Tomato varieties for the deep south Heat??

[b54red]

Now that it is the end of July I will have to say that this year JDs Special C Tex has been my most productive during the hottest weather. Most of my plants set out from March through April are winding down now and most of the tomatoes I am getting now are smaller and ugly. I lost a lot of blossoms during the week of nonstop rain we had which caused another outbreak of Gray mold. I've sprayed the plants twice with the bleach spray and some are now blooming again and setting a few tomatoes. Below is a list of the tomatoes that did the best setting and producing during the hottest weather we had so far this summer.

JDs Special C Tex
Spudakee
Druzba
Eva Purple Ball
Lumpy Red
Indian Stripe
Berkley Tie Dye Pink
Dana's Dusky Rose
Zogola
Brandy Boy
Fish Lake Oxheart
Neves Azorean Red
Black Krim
Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red

[beefyboy]

I did many comparisons myself here in The south of Florida where we grow banana's and J.D special beats out all the blacks in the heat and found this out years ago. I will add that Brandywine Suddeths has done very well for me here and lasted well into May which surprised me a few years back. It did this twice so it was not a fluke!! (go figure)

[mysidx]

b54red, how did your Brandywine OTV and Terhune do for you? How was the taste of Terhune as I am growing it this year?

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

I just received my order of another 50% shade cloth from growersolution.com for a new bed where I'm going to put in fall transplants. They have to have sun protection to get established. There are too many variables to say for sure that shade cloth is the only reason, but it is a major reason I'm to have success growing in a North Dallas suburb that suffers greatly from the heat island effect, i.e. it gets as hot at my house as anywhere in N. Tx and it doesn't cool because I'm surrounded by vast amounts of concrete all leading to DFW airport. I think if you live out of the city, you get 5 degrees or more additional overnight cooling than us city slickers get. Tomatoes have narrow temperature range of happiness and shade cloth extends the days that are in that range and thereby extend your season in the spring (in addition to providing protection for fall transplants).

I use old, really old white sheets as shade cloths. They fit well over my raised beds. I use t-posts and attach PVC pipes to the t-posts, than clip the sheets up. We had some big dust storms last year that pulled the sheets down but caused no damage whatsoever, I just clipped them back up the next morning. Sheets weren't even torn. We also had a couple of very heavy rains, 1-2 inches in an hour. Sheets got heavy but the flexible PVC allowed them to sag until I could get out there and dump them.
My tomatoes ultimately succumbed to spider mites in August, along with a wilt. The wilt took out half the garden in only 2-3 days. I was unfamiliar with spider mites so I didn't recognize them until the plants were far too gone.
One issue I have with my garden placement is that I get some severe heat radiating off of the block wall. The garden is only 2 feet from a 6 foot high concrete wall. The wall is on the west and east side of my raised beds. This year, I'm going to move some of my tomatoes to one of the beds that isn't as close to the walls, although it is about 8 feet from the brick house. Wondering, if I trellis something that is seriously heat tolerant, perhaps an Asian melon, gourd or lab lab all over that wall, would it cool the wall down at all? I've noticed the soil on that end of the beds is really hot compared to the other ends.
I grew Cherokee Purple as my main tomato last year but I think this year I will use JDs instead, since it sounds like that may be a bit more heat tolerant.
Wanted to mention another that did well in the heat for me and that is Aussie. Huge tomatoes and a lot of them. Would of had more but a mocking bird started eating them, right through the bird netting because it was my last producing tomato on that part of the yard and I guess he needed water. I believe he was nesting nearby.
Purple Price (potato leaf, not purple prince) is also a good one for heat and is very vigorous and early for me.

I used the shade cloth last year with good results. When the temp is between 100 and 110 degrees F. for more than seventy days, you must try something. The cloth kept them alive for a fall production after the weather cooled. Nothing produced during the heat, but most of them survived behind the shade cloths and gave me a head start in the fall. I'm hoping for a cooler summer this year and possibly will not need the shade cloths.

Ted

[charliedog]

try the improved porter, it was developed in north central tex, does well in heat

[b54red]

Originally Posted by mysidx

b54red, how did your Brandywine OTV and Terhune do for you? How was the taste of Terhune as I am growing it this year?

OTV did poorly and I wasn't that impressed with it; but Terhune was my favorite pink beefsteak last year. It topped Stump and Sudduth's for both flavor and texture although Sudduth's did produce a bit more and bigger tomatoes.

OTV will not get a replant this year but Terhune will get several spaces if I can get any Terhune seedlings past the damping off stage.

[Aphid]

a couple that did very well for me and shook off the intense heat/humidity were

Amazon Chocolate
Berkley Tie Dye (pink)

the amazon chocolate was darn right prolific
both were very tasty too !

[meadowyck]

I must say, this sharing to find mater that will survive the heat a humidity is wonderful and so useful for me.

Thanks everyone for your input, I hope to soon be able to share my results here.

This has not been a typical late spring, early summer in North Texas. Normally, we would have experienced some 100 plus degree days by mid June. We haven't reached 100 degrees yet. Many of my forty two varieties are still blooming due to our cool nights. I can't tell how many are actually setting fruit in the heat. We should have some really hot weather within a couple of weeks and the hot weather should help me identify those varieties which still perform by blooming and setting fruit in the heat. A few of my plants have lost almost all of their leaves due to cool, moist nights resulting in Septoria. Mortgage Lifter, Tarasenko 6, Hillbilly, and Prudens Purple are basically naked with a lot of ripening fruit still on the vines. All of the naked varieties are putting on new suckers near the bottom of each plant. The suckers are unaffected by the Septoria and would grow to a productive size for my fall garden. I will probably pull them and plant some new seedlings I have growing.

Pink Berkeley Tie Dye and and Black Krim seem to be totally ignoring the moderate high heat we have experienced so far. They seem to actually enjoy it. Both still have many unripened spring fruit on them and are blooming like crazy.

Ted

[b54red]

This year the blacks that have done the best are Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, and BTDP. Spudakee has done well also but has had more problems with Gray Mold. I have one plant that I called Indian Red Stripeless because I got it last year from my IS seedlings. It was a fluke and though the plant was similar to IS it was far more virorous and grew like crazy. It also produced over 100 tomatoes off of just one plant that was set out in June. I saved the seed and planted one this year in March. It is by far the healthiest and largest plant in the garden. It is covered with fruit; but they are rounder than IS, red, smaller and also much slower to ripen. I don't know what this plant is but I am really glad I saved the seed last year because it is the only plant out of the first two beds I planted that has had no fusarium wilt. It didn't get it last year either so that was a definite plus. I need to come up with some kind of name for it because it is just not close to an Indian Stripe but it is also unlike any tomato I have grown in over 35 years. I still won't know if the seed are running true until some of the other seedlings that I set out start producing ripe fruit.

[meadowyck]

b54red, do you have any pictures of this one, sounds incredible, and its still going. When in your area do you have slow to no tomato production going on?

[Gardeneer]

Hi evrryone. This is off seadon comment
Long night early winter gotton bored
On the subject my number one heat tolorent
Is BIG BEEF. Nevet be without them. Just in 2024 they survived til mid november when frost killed them
Arkansa traveller did ok as far as heat tolorance.
My worst was amana orange all around. Never agsin
.So now I am planning. Will get some seeds sarted in feb.
BTW i am in zone 8a in NC.
MERRY XMASS TO ALGL.

[MrsJustice]

Merry Christmas
It is good to recognize the variety of Tomatoes & Vegetables we do not like and will not grow again for personal reasons and likes and dislikes. I love Customers like you. I wish I had the Big Muscadines Grapes from the 1700s grown by Native Americans. But I do have the Small Muscadine grape Vines that have been growing on my Farm for over 150 years.

So, if you ever learn of a Purely Organic Muscadines Grape Vine, I can Grow here in Virginia. Please let me know.

How do you feel about the Organe Hawaiian Pineapple Tomatoes? They are my best seller.