Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

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karstopography
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Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#1

Post: # 18633Unread post karstopography
Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:39 pm

What variety outside of the small cherry or grape tomatoes, in your experience, handles the hot and humid southern summer best? I know at least a few of y’all live along the gulf coast or otherwise tropical type of places. Does anyone have much luck with tomatoes in the heat of late July, August and into September?
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

fluffy_gumbo
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#2

Post: # 18635Unread post fluffy_gumbo
Tue Apr 28, 2020 2:29 pm

I want to know too! I moved to New Orleans last year and found out the hard way what DIDN'T work :lol:
What didn't work: Brandywine - Red and Orange, Cherokee Purple (although some other gardeners had more luck). Better Boy from a store did alright. My biggest mistake was probably not growing cherry tomatoes, also inexeperience with pests and disease.

This year is looking better after doing much more research and more proactive with preventing disease and pests. The best performing ones so far are
Sweet Million and Creole - lots of fruits forming. All the others are doing well though: Sungold, Early Girl, and SOTW
Learn, adapt, grow! - Zone 9B
Blog: https://thebigeasygarden.wordpress.com/

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GoDawgs
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#3

Post: # 18656Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:06 pm

I'll be watching this thread as well.

It gets torrid here July through August, sometimes into mid September, with high humidity. For the last several years we've been growing the tomatoes where they get some shade during the hottest part of the day, like from 4:00 on during those months. That has helped but it's more the funk that gets them.

Last year I grew about six varieties in the full, all day sun as a test and they didn't do well AT ALL. The fruits were small and the plants seemed stressed all the time even though they received the same treatments (fert,soil mix etc, maybe a tad more water) as those grown with late afternoon shade. Besides, pollen is kaput when the temp gets above about 90 anyway so all you can do is keep the plants alive until it cools enough to resume production. Meanwhile the tomatoes with some afternoon shade did fine.

This year I'm growing some new-to-me that were chosen because they are supposedly "heat resistant". Porter, Rebel Yell, Santiago, Super Sioux. Last year Creole Original, developed by LSU for warm and humid climates, did well for me and will be back this year.

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pepperhead212
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#4

Post: # 18660Unread post pepperhead212
Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:24 pm

I'm in search of heat resistant tomatoes, too! Even though NJ used to be the best place to grow tomatoes, it is proof of global warming, as it is no longer, and commercial growers have moved north! Nothing like down there, of course, but every year there are heat waves, causing blossom drop, and I grow a lot of cherry tomatoes, as they come back quickly, and produce ripe tomatoes, while the recovering large ones are still green. This doesn't help down there, when the heat is constant, but they do seem to me the last to drop their blossoms, too.

Sunsugar is usually the last to drop, and often doesn't drop, but that's when the temps don't get in the high 90s several days in a row. Unfortunately, the most heat resistant cherry I've grown was the black cherry, which I loved the flavor of, but I stopped growing it because they would get soft spots on them before ripening, both on the plants, and when picked early, to ripen in a bowl. If I did get good ones, I'd have to use them immediately, since many would develop the soft spots in just a day. None of the bumblebee cherries were heat resistant, but recovered quickly. I had a new grape tomato last season - Sprite - that was very prolific, but it seemed like a determinate tomato, that didn't die off, but got flushes of fruits, and when picked, another flush of flowers and fruits. It seemed to survive the heat wave, but it may have been in a period when the latest flush was growing and ripening.

As for larger heat resistant varieties, a favorite of mine - Green Zebra - was one of the last to drop the blossoms in those seasons. Unfortunately, they are very disease prone. None of the other "zebras" did even as well as the green. I keep trying new ones every season, for this purpose - finding heat resistant varieties! This season I have 9 new (to me) varieties, that a friend from Florida gave me, to check out. She has to stop growing them, eventually, then plant another crop, for the cooler season - probably like those of you in TX and LA - so I'm waiting to hear how much longer these extend her first season.
Woodbury, NJ zone 7a/7b

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Shule
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#5

Post: # 18665Unread post Shule
Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:57 pm

I'm not from a humid area like that, but varieties I've seen come up in such discussions for humid areas elsewhere include these:

* Homestead
* Marion (Homestead is thought to handle heat/humidity better, I believe, and is mentioned more often; I do like Marion myself for my own area, but that's not why I mention it)
* Creole
* A number of determinate F1 hybrids (I forgot which ones)

I'd recommend investigating/researching Thessaloniki for the purpose.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

TomHillbilly
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#6

Post: # 18671Unread post TomHillbilly
Tue Apr 28, 2020 9:59 pm

I live in zone 7. So you south of me, take what I say with a grain of salt. Some of you know heat, like I've never seen. We have blights in my area, that can't be stopped. To ensure I always have tomatoes until October. I have to plant a late crop. That means a tomato is trying to grow in my hot, dry August and September. Most varieties don't fair well. "Sunray" does better in it, than any I've tried. It's one of the few tomatoes that actually does what the printed description says. You research the description. Many people fear a golden tomato will be to weak in the taste category. Sunray will compare to any of the high acid reds in your garden, concerning full flavor. . Its been a repeat grower in my late batch for many years. The only possible con I can give is-- the seeds is kinda on the large side. Collect them if you like the plant. They germinate very good.
PS-- If I'm wrong, its because some of you live in heat, that I can't relate too. Sunray seeds is always pretty cheap. I've never tried it as a early tomato. It might not do well in the wet spring. My knowledge of it is strictly as a late crop in dry hot weather.

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AlittleSalt
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#7

Post: # 18675Unread post AlittleSalt
Wed Apr 29, 2020 12:11 am

I have over-summered Porter several times here in Texas zone 8A.
Texas Zone 8A

TomHillbilly
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#8

Post: # 18684Unread post TomHillbilly
Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:10 am

@-fluffy_gumbo. Just so you will know. If ya like Sweets Million cherry, it does real good as a F-2 plants. No noticeable morphs will occur the second generation. I'm doing a few F-3's this year, just to see which generation morphs. And because I'm out of F-2 seeds. LOL.. I should have collected more seeds than I did the first time. Sweets has smaller than normal seeds, even for a cherry. I got lazy the first time. Sweets million is a top 5 cherry tomato for me. If I get my hands on another F-1 plant--I won't make the same mistake.

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worth1
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#9

Post: # 18688Unread post worth1
Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:45 am

There aren't any unless they are small.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

fluffy_gumbo
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#10

Post: # 18689Unread post fluffy_gumbo
Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:02 am

I just remembered that I grew Homestead last year too but it didn't produce at all. My plants were in a part shade plot behind a gazebo structure so I actually thought that lack of sun made them sickly. But I also saw root knot nematode galls on all plants' roots when I pulled them, so maybe the problem started much earlier. The plants this year is in a different plot, full sun, which they are loving for now, but I honestly wasn't planning on getting toms in the summer months.
TomHillbilly wrote: Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:10 am @-fluffy_gumbo. Just so you will know. If ya like Sweets Million cherry, it does real good as a F-2 plants. No noticeable morphs will occur the second generation. I'm doing a few F-3's this year, just to see which generation morphs. And because I'm out of F-2 seeds. LOL.. I should have collected more seeds than I did the first time. Sweets has smaller than normal seeds, even for a cherry. I got lazy the first time. Sweets million is a top 5 cherry tomato for me. If I get my hands on another F-1 plant--I won't make the same mistake.
Thanks! I don't have a lot of space to grow many plants but I think Sweet Million will be on the regrow list for many seasons so I will save seeds once the original seeds dwindles. Not sure if shop promotion is allowed, but I got seeds from the Sample Seeds Shop!
Learn, adapt, grow! - Zone 9B
Blog: https://thebigeasygarden.wordpress.com/

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SpookyShoe
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#11

Post: # 18695Unread post SpookyShoe
Wed Apr 29, 2020 9:26 am

Summer is a petri dish for disease and pests on the Gulf coast. And it's just too darn hot. I don't even try anymore to grow tomatoes in the heat of summer. But for those of you who are trying, may The Force be with you.
Donna, zone 9, El Lago, Texas

EdieJ
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#12

Post: # 18754Unread post EdieJ
Wed Apr 29, 2020 10:09 pm

Last year we had a KBX out in the garden that I took a sucker off and rooted it about July and then planted it and once it got going we got a lot of tomatoes off of it until that sudden hard freeze. Another variety I grew was Dixie Golden Giant. I thought the plant was a dud but it started producing about September and we got quite a few off of it too until the freeze, but the "Giant" part of the name is a bit of a misnomer.
North Central AL (mountains)
Zone 7

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Blackbear
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#13

Post: # 18761Unread post Blackbear
Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:31 am

Sioux
Super Sioux
Gregori's Altai
yellow pear
Siletz
Gold nugget ?????
So many Tomatoes...……..so little Time !

TomHillbilly
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#14

Post: # 18775Unread post TomHillbilly
Thu Apr 30, 2020 6:41 am

@Blackbear--- Yellow Pear ??? LOL. Have you ever grew Yellow Pear ?? Did you ever see any signs of heat toughness in that variety ? Or are you asking if it has a resistance to heat ? PS-- I know what the written descriptions claim's are. And I know the facts on that cherry tomato is. And they are both far apart. Yellow Pear is a mild mushy cherry, that has a horrible cracking problem. A good shake on the vine while picking, and the other ripen tomatoes fall off. Its generally the first cherry tomato to die from diseases, compared to others grown with it. Why its been around over 200 years is a mystery to me. The plant isn't very tough in the best of weather.

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GoDawgs
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#15

Post: # 18795Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:27 pm

I'll agree on Homestead too as good in the heat. It held up in the heat for several years but was dropped from this year's line up to make room for another newbie but I've got the seed for a later return appearance.

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worth1
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#16

Post: # 18803Unread post worth1
Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:11 pm

I'm sticking with what was asked.
This isn't a cherry or a big one but one in between.
Sort of.
Black plum does well and tasty too.
Speckled Roman is good.
AKA striped Roman.
As for small ones.
I grew yellow pear one year.
12 plants.
They ran a good run all summer up until cold weather killed them.
Loads of tomatoes and none went to waste.
They look fantastic in salad with red pear.
People love them.
My wife loved them.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

TomHillbilly
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#17

Post: # 18806Unread post TomHillbilly
Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:44 pm

@worth1-- so you grew a great tomato 1 year. LOL
You grew a tomato that your wife, and people loved, just 1 year ?
And the seeds is one of the cheapest on the market ?

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worth1
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#18

Post: # 18807Unread post worth1
Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:36 pm

No I have grown it on and off for many years.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

MikeInCypress
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#19

Post: # 18808Unread post MikeInCypress
Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:43 pm

Phoenix was my last to stop setting last year. Couldn't find any plants this year.

MikeInCypress

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sjamesNorway
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Re: Highest Heat Tolerant Tomato

#20

Post: # 24875Unread post sjamesNorway
Wed Jul 08, 2020 3:00 pm

Based on my greenhouse, which often gets hot and humid, I recommend Indian Stripe Potato Leaf. It's the only variety I've found that just keeps setting fruit in the heat, and it keeps going until the end of the season.

Steve

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