A possible bumper crop of tomatoes and peppers

[Donnyboy]

I need to start planning on where to carry bags of tomatoes to give away, I am only growing Big Beef and Heat Master hybrid tomatoes and a few experimental hybrid plants this year and they are all loaded with small to medium sized green tomatoes and new blooms. I went down the "heirllom" tomato road for many years and harvested some really good and bountiful tomatoes. I'm now looking for dependable tomato plants in adverse conditions of high heat and disease. I know from experience both varieties of my main crop produce old fashioned tasting, slightly acidic tomatoes in abundance.

Now I will sit back and wait and see if nature can throw something at me I didn't plan or provide for.

[GoDawgs]

Heat tolerance is one of the things I'm looking for and have some prospective candidates this year that are new to me.

Creole ("Developed by LSU for warm, humid climates")
Porter ("A good container tomato for hot, dry growing conditions and hot humid areas")
Rebel Yell ("Late season, Indeterminate, tall, very heat tolerant")
Santiago ("This tomato variety seems to do very well in hot climates.")
Super Sioux ("From Nebraska. Perfect variety for hot and dry climates.")

We'll see how they do here this year.

[edweather]

Indian Stripe PL is also a workhorse in the heat and humidity. We've already gotten about 15 lbs from ours, and it's 6 feet high, and has tomatoes set all the way to the top, and it's only May.

[Donnyboy]

While I was growing the various heirloom varieties, I was also growing a few hybrid varieties which claimed to have some disease and heat tolerance. We typically have very cool, humid springs and ultra hot, dry summers. The spring weather is perfect for starting different fungus problems resulting in low production and early death of many heirloom varieties. I identified Big Beef a few years ago as a hybrid which does pretty well in my early spring weather and produces abundantly with very good tasting tomatoes. I first grew Heatmaster three years ago. In my garden, it survives the spring weather and then thrives in the extremely hot summer weather producing a lot of very good tasting tomatoes. Heatnaster is a determinate variety and doesn't produce as well in the fall unless I plant new seedlings in mid summer. Big Beef slows down in the late summer heat, but then rejuvenates in the fall producing well until first frost. This year, I also planted a few no name "experimental" hybrids from Seeds N Such which have almost every letter of the alphabet identifying the diseases they have some resistance to. They are setting a lot of small tomatoes but I have no idea how they will handle the heat when it arrives.

Before I started growing heirlooms, Better Boy hybrid was the only variety I grew because it survived well and produced well in the spring and fall. I stopped growing it many years ago when I switched to heirloom varieties. While it was a great tomato, it's taste seemed closer to grocery store variety than most heirloom varieties.

[MissS]

It does sound like you may have a good year. Hopefully everything will work out quite well for you.

[Donnyboy]

It does sound like you may have a good year. Hopefully everything will work out quite well for you.

Thank you! Now, if the garden gnomes will bless my endeavors; I've got it made

[Donnyboy]

I'm eating the first ripe tomatoes of the year. My Big Beef plants are producing some almost ripe tomatoes which I have allowed to ripen fully on the kitchen counter. For some reason, the first to ripen tomatoes never seem to have the perfect taste of those which ripen fully in the hot summer heat. I anticipate some fully ripe on the vine, Heatmaster tomatoes later this week. I am anxious to deliver a Walmart bag full of tomatoes and peppers to a good friend who eats tomatoes the way most people eat apples and a bag of tomatoes and okra to another good friend. I derive my pleasure from giving them away almost as much as growing them. After eating grocery store tomatoes all winter, I understand why people enjoy garden grown tomatoes.

I had a sandwich this evening made from fresh tomato, onion, and lettuce, It had only vegetables from my garden and it was delicious.

[karstopography]

My BIL lives in Southlake and hadn’t gotten any ripe tomatoes yet as of last week. I’m not sure when he puts his in. He likes German Queen so those might be on the slower side.

I don’t let many ripen fully on the vine, the squirrels would get them all. I think the ones ripened on the counter inside taste great.

Giving them away is fun and a lot easier than processing tomatoes. Most people appreciate a garden tomato, people that like tomatoes anyway. I have grown more plants this year than ever and paid more attention to them consequently getting a lot more fruit than I know what to do with. I’ve canned a few, but that’s definitely extra work and a major mess in the kitchen. I can take over every inch of counter space canning and it’s an hour of work afterwards getting it all back in order. Freezing them, I’ve froze a few pounds whole, is something new to me and I’m curious how those will be once thawed. Freezing them is no work or mess, so if they end up being good, I might end up giving less away.

Nice problem to have, excess fresh tomatoes.

[Donnyboy]

We have squirrels all over the place and I've never experienced a garden problem with them. The only thing that seems to bother my ripe tomatoes is male, bright red cardinals. They punch large holes in the ripe tomatoes and then move on to the next ripe tomato. I once read they are attracted to the moisture in the tomatoes. I put some shallow dishes full of water in the garden and it seems to have solved the problem.

[TXTravis]

The gray squirrels in the woodsier parts of TX (east of I35) are tomato eating fiends. I lost 90% of my maters my first year in Katy. Next year was better, but not for the squirrels--relentless, high velocity persecution was very effective. Now that I'm back home in the Austin area, I find that the fox squirrels we have around here don't bother my tomatoes, so I don't bother them. They're a lot worse about taunting the dogs than the grays were, however. Rats have been a problem in both locations, though much worse in Katy.

Interesting about cardinals. I've always suspected mockingbirds, but have noticed more cardinals than expected around my plants this year. Hmmm.

[Donnyboy]

The cardinals used to build nests and hatch eggs in my tomato plants. Normally the young birds would disappear in a night and the nest would be disturbed. I finally decided snakes were climbing into the tomato plants and dispatching the young birds. I guess the cardinals figured out they need to build their nests higher in the trees around my garden.