Tomatoes in Texas

[tlintx]

If nothing carries it off overnight, I will snap a photo next to the ruler. Terror may be influencing my size estimate.

It's nice to know they're overhead all the time... I think? I guess, since I've never seen one before, they can't be that much of a problem. I'm just finding it a bit nerve-wracking to run into so many large non-mammal critters on a daily basis.

I saw a centipede! Not a fuzzy butterfly caterpillar, an actual centipede. And what I think was a damselfly, only massive and furry. And wasps, everywhere, in three different colors.

The thing I've found it hardest to get used to are the sudden thwacks against the windows at night every so often as something flies into the glass. I much prefer frogs!


Tl

[Rockporter]

Yep, welcome to south tx, I lived on North Padre Island at one time and the centipedes, scorpions, huge spiders and cockroaches(aka Water Bugs) and the frogs were everywhere and the moths and butterflies looked like about 6" wide. It was a very scary world for me when I first moved to south tx and I still haven't really been able to get used to it.

The bug guy treats the yard for everything including the centipedes that I find here. I have yet to see a scorpion but I hear they are around, at least they aren't coming into the house. I use to kill at least two per day while living on the island.

The loud banging on our windows are the cicada's flying towards the light. They emerge from their pupal shell shortly after coming out of the ground with only one interest. They have no desire to eat or do anything else but find a girl cidada. When they accomplish that, they die and the cycle starts again. I believe the cicada's in our part of the country are seven year cicada's. In a large area of the north and northeast, they are experiencing the seventeenth year of the seventeen year cicada. They are red cicada's and equally noisy and in far greater numbers than ours.

When we lived in East Texas, I would go out at night with a powerful flashlight and a twenty two pistol. The cicadas would be emerging from the soil in their pupal stage and slowly climb the closest structure. Their bodies were very soft. Copperhead snakes would be propelling their bodies up the side of trees to catch and eat the cicadas before their shells hardened. It was always a good chance for me to eliminate most of the copperheads in my yard. The first summer in our house, I killed fifty three copperheads in three months. The following years, I would only find three or four each summer.

The insect I find most disgusting in north Texas is the scorpion. I never pick up any stone or piece of wood without rolling it over. Usually a scorpion or mother scorpion with her babies on her back will be found under it. They try to scurry off to another dark hiding place, but the sole of my shoe usually ends the search. Their sting is no worse than an ant bite or wasp sting, but I don't like them. They attempt to find the smallest entrance into a home where they can hide in shoes or hanging clothes in a closet. We have even found them under the pillows on our bed.

I don't mind the wide variety of wasps and bees around here. I usually tend my garden with them buzzing around me and I have never been stung by one unless I accidentally mash it.

Ted

[Rockporter]

Now that is scary Ted. Ugh, my skin is crawling just thinking about copperheads.

[tlintx]

Is it possible to feel both better and worse? I may never go outside again. I'm certainly never going out at night!

Although the only snake I've seen is a brown snake (not poisonous). And one of those snake-like salamanders with tiny arms.

I've been here fifteen years, and it seems like every day I'm surprised by something new! My husband is of the opinion that if it doesn't bother us, who cares? I just don't like wiggling, flying, erratic things swooping around my face.

I actually tried to hurdle my wagon the other day when I spotted a red wasp at eye level less than a foot away. Gardening is good exercise!

[sfmathews]

I've never been stung by wasps or bees in the garden either. I've disturbed plenty of red wasps on the underside of leaves, but they just fly off. Bumble and honey bees that were going after pollen in a flower don't mind if I move the flower stalk a bit, they just follow it. Now if I was threatening their nest, that would probably be a different story. I like all the anoles, newts and toads that reside in the yard. I love going to bed, hearing the toads singing by the pond every night.

Originally Posted by tedln

I don't mind the wide variety of wasps and bees around here. I usually tend my garden with them buzzing around me and I have never been stung by one unless I accidentally mash it.
Ted

[tlintx]

Okay, I measured, and it was two inches - a very stocky two inches. I'm relieved there are bugs that are only two inches long hiding in the trees overhead and ground below.

I'm still grateful for my 270 growing days, though!

The only time I've really been stung was when I accidently bumped into a large cypress stump in the pond at our house in East Texas. I was in a row boat fishing for crappie. I didn't know the red wasps had built a large nest in the tree stump and they really got me good. I don't know what the speed record for a single man row boat is, but I think I broke it that day.

A friend was with me in my garden recently and he nearly had a heart attack when a red wasp started circling us closely. I told him to settle down and watch. I stuck my bare arm out and let the wasp settle on my arm. He sat there for a few seconds and then flew away. My friend said "I can't believe you did that". My reply was "Even if it stings me, it only hurts for a little while. If I'm afraid of something, I will always be afraid of it. I prefer to get stung and not be afraid". My wife used to give me a hard time when I would go out at night looking for copper head's with my flashlight and pistol wearing flip flops on my feet. She was actually right since we both keep snake boots in the closet. I always figured the emergency room at the hospital stays open all night. She says my ignorance is sometimes much more apparent than my intelligence.

Ted

[tlintx]

Originally Posted by tedln

My reply was "Even if it stings me, it only hurts for a little while. If I'm afraid of something, I will always be afraid of it. I prefer to get stung and not be afraid".

This story has helped me immensely when dealing with the critters outside. Thank you!

I went out this morning and my baby zucchini was completely defoliated overnight. Just sticks. By a thick black caterpillar! It's still sitting there, sleeping off the meal! How did it even get into a SIP three feet off the ground? I'd be mad, but I don't even really like zucchini all that much.


Tl

[Brettj]

How are everyone's tomato plants doing in the Houston area? I'm amazed that mine are still producing. I've got five plants...Big Beef, Better Boy, Celebrity, JD's Special C-Tex and Brandywine. All are still alive and (mostly) well. The Big Beef, Better Boy and Celebrity are still producing at a decent rate. Not as good as a month ago, but not bad. It's the first year I've grown them in their current location so I'm not sure if that has helped their longevity. The Brandywine has put out mealy junk from the first fruit and the C-Tex was a bit of a disappointment, both in quantity and quality.

Is everyone else still getting a few tomatoes from their plants?

[tlintx]

Just Reisentraube and Red Fig for me; the others are done. I didn't really plant the right types - mostly determinates, plus a couple of Cherokee Purples. And it's become apparent that the sunniest spots in my yards are brutally sunny and the shady spots are too shady!

Putting my efforts into cleanup and Fall now.

[Urbanfarmer]

JD's is the most prolific in the heat, but we're getting some continued set from Better Boy, Champion II, and Kellogg's Breakfast. The picture is from the other day when we picked a few. The avocado doesn't count....didn't grow that.

My garden is still producing ripe tomatoes with many green ones still on the vines. The vines are looking pretty hopeless as a result of some high heat we had for a week or two. The end of last week and most of this week have been unseasonably cool with a few nights down in the fifties. Next week, the highs will probably exceed 100 and the lows will be about 75. I'm hoping to get some more fruit set from about ten days of cool weather. I've had the longest, cold spring and extended cool summer weather I've ever seen in this part of the country. Last summer we were setting records for high temps. This year we are setting records for low temps. Go figure.

Ted

[Redbaron]

Yes Ted. Almost the same thing here. I am slowly learning to embrace it though.

[Dewayne mater]

Ted - crazy temperate summer! What a contrast! Our overnight lows are predictably warmer with the lowest being last night around 64.

The vast majority of my beefsteaks are still on the vine on July 3!. We've been scratching the tomato itch with sungold, black cherry, purple haze and all time champion producer black and brown boar. (one plant we've picked 25 or more and there are that many more still on it. Insane!).

I've got disease issues setting in and I'm not sure I can get these plants through the summer or not, but for now, that is my plan. If we get some fruit set in this cooler weather, then I'll be eating Spring tomatoes in August at least (I know you Texas know that is unusual!). Otherwise, what I've got will probably play out by the end of July. There has not been a year like this since I've grown tomatoes from a weather stand point.

I have to say my plants are uniformly enormous. Those in the ground are all pushing up the sunshade cloth over them that is suspended at around 7 feet high. Those in Tainers have all overtopped the highest cages. All are downright unruly in their growth with the flower bed looking like a jungle. Gotta do a better job pruning and staking next year I guess.

Dewayne mater