72 days in ground in new england no fruit yet

[filmnet]

WOW!! What a strange summer so far,so plants grow small with big fruits, and Cherry plants grow high. Only 3 cherry tomatoes today is 72 days for theplants in ground

[gardenvt]

Are you fertilizing them? If it is high in nitrogen, you will have beautiful plants and no fruit.

[filmnet]

They were small plants for first 45 days, cold old days, and no sun. I did use Fish Food and Espoma food, 30 days ago. Huge fruits on some plants only 30inch high.

[hit or miss]

Patience! Look up the maturity days for your varieties of tomato. That will be a true measure of when they should be ready. For instance, Early Girls are 50some days to maturity.

[filmnet]

I did check only Bradywine is 80 days, all others are 65-75. So i do pick any that has any new color at all. Put the in a paper bag with a banana and apple and then a dark place. I did this last week for 2 small Black Krim fruit, they were great. Kids will be in school in 3 weeks, no one around here has Heirloom tomatoes. Even farm market around here have only fruits which they sell and they are not ready to eat?

[hit or miss]

It sounds like you are just in the early stages of being able to expect 'maters. I'd just be patient and let nature take it's course! I prefer vine ripened personally.

[ArceyJohnson]

I too have been staring at giant green tomatoes for a couple weeks now, with no hint of color change...

Lots of folks around here are grumbling that their fruits aren't ripening. Not sure if things are actually later this year than normal or if people are just always impatient for tomatoes!!

We did have a strange growing season, though, that might be delaying things...a super-wet spring with a stretch of very cold nights right after plants were set out, an almost completely dry June-July with inconsistent temps. Now we are finally getting some rain and things seem to be more stable temp-wise. Hopefully that will mean some red tomatoes!

[pizzarrhea]

Same, I'm over by Boston.
The only tomatoes I've been able to enjoy are my Lemon Boys and I had to ripen those in paper bags. Nothing has vine ripened yet

[ArceyJohnson]

Ugh, I know! Very frustrating. Patience is not one of my virtues...

And it doesn't really seem like there's anything that can be done to speed up vine ripening.

[digitS']

I am not in New England but the climate is somewhat similar here.

It would be much better if the seed companies would switch from days-to-maturity to information on growing conditions. The Weather Service keeps track of "growing degree days" for us and commercial sweet corn varieties (for example) are sold with that information on the tags.

It seems that 1700 growing degree days is something of a rule of thumb for ripe beefsteak tomatoes. The Weather Service shows that Burlington, VT; Concord, NH; & Worcester, MA are now in the ballpark (click). Maine might have to wait a few more days.

In my garden, I'm still waiting to get a little closer to 1700 GDD but have had dribs and drabs of cherry tomatoes for a few weeks now. Only the very earliest of the heirlooms have produced a ripe fruit and the plants are so small that I can't expect much from any of those.

That lighter green on many of those tomatoes looks promising to me, Filmnet. A couple more days of warm sunshine and you should be in the ripe tomato business .

Steve

[ArceyJohnson]

THAT is a marvelous and interesting link. Thank you, DigitS'!

The city closest to me is at 1757...and it is in a valley, by a river...I am on a blustery hillside, farther up....I bet we are just now getting to the 1700 region up here.

It is always nice to know when one should just sit back and wait, and when one should be mildly panicking and trying to figure out what went wrong!!

[rainbowgardener]

What a great resource! Thanks... So I've been eating ripe tomatoes for a month or more, because my city is at 2584 GDD! Some of our members in TX are ovr 4000!!

Very interesting!

[filmnet]

I see that iam 1964

[gardenbean]

Hey there I'm 2039!! and my tomatoes are coming in basketfuls at a time.

My Summer Salsa (saladette type, roma) is a heavy producer and therefore I am in the process of learning to can so not to wast anything.

All of my "cherry type tomatoes, from yellow pears, super extra 100's snow white and yellow cherries are to the point where I harvest at least a pint a day (not counting those I eat as I am harvesting LOL!)

My one and only Brandywine (which I have never grown before) is producing fruit as large as the size of a softball and the taste is beyond belieft.

Following up the rear are my Green Zebras ( a taste and texture I am still getting to know) and Cherkoee Purple which FINALLY is beginning to bear fruit.

So far here in area 2039 it's been a banner year for this garden!!

ps-yes I love to share my tomatos with community food bank and of course to the squirrels for those fruits that "accidently" fall off the vine

[DoubleDogFarm]

WA BELLINGHAM BLI 1010 1022 -12

Another site I looked at put me a 666.4 and you wonder why we even try to grow tomatoes.

Surrounded by water.
Eric

[filmnet]

I do see that that grow days are for Corn?

[digitS']

For corn the threshold temperature is 50°F. For peas the threshold temperature is 40°F.

The baseline for field crops like wheat, rye, etc. have been determined by experimenting, probably in growth chambers - the average 24-hour minimum temperature needed for growth.

It is an "all other things being equal" sort of measurement. Drought and that sort of thing would make a difference. The Weather Service begins keeping track on March 1st, I believe. So, any warm days in March or April when your warm-season plants are not out in the garden - wouldn't count. Of course, plants can be set out too early and their growth retarded.

Steve

[gardenbean]

Of course, plants can be set out too early and their growth retarded. -Steve.

**Or you could step on them by accident or have your 90 lb. Black Lab dig up plants when he thought you werent' looking. Because you know things like that aren't going be found on a chart

[TheWaterbug]

I do see that that grow days are for Corn?

Wikipedia suggests that tomatoes and a few other veggies/bugs share the same baseline temp as corn.