Extending the tomato season

[hendi_alex]

1. Plant a batch of very early seeds, as in mid December here in zone 8. Move them outdoors on any sunny 50’s or higher days, back and forth thru the winter. Supplement with light. I use one or two cheap clip on reflectors from Lowes. And we grow ours on a heat mat.
2. Start with small fruited which bloom and mature much quicker than large fruited. We especially like the campari types like super Sioux or 4th of July.
3. Grow some determinate varieties. They ripen quicker and usually give a good crop in front of the disease season. Most of ours are seeded early in mid January to mid February in order to give them a head start. The trick is in getting a large fruit set, hopefully of full sized tomatoes before any signs of blight or disease.
4. Succession plant, picking different varieties, considering disease resistance and heat tolerance. Ours stay in a morning only sun nursery location, usually avoiding disease, while waiting on their permanent growing spot. Some are replacements others are just waiting for their planting time.
5. Start some seedlings in mid May to mid June for late September to October/November zone 8 tomatoes. These can also be started by pinching disease free suckers from existing plants, place in water in indirect sunny window. Plant when rooted, about 2 weeks.
Grow on batch of plants under an overhang, where no water ever touches the foliage. They often avoid disease. Also plant a cherry or two in semi shade. For some reason disease never affect our shaded plants, perhaps temperature related, yet they still make a decent amount of fruit. Low light tomatoes produce less fruit, but they still give us a steady stream when other plants have dies. Last year my under the shed plants produced until frost.