Hi, everybody. I'm not new to tomato boards but a bit intimidated by a huge forum. I made LOTS of tomato friends on a board that's no longer available years ago.

I moved from a near "tomato-perfect climate" (minus humidity) in S. CA to extra hot & dry S. AZ. Last year was my first try to grow my usual tomatoes. I used 30% shade cloth in CA, so I figured 50% might do in AZ, but apparently I was wrong. Not enough sun to give fruits usual colors, yet fruit got cooked & rotted on the vine day after day (or week after week) of triple digit temps . I just may have to start early and be done in July or so?

I'm hoping members here in desert climates could give me some suggestions. I grew somewhere between 80 and 120 tomatoes every year, and I'm pretty bummed that the climate here makes it very difficult to grow beefsteaks. I still need to expand my garden since the backyard has nothing but gravel, so large containers and small in-ground beds were about all I could do last year. I only have a dozen or so "must grow" varieties, and the rest of my seed collection is totally up to my mood to grow. I'm really not interested in new tomatoes as in native varieties. Cherry tomatoes all did pretty well, and I'm still harvesting. The last batch of Vorlon and Mikhalych are almost ripe now, and the color came back after I removed the shade cloth. I highly doubt I'll move again to a more tomato-friendly climate, so I can use all advise you can offer!

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/def ... 5-2018.pdf

This planting calendar for Maricopa County has tomato transplants going in the latter part of February into mid March, pretty much exactly the schedule I follow in 9b Texas. There’s the opportunity for a fall into winter crop, but I am thinking mostly about the spring season at this point.

When during the calendar year did you try tomatoes?

My “theory” of growing tomatoes here where I live is that I want my tomato plants blooming well during the best fruit setting weather. No blooms, no fruit, no matter what, too cold or too hot when the plants are blooming, no fruit. Fruit is only possible if there are blooms and those blooms are happening when the weather supports fruit setting. Obviously, that appropriate weather for fruit setting varies place to place. We can’t, especially in southern/southwestern areas excluding California, all follow the old adages like wait until Easter or Mother’s day or Memorial day to transplant. Don’t try to make tomatoes happen on a schedule that doesn’t fit your specific climate, but, from what I see here among many gardening people in Texas, many of these folks try to garden on a schedule made for Missouri or Maryland or somewhere else hundreds of thousands of miles away. Makes no sense.

https://weatherspark.com/y/2460/Average ... Year-Round

Looking at this climate data for Phoenix, the best fruit setting weather in the spring looks to be from mid March until late May, almost exactly like my situation here in Texas.

So far, any and every heirloom indeterminate beefsteak tomato I have tried has been able to successfully set and successfully ripen multiple fruits per plant. The fruit have been high quality. I think if you get in your seeds and transplants early enough, you will have success, all other things being equal. You will get beautiful tomatoes much earlier than most of the rest of the country, but might have to resign yourself that you won’t be getting tomatoes in August or September when everyone to the north or on the coast is reeling them in.

Thank you, karstopography, for your thorough reply. I planned for 4 years to move to AZ, so I accumulated enough documents, only to find out in person how intense the sun & heat get here. 6 out of 6 Kale just "disappeared" after the prolonged heat.

So glad to read your encouraging post. I nearly cried going through my seed collection to decide which ones to start. I did not build the planting area until March last year, so that's when I transplanted. #2 mistake was that I went ahead and put the shade cloth on in late April. I figured that I only get cherry tomatoes in the mid-summer, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for indeterminate beefsteaks to stay alive until the fall. Half of my seedlings will be ready to transplant next month. There were only two hard-freeze days in mid-Jan last year, so hopefully I'll transplant in the mid-late February.

Flowering & setting fruit was not an issue here but ripening was because of the heat. Soooo thank you for confirming my plan. Yes, no big tomatoes in August is heartbreaking, but I just have to swallow the fact. We can protect the tomato plants from the cold temps, but there's really nothing we can do to cool them down! Every now and then I harvested beefsteaks for Christmas in CA but never had them in January (I guess that's a plus in ultra sunny S. AZ)! I'm dying to post pictures in May-June.

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @TerraCayda . You have some really good advice there from @karstopography who does well with his crops.

Welcome to the Junction. I find this forum to be rather small Plenty of room for new members

Welcome from America's Dairyland.

Spent part of 1974 in Lake Havasu City; still have pals in Scottsdale, Tucson, Tubac, and seasonally in Parker.

The Gotch

My son’s family lives in Scottsdale but they don’t grow veggies. Will be interested to follow your efforts.

Welcome to the forum! Good luck growing in that heat!

Welcome to the Junction @TerraCayda. We are glad to have you here and I'm glad that you have already jumped in.

Gardadore wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2025 12:14 pm My son’s family lives in Scottsdale but they don’t grow veggies. Will be interested to follow your efforts.

I'm in Tucson, so higher elevation & a bit cooler in the summer. A close friend also moved recently to Scottsdale, but he doesn't have much space for gardening. I'm pretty okay with the dry heat as opposed to milder but very humid S. CA climate, except the brutal summer makes it very difficult to grow much of anything in the mid-summer .

Welcome from Texas.

welcome from da U.P. of michigan


where too much summer heat is almost never a problem.


keith

And welcome from east central Georgia, where the summers are steamy and heat IS a problem, especially in August and early September! You'll find some good information here among the Junctioneers. So make yourself at home and take a stroll down the sub forums under the Home tab. And don't be afraid to shout out questions! Lots of ears to hear and help.

Welcome to the Junction!

Welcome to the Junction from central Texas. Lots of good help here as well as some good laughs.

TerraCayda wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2025 6:25 pm Hi, everybody. I'm not new to tomato boards but a bit intimidated by a huge forum. I made LOTS of tomato friends on a board that's no longer available years ago.

I moved from a near "tomato-perfect climate" (minus humidity) in S. CA to extra hot & dry S. AZ. Last year was my first try to grow my usual tomatoes. I used 30% shade cloth in CA, so I figured 50% might do in AZ, but apparently I was wrong. Not enough sun to give fruits usual colors, yet fruit got cooked & rotted on the vine day after day (or week after week) of triple digit temps . I just may have to start early and be done in July or so?

I'm hoping members here in desert climates could give me some suggestions. I grew somewhere between 80 and 120 tomatoes every year, and I'm pretty bummed that the climate here makes it very difficult to grow beefsteaks. I still need to expand my garden since the backyard has nothing but gravel, so large containers and small in-ground beds were about all I could do last year. I only have a dozen or so "must grow" varieties, and the rest of my seed collection is totally up to my mood to grow. I'm really not interested in new tomatoes as in native varieties. Cherry tomatoes all did pretty well, and I'm still harvesting. The last batch of Vorlon and Mikhalych are almost ripe now, and the color came back after I removed the shade cloth. I highly doubt I'll move again to a more tomato-friendly climate, so I can use all advise you can offer!

Welcome to the forum!

Here in San Antonio we have many of the same issues you have - poor soil and arid blazing hot temps from June - October. Like you, I have found cherries are way more productive that slicers. To get slicers for more than a couple weeks I have to set out large transplants as early as possible. I have a growlog here on this forum (San Antonio Sandbur Patch) you may find interesting. I'm always looking for comments, especially from Texas/Arizona growers. You may also want to check out Native Seeds Search in Tuscan.

https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections ... -varieties

I'll definitely check out your log.
Unfortunately I'm really not interested in native seeds......I'm basically a boring tomato grower, and I just want to downsize and continue a dozen or two favorite varieties. My requirement for the yards was "no cactus" . I did buy a few fast-growing drought-tolerant trees that were subsidized by my electric company. Hopefully they'll provide some shades.

I was hoping that it continues to stay a warm winter, but of course January is January. I transport all my seedlings from the kitchen to the backyard to harden off everyday, but they all stay in indoors while it's cloudy and the temp doesn't even hit 60 degrees. I'll have plenty of sunshine in a couple of weeks.

Wildcat82 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 12:49 pm Welcome to the forum!

Here in San Antonio we have many of the same issues you have - poor soil and arid blazing hot temps from June - October. Like you, I have found cherries are way more productive that slicers. To get slicers for more than a couple weeks I have to set out large transplants as early as possible. I have a growlog here on this forum (San Antonio Sandbur Patch) you may find interesting. I'm always looking for comments, especially from Texas/Arizona growers. You may also want to check out Native Seeds Search in Tuscan.

https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections ... -varieties

Welcome from Central KY!
I do miss Tucson! I graduated from high school there. My oldest son still lives in Tucson.

Frosti wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2025 2:13 am Welcome to the Junction. I find this forum to be rather small Plenty of room for new members

I now find this forum to be larger, going from an 11" Chromebook screen to a 16" one.

Although temps are somewhat similar to S. CA, Tucson is definitely VERY HOT & DRY! I'm okay with dry heat as opposed to very high humidity in CA, but tomatoes suffer for sure.
A lot of confusion to live in the high desert after 40 years near the beach, but this is a very very pretty city.

galleri wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 9:25 pm Welcome from Central KY!
I do miss Tucson! I graduated from high school there. My oldest son still lives in Tucson.