he succeeded.
I am not yet convinced that keeping any of the tomato plants through the heat of the summer is beneficial.
In spite of what the local “Guru’s” have said, my plants are all flourishing like weeds. Yes, exactly like weeds… producing nothing tangible or desired. The limited number of blooms are nowhere close to being acceptable for all of the resources invested over the last few months. Perhaps I am just not being patient enough! (they did say “late September” and it is barely the second week as I am writing this.) Maybe even though it is cooler, it just needs to drop a few more degrees? I am still waiting!
Now meanwhile my peppers are just loving life! A bit of fertilizer and not too much water (remember that I had a problem with “wet feet” from over watering) and they are producing even during the heat. I could have pulled all of the tomatoes and cornered the market on peppers. Maybe next year!
The two bell peppers that I cut in half (to help with the heat stress) are revived and producing good fruit. I’ve eaten 2 ripened yellow bells, smaller than the Spring fruit, but good tasting. I’ve adjusted my watering, too. Just don’t need as much anymore, which is great. The leaves are bigger and thicker than early in the season, and the stalks are stronger and more woody.
The one bell that I had cut into a stump that grew back is growing fine and has a couple of flowers, but no budding fruit yet. Which tells me that it isn’t beneficial to cut it back that far….I’d get more bells if I had just cut it back like the other two.
Must say, though, that I do enjoy seeing the mature plant thriving, instead of melting from the heat.