Comments on hybrid determinates
 

I planted a few plants each of Heatmaster, Florida 91, and Bella Rosa in July. All three are hybrid determinate plants which are supposedly heat resistant with decent tolerance to many diseases. I planted all three simply to see how well they perform in the high heat of a Texas July, and how well they produce in the fall. Our normal first frost is mid November, so they should have plenty of time to grow and produce. They passed the first test by surviving some 110 degree F. days and growing during the heat. Now they seem to be surviving some mid ninety, humid weather with cooler nights. No signs yet of any fungal problems. They are all blooming well and even setting a few tomatoes in the high heat.


I'm curious what other folks experiences have been with those three varieties. I would like to compare your experience (good and bad) with my results. I'm primarily interested in production and taste results, but any comment will be appreciated.


I also planted some Big Beef plants at the same time. They produced well as spring planted tomatoes. Currently the July planted Big Beef plants are growing at double the rate of the determinate July planted varieties and are very healthy through the heat.

Nothing seems to faze Big Beef.

Nan

Spring planted Big Beef was easily my most productive variety and tasted very good. I probably had ten Big Beef plants. Five plants called it quits after producing and trying to survive in 110 degree heat. The other five lost most of their foliage, but survived and are putting on new growth. My summer planted Big Beef are blooming and setting fruit in ninety degree plus heat. I won't really be able to compare them until I'm able to start harvesting tomatoes in the fall.

What are your night time lows that you are getting fruit set in that high heat?

In August, we had 2 days of high 91, 1 day of high 90, and the rest 86-89; but most night time lows are around 80. Extremely humid.

I tried growing Heatwave II one year, and very minimal fruit set and definitely not good.

Daytime highs are high 90's. Right now it is 97 F. Nighttime lows are low 70's, about 72. Mid Sept. lows will be mid 60's and highs will be high 80's most days. A cool front may drop those temps by five degrees. Long sleeve weather arrives in October.


Heatmaster is setting a lot of small tomatoes. They are heavy with blooms. Big Beef is doing well also. My biggest surprise so far has been the spring planted Carbon plants which have revived from the hiigh summer heat and are producing blooms.The Carbon tomatoes will probably stay small in the fall, but I'm surprised they want to do anything after living through 110 degree weather. They have survived fungal diseases which wiped out other open pollinated varieties, high heat, and grasshoppers which stripped many branches bare.


I'm hoping for a slight temp break next week. I want it to cool enough for my newly germinated cucumbers and summer squash to survive into the much cooler weather.

For me Big Beef was the definite winner this year, the Japanese tomatoes did well also (Momotaro, Odiriko, Mandarin, Katana and Japanese Pink Cherry)
Japanese Black Trifele, Barlow Jap did not (actually every heart or dwarf I planted was a waste of time) turned to mush before they got ripe, then disease set in...

I forgot to mention Rebel Yell and Goldmans Italian American... Both keepers.

[QUOTE=DonDuck;713069]Daytime highs are high 90's. Right now it is 97 F. Nighttime lows are low 70's, about 72. Mid Sept. lows will be mid 60's and highs will be high 80's most days. A cool front may drop those temps by five degrees. Long sleeve weather arrives in October.


Heatmaster is setting a lot of small tomatoes. They are heavy with blooms. Big Beef is doing well also. My biggest surprise so far has been the spring planted Carbon plants which have revived from the hiigh summer heat and are producing blooms.The Carbon tomatoes will probably stay small in the fall, but I'm surprised they want to do anything after living through 110 degree weather. They have survived fungal diseases which wiped out other open pollinated varieties, high heat, and grasshoppers which stripped many branches bare.


I'm hoping for a slight temp break next week. I want it to cool enough for my newly germinated cucumbers and summer squash to survive into the much cooler weather.[/QUOTE]


I may have to try some of your varieties here, after losing everything to the heat. Where did you get HeatMaster?

I grew mountain merit this year. not impressed.
the tomato is decent but the plant was not. I planted them a bit late to fill in a few dead spots and they never made it into nice plants. spindly falling down into the cages as the fruit got heavy.
maybe I should try them next year though and give them a fair try. One year isnt always a fair trial for something. but they are determinates.
Big beef is not a determinate.. it is a semi-indeterminate which is why I like it... it keeps churning out the fruit all Summer long.
If I get a determinate crop in the high tunnel early enough I can get a second new growth to come and harvest a second cycle of fruit. two years ago I did pink girl and they were very nice tomatoes but were a mess as plants go... just a heap of plant on the ground and I had to dig through them to find the fruit. An indeterminate in a cage is just a better fit in my garden.

Imp, I bought mine at some farm stores. It was getting pretty late into the hot summer and a couple of stores were trying to get rid of the tomato plant inventory so I only had to pay fifty cents each. They were in pretty bad shape so I left them under lights with plenty of moisture and they recovered nicely before I planted them out in weather in excess of 100 degrees. If the tomatoes are good, I will buy some seed this winter and grow my own. I know I will be growing my big beef plants again. I'm not sure you can even kill them.


I was watching some youtube videos yesterday about hot weather tomatoes. A tomato named "everglade tomato" popped up. It is supposedly a wild tomato in Florida that reseeds itself every year. Most people do nothing to take care of the plants and they produce tons of little red cherry tomatoes. The most frequent comments were "I can't believe how many tomatoes these plants produce" and "I can't believe how sweet these tomatoes are". They are usually allowed to simply sprawl where they germinated year after year. I might plant some Everglades seed around my property next year and let them sprawl.

Early Girl Bush was excellent for us this year for earliness, production and flavor. But I have no idea how it would do in the heat. Better Bush did not do well.

[QUOTE=DonDuck;712127]I planted a few plants each of Heatmaster, Florida 91, and Bella Rosa in July. All three are hybrid determinate plants which are supposedly heat resistant with decent tolerance to many diseases. I planted all three simply to see how well they perform in the high heat of a Texas July, and how well they produce in the fall. Our normal first frost is mid November, so they should have plenty of time to grow and produce. They passed the first test by surviving some 110 degree F. days and growing during the heat. Now they seem to be surviving some mid ninety, humid weather with cooler nights. No signs yet of any fungal problems. They are all blooming well and even setting a few tomatoes in the high heat.


I'm curious what other folks experiences have been with those three varieties. I would like to compare your experience (good and bad) with my results. I'm primarily interested in production and taste results, but any comment will be appreciated.


I also planted some Big Beef plants at the same time. They produced well as spring planted tomatoes. Currently the July planted Big Beef plants are growing at double the rate of the determinate July planted varieties and are very healthy through the heat.[/QUOTE]

I have grown two of those. Heatmaster & Bella Rosa. Bella Rosa did well and had good but not superb flavor. Heatmaster was a huge disappointment. I assumed it need more heat then we had here that year. Plants were wimpy and blighted and fruit was small and scarce. I prefer Hill Top, Mountain Pride and Bush Big Boy which I think was discontinued.

I used to never attempt to grow tomatoes in the fall. I always grew Better Boy with spring plantings and they would produce well into the summer. In the hot summer, the plants lost most of their foliage and didn't bloom at all. In late summer, they produced new growth on the old branches and produced a new crop of tomatoes in the fall.


I then became interested in growing indeterminate heirloom tomatoes and have grown them for many years. One year I noticed Home Depot had some hybrid Goliath Bush tomatoes for sale in the hottest part of summer. I bought four and planted them in an empty vegetable bed. The first three or four weeks, they did nothing. They didn't grow or produce blossoms, but they also didn't die in the heat. Early in September, they started growing and producing little tomatoes. By first frost in November, they had produced a lot of red ripe tomatoes and then a lot of green tomatoes picked the day before the first freeze. The green tomatoes slowly ripened in my shop producing ripe tomatoes until a few days before Christmas. I'm not sure why, but I haven't grown Bush Goliath again. I've been down the heirloom road for a long time and I am slowly developing an interest in some of the newer hybrid varieties with heat resistance and some disease resistance with a decent taste and production. I'm only doing it because I enjoy it and the worst tasting home grown tomato tastes better than the greenhouse tomatoes sold in the grocery stores.

[QUOTE=cecilsgarden1958;713535]I have grown two of those. Heatmaster & Bella Rosa. Bella Rosa did well and had good but not superb flavor. Heatmaster was a huge disappointment. I assumed it need more heat then we had here that year. Plants were wimpy and blighted and fruit was small and scarce. I prefer Hill Top, Mountain Pride and Bush Big Boy which I think was discontinued.[/QUOTE]


My Heatmaster plants are very healthy with full foliage from top too bottom. I planted ten plants in two beds. One bed receives full sun all day and the other bed receives about four hours of full sun each day. All ten plants are loaded with small tomatoes. I have no idea how the tomatoes will taste, but I know they live and blossom in our hottest weather plus a large percentage of the blossoms become tomatoes. I've grown a few of the Mountain series of hybrids over the years with decent, but not great results. Sometimes performance is dependent on location. I may have a better location for the Heatmaster's and you may have a better location for some of the Mountain series. I have no idea about Big Boy and Bush Big Boy. I always liked Better Boy when I grew them, but I don't think they had any genetic relationshiip to the other "Boy" varieties.


I've also reduced the amount of water the summer planted tomatoes receive compared to the spring planted tomatoes. I did it to see if reduced water will intensify the taste of my fall tomatoes. They are all growing well with less water in the high heat.