PNW 2020 Poor Tomato Weather Year

[Growing Coastal]

I just read a post in the weather thread about how awful our gardening year has been in the Pacific North West this year. Yes, it's not always easy, growing coastally.
On the west coast of Canada it stayed cool well into summer resulting in poor fruit set even when there were flowers aplenty. Most of the 1st trusses of fruit on my tomatoes have been small and misshapen. The 1st truss on Esterina was a miniature, perfectly Esterina but tiny. The next sets of fruit seem more normal on all varieties.
But cool weather persists with a few hot days in a row now and then but really, 9 or 10C at night is just too cold for this time of year. I think that helps promote the growth of powdery mildew, something I haven't seen on my tomatoes in the past few years. A little rain now and then, just enough to keep things humid but not really enough to do much for the garden. My tomatoes are covered from the rain but open on all sides.
While out walking in the woods I noticed some of the maple tree saplings with powdery mildew all over their leaves. It's not just a garden thing.
We might get an extension of good weather into the fall but cool nights won't be kind to tomatoes so I am topping almost all of them now and slashing anything that looks unproductive to increase air circulation.

Adelaide Festival has been the most productive so far beginning to produce July 29th,
Uluru Ochre too.
Esterina's 1st pick was July 25th and
Brad's Atomic Grape end of July but they rarely make it into the house.
Black Bear was first with a small fruit July 9th but no more until July 22. Picked a couple last week. Slow,
very slow. This will not be as productive a year as past years but lots are coming so all is not lost.

I'm growing edamame for the 1st time. They are said to require heat to do well. Mine are doing so-so, I'd say. There are bean pods to pick but they are not prolific and seem to take a long time to fill out. But, even in a year like this, they are possible here.







My one cuke 'Babylon' over 30 small cukes so far.....
Luckily I have a neighbour with a hungry child....






Brad's Atomic Grape


After last year, I said I wouldn't grow another tomato in a small pot but I did. It requires watering at least 2X/day. This year it is a BAG that sits on top of the broken ladder that also holds a couple of Tiny Mice flowers for hummingbirds.

[farmersteve]

You are doing better than me. Here in the PNW near Seattle none of my fruit has really turned color yet. Adelaide Festival is a week or two out. Last year I was eating it the first week of August. Two years ago it was mid July.

[root_grow]

Until a few weeks ago temps here were stuck in the 60s on the better days. It felt so wrong to be in the garden wearing leggings, a sweater and a jacket in July on the cooler days… It only started reaching 70s in the last few weeks - that made a huge difference, it was like someone flipped a switch on the garden!

Ananas Noire and Azoychka are my only unprotected plants this year, the rest are in polytunnels. These 2 have been the earliest producers the last few years, but they only set fruit a couple weeks ago, they're still tiny. I’m glad I put them outside just to prove to myself that the tunnels really have made a difference and are worth the extra effort. Since there hasn’t been enough sun to even warm the tunnels most days, I’m still waiting on most of them, though a few look like they'll blush very soon now. At least most of the tunnel plants have more fruits that I know.. or at least I'm pretty sure... will be able to ripen before it’s too late.

The few that have ripened already are Pervaya Lyubov, followed closely by Clear Pink Early and Black Plum. Also a couple Pink Passions and Kookaburra Cackles. I’m happy the cherries have kicked in now, and we ate the first Oaxacan Jewel yesterday

It's incredible Black Bear was producing anything already mid-July, really looking forward to having that one in the garden next year!

This weekend was nice and warm, but now it’s raining again… At least the brussels sprout plants are looking better than ever! I really feel for all the people who just installed their first gardens this year, it must be so discouraging.

[Growing Coastal]

You are doing better than me. Here in the PNW near Seattle none of my fruit has really turned color yet. Adelaide Festival is a week or two out. Last year I was eating it the first week of August. Two years ago it was mid July.

My garden is quite protected from wind and I grow in containers which, I think, allows for an earlier start with not having to wait for the soil temps to go up. I remember cautioning a neighbour not to plant in-ground this year when I planted mine.

I don't remember ever wearing a winter vest in July to walk the dog in the morning before this year.

[farmersteve]

I never protect my vines. They are in the ground on the south side of my house and pretty protected already. I'm in raised bed and I can usually ripen just about anything. The flea beetles nearly destroyed my plants in June when we got all that rain but they made it through. Just started getting some sungolds to ripen this week. I'm not really in downtown Seattle where it's cooler, but east of Lake Washington where it gets a few degrees hotter in the day because we are further from the Puget Sound. Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid to upper 70s for 10 days or so, so I should start to see a bumper crop real soon. I heard next year is going to be a La Nina year which could mean even more cool and crappy weather. Might have to invest in some tunnels for my beds.