Fall Planting...tell me about it?

sjoella · June 15, 2013

I have never thought to plant a later crop of tomatoes, but the more I read thru the forums here, yall do it! Looks like yall do it with what is currently in the garden.

Enlighten me, I kinda get it...but then again, i kinda dont too...

Thanks!

tlintx · June 15, 2013

I have two long seasons, separated by two months of heat. We're supposed to start seeds this week for planting out in August, with an eye towards tomatoes in October/September.

But I started mine in April and just planted them out. How long is your season there? If you pick an early tomato, you just have to count backwards from your first frost date.

Some people cut their plants back and wait for them to regrow. Or harvest and root suckers instead of starting from seed.

Edit, Nov. 11th? So you have about four months, maybe.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Category:Early_Tomatoes

Tl

sjoella · June 16, 2013

i didnt think about that...i should maybe plant again in the next couple/few weeks...maybe i will try a few plants and see how the season goes this time and better plan for next time...

shelleybean · June 16, 2013

I try to keep tomatoes going until the beginning of November here but I can't always do it. When I take my first round of plants outside in April, I start some back ups that are ready the first half of June. I keep moving them to bigger and bigger pots until I need them and if they fruit in that time, that's fine. I will usually have to pull a few of the plants from the garden due to disease and I will pop one of these back ups in. I can doing this until close to the end of July and still have enough time for fruit to ripen off these plants. I just used one on Friday. I had a mule plant that I had to pull. We don't get as hot as Texas here so I don't need to do two separate crops of tomatoes, but if I have time, I'll put in a replacement plant where I've had to pull one and this helps me extend my season. I first started doing this when we had a really mild winter and I lost almost all my plants to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. I found myself running to every garden center in the area looking for more plants but it was really too late. So I decided I'd better take the raising of back ups on myself and I have done so ever since. This is what works for me.

June 16, 2013

I have the same growing conditions as tlintx. Most of my tomato plants stop growing, stop blooming, and stop producing in the high heat of summer. Some die. The plants which survive the heat usually start growing, blooming, and producing again when late summer heat starts declining. I usually trim the surviving plants back to the area of the plants where new growth is occurring. I often replace the dead plants with new plants grown from cuttings or purchased from my favorite farm store. I rarely grow fall plants from seed because it requires more attention than I can give them. I also plant a few cool weather crops like chinese cabbage or various greens. My garden is pretty full of producing plants until the first frosts arrive in late fall. Many of the leafy greens survive into late winter without harm from a few freezes. December and January are usually spent preparing my beds for spring plant out and germinating seed for the new garden. I do plant my onions out in January. Last year, my newly planted onions were often buried under siix inches of snow. We had no snow this past winter. Next winter/early spring, I plan on experimenting with a few cool weather crops I've never grown like broccoli and cauliflower. I grew beets this year for the first time and they performed very well.

While I harvest a lot of ripe tomatoes in the fall, a killing frost or freeze usually arrives with a lot of green tomatoes still on the vine. Most of the larger green tomatoes are harvested before the freeze and allowed to ripen in my cool shop into January. Some are sacrificed to produce seed. I often plant tomato seed for germination which was harvested from a tomato the previous week. This year, I plan on trying some recipes for pickled green tomatoes and tomato Chow Chow or relish in order to use all the green tomatoes. I'm not a fan of many fried foods, so no fried green tomatoes (a southern tradition) for me.

Ted

June 15, 2013	#1
sjoella Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: chesapeake, virginia Posts: 89	Fall Planting...tell me about it? I have never thought to plant a later crop of tomatoes, but the more I read thru the forums here, yall do it! Looks like yall do it with what is currently in the garden. Enlighten me, I kinda get it...but then again, i kinda dont too... Thanks!

June 15, 2013	#2
tlintx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: SeTx Posts: 881	I have two long seasons, separated by two months of heat. We're supposed to start seeds this week for planting out in August, with an eye towards tomatoes in October/September. But I started mine in April and just planted them out. How long is your season there? If you pick an early tomato, you just have to count backwards from your first frost date. Some people cut their plants back and wait for them to regrow. Or harvest and root suckers instead of starting from seed. Edit, Nov. 11th? So you have about four months, maybe. http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Category:Early_Tomatoes Tl Last edited by tlintx; June 16, 2013 at 01:13 AM.

June 16, 2013	#4
shelleybean Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Virginia Beach Posts: 2,648	I try to keep tomatoes going until the beginning of November here but I can't always do it. When I take my first round of plants outside in April, I start some back ups that are ready the first half of June. I keep moving them to bigger and bigger pots until I need them and if they fruit in that time, that's fine. I will usually have to pull a few of the plants from the garden due to disease and I will pop one of these back ups in. I can doing this until close to the end of July and still have enough time for fruit to ripen off these plants. I just used one on Friday. I had a mule plant that I had to pull. We don't get as hot as Texas here so I don't need to do two separate crops of tomatoes, but if I have time, I'll put in a replacement plant where I've had to pull one and this helps me extend my season. I first started doing this when we had a really mild winter and I lost almost all my plants to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. I found myself running to every garden center in the area looking for more plants but it was really too late. So I decided I'd better take the raising of back ups on myself and I have done so ever since. This is what works for me. __________________ Michele

June 16, 2013	#5
tedln Guest Posts: n/a	I have the same growing conditions as tlintx. Most of my tomato plants stop growing, stop blooming, and stop producing in the high heat of summer. Some die. The plants which survive the heat usually start growing, blooming, and producing again when late summer heat starts declining. I usually trim the surviving plants back to the area of the plants where new growth is occurring. I often replace the dead plants with new plants grown from cuttings or purchased from my favorite farm store. I rarely grow fall plants from seed because it requires more attention than I can give them. I also plant a few cool weather crops like chinese cabbage or various greens. My garden is pretty full of producing plants until the first frosts arrive in late fall. Many of the leafy greens survive into late winter without harm from a few freezes. December and January are usually spent preparing my beds for spring plant out and germinating seed for the new garden. I do plant my onions out in January. Last year, my newly planted onions were often buried under siix inches of snow. We had no snow this past winter. Next winter/early spring, I plan on experimenting with a few cool weather crops I've never grown like broccoli and cauliflower. I grew beets this year for the first time and they performed very well. While I harvest a lot of ripe tomatoes in the fall, a killing frost or freeze usually arrives with a lot of green tomatoes still on the vine. Most of the larger green tomatoes are harvested before the freeze and allowed to ripen in my cool shop into January. Some are sacrificed to produce seed. I often plant tomato seed for germination which was harvested from a tomato the previous week. This year, I plan on trying some recipes for pickled green tomatoes and tomato Chow Chow or relish in order to use all the green tomatoes. I'm not a fan of many fried foods, so no fried green tomatoes (a southern tradition) for me. Ted Last edited by tedln; June 16, 2013 at 03:09 PM.