Second crop

[b54red]

Although I am still getting fruit from the first bed of tomatoes I planted the second planting on May 1st and my third planting in mid May are starting to produce nicely. Although the second planting got hit pretty hard by EB the same as the first bed the third only had a few plants affected slightly. What is surprising is the size of the fruits I am getting from the third bed. Usually this time of the year there are few tomatoes that would be classified as large but all the rain has broken up the normally insufferable heat and allowed the fruits to get fairly big. I did plant a fourth bed on the 16th of June and as I was giving my plants a dose of TTF this morning I noticed that at least half of those plants now have set fruits so the future of fresh tomato eating looks fairly good for the next couple of months. Of course that is if the spider mites don't come in big time and the pests and foliage diseases can be kept under control. I am still losing quite a few fruits to worms and birds so I guess the squirrels will start on them soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have enough grafted seedlings to plant one more small bed in late July or early August if I can get one prepared. That last bed would strictly be for fall tomatoes and is always tricky because if the cool nights move in too soon the fruits don't ripen good or are damaged by an early freeze; but if we have a late fall then I could be eating fresh tomatoes at Christmas.

Bill

[jmsieglaff]

Best of luck Bill, it sounds like you're having a pretty good year--hopefully they make it to maturity. I planted out May 13 this year and I'm just starting to get our first ripe fruits.

[My Foot Smells]

keep us posted, august can be brutal. everything here starts to transpire, perspire, and expire except the okra. good luck. I've tried to grow a few things for "fall," in years past, but august is the grim reaper and early sept. is often times not so nice either.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by My Foot Smells

keep us posted, august can be brutal. everything here starts to transpire, perspire, and expire except the okra. good luck. I've tried to grow a few things for "fall," in years past, but august is the grim reaper and early sept. is often times not so nice either.

It can be trying at times. Sometimes September is even worse than August. Very heavy mulch is a major factor in beating the heat by keeping the ground cooler and more evenly moist. Before I started mulching heavily it was almost impossible to grow anything successfully down here that time of the year.

Bill

[Gardeneer]

Good Luck, Bill !

I am just experimenting second crop. My plants are about 18" tall and flowering, setting fruits.
I have just less than a dozen plants.
My spring plants are still doing ok (except a half a dozen or so that I have pulled ). No major disease issue. But Pest is a bigger problem : Hornworms, Stink bugs, grasshoppers and maybe more. Gotta do another round of Sevin and Permatherin. I will probably do it late this afternoon.
On the plus side I have had no soil borne diseases, wilting or anything like that.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Good Luck, Bill !

I am just experimenting second crop. My plants are about 18" tall and flowering, setting fruits.
I have just less than a dozen plants.
My spring plants are still doing ok (except a half a dozen or so that I have pulled ). No major disease issue. But Pest is a bigger problem : Hornworms, Stink bugs, grasshoppers and maybe more. Gotta do another round of Sevin and Permatherin. I will probably do it late this afternoon.
On the plus side I have had no soil borne diseases, wilting or anything like that.

Congratulations. The longer you live and garden in the south the more things you will find that can mess your plans up. There seems to be a never ending supply of deterrents that make it harder to be successful. Being vigilant and acting quickly are the only things that will keep you successful and it sounds like you are on the way. The big plus down here is the long season and the ability to grow a lot of different crops in the fall and early spring which are usually reserved for spring further north.
Good luck with your latest planting. Are you going to set out any more or is that it for the season? I'm much further south and have a much later frost date so I will probably plant out one more time and see if I can get some ripe fruit just before it freezes.

Bill

[My Foot Smells]

Originally Posted by b54red

It can be trying at times. Sometimes September is even worse than August. Very heavy mulch is a major factor in beating the heat by keeping the ground cooler and more evenly moist. Before I started mulching heavily it was almost impossible to grow anything successfully down here that time of the year.

Bill

Thank you for the candid reply. To be truthful I never even thought about heavy mulch. That is a springtime, early summer ritual for me. I'm always expecting heavy math, but basic application makes the most sense of all often. Thank you.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by b54red

Congratulations. The longer you live and garden in the south the more things you will find that can mess your plans up. There seems to be a never ending supply of deterrents that make it harder to be successful. Being vigilant and acting quickly are the only things that will keep you successful and it sounds like you are on the way. The big plus down here is the long season and the ability to grow a lot of different crops in the fall and early spring which are usually reserved for spring further north.
Good luck with your latest planting. Are you going to set out any more or is that it for the season? I'm much further south and have a much later frost date so I will probably plant out one more time and see if I can get some ripe fruit just before it freezes.

Bill

Yes, Bill. That is called experience.

I second crop is done. No more planting. My garden space is limited and therefor no more additional plants.

[AlittleSalt]

Bill, you are an inspirational person. You have already gone through the things I am facing in gardening with the RKN, and Fusarium race 3. I like how you write about grafting and the ups and downs that can and do happen along the way.

I'm going to plant some tomato plants out in clay soil that is mostly dapple shaded tomorrow. Why? Because I need to see how they do, and they need to be planted somewhere. They are at the use-it or lose-it stage of Solo cups. Five of them are Big Beef F1s. What I've read is that RKN doesn't care for clay soil, but I've read a lot that I question.

I am many steps behind you. I need to grow some of those tasteless wonders that are FFF, N next spring. I need to see tomato plants that have a chance in our soil borne problems, and who knows, maybe that's what the next couple of generations eating them might like better? = our sons, daughter in law, and grandchildren. They grew up eating supermarket tomatoes, but so did me and my wife.

[b54red]

Salt, I'm sure you will find some FFF varieties that will grow decent looking tomatoes in your soil. As to flavor and texture that I can't help you with. I didn't find a single one that was any better than just going to the store and buying them but maybe there are some more palatable ones out there. I only tried about half a dozen. Some produced much better than others but I can't recall the names of the varieties that did better than the others. I do remember one that produced larger and more tomatoes than the others and it was a determinate plant. I had fairly good luck with Amelia which at the time was the one used most by the local commercial growers. I know that they have added some other varieties. I will check with a friend of mine involved with them and see if he can give me the names of some that do well and pass that along to you.

Bill

[JosephineRose]

Our major heat is yet to come in September and October, so I too am working on a second crop. I have seedlings of Brutus, a mystery tomato that I think may be Ananas Noire, Dw Sweet Sue, Tasmanian Chocolate and Rainbow Dwarf coming up, and I have clones of Black Krim and Margaret Curtain to transplant. I've never tried this before, so it will be interesting.

[b54red]

Salt I talked to a friend of mine who is familiar with some of the local commercial growers and he said that the one that did the best this past season was called Red Bounty. He said it produced larger fruit, redder fruit and that it tasted better than most of the other super hybrids. It is supposed to be very resistant to Fusarium 1 & 2. Nematodes and best of all it is resistant to Spotted Wilt virus. Even though it is not listed as resistant to all 3 races of fusarium it did well around here for a couple of growers. Maybe it has enough resistance to the third race to get by or the fields it was in didn't have it. He said one of the guys planted half Amelia and half Red Bounty and did far better with the Red Bounty. You might want to give it a try just to see if it will work in your garden along with some of the others you might want to try. I did recall the one that did fairly good for me and it was called Red Mountain.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

Bill, I just took a break from painting and noticed your post. So far I've looked up Red Bounty and found it available at several sites. This one https://www.harrisseeds.com/products...nt=28918864849 has 100 seeds for $13.75.

Red Mountain also found at Harris Seeds 100 seeds for $14.15 https://www.harrisseeds.com/products...nt=28918396113

Thank you for the information.

[Gardeneer]

I wonder where these soil borne creatures come from !
Right now in my first garden made from virgin old pasture like grass is fine and I have not had a single wilt incident. So I am thinking , if there are not here now where possibly might come from in the future !!
BTW, my fall plants are flowering and few of them have fruits. German Queen (from store ) has about a dozen of tomatoes. But it was planted out around mid June.
Now the high temps over 95F most days, I am not sure which ones of the first crops are setting tomatoes. So far IS-PL keeps pumping.

[b54red]

I set out a couple of Gary O' Sena plants in mid May and they are putting out a lot of fruit and big ones. It is one of the most vegetative varieties that I have ever grown and requires some serious pruning for good production. The taste is typical of black tomatoes but a bit milder than most of the blacks. I have been surprised at the production of fairly large fruit from some varieties that I didn't think would do so well planted that late like 1884 and Red Siberian. I am going to do my last attempt at grafting today and tomorrow and try to get in one more good bed of tomatoes for some late fall production.

Bill