Tomatoes at the new house are not doing very well.

[Gary350]

I am having problems with tomatoes this year too. I moved to a new house the soil is bad no organic material and it dries out hard as cement. My plants get full sun until about 2 pm then they get shade the rest of the day. It rained every day from February until June I did not till the garden and get anything planted until the first week of June. It has been 95 to 105 degrees for 8 weeks and very little rain. The birds are thirsty in this hot dry weather they are eating my ripe tomatoes. I put lime on the soil several times but still had blossom end rot until about 3 weeks ago. Some of the ripe tomatoes are not ripe in the center. The thing I notice the most is the tomatoes have about as much flavor as a paper napkin. My Grandfather use to say lime sweetens the soil and gives the fruit its flavor, he use to use lots and lots of lime in the garden. I have 30 plants and 4 different types there is going to be no tomatoes to can this year. I still have about 80 mason jars of tomatoes from last year so that will be fine this winter. I need to start watching for peat moss sales I need a minimum of 5 large bales for the garden next year. The university sells composted horse manure at the 4H center so maybe I will get lucky and get at least 1 load of that before they sell out.

[farmerlon]

Yep, adding quality organic matter to your soil is definitely going to help out a lot... Should make a big difference for next year.
Everyone seems to be having tomato troubles around here right now. We've just had too many 95-ish degree days... Not much fruit set when it stays that hot.

Temps are forecast to be in the 80s through the next week or so; so maybe we'll see some recovery in the tomatoes.

[CharlieBear]

Next year, make sure you mulch those tomatoes well that will help hold in the moisture when it gets so hot. As for the lime, becareful, test the ph unless the soil is acid prone it might be better to add gypsom, that won't change the ph.
I am guessing maybe incorrectly that you planted heirloom tomatoes (hard centers) they are more likely to develop those big cores as it were. If you find someone near you whose tomatoes are doing much better than yours ask what kind they are growing and if you plant that late make sure you are using a short day variety. The days until the tomatoes start to ripen start from transplanting out. If they begin to ripen you may be able to hasten that by slowing the rate at which they are watered. If they are well formed and a frost is about to happen you might pull up the vines and hang upside down in a basement or garage and many of them will ripen, tomatoes ripen from the inside out.
Note blossom end rot is just a likely to be too little water as calcium and the plum types of tomatoes are far more likely to suffer from it than the others.
Sorry about the tomatoes, everyone all over the county is having problems. As for the taste, the best defence might be planting the strongest flavored ones in the future like early girl (also short day). Large ones like beef stake or much milder in flavor in a good year and so in a bad year they tend to taste like cardboard when they finally do ripen.
Don't get me wrong I plant about 1/2 heirlooms, but I know the risk.

[farmerlon]

Well, so much for the weather forecast... upper 80s were forecast, but it hit 100 degrees here today. Now they're saying 90s for the next couple of days too.
Looks like the 80s is "wishful thinking" for now.