Hi from Alabama

[JohnJones]

I know it's been a few weeks since your post, but I just wanted to provide a little encouragement. I'm in Mississippi Zone 8a and last year was a bit of an anomaly. It's always terribly hot and humid usually starting in mid July and tough to set fruit on tomatoes, but normally we can get an early start because we actually get a Spring.

In 2019, we basically went from some late frosts for this part of the country to scorching high 80s+ with no break between. Very hard to grow a good tomato crop that way. I even tried a second crop and when it actually hit 98 in October, I just threw in the towel.

Hope springs eternal. Hard to imagine this season being worse.

I typically start my seeds in January so I've got a good grouping of plants ready to go out as early as possible. I have placed transplants in the garden as early as late March and lucked out. Getting some going as early as possible is key to getting something from them in bad summers. If you get good germination, I would encourage you to take some risks with a few plants as to last frost dates. Best wishes...

[GoDawgs]

Greetings from another hot weather grower and welcome to the Junction and the South! I can only imagine the "transplant shock" you're dealing with in learning the ins and outs of growing in a new environment.

I have found that tomatoes planted out in full sun in my garden really suffer whereas those growing with a bit of afternoon shade in a different area do much better. Just something to consider. Santa brought me some shade cloth this year so I'm going to play with that in the full sun garden this year and see if that helps. It won't change the ambient temp much but will hopefully take the stress off them.

Don't be shy about asking questions here about growing this or that in the heat. There are plenty of us in that boat who are willing to help out!

[JohnJones]

I have found that tomatoes planted out in full sun in my garden really suffer whereas those growing with a bit of afternoon shade in a different area do much better.

Good advice.