Early tomatoes were / are late, but mid / late season were / are somehow ok.

Most produced very few tomatoes with decent / good taste. Nothing fantastic.

How was your year ?

We canned 60 quarts of tomatoes and 20 quarts of juice. Problem is now I am tired of eating tomatoes, tired of canning, and they are just rotting on the vine now. Seems to happen every year at this time.

The early container plants were early and excellent, but the earlies that I grew in the veg. garden were late.

Most of the cherry tomatoes were a disappointment, but the larger tomatoes were excellent. I certainly have enough tomatoes to eat, give away and can.

I had a disaster when the trellis came crashing down in rain and high winds, but we erected a new one and re-tied what we could.

Linda

But yield is different issue. All in all I am happy.Out of about 20 plants, about 6 have not produced a ripe fruit yet. Maybe another 6 have been mediocre. The remain 8 have been doing just fine. My biggest surprise has been one that I grew from store heirloom tomato, that I liked. It turned out to be Ananas Noire. Very similar to size, texture and taste to Cherokee purple maybe even better. Another good early ones has been Siletz. A true early with fruit size in 4 to 6 oz, a compact determinant. Another satisfying find has been Sun Gold Cherry. I grew S100 cherry last year / I am glad replaced it with SG.

Now the short answer ": YES, I AM HAPPY.

My earliest tomato this year was Azoychka. It was right about on time. So were my green zebras. Mortgage lifter (especially my in-ground ones) has been very tardy.

All have had fantastic tastes. This is one of my best years ever for good tasting tomatoes! The worst tasting--in my opinion--is my single Cherokee purple plant.

But the yields have been small. But the pace has been picking up over the last week or two. So there is some hope for improvement over the remainder of the season!

Angie

Usually I can count on my Romas, but even those have yielded far less than normal. I have a Big Boy plant that has had four green fruit on it for weeks and barely any flowers or new growth. A Goliath gave me two tasty, nice-sized fruits a few weeks ago, and is just now putting out a bunch of flowers and a few baby fruits.

> Is it the cooler than normal weather?

Of course. This July and August we had mostly upper 70s and lower 80s. A few days mid 80s.

> I thought 80 degrees and sunny every day would be great for the garden.

Upper 80s… YES. Lower 80s… NO.

This August, we didn’t have ONE day of 90’ F. Or maybe one, have to check.

Last year in August, there were many days in the 90s, most in upper 80s and a few in lower 80s. I don't think that we had ONE day in the 70s.

My tomatoes love lower 90s much more than upper 70s, or even lower 80s.

Opalka and Cuostralee produced well and are still producing. 1884, Mortgage Lifter(RC), Paul Robeson, Beefsteak, Cherokee Purple did very well early season, but really slowed down with the (unusual) heat... 12 -15 days over 100 with the hottest being 108.
My Sungold cherry tomato was nothing like last year's. If I didn't have last year's memory of how good it was, I don't know that I would grow it again.

Keepers for next year include: Cuostralee, Opalka, Sungold and 1884 and/or Paul Robeson. Want to try Brandy Boy, Rutgers, Marianna Peace, Neves Azorean Red, Mortgage Lifter (Estler's - if I can find seed), and Kellogg's Breakfast next year.

My other problem was ending up with 2 crossed toms. Black Krim is big, delicious and tastes like BK, but it's red. KBX turned out to be something completely different and useless.
John A

> Researchers have found that the ideal ROOT temperature for tomatoes is 70°F.. (Hum Gardens)

Optimum tomato-growing temperature (GardenWeb)

Weather did it....all plants were from past seeds. Low to mid 80's in past 2 months. Thanks to the lord above, lots of people sharing our crop, lots of sauce, lots of ongoing dehydration, and lots of profits for those that sell bacon, mayo, and romaine lettuce !!!!!!!!!!

The tomatoes are huge and prolific; only the Big Beef and a few cherries have ripened so far. Can't wait for the Black Krim, CP, Paul Robeson, JBT and Persimmon to be ready. Rutgers and Indigo Rose are also doing well. I've never grown IR before...the plant is loaded with tomatoes, just not sure they are any good as far as taste.

I don't remember a better tomato-growing year...hopefully I can get some of the OP ones to ripen before frost.

I'm in Chicago area.

A few tomatoes I picked up this Saturday, September 13, 2014:

Most of the plants still look terrible and tomorrow night is supposed to be 41 (37 on Thursday night) so this may be the last hurrah but all the varieties (except Black Krim - those are done) have been ripening the past 2 weeks.

The red cooler is full of blushing heirlooms picked today, the 18 gal bin underneath the cardboard box is half full, another 3/4 full, and I have 4 more white bins plus the buckets I posted on the "jungle" thread (a 5 gal, 2 2-gal and a 1 gal plus 2 gal thermos jug) full.

I have just 2 cherries: Sun Gold and an Unknown large red. I Also have an unknown yellow grape.
Unknown, because I got seeds from Trader Joes Heirlomms.

Anyway, back to subject: Thanks to beautiful August and Septembet weathe (so far) , I am getting a lot from my limited plants (~ 25 ). Sharing and even making some sauce for winter.

For the first time ever, i have green tomato (GZ) and yellow pineapple kind. I need to grow a nice ORANE color too. I don't like pale sick looking colors. Got to be a real nice color.

OK. What can I say ! I am happy.

We also grew Champion, Sungold, Moskevich, Church, and San Marzano. Church was recommended to me and it was the worst. Only one that had significant foliage issues. Still haven't gotten one ripe tomato from it. The flavor of Champion was a big disappointment. Not so crazy about San Marzano either. Moskevich, I haven't had a ripe tomato from. Sungold and Fourth of July were the only tomatoes I will grow again.

Still looking for a large eating tomato with great taste that is productive. Not sure I will keep growing paste tomatoes.

I only have 1 plant each Sungold and Black Cherry but will be buying seed for next year. I'm undecided on the yellows - Galinas is very productive and DD loves them but I think they're bland, Dr. Carolyn is probably the front-runner though it started producing a little later than Galinas.

If you want to try a nice orange try Orange Minsk the color and flavor are great (dark orange) but as I said I've had problems with catfacing and BER. I think I want to try Orlov Yellow if I can find seeds next year but I don't know if that stays yellow or turns more orange.

Oh, and the green cherries in the bin to the right (on top of ripe salad tomatoes) are not quite ripe, we picked before rain yesterday so I picked the Green Dr not as ripe as usual - I don't know if they'd split but didn't want to take the chance. I have to put those (a few unripe Black Cherry and others too there) away to ripen so I can set up my table(s?) in the garage and have only market-ready ones out today.

prairemoon - I don't know how large is large, and taste is subjective, but try Cosmonaut Volkov. It's been very productive, this year the fruit has been huge, and it tastes good esp. since it's (usually, this year was strange) one of the earlier ones. I don't know if you're into the dark tomatoes, but again this year Cherokee Purple has been phenomenal (nice and round, no catfacing, though Black Krim was earlier). Then again so has Brandywine and that's usually not this productive. Though I wish it was earlier. I was set to try Prudens Purple next year instead but after this year I definitely have to plant BW again next year.

I'll trial some of the other Dr. Boe varieties I bought seed for, but I'm going to cut back next year. I want to take some of the beds out of rotation, they've been in nightshades too long so will plant other things in my older beds.

room

I got plenty of tomatoes this year ... around 75 from (6) plants, which was enough to satisfy our tomato appetites ... and have some tomatoes left over to gift to workmates, friends and family.

I've harvested at least medium-sized (35) Bush Goliaths, ... and at least (35) larger Mr. Stripeys from (2) vines of each.

My least prolific vines were the (2) brandy Boys, which yielded some (20) mid-sized fruits.

Photos of fruits in the kitchen window through the season are attached ...

Early August harvest

Late August harvest

The Mr. Stripeys were a delight due to their range of color (yellow, orange, red, mixed) and were the best-tasting of the fruits harvested to my palate. Plus, at least a dozen of these fruits were in the pound+ category. I'll definitely grow them again next year.

Tomatoes for distribution to friends and family (plus 2 green fruits for frying) ...

I mean yes, I had enough for my family, a few friends, and some neibors.

But... BUT, everything was soooo late. I started picking up in the second part of... August. That’s too late for me.

Some of the late and mid-season tomatoes were somehow in time, a few, earlier than I expected, but most were late. And the early-season tomatoes were very, VERY late.

Also, some varieties - such as Mortgage Lifter - were smaller than I expected - but excellent taste, though.

Some varieties that I tried this year - German Johnson, Rose.. - were larger than I expected.

Some Brandywines produced less than I expected, but the taste... THE TASTE was OUTSTANDING !

Anyway, last Friday night was supposed to be very cold - close to the freezing point - so I picked up almost all my tomatoes. I left the cherries.

Now I have a few ripped tomatoes, some with blushes...

The ripe tomatoes were pretty meaty / tasty - I didn't water in the last 2-3 weeks. Before, many were watery.

> The only issue I have is that they are quite watery this year…

I had the same problem. I stopped watering and the taste improved... A LOT.

> Maybe I should have held off watering them a week or so prior to picking them.

IMHO, one week is not enough. At least 2-3 weeks, of course depending on you local situation - you mulch / don't mulch, rainy weather, drip irrigation, manual watering... Try not to water for a longer period of time. The plants will give you signs when they are thirsty.

Out of 100+ plants this year, I had 2 plants - a Rose and a German Johnson - that when it was time to water, one branch, ONLY ONE branch / sucker of each plant, ALWAYS the same, went... LIMP.

I watered and everything was fine again. Than 2-3 weeks later, again, same thing.

I freak out when I see limp tomatoes in my garden. In the past I had VERY bad experience with limp tomatoes. To make the story short, they simply wilt in few days. Most of the time it's too late to do anything. But it's true, there was no mulching and no spraying fungicide from day one.

I learned my lesson and this year I used mulch and I sprayed fungicide religiously, weekly, since day one.

Thanks God, no problem whatsoever.

> Your weather is nice and you have a good cover system.

Last Friday, was not that nice. And the cover is only for some of my tomatoes. The tomatoes in that area with the 12’ x 10’ frames are not covered… this year. Will be next year.

> Where is that fat lady ?

Don’t know and she can come… when I’ll call her.

Btw, more flowering, and more new healthy branches / suckers. Lots of cherries.

>>Btw, more flowering, and more new healthy branches / suckers. Lots of cherries. <<

Are hoping to get anything out of those ? I mean ripe fruits.
From flower to ripe fruits take over 40 days under normal temperatures. .

> Are [you] hoping to get anything out of those ?

Yes, I think in the covered area, I might get 3-4 oz. green tomatoes. And maybe, just maybe, 1 oz. tomatoes from the ones outside. It all depends. A few hours of cold air from Canada, in the 30s, could easily end the season. It can come any day now.

Meantime the green tomatoes I picked up last week are ripening nicely in my basement.

I cleaned a section of my garden.

There is more...

Early tomatoes were either very late or very, VERY late - many mid-season and even some late-season tomatoes were earlier than the early tomatoes I grew (6 varieties.) You want to know when I picked up the FIRST Stupice tomato ? September 1. Obviously, unacceptable.

This year the tomatoes I grew, produced much less than I expected and - with few exceptions: Brandy Boy, German Johnson, Rose… - the fruits were smaller than I expected. Especially Mortgage Lifter was smaller than the previous years, but the taste… excellent.

Luckly, LUCKLY I had a looooong season and I had some decent crop, otherwise…

So, NO, I’m not happy with the crop in 2014.

Now, 2015 will be errr… different.

I’ll take care of that.

Fairly disappointing year for me. I put in 46 plants and needed to buy tomatoes to do most of my canning.

Always interesting to see the varying results that one sees from an area not all that far away, like central Ohio vs. Western PA.

In general, it would seem that the season was fairly bad for people in this area over-all. The Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny Co. group nearly had to cancel it's annual tomato tasting because they didn't know if they had enough for people to try at the two locations they have for it.

As it was, the selections were pretty slim.

My 4th of July did very well. I got them in about a week late (end of May) and they were ripening before the end of July. Not bad.

My Roma Grande did well also. Good production, good size and flavor was about what I expected.

Cherokee Purple did ok, I guess. Maybe a little less than I'd hoped, and a little smaller. Not bad though.

Those and the above two I'll grow again.

Most of the rest did poorly. Mortgage Lifter (forget which one), Super Sioux, Bush Steak and Bush Ace Heirloom were all major disappointments. The Better Bush did so-so.

I will not bother with any of these again.

This is now two seasons in a row that I can literally count on my fingers the number of times the whole season that I needed to water my garden because of the amount of rain we got. Not really sure how to combat that.

I do everything in raised beds which helps.

Next year I'm going to go with more early season varieties. I'd also like to try some that are more cold tolerant if I can find some that are at least somewhat adaptable to warmer areas in case we start getting some warmer summers like we used to.

Maybe some Kosovo since people have grown them in Texas as well as colder areas.

Talking about unwanted rain water:
I cover my beds with Black plastic about 6 weeks before plant out date. When it is plant out time , I cut an 8 inch diameter circle in the plastic (for each plant), make a hole and plant in it. Make the area next the hole higher so that no run off water can get in it.
The black plastic stays there till late July when it does not rain that much. With this method I control the rain water and keep the soil warmer. I just water manually when needed.

BUT all in all I had a relatively good season here. Temps were above average and less rain with more sun.

> This is now two seasons in a row that I can literally count on my fingers the number of times the whole season that I needed to water my garden because of the amount of rain we got. Not really sure how to combat that.

I control the rain on a section of my garden with this simple small hoop house…

Currently I still have tomatoes in that hoop house, ripening nicely. It's not very tight - it was not designed for cold times, only for rain protection - but it is still better than without it. I mean with direct sun, if outside is 60s inside is 80s, which obviously my tomatoes love. Even with 50s outside, I still can have 70s inside. During the night the temp inside is 5-10' higher than outside. If the hoop house was TIGHTER, those numbers would be much, MUCH better - especially at night.

All good suggestions and I have already given thought to implementing much of it for next season. My hope is to get an earlier start so black plastic and hoop houses have already been on the to do list.

I have not done anything with mulch, previously. Although, my beds do have high hummus content as well.

The rain, from a moisture perspective, has not been a huge problem. It's the lack of sun and the cooler weather that it has brought with it that has been the biggest problem.

Although, the excessive rain made it difficult to keep up with feedings with miracle grow, and no doubt flushed much of it out when I did use it.

I will probably move toward a granulated fertilizer next season.

Although, admittedly, the stuff I get is probably the cheapest available and my well not be top quality. That said, I read a gardenweb faq that said there was no nutritive quality to humus. So, why wouldn't it need some kind of food added to it?

This was the first year I've done the MG treatment and, with the amount of rain we got, I can't say whether it had any impact or not. In previous years, I've done a granulated fertilizer once during the season and it always seemed to do ok.

With humus soil mix ( which I think is excellent) and lots of rain (not so good) , you'll need more fertilizing , more often. And again because of that I thing granular and time release fertilized might be a better option. But if you choose to use water soluble type, (as I do supplement) Use 1/3 strength once a week or every other week. You have to feed/fertilize your plant, rain or shine. Actually have to do it more often when the keeps pouring.

This was the first year I abandoned the granular fertilizer for the MG. Which, I just followed the directions on the box with respect to strength but not frequency due to the rain.

It seemed like such a waste to do it in the rain when I figured it would just run out the bottom of the beds. I guess I had that part wrong and perhaps it contributed to my poor production on at least some of the plants.