Early tomatoes in a cold frame

[MrBig46]

Since 2017, I have been trying to grow determinant tomatoes in my cold frame so that I have the first ripe tomatoes in the second half of May. Every year I planted the seedlings in the last week of March, the plants grew beautifully, they already put on flowers at the end of April, but I could not pollinate the flowers even though I tapped them, reduced the humidity in the cold frame, etc.
The reason was that I never managed to keep the night temperature in that frame above 11°C, which is a necessary condition for the pollen to germinate and pollinate the flowers. The flowers were pollinated only in May, which postponed the harvest of ripe tomatoes by at least a fortnight. That's why I chose parthenocarpic tomatoes bred by Dr. Baggett from the University of Oregon for this year. I already have the seedlings outside the window and they are doing quite well. I hope it will be successful this year, because in April of next year I am going to have surgery on my left knee and I still don't know when I will be scheduled for the right one.
Vladimír

[AKgardener]

First good luck on your knee surgery. I hope that your tomatoes works looking good so far good luck

[bower]

Good plan, to go with the parthenocarpics. I hope it works out.
I have only grown Siletz and Cold Set. The Cold Set set fruit and ripened earlier, iirc. But the Siletz was a nice fruit too. Most of them were seedless, and I only got seeds from the latest fruit on the bush.

My best wishes for the care of your knee until surgery. Exercises can help in some cases.

[ddsack]

Good luck with the tomatoes, I'll be interested to hear if these varieties can set earlier for you, and also your taste comparisons between them. I hope the weather cooperates in getting them in the cold frame early.

I had both knees replaced, about 1 year apart for the surgeries. Very successful, and nice to be free of pain. It will soon be five years since I had the second one done. I hope your surgery turns out as well as mine did.

[FatBeeFarm]

Using parthenocarpic plants sounds like a smart option. Like everyone else, I'd love to hear how it turns out!

Where in the Czech Republic are you? My wife, and her family, are from Sopotnice and we generally go back there every few years to visit with family. We were there last month actually. I drank as much Gambrinus as I could, lol! Good luck with your cold frame experiment!

[Cole_Robbie]

Pollen is tricky stuff. It doesn't like it too cold, too hot, too dry, or too wet. My greenhouse plants were often soaking wet from condensation in the early morning.

Good luck with everything.

[Doffer]

Legend is also said to be parthenocarp, but for me it did not produce fruit without pollination.
I am very curious whether you will get fruit if you remove the stamens so that the flower cannot be pollinated?

[JRinPA]

That is a long time to wait for surgery, hope it works out.