The two remaining plants. Beefmaster looks amazingly healthy for being a plant set out last February. I didn’t photograph the pretty side, but it shook off any sign of struggles with disease and the new foliage looks very good. Lots of tomatoes on the vine of various sizes. Biggest looks like a 14 ounce one. Will they ripen in the now cooler weather? Probably not, but the weather is sure to warm up again at some point in November or December.

The trickle of fruit coming into the house to ripen continues. I want to plant some onions and possibly carrots where the two tomato plants are, but maybe I’ll hold off and let some more tomatoes get bigger and ripen. I’ve might have an alternative spot for the onions and carrots. There’s enough tomatoes on the two vines to supply my wants for December. Tomatoes from the outdoor beds in January seems like too much to ask for, but if the weather cooperates it is a possibility.

I saw a garden on the way back from College Station that had tomato plants loaded with tomatoes.
Some place around Caldwell.

I picked one 9 or 10 ounce Beefmaster this morning that had a hint of color change. The plant looks cold to me, though, the green leaves lack a little of that vibrant hue. We have a stretch of temperatures in the 60s and low 70s for highs in the forecast, maybe that’ll perk them up a bit. The Big Beef plant looks even worse with not a lot of foliage, but still a goodly amount of fruit. We’ve been running 10 -20 degrees below normal on temperatures for a week now and it’s taking a toll.

The two tomatoes plants about one month shy of their first birthday. What’s that in human years, maybe 100? The tomato plants look like most 100 year old humans I’ve seen, but I don’t have the heart to euthanize them, the tomatoes. I actually had to freeze three that were about to turn the corner into rotting. They’re good tasting still.

I only prune off bad looking leaves now. Big beef barely has any foliage as a result, but Beefmaster is surprisingly healthy looking and still flowering. The 10 days of cold and wet weather set them back some, but the next ten days look much more favorable. Goal is now tomatoes at Christmas.

We've had several nights where the temps have dropped into the low 40's. I'm still getting about a half gallon of tomatoes each week. Both Porter's Pride plants and one Abu Rawan are still putting out fruit. All three of my Juliet plants look absolutely pristine and are covered with blooms. Picked five 5-6oz tomatoes from my only Tycoon tomato this week though it's starting to look ragged. Both of my in-ground Better Boys as well as 3 Supersweet 100 plants have been very stingy. Overall, for my Fall garden here, I'd give Juliet an A+, Porters Pride a B+, Abu Rawan and Tycoon B's and Better Boy and Supersweet 100 D's.

I figured tomato flavor would be falling off significantly with the lower temperatures but that hasn't been the case at all for any of my plants fortunately.

@Wildcat82 when did you set out your plants?

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue Nov 29, 2022 8:12 pm @Wildcat82 when did you set out your plants?

I set out the Better Boys, Supersweet 100's, and Tycoon on 1 August. The Juliets, Porter's, and Abu Rawan were set out 1 June and were supposed to be my midsummer tomatoes. But I think they accidentally got sprayed with a bit of herbicide residual when I sprayed for spider mites once. They were stunted for a month then took off again.

My fall crop was 10X better than my spring tomatoes due to the early heat wave here. In fact, my fall crops have been better than my spring harvest 3 years in a row now.

Just got done making a 1/2 gallon of pico de gallo. After a 2 week span with constant drizzle and cloud cover, the sun has come out the past 2 days. Juliet's are loading up big time as are the Supersweet 100's. Porter and Abu Rawan have a few small greenies. Weather is predicted to be in the 45-65 degree range for the next 2 weeks so it looks like I'll have tomatoes til New Year's.

My Fall crop is making up for the terrible spring crop. One of my neighbors told me he didn't get a single tomato this spring.

My February set out Big Beef is dead. There’s several smaller tomatoes on it that have colored up, but they look shriveled a bit.

Beefmaster isn’t looking so great either. The best of the tomatoes on it got eaten by a fruit worm. There’s still a couple of decent but smaller tomatoes still on the plant. I’m on the fence about leaving the plant in for much longer. I’d probably go take it out today, but it is raining presently. The quality of the fruit overall is way down.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 10:15 am My February set out Big Beef is dead. There’s several smaller tomatoes on it that have colored up, but they look shriveled a bit.

Beefmaster isn’t looking so great either. The best of the tomatoes on it got eaten by a fruit worm. There’s still a couple of decent but smaller tomatoes still on the plant. I’m on the fence about leaving the plant in for much longer. I’d probably go take it out today, but it is raining presently. The quality of the fruit overall is way down.

Sad to hear your season is winding down.
One advantage of SA is that the past 2 years we've had reasonable nice Fall weather. Last year, my Big Beef produced a 4 ounce tomato every day til Christmas.
This year, all tree Juliets are big bushy 5' tall plants without even a single brown leaf. The Supersweet 100's are starting to produce now (better late than never.) I've given several gallons away to my neighbors.

Already sowed seeds! I have no idea if this will work out but I'm attempting to have four or five 2-2.5' tall plants growing in pots by the time of our last frost on 1 March. I wanted very early season varieties so I have sown Sun Gold (57 days) and Maglia Rosa (60 days). Once these are ready to be repotted, I'll move them to my mini cattle panel greenhouse and hopefully keep them alive. The goal is to have fresh tomatoes by the end of March.

My second batch of seeds will be sown in a couple weeks (Blush, Black Cherry, Brandy Boy, Indian Stripe, Brandysweet Plum, Jaune Flamme). I want to have 1' transplants ready to be put in-ground on 1 March.

Beefmaster not quite done setting fruit. They won’t make it to maturity because I plan on removing the plant prior to the upcoming arctic blast. There’s one decent looking tomato remaining on the plant. I want it to break color before I pick it and that will be the end of the 2022 tomato season for me.

If we get that artic blast I doubt anything in a garden will survive it. Maybe garlic. I am hoping we do not get it here at all, but getting prepared in case of it arriving like an uninvited obnoxious relative.

Danny wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 4:35 pm If we get that artic blast I doubt anything in a garden will survive it. Maybe garlic. I am hoping we do not get it here at all, but getting prepared in case of it arriving like an uninvited obnoxious relative.

Danny, do you cover your strawberries to try to keep them from freezing? In the upper Midwest we just let the plants freeze then they'd pop right back up in spring. I've heard differing opinions down here.

Supposed to hit 21 degrees here 22 Dec. Picked that last of my tomatoes today.

I’ll pick my last good tomato before Friday. Two weather sites now have it at 22° here Friday Morning, another has it being 26°. Tomatoes are done either way.

Ya'll have had a great long stretch of a growing season this year. Seed starting time for you is just around the corner and I look forward to seeing what varieties will be grown down there in 2023. Will you be sticking with the tried and true or reaching out for something new?

MissS wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 12:05 am Ya'll have had a great long stretch of a growing season this year. Seed starting time for you is just around the corner and I look forward to seeing what varieties will be grown down there in 2023. Will you be sticking with the tried and true or reaching out for something new?

I’ve got about 50 or so cultivars of seeds on hand. I have vowed to grow no more than 25 tomatoes this coming year. The majority will likely be new ones to me. Beefmaster will very likely get a return. Sungold also. Maybe a few others. As yet tbd.

Probably going to start some tomatoes and definitely peppers in the next couple of days. We have seven consecutive days starting today with forecast highs in the 70s. Thereafter, forecast has it drifting down into the 60s, more along seasonal norms. But, I can put the seed starts outside in the sun this week into next and get them good and warm to aid in germination.

Maybe I’m a week or so earlier than I wanted, but an opportunity is an opportunity. I can work with a good germination percentage and I’m thinking the timing isn’t too early to manage either.

Last year, I think I started the 23rd of December on the tomatoes and that was a bit of a challenge with the size of the sets as they progressed later into February. I think the additional delay of a week or so will make it a bit easier.

I’ll start with the peppers. I don’t know the exact number of those, but I see it going into the 30s or 40s. I might wait a couple more days on the tomatoes towards the end of the warm period. Get a couple of good days heated in the warm sun then bring them in under the lights as the weather cools off.

So much simpler to do this seed starting outside as far as clean up, work space, and mess goes. However bad the hand the weather dealt last week, truthfully, it was as bad as they come, this coming stretch looks like a much better one. Still got to play the game.

Started twenty four today, twenty three different ones. Beefmaster I planted two of those.

Not necessarily done, may do a few more in a week or two. Target date for garden insertion is March 1st, give or take a little.

@karstopography are you growing Matt’s Wild Cherry? Have you grown that before?