We shattered our old November 19 record low which was 30 F, and that was 141 years ago. Not a good year. I just wanted to post this to say, it can be done, if you refuse to quit.

My first fall harvest, a 12.0 ounce Cherokee Purple, which was what may be a concentric fused blossom (?)., and a few Super Sweet 100s. All had cracked from the condensation due to a dew point just about equal to the temperature in the cold mornings, followed by a fast warming period for the air at sunrise.

Any ideas what can be done in this sort of weather besides harvest earlier? Here's the bounty taken yesterday when only one cherry was split:

My latest cost estimate for the fall passion: $10 per pound if all goes right, plus hundreds of hours of fun to build a hoop, and then buy hairdryers and drop cloths to heat it. But Old Man Winter is unkind this year ... Now I want a real greenhouse ;-(

Yes, I know the rest of the world seems under a mountain of snow, but we don't have much of a Summer here, this is our hard fought satisfaction. It won't last long. My hope is the Santa F2's will not be too frozen to give some red treats by Christmas Eve...and it will be a Miracle on 34th Street if the plants make it that long.

PC

Maybe you need one of those small ceramic heaters (from the big box store) to keep your hoop house warm and toasty in inclement weather. I can't imagine sitting there holding a hair dryer all night!!!!!

Keep up the good work! You must be doing something right !

Linda

For cracking, you know the solution already. Not all the fruits an a cluster like that will all ripe before the early ones cracking or falling off.

BTW that Cherokee P looks real awesome.

Seysonn

Your tomatoes look great! We are having such terrible weather for ripening the tomatoes, with the drastic change of temperature the big varieties are having trouble in my garden while all the cherry are doing fine.

This morning harvest

Silvia

seysonn, thanks! I know you were in Georgia for a while so you might relate that I'm only 27 miles from the Georgia state line. This year we are having Georgia weather, last winter was Florida weather. I guess you mean I need to pick them earlier to avoid the cracking. Since this is the first time I tried a fall crop (LOL, in the worst year on record), I never had the cold tomato condensation in the morning problem before. One 42 F humid night and they all were dripping like Coke cans in Summer commercials, and cracked. I guess you mean I should have ripened the last two days off the vine, and I was wondering if there aren't any work-arounds in this situation for you guys that have regular experience with it. Could a plastic bag over the maturing ones for cold dewy nights/mornings work? You think it is worth a shot?

Hi labs! Today I'm going to eat that #1 CP to celebrate a birthday thought for someone who would have not stopped raving about it. ;-) I hope a little CP will give me a glimpse of wherever she's at in heaven ;-) Isn't it great how tomato varieties can do that! I can say that splitting may not be so bad if I had looked at the glass half full ... I am lucky to have any tomatoes, and cracks go hand in hand with sweet and brimming with flavor.

Even though the Sun has been at less than 50% the commercial requirement for tomatoes here (most of the day is in full winter shade), the SS100s were actually much better than a "Gold Medal" $5/lb variety heirloom grown in South Florida and specially handled by Whole Foods for optimal flavor. There was no comparison and Gold Medal is known as being among the sweetest of beefsteaks. The SS100s slaughtered it, cracked and all. I wish I could send you a few, but they were gone faster than I could say "Yummy". It really is a great surprise since I had wrongly assumed that the poor sun and cold temperatures would make these no better than the supermarket.

The CPs look good, but here's the bad side of my #1, which I am calling a concentric fused blossom type for lack of a better description. I like the form, but you can see how the 1 1/2 day old splits got it ... they weren't there on the day of the pic on the vine I posted above.

My heaters really are $20 ceramic Chinese manufactured thingees via Walmart that look like small speakers. I just call them hairdryers because they are the same 1500W, which is the max I can plug into an outlet all night without tripping a circuit breaker. What I really need are heat lamps to serve double necessity. Maybe in next years' budget ;-(

Here's the close up of the damage I'm dealing with on the CP, my idea of my sweet Mum's Birthday Cake ;-)

PC

My fall season end I'm judging only by the 10-day weather forecast and the plants likely will get clobbered with a vengeance when the inevitable happens.
Last year I could have made it into January. What I wouldn't do for a greenhouse now! When you break out those heating blankets I hope you'll give us a peek. Some of the ideas I've found here have been very helpful and styles seem to segregate as much as each of our gardening genes ;-)

I am unimpressed by the indigo fruit trait and can't help feeling like it's like eating purple stem grafted & stitched epidermis frankenfruits from the Monsanto public relations machine, but I'll not make further negative remarks since the plants are innocent and I am not impartial yet.

I grew two "blue" fruiting plants from one of the varieties being promoted. In theory I have two plants of the variety ... Both are off-types I should have put something better in their places ... but with the concerted effort to have people grow this stuff, I did mine.

One is off-fruit shape and plant vigor, and the other off-color. They are both reasonably ornamental and I wanted to share this one which at least has the color, and with respect to this thread, I can be fairly say that the leaves of these two plants seem to have heightened defense, though far from immunity, to leaf miners:

PC

I planted before one of the varieties of the Indigo series and it was productive and decent flavor, I will have to see if the blueberry one that I have is worth the wait.

Silvia

The Indigo tomatoes so far only give me nutrient deficiencies, not because they contain additional flavonoids per pound of fruit ... I get far more from other dietary sources in other vegetables and fruits ... for example, I love black plums but they aren't in with the blueberry fad at the moment, which like the Indigo tomato is far more of a marketing campaign than an effort to provide nutritional information.

The problem is if they don't taste as good as other tomatoes, and have terrible yields (though this will change), I eat less and I grow less so it is just a novelty that turns a few heads... "How cute those tomatoes are". Meanwhile, in the lovable Teddy Jones gene-line, I have about 9 pounds of tomatoes hanging on this plant and the first is yet to be harvested, but will be in a week. This was my second most productive plant. I plant 4 hybrids and 12 OPs, just to strike a balance. While the color of these won't win many contests for novelty, they are actually a pretty tasty tomato.

My #1 productive plant up till yesterday was a Cherokee Purple which still hasn't had the first blush, but my carelessness led to not watching out for 4 pounds of tomatoes all immature, breaking their auxiliary stem off completely last night and taking a ribbon of skin over 6 inches long with it, followed by many tears. I remember someone I know told me to stick to one stem ;-)

For a productive hybrid that is reasonably tasty, this is a great variety for us here. Two equally large clusters are not visible:

Do you have an old faithful heavy producer you like down Winter Garden ways?

PC

I grew a variety of the Indigo tomatoes in the fall of 2012, it was productive and tasted okay, it is growing next to Smarty, one of my favorite cherries

I don't really have a single favorite tomato, it depends on the season and some I grow them more than others. When I really don't like them, I take them out of the rotation. I usually grow cherry and beefsteaks, not so much the medium.

This season has been hard on the big varieties with the cold snap that we had, some of them look like monsters but it is only cosmetic around the skins, I can still use them for sauce or roasted. The weather is nicer now and the big tomatoes look better, From the beefsteaks just this season the one that looks the worst is Big Beef, the one that looks the best Amana and Red Penna. All the cherry tomatoes are okay and actually have abundance now and will have to look to give away and uses for the pot lucks coming up, a lot of kale and a lot of tomatoes. Many cheers for eating healthy! :)

This season, Sweet Treats are looking good in my garden

Silvia

Favorite? LOL! How could anyone have a favorite tomato who has grown some of the treasure that get posted to this forum ;-)

Now we're talking! I really love your Sweet Treats hybrid. Production is important to me since I don't have space and I am going to stick STs into one of my hybrid slots next time (You know what they say about flattery and imitation ;-). Looks like Sweet Treats tomato wonderland. Who need Xmas trees down there! You just need Christmas tomatoes! Bravo! I can't wait for you to show us those when they blush bright, just watch out for deer if it starts to "rain".

Speaking of hybrids, unfortunately for my fall season, hybrids shall provide half of the production even though they number in the minority. I never get the story right about the Big Boy (1949) / Better Boy (1971) / Early Girl (1975) anecdotes, but I do think the boys look like guy tomato plants (see my earlier pic) so I can't help thinking this was in the back of the breeder's mind when it was named and then upgraded to be improved, a.k.a. better. Now I have one Early Girl to keep my Better Boy company, and with her this time uncharacteristically large first perky blushing red cluster ... two 8 ouncers symmetrically balancing across the stem, it is not hard to see how this Better Boy teasing hybrid mademoiselle got her well-deserved name, in breeder naming wars, Early Girl (Who I'll have over for lunch tomorrow lol), so take that Better Boy ;-)

As for the irregular shaped fruits, here's another for you, the result of an earlier cold snap here than when we all froze our pants off into the history books on Nov 19-20. This is the same Indigo plant as before, different cluster, here manifested as an Indigo tomato off-type of the boat shape:

Can't wait to see how that one turns out! They remind me of the "Muddy Waters" Waglooms a little, but they are not ;-). It's looking fair since temps are ok here if low 60's count over the next ten days. The heat is losing steam ;-( and Xmas is on the way but nice and gradual like I like!

PC

In this picture ST are the big red cherries, together with Jaunne Flamme, Sungold, Sweet Baby Girl, Marizol.

And some of the dishes for a potluck, the best kale salad and a tomato one.

Silvia

I was mixed up on your first attractive pic, which is the Marizol, the one that looks like a "mini-Marzano" sort hidden in the middle-left?

It has been cold here. I delayed the harvest of Early Girl and it was worth it, at the moment licking my lips from an Early Girl, baby rainbow chards and Arugula salad. Here's how 5+ pounds of her look in my garden:

Holding off on harvest on Early Girl is worth it since she seems to have a store-gased interior pulp when I don't do that in cool weather. I'd like more information on the original French variety that Howland mooched off the French breeders when they switched the name to Early Girl in 1974 for joint release by Burpee and Peto. That might be insightful on the parents of the hybrid. Early Girl usually gives bright 6-ounce globes with reasonable flavor, though if you have tasty heirlooms next to her that are early, she's just for moral support and show.

In California, Early Girl has proved more than a fad since she holds her shape under stress so well, she can be dry farmed, and is there, which is a secret some have mentioned in the forum to get sweeter, more intense tomato flavor especially with the durable sweet grape types.

Here's one yummy Early Girl BBW, coming in barely off 9 ounces, and ripened till the last moment on the vine and still pleasantly plump on my palate:

Here is the same tomato sliced. The seeds are extra large and healthy looking. I am getting a lot of this in the cold as the tomatoes are on the vine longer for the flesh to mature. I'm speculating the seeds mature at a faster rate:

PC

Just kidding. We will beat you next July and august and return the favor.

Seysonn

Northerner, Thanks but I do feel sorry for everyone having rough weather, tonight it is going to be too cold for tomatoes, about 40 at night in my area...

PC, you are working so hard to have tomatoes, good for you! they look great, when I lived in Phoenix Early Girls did well for me in that weather.

Marizol is the smaller yellow tomato, they have different colors when ripening sometimes light green, then yellow with a red blush, last time I even had few red in the same plant, they are very productive that is why I only plant one.

I picked a lot of tomatoes today before tonight cold snap, making roasted tomatoes again, after cooking all day they are reduced so I can put them in canning jars and use them as toppings for salads, they taste the best done like that with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs and spices.

Some of the yellow ones are Gold Medal, Amana Orange, Pork Chop, Jaunne Flamme, Marizol.
Some of the red ones are Red Penna, Neves Azorean Red, Big Beef.

Silvia

Y'all know down yonder he-ya we's happy a 'possum eatin' a sweet p'tater. Dang, today I done go-post a mater shiny n purtty like a pig's ear.

And she's one heck of a WHOPPER!!!

G'Day Canada! I would trade all of our season's in a flash for just one good year in Leamington! The week is barely starting and all of the nights will be in the 30's here (Below 5 C). We did not break 60 F today (15 C) and it will be that way for the rest of the week. You hear about how great it is in Florida, and how great your summers are. I'm closer to Atlanta than Miami. Nobody hardly talks about what happens where the two greats meet. That's me. We routinely get freezes from the north in winter. Our Spring season is the best, but it is April-Jun and then we get hot and humid like those in Florida proper (those in the penninsula south of us). Very few attempt a fall season and that was over this year on November 19. I slept out one night with the plants to keep them alive with heaters, and managed to cook one plant to death. But I'm smiling now ... because now I'm reaping what I've sown ;-) If you really love tomatoes you can do it. But I would recommend a greenhouse!

Hi Silvia! Very timely and stunning color! I've been into RubyGold lately (the name of the Gold Medal tomato given to it by its true discoverer (1921)). I will have to take a picture for you of my RubyGold t-shirt I'm not growing it this fall, but I have an heirloom vaguely similar to it that predates RubyGold and in my opinion is more beautiful. Hopefully they will ripen before Old Man Winter blows my operation down with frosty breath. Silvia ... in a word about NAR: Yum! Fabulous colors and delicious pics. Thanks for clearing up the Marizol question too ;-)

OK, here's what I'm excited about today!!! I harvested my largest tomato ever. The bad news is, I am not 100% sure what variety it is. The plant was started April 1, too late and I threw it away with its companions of 5 varieties. Then I got this idea to rescue three plants from the garbage, none of which still was attached to a label, and see if I could nurse it through summer. I did, and it did not give a single tomato until the one I harvested today, even though I flushed gallons of water 5 times daily through it for months. I hope if I post the inside some people can help me decide what it is as there are 5 possibilities only.

This plant was subjected to freeze and alternately cooked with a ceramic heater and covered with my personal bedcover as I slept in a sleeping bag to nurse it through a recent freeze. The top of the tomato is scarred and cracked and mold has grown on it, but it has not penetrated it so it will be easy to cut off. This is what a tomato looks like that goes through that sort of culture and has a parent without a greenhouse to look out after it.

My biggest ever, 1 pound 6.8 ounce tomato (645 grams) dangling like Rudolph's nose right over the sidewalk tempting the entire neighborhood:

Mold, cracks on top, but only skin deep:

My scale weighs pounds and ounces and metric too. The scale dimensions are 6" X 9":

PC