Fall tomatoes
 

Are you in, are you out? These have always been a little iffy for me but I'm going to try. I'm growing Big Beef, Juliet, and Carmello in grow bags. Only three plants. These are not my favorite tomatoes, but I did not start seeds and these are what the nursery had a couple of days ago so I bought them.

Big Beef. and Carmello
 

Planted 2 days ago.

I'm in and doing a comparison of Big Beef, Big Boy and Better Boy.

I started late but just transplanted seedlings a few days ago. I'm growing some in containers and some in dutch buckets in the greenhouse hoping for ripe tomatoes during the holidays. I also have some small peppers growing that I'll overwinter.

I'm also in zone 9, but just got seeds started yesterday! I'm in central Florida, and the frost warning before Christmas is quite rare, plus I'm growing mostly determinates, compacts/dwarf/microdwarf varieties in containers in case any have to be moved or covered. It's still too hot here to be putting transplants out, but I hope I haven't started too late. I'll be starting others later for a late winter/spring arc trying to beat the heat and rains of spring. The only large oblate/beefsteak I'm starting now is Dwarf Purple Reign. That may require some winter precautions.

I'm in from SoCal. I got a late start, I have 4 that will go in my raised beds in a couple of days. Than 6 more probably next week. I usually have mine in by the middle of July. Not to worried about frost, my big worry is the Santa Ana winds that start around the 1st of December.

I'm concerned about high heat right now too
 

[QUOTE=kilroyscarnival;744210]I'm also in zone 9, but just got seeds started yesterday! I'm in central Florida, and the frost warning before Christmas is quite rare, plus I'm growing mostly determinates, compacts/dwarf/microdwarf varieties in containers in case any have to be moved or covered. It's still too hot here to be putting transplants out, but I hope I haven't started too late. I'll be starting others later for a late winter/spring arc trying to beat the heat and rains of spring. The only large oblate/beefsteak I'm starting now is Dwarf Purple Reign. That may require some winter precautions.[/QUOTE]

That's why fall tomatoes are iffy for me. August and September are really hot months. My average first frost date is December 11th through the 20th. So I'm fighting heat at the beginning and cold at the end.

Oh well, it will be fun trying to get tomatoes in the fall!

Big Beef is a really good fall tomato. It can take the heat and stress of being put out in the garden in the hottest part of the summer and usually survive nicely and go on to make a lot of tomatoes when it cools down. A couple of recommendations that really help with getting some good fruit on fall tomatoes. Limit the number of stems. Feed them regularly with TTF. Spray for stinkbugs and leaf footed bugs if you see any signs of them because they can be especially bad in late summer and fall.

Bill

Rajun, I don't have a greenhouse like you do. :(

I'm going to transplant 3 Porter and 2 Medovaya Kaplya plants tonight. Also start some summer squash seeds soon.

These are my fall tomatoes. They were started from seed on June 4 and transplanted to the buckets on June 28. I've been pushing start dates back two weeks each year for the past several years trying to end up with exhausted plants instead of a boatload of greenies. Hopefully these were started early enough to have most tomatoes picked by first frost around late October.

L to R: Creole, Golden Girl, Large Red Cherry and Early Girl.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/qKXnp6L.jpg[/IMG]

They're on the shady side of the garden and don't get full sun until after 12:00. By not getting all day sun the plants aren't as bushy and are more thin-looking but they're setting tomatoes. I've been toying of the idea of moving them to the sunny side. Maybe I'll leave them right where they are for now while it's so hot and move them to the sunny side in September.