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jessecruz21311

Tomato Variety

JesseCruz21311
9 years ago

Hello Garden Web,
I just recently moved to Apple Valley Ca. 92308 I'm not sure what climate zone this is. Right now the temperatures are getting down to the mid 30's down to 27,. What vegetables can I seed start right now also I want to get a jump on the tomato and pepper season. I've heard it gets pretty warm here. Just wandering are there heat tolerant tomato variety. I understand that some tomato varieties grow better in different climates. If any one can help it would surely be appreciated. Thanks in advance

Comments (6)

  • PupillaCharites
    9 years ago

    Welcome to this forum and try searching the forum archive, as there are dozens of recommendations. Here, this thread for example covers something close to your zone...

    Heat tolerant varieties for the West

    PC

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    According to GW zone finder , you are in zone 9.
    It means that you have very mild winters but does NOT say anything about your summer weather. Probably you have about 8 months of frost free growing season. Maybe longer

    In terms of growing tomatoes, you should not have any limitation in terms of variety, DTM and temperature dependence. Any tomato that can be grown in any place in the world should grow just fine in your location, provided it receives planting and other care requirement.

    Seysonn

  • PupillaCharites
    9 years ago

    It's USDA Zone 8b, and is a very dry place with pretty brutal temperatures in the mid 90's from June 1 to Sept 30. Definitely you are correct to want heat tolerant varieties. A friend of mine nearby did very well with Phoenix (a heat tolerant tomato) , but this is just one of many tomatoes that will set well and I'm personally not a fan of its texture and flavor or its same type sister variety Florida 91 which also would work and both give really super production if you want lots of tomatoes, that's for sure.

    You're best bet is to carefully watch the calendar and start you plants indoors on March 1, or buy transplants to do on April 20 if you go that route. Your season no matter what gets cut short due to a blistering heat, like how far is Death Valley from you ;-) Definitely you want to grow some of the the sort of variety I've mentioned because the dry heat will put you plants into overdrive an stress them and the blossoms will drop a lot and unless yiou are really looking after them all the time it is no fun to grow like that. If you want to grow those regular varieties, do it during your fall season. That means start plants indoors the fist week of July and put them out as soon as possible in September. You should be able to harvest in a normal year into October and November, so the season is short but this is what my newbie friend did and got 15 pounds per plant :-).

    Another tomato that I personally have grown that produced in hot, but humid weather is Homestead 24. I am trialing Thessaloniki as now and will also try it for summer. It is an heirloom now, about 58 years old if that counts (similar to Homestead), and a delicious tomato and made for climates like yours. That is one you need to grow from seed or order by plants by mail. Pretty much all cherry tomatoes are ok if you want to do them. But seriously read the threads there are many other great suggestions you can use instead of just getting a few random replies from us here

    Best luck
    PC

  • grubby_AZ Tucson Z9
    9 years ago

    I'm going to contradict PupillaCharites a little bit, but not much. Hot climate gardening is indeed a whole 'nuther beast.

    Since seed is cheap, you might try to start seeds for toms in late December or early January and put them out in early March, just to game the last frost date. Stagger seed starting and stagger set outs for insurance, of course.

    I have some second-season tomatoes and sweet peppers that are just now starting to ripen, but we're hotter by ten to fifteen degrees, so you might push the midsummer plantings a bit also if you try for a second season.

    Also, read up on the value of midday shade for when "full sun" starts to be a bad thing.

  • PupillaCharites
    9 years ago

    Actually those are good ideas from grubby's input, especially about gaming the last frost. But you'd have to get lucky because your last frost date ranges to April 20, and the way this year is going winter isn't giving any breaks.in the southeast, but mabe the southwest will have better luck and maybe you can get a few weeks.

    Since it is the first time he's growing I was trying to keep it simple. You won't believe all you can learn by going through it one time with the surest thing and then if you get into it you can build on that with experience under your belt and do some of the stuff other forum participants do to increase their luck. Now I'm bucking the recommendation again with plants when the season should be over (as of two nights ago, hard freeze, 9a). It kind of gets tedious instead of fun at times, and there is really no substitute for getting a productive plant that allows a beginner latitude to make a few mistakes but still get his bushel full to show for the effort.

    Best gardening
    PC

  • suncitylinda
    9 years ago

    In addition you will be dealing with wind, quite a lot of it in your high dessert location. Get your tomato plants set out as early as humanly possible. You can purchase or make frost caps or purchase specialty product to protect young plants. Your best bet will likely be smaller tomatoes, including cherries and salad size.

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