Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

[hendi_alex]

I have tried all kinds of strategies to keep continuous tomato production from May/early June through late October’s first killing frost. The big winner in my contest with nature is disease. When night time temperatures get over 70 and combine with a very wet day or two, I can almost see the yellow moving up the vines. My biggest strategy: get lots of healthy vines early with full sized fruit forming before the killing combination of heat and disease in July. This year the plan is working to a T. About 6-8 weeks supply of tomatoes is on the vines with a few turning ripe every day or two. This wave of fruit should carry us to the end of June or mid July no matter how the vines hold up. I have found that tomatoes grown in low sunlight, 3-4 hours direct morning light per day, still make fruit but are much less susceptible to disease. Also those grown in the compost pile seem to avoid disease. Hopefully those areas keep me going until September when my late plants will go into the garden. The late crop is hit and miss though. Plants have to make it through the disease period, in the nursery area, and be decent sized and healthy to produce fruit mostly harvested in October. Tomatoes are my most challenging plant to get a continuous harvest over the full growing season.

[pepperhead212]

I can see why it's a challenge for you to have them produce through the entire season. Even up here it gets too hot for most varieties I have grown, and that's why I am always growing so many new varieties, trying to find a heat resistant variety. And also why I grow so many cherry tomatoes - even if they stop producing, due to heat, they are much faster getting ripe tomatoes, when they start up again.

[hendi_alex]

The interesting thing to me, in the early 1970’s I used to plant the old variety of Big Boy tomatoes. They produced from late may or early June right up to frost. I would usually harvest a few dozen ripe green tomatoes right before the first October frost. The ground was nematode infested almost pure sand, but the tomatoes grew and produced like crazy. All I can figure is that the 2-3 degrees in climate change is causing most of my problem. The disease is always there, but rarely causes an issue unless the night time lows start creeping a few degrees over 70. Now-a-days that happens in late June or early July most years. And that is when vines start to yellow and die.

[imafan26]

I switch varieties for fall and summer. The fall and spring is the rainy season. It peaks January-April During this time I can grow temperate plants, but they need to be resistant to mildew, and bacterial spot, as well as to TYLCV. Most of the TYLCV resistant tomatoes are determinate. Only a few indeterminates are resistant. But most determinates are not heat tolerant.

When it get to June- August, only the most heat tolerant tomatoes will still produce fruit. The other tomatoes will survive, but that is it. They won't start producing again until the weather cools. The smallest tomatoes are the most reliable in hot weather. Sweet pea current, valentine, Florida 91, Heatmaster II. I used to grow Sioux and Arkansas traveler which tolerates heat, but they are not TYLCV resistant and I cannot protect indeterminates.

I am trialing tomatoes from the dwarf tomato project. Many of those were developed in Australia which has a similar sub tropical climate to mine. They are small enough to grow in tree bags. So far, I haven't found too many TYLCV resistant or dwarf tomatoes that tolerate heat well. They are getting BER, but that may also be a problem with my soil mix as well.

[hendi_alex]

My understanding is that BER is always because of calcium absorption. That can come from poor availability in the soil, uneven watering or root rot, poor growing conditions. I usually toss a handful of pelletized lime in my potted tomatoes. Plus last year moved them to drip on a timer that cycles on for 5 minutes 1-4 times per day. One time in early spring, four in the heat of summer. You do have to play with flow rate, duration, and cycling to keep the moisture close to optimal. Has been working very well since starting last year however and giving almost no BER on tomatoes.

[lakngulf]

I came upon an internet article that recommended Fast Acting Gypsum to help with BER. You can believe everything on the internet, Right? Well, what the heck I did try it this year. Threw a healthy handful in each large pot. Either that or the cooler temps for the start of this growing season and I had no BER. I think I was looking for calcium additives when I ran across the suggestion of Gypsum. YMMV

[lakngulf]

My biggest issue is what I call "burning" from the bottom up. Probably has to do with the heat and humidity that you describe in your area. The plants start out beautifully, perhaps with a few too many limbs and leaves. They bloom great and put on lots of maters. Then they start burning from the bottom. The tomatoes that have started do mature and ripen but the plant looks awful.

[imafan26]

BER normally is an irregular watering issue and a problem with calcium transport and not usually with calcium in the soil. My containers were tested because of severe nutrient deficiencies of calcium, potassium, magnesium and zinc in reused potting soil. So, the BER problem could be related to either the weather, it is unlikely, it isn't that hot yet, or more likely to nutrient imbalances in the potting mix. I have to redo the containers to fix them. Calcium nitrate foliar spray is faster acting than gypsum and it did help with the BER.

[Gary350]

Are your after 12 noon temperatures above 95°f ?

TN July weather is near 100° and garden soil is dry as desert. I solved my problem by planting tomatoes on the east side of a shade tree. Plants get cool early morning sun then shade 12 noon to dark. My laser thermometer shows tomato leaves in full sun are 135°f after lunch.

BER is low calcium. Too much spring rain washes calcium out of the soil.

If I put Gypsum on tomato plants sliced tomatoes taste gritty like very fine sand.

[imafan26]

Luckily, it has never gotten that hot even in the hottest year. I think the highest was in 2016 and it got to 92 degrees in August. Right now because it has been so overcast and with the intermittent showers, it is only peaking at about 84 degrees, some days it only gets to about 81. Mind you I am at a higher elevation of 600 ft. Downhill will be 3-9 degrees hotter.

I grow mainly heat tolerant tomatoes when I have a choice. Heat tolerant tomatoes rarely get BER. Even the determinates for the most part don't get BER if they are in the new mix. I do water almost everyday so the containers don't dry out much. I actually have to reduce watering on the tomatoes when they are ripening, otherwise they get bland. The non-heat resistant tomatoes will stop setting fruit at around 88 degrees. The plants won't die if they are watered, but they won't produce again until the temperatures to around 85 degrees. At that time only the cherries and heat tolerant tomatoes will have any fruit set.

I am trying to train the tomatoes to go a couple of days without watering. As it gets hotter and drier, that might not work out as well. So far, the tomatoes have not wilted after three days of just the intermittent rain. However, some of my other containers weren't so happy.

I have some new tomato seedling that have sprouted. I think one is Burpee's Supersteak. I don't usually use store seeds, but I thought I would give this one a try. It won't get as large as it says on the package because it is hard for tomatoes here to get over a pound with the short days. It is supposed to be a determinate to 48 inches with good flavor. Hopefully, that is the truth, otherwise it won't fit in the bag and I will find out if it is TYLCV resistant or not.

Calcium in soil is not the problem. The containers hhave 3200 ppm of Calcium, and my garden soil is over 5000 ppm. The new mix containers do not have BER. It may be a varietal thing, Some of the other tomatoes are also in reused soil, although, I have changed the fertilizer mix on most of them. None of the others have BER, but grape tomatoes don't really get BER and Sun King has never gotten BER either. But Sun King was planted in new mix, so does not have the nutrient imbalances of the old mix.

I never added lime to the container mix before. In the reused mix, now I am adding lime and kmag and calcium nitrate. The lime in the container is not going to affect the pH of the soil in the lifetime of the tomatoes, but hopefully it will boost the calcium in the pot. The back up is the calcium nitrate which is water soluble. I had to get another watering can. I have a metal can, but some of these fertilizers will react with the metal so I bought a plastic watering can.