I've picked maybe 3 cherry tomatoes?? serious!getting nervous that none of the tomatoes will ripen
before the frost! So far it is mid august and I have ONE tomato blushing. ONE!!!!!!!!! that is it. usually we;re getting tomatoes weeks prior. They're loaded with tomatoes, but gee, most of them aren't even their full size yet! I know they're all 3 weeks behind, but 3 weeks when it comes down to a frost date is a long time. I know we get a frost in sept, but I can't remember when. I'm thinking later in Sept.... I'm secretly hoping that we have an extended summer this year I've picked maybe 3 cherry tomatoes?? serious!
I've picked maybe 3 cherry tomatoes?? serious!-
gixxerific
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- Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B
I'm sorry you're in the same boat!
[url=https://www.tomatosite.com/index.php?NT=Cultivation&RE=Truss_Timeline]Here is a timeline for a truss of Big Beef tomatoes (click).[/url]
(I'm always a little disappointed
that the photographer allowed the fruit to become overripe but it is all in the interest of science, I suppose.)
Sheila, what the photographs show is that there is about 45 days between pollination and a ripe tomato. You can see that there isn't much difference between the look of a bud that has lost its flower after pollination and a bud before a flower opens. I'd need a magnifying glass - still, there is a time difference of nearly 2 weeks! It isn't as tho' I'm around every day and checking every plant so that I really know when pollination has occurred.
Last year about this time (I made note of it on 8/15), I was convinced that new-to-me Dagma's Perfection was going to be a near total bust. There appeared to be no more than 1 or 2 developing fruits on each plant. On 9/12, I began picking fruit off those plants. By 9/26, I had entirely changed my mind about the ability of Dagma's to produce in my garden! In about 40 days, those plants had gone from about nothing to being covered with ripe tomatoes!
Fortunately, fortunately, fortunately - we had a late frost in 2011. I'm hoping for a similar result in 2012. So far, I wouldn't have been able to overfill my hat with what I've harvested from 60+ tomato plants of 20+ varieties. Some of those varieties have come thru for me for many years. If it freezes the 1st of September, I'm sunk . . . but, I'm hoping & expecting better.
Steve
(I'm always a little disappointed
that the photographer allowed the fruit to become overripe but it is all in the interest of science, I suppose.)Sheila, what the photographs show is that there is about 45 days between pollination and a ripe tomato. You can see that there isn't much difference between the look of a bud that has lost its flower after pollination and a bud before a flower opens. I'd need a magnifying glass - still, there is a time difference of nearly 2 weeks! It isn't as tho' I'm around every day and checking every plant so that I really know when pollination has occurred.
Last year about this time (I made note of it on 8/15), I was convinced that new-to-me Dagma's Perfection was going to be a near total bust. There appeared to be no more than 1 or 2 developing fruits on each plant. On 9/12, I began picking fruit off those plants. By 9/26, I had entirely changed my mind about the ability of Dagma's to produce in my garden! In about 40 days, those plants had gone from about nothing to being covered with ripe tomatoes!
Fortunately, fortunately, fortunately - we had a late frost in 2011. I'm hoping for a similar result in 2012. So far, I wouldn't have been able to overfill my hat with what I've harvested from 60+ tomato plants of 20+ varieties. Some of those varieties have come thru for me for many years. If it freezes the 1st of September, I'm sunk . . . but, I'm hoping & expecting better.
Steve
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Ohio Tiller
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rainbowgardener
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I haven't tried covering the tomato plants in fall, maybe I will this year. When frost is due, I just pick all the green ones and let them ripen inside. Last year with late frost, I picked all the green ones when I was worried about frost, but left the plants alone. They got covered in tomatoes again, so I was able to pick a whole 'nother crop of green tomatoes.
Sorry to hear of the tomato troubles. It is a mystery here, too, except sporadic results from person to person. Some have tons of tomatoes that aren't ripening, others have best crop ever.
Here's one that makes no sense, so maybe you have some ideas.
My dayghters' families got their tomatoes from me, which I started from seed and grew in greenhouse until May. Mine are producing the most of any garden I've ever had; their tomatoes don't want to ripen.
Suggestions are welcome!
Here's one that makes no sense, so maybe you have some ideas.
My dayghters' families got their tomatoes from me, which I started from seed and grew in greenhouse until May. Mine are producing the most of any garden I've ever had; their tomatoes don't want to ripen.
Suggestions are welcome!
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rainbowgardener
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- Location: TN/GA 7b
All gardening is local. I have tons of tomatoes from the two plants in my sunny front yard. Hardly any from the five in my shady back yard.
Perhaps conditions in your daughter's garden aren't as conducive. Micro climates can make a big difference- the difference between conditions at the bottom of a hill where cold air collects and the top of the same hill can be a whole zone.
Perhaps conditions in your daughter's garden aren't as conducive. Micro climates can make a big difference- the difference between conditions at the bottom of a hill where cold air collects and the top of the same hill can be a whole zone.