Well, it's tomato starting time again. Do you have any favorite varieties for here in the desert? I haven't tried very many yet.

I'm impressed with production from the little Sophie's Choice plants. I'll probably always grow a few of them. As for big plants, I've had great success for 2 or 3 (? can't remember) years in a row with the San Marzano 2 seeds from Remy (Sampleseeds). Big plants that crank out a bunch of tomatoes.

I'm starting seeds today. I'm trying a few different ones this year. The list:

Sophie's Choice
Eckert Polish
San Marzano 2
Rosella Crimson (dwarf project)
Rinaldo
Druzba
Olive Hill (the free seeds this order from Remy were these)

After 8 years of trials, I've decided that almost anything will work if you recognize that our growing season (without augmented misting systems, shade covers etc.) is late February through June, maybe to mid-July. I do not know the varieties you are trying, although I've heard that Sophie's Choice does well here. I am after good tomato flavor, and I do not care if it's from an heirloom or a hybrid. Winners for me have been Big Beef (flavor varies year to year from supermarket to superb), Lemon Boy, Goose Creek, Gardener's Delight, Black Krim, Tami G, Stupice, Marglobe (great flavor, low production), Moreton and others. Losers have been Mule Team, Hawaiian Tropic, Brandy Boy (every single time) and most super late season varieties. They just do not have enough time to set fruit before it's 100 degrees every day. Good luck. I'd love to hear from you in August as to what worked for you. My results vary every year.

Feedback like yours is helpful. I only have room to grow a dozen at the very most full-size plants each season. I like to grow at least 2 plants of each variety I'm trying. There isn't much point in trying ones that others here have already found consistently lacking for one reason or another. Your thumbs down list is the sort of thing I'm looking for.

I'm really curious how well the dwarf will do. I have high hopes for Rinaldo and Druzba. Time will tell. I agree a single growing season doesn't tell the whole story.

Like AZRuss, every year has vastly different results, in my garden. June is the time of year that I try to get my second crop of tomatoes in and plant crowders and a few other things to take advantage of the monsoons. This has worked well for me.
I also have a severe problem with soil nematodes, so a lot of tomatoes don't work for me. Celebrity, Bush Goliath, Susy and a few others have worked from year to year, but depending on the weather and timing of planting can even cause them to fail. I can't grow Green Zebra, Durzba, Mule team, Stupice, most Black tomatoes and Hearts that don't have thick foliage and short maturity times.
Peppers do great though, and I just got the seeds in this week.

Being so warm and the long-term forecast favorable, I planted. Got my bigger plants in the ground on the 15th. They are looking good so far and have grown. Planted peppers several days ago. Dug and planted the other bed for the little tomatoes yesterday.

Highs here have been 80ish, lows mid 40's. Soil temperature, the single place I measured about 4" down was 69. I've left the beds bare, as in no mulch yet, to help warm them up. Last year I piled leaves on too early, which was a mistake.

Now the weather will turn cold.

Baby maters and peppers are setting on the porch for the last couple of weeks and loving it... My soil temp is a bit cooler than yours, so I'm going to wait a week or two and then plant if the weather still looks good.
Good luck!:?!?:

This year I did things a little differently. I put my tomato seedlings out in the sun pretty much as soon as they came up. I didn't use much supplemental light inside. I also left them in the storeroom or on the porch at night for several weeks to get "cold treatment."

Peppers won't really kick into gear until the weather warms up.

I bought a couple tubs of Tanglefoot that were on clearance at a local Ace Hardware for $5.25 each. I cut up an old cat litter bucket to make plastic panels, glued on some sticks, spray painted yellow, and painted on the Tanglefoot. It works much better than Vaseline for catching bugs. All of these are full of trapped aphids, little green leafhoppers and other bugs. Even stuck a few houseflies.

The sticky boards sound good... I've tried vaseline before with mixed results.. the tanglefoot sounds better. good idea.
I like getting the seedlings outside as soon as possible. It seems to make a stronger and healthier plant, although the growth is a bit slower if the nights stay too cool. This year, even my eggplants are doing well outside and they are even more sensitive to cool nights than peppers.

My tomatoes have been over for about two weeks. Should have sweetcorn ready in the next day or two.

My tomatoes are hanging on but only because I have an umbrella over them... Not sure how much longer they will last. The weekend temps (114- 116) really did a number on the garden. Yum- how much corn did you grow!? I've never been successful with corn...

My corn is a small patch of 35 stocks. They are planted a little too close to each other. There are only 4-5 stocks with 2 ears and 1 with 3 ears. The others have 1 ear. The variety is Surger Buns (se+) from Johnny's Seeds.

Somehow, all my plants look great. I don't know why. I'm thinking about leaving my saladette ones (German lunchbox) to see how they fare since they're chugging right along.

Also, my aji cristal chiles are still blooming & setting chiles. It's like no one told my garden max temps have been exceeded.