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Have a 10 by 20 foot garden plot at the local community center here in So. Cal...just finished up my first tomato harvest that did well (Better Boy, Early Girl, Celebrity, and some Cherry Tomatoes from seed).
Re-did the entire plot yesterday...to prep for a second tomato crop (lots of work!). Six pack tomatoes are sometimes hard to find at nurseries now, but luckily I found some at a local nursery. Basically cleaned them out of all they had (all Celebrity, and one Champion variety). Planted them all...hope they do well at harvest time in two to three months! Here is a quick snapshot of it...one of 2 sunflower volunteers in picture as well.
Just wondering if anybody on here (at least in So. Cal) goes for a second tomato harvest?
And what varieties work best for you? Mine are the ones listed above (Better Boy, Early Girl, Celebrity, and the basic Red Cherry).
2nd harvest? muahahahah our second harvest is 3 ft of snow.
we do a lot of Iti, so we plant romas and various cherry...sometimes an heirloom. for the first time ever my san marzanos are hitting well. very sweet. so I got the soil perfect and did a rotation into where the zuchinni was last year - that works.
zone 9 here, year round growth + production, if the winter is mild. I will use MiracleGro or earthworm casings and I'm not above burying coffee grounds and rotten strawberries and banana peels and egg shells and purple nightcrawler worms in my garden.
I specifically chose Indeterminate rather than Determinate, hybrid but NOT GMO. I'm in the business of snacking + salads, not canning 125 tomatoes.
I have to do container gardening, so my tomatoes tap out at about 4-5 feet tall, not the 7-foot monsters when I could plant them in soil. Although I've lost track over the years, some of my tomatoes are four-plus years old and they keep producing every year - I dont dig them out unless they are petrified dead brown.
I have done chocolate cherry (brown cherry tomatoes)
pink globes
red nectar
razzleberrys
I did one heirloom tomato, but it only produced 2-3 massive ugly duckling fruits and then went sleepytime.
"they were basically done fruiting, not producing any more flowers"...this also happens when temperatures are above 90 degrees. Starting a second planting now would place flowering about 45-60 days later in the calendar year...meaning cooler temps. Whether you get any measurable fruit from a July/August planting is determined by your first frost date.
Regards
Gemstone1
Very rarely any frost in mild Southern California Coastal areas. Yes fruiting and flowering stopping does happen in 90 degree plus weather. However, the daily highs here are usually 80 degrees or less and the lows now are about mid to high 60's....the plants were just old and spent. August and September heat should speed them along well here...October still pretty warm too (especially if an Indian Summer)...will see how it goes for the second crop.
I'm not brave enough to plant a third crop here in So. Cal in November (usually just do broccoli and swiss chard then)...however a few years back (during a very warm winter) one guy did it at the community garden plot...and had awesome 5 foot tall plants loaded with tomatoes in February!?
This year I finally had a glorious tomato garden. I amended the soil in the spring, built a crop cage to discourage garden pests and consistently watered. I also added Alaska Fish Fertilizer and supported the plants with cross-stringing to the cage supports. I am growing in Zone 7b, and this year we had reliable rain and moderate weather for all but the last half of July.
I planted Better Boy, Black Prince, Brandywine, Celebration, Early Girl, German Queen, Kellog’s Breakfast, Lemon Drop, Mortgage Lifter, Mr. Stripey, Parks Whopper Improved, Purple Cherokee, and Mr. Stripey. There were a lot of great tomatoes in there but my favorite by far was Black Prince for consistency and taste.
This year I finally had a glorious tomato garden. snipped
So, so jealous! Congratulations. Supposedly, down here in zone 9b, I can plant next month. Hopefully, in a few months, I will have as gorgeous plants as ya'all.
I am so jealous. Grocery tomatoes are just plain awful.
I have just move to Florida. I am hoping there is a type of tomato that does well down here.
MerryDay, an older cousin of ours, living in central Florida, plants a tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket and leaves it just outside the back door. Said she always gets good maters off of it
MerryDay, an older cousin of ours, living in central Florida, plants a tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket and leaves it just outside the back door. Said she always gets good maters off of it
If so, then I envy your cousin, kygman. She obviously does not have the mobbed waiting line of chipmunks, moles, voles, mice, squirrels, rabbits, rats, deer, foxes, possums and (I think maybe) groundhogs that nightly line up to swarm through my fence into my 1/10 acre urban backyard to tear into any edibles not fiercely walled off by nylon and metal mesh and traps. I am almost (but not quite) tempted to adopt or at least borrow a Rottweiler or a Pit Pull to patrol the yard. At least the massive Japanese Beetle swarms from a few years ago have taken a pause.
This year I finally had a glorious tomato garden. I amended the soil in the spring, built a crop cage to discourage garden pests and consistently watered. I also added Alaska Fish Fertilizer and supported the plants with cross-stringing to the cage supports. I am growing in Zone 7b, and this year we had reliable rain and moderate weather for all but the last half of July.
I planted Better Boy, Black Prince, Brandywine, Celebration, Early Girl, German Queen, Kellog’s Breakfast, Lemon Drop, Mortgage Lifter, Mr. Stripey, Parks Whopper Improved, Purple Cherokee, and Mr. Stripey. There were a lot of great tomatoes in there but my favorite by far was Black Prince for consistency and taste.
I love Mr. Stripey so much I named my boy kitty after that one. This year I’m trying a new one called Berkeley tie-dye, but so far mine aren’t as pretty as the ones in the catalog. Part of my problem is that isn’t yet a sunny enough place in my new yard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fisherman99
Re-did the entire plot yesterday...to prep for a second tomato crop (lots of work!). Six pack tomatoes are sometimes hard to find at nurseries now, but luckily I found some at a local nursery. Basically cleaned them out of all they had (all Celebrity, and one Champion variety). Planted them all...hope they do well at harvest time in two to three months! Here is a quick snapshot of it...one of 2 sunflower volunteers in picture as well.
I love Mr. Stripey so much I named my boy kitty after that one. This year I’m trying a new one called Berkeley tie-dye, but so far mine aren’t as pretty as the ones in the catalog. Part of my problem is that isn’t yet a sunny enough place in my new yard.
Did you know you can make cuttings and root them in water? Easiest cuttings I ever rooted.
Heard about tomato cuttings but never tried it...will have to look into that next time...especially if the nurseries no longer have the 6 pack transplants which starts happening around now (in So. Cal).
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