Since 2017, I have been trying to grow determinant tomatoes in my cold frame so that I have the first ripe tomatoes in the second half of May. Every year I planted the seedlings in the last week of March, the plants grew beautifully, they already put on flowers at the end of April, but I could not pollinate the flowers even though I tapped them, reduced the humidity in the cold frame, etc.
The reason was that I never managed to keep the night temperature in that frame above 11°C, which is a necessary condition for the pollen to germinate and pollinate the flowers. The flowers were pollinated only in May, which postponed the harvest of ripe tomatoes by at least a fortnight. That's why I chose parthenocarpic tomatoes bred by Dr. Baggett from the University of Oregon for this year. I already have the seedlings outside the window and they are doing quite well. I hope it will be successful this year, because in April of next year I am going to have surgery on my left knee and I still don't know when I will be scheduled for the right one.
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