Date of first tomato?

[SteveP]

Around what date do you normally get your first ripe tomato? Here in SW MO I normally get my first tomato of the season late June to July 1st. This year it seems like things are a little behind schedule, even though I planted about a week earlier than usual. Mild cloudy days and periods of heavy rain is what I'm blaming it on. We are just now seeing some sunny days reaching around 80f, so I am hoping things begin to really take off.

My plants are in a raised bed with no cover.

[taboule]

I always aim for the fourth of july, and often make it. Last year I was off by a couple of days IIRC. Of course, this would be from a 4th of July tomato, the only hybrid I typically grow -just for this specific reason. It's a small fruit, but bigger than a cherry.

Tough to do early with a large variety. However, a couple of years a while back, my first fruit was Black Krim, from large plants which had flowers when they went in the ground.

[SpookyShoe]

This year I had ripe Sun Sugar cherry on May 3rd. On May 9th I had ripe Black Cherry cherry tomatoes. Three days ago I picked two ripe J D's Special C-Tex.

[edweather]

April here in southern Georgia.

[AlittleSalt]

January 1 - just go to the grocery store and buy one.
Cherry tomatoes around June 15 here.

[xellos99]

Late June but it depends so much on the variety and how early you can start them.

Many people in considerably better climates than my own don't get ripe toms any earlier than me because I start them in much colder time of year than they do.

I start them literally in winter

[asaump]

Last year I picked my first tomatoes on Jul 9th. Sun Gold.

[Labradors2]

I start a few compact container tomatoes in mid-Feb and, if I'm lucky, have ripe fruit .mid-June.


The rest go in the veggie garden and get started in late March/early April and I get some ripe ones in mid-July.


Linda