How did your tomatoes do this season?

[Dak]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Earlier varieties as well as smaller varieties (slicers instead of beefsteaks) should give a better yield in hotter summers, or more extreme summers.

I'm helping choose varieties for the spring master gardener tomato sale. About half the current list is large, late beefsteaks, so I'm suggesting major revisions. It's worth trying one or two, if you have space for a dozen plants, because you might get lucky. But for a steady crop, it's better to rely on other varieties.

@habitat_gardener


I know I'm a bit late here on this thread, but I would be very interested in learning the tomatoes you recommend for yield in hotter summers.


My crop this year was very disappointing, it was just unrelentingly hot here. During the last 2 months of heat I put up a shade cloth, which brought down the temperature by at least 10 degrees and cooled things down enough for me to get some sort of yield, so at least I have that in place for next year. Unexpected plus, I still have some tomatoes going, I didn't realize it would work as frost protection as well.



I read somewhere on here that for hot summers, it's best to plant seeds early, like the week of Christmas to get a good headstart. Wondering if anyone has feedback on this, (I use wall-of-waters once they get too big to manage in pots), has anyone else tried this?