texaskitty111 said:Those of you in zone 8, do you leave your tomatoes in and get a fall crop? Seems like last year, nothing produced. This is what i got today



Seems like it's time to give up?
Also, i'm curious if anyone ever gets tomato plants that never produce, even thou its the same variety as a producer? Are there male and female tomato plants, and some just fertilize? I het a few of these every year.

Hey tk,

My Fall tomatoes are doing real good, cucumbers are now blooming and bell peppers are really coming on. All my other plants, peas, corn, okra, collards, mustard, and turnips will be ready to harvest come first of October.

In years past, I have had some Fall tomato plants come on real slow and then bloom like crazy without one single tomato. Like you said, same species in the same garden spot not sure why?

Thomas, was your fall crop different from your spring crop?

texaskitty111 said:Thomas, was your fall crop different from your spring crop?

Hey again tk,

In the past my Fall crop is never as productive as my Spring crop with tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, okra but other veggies have been about the same. When I say not as productive take the tomatoes, in the Spring those plants will produce very good until around mid / late July and then they will slow down to about half of the previous harvest. However many of my tomatoes will continue to produce some even through August. I normally just pull them up and get that area ready for the Fall plants. By the way these are Celebrity Tomatoes I'm talking about which I plant every year.

This year I started my Fall planting on 08/16 and had everything in the ground by 08/23 except for potatoes, those will be planted the end of September.

Thomas75 said:

Hey again tk,

In the past my Fall crop is never as productive as my Spring crop with tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, okra but other veggies have been about the same. When I say not as productive take the tomatoes, in the Spring those plants will produce very good until around mid / late July and then they will slow down to about half of the previous harvest. However many of my tomatoes will continue to produce some even through August. I normally just pull them up and get that area ready for the Fall plants. By the way these are Celebrity Tomatoes I'm talking about which I plant every year.

This year I started my Fall planting on 08/16 and had everything in the ground by 08/23 except for potatoes, those will be planted the end of September.

You sure are organized.

Newyorkrita said:

You sure are organized.

Hi Rita and thank you....sometimes it sure does not feel that way . The harder I plan things the harder Mother Nature works to change my plans

Thomas75 said:

Hi Rita and thank you....sometimes it sure does not feel that way . The harder I plan things the harder Mother Nature works to change my plans

Well, we all have to deal with Mother Nature. For the good or for the bad. But mostly things are very good in the veggie garden.

TK -- no, tomato plants aren't "male" or "female" -- they have "perfect flowers," and are essentially self-pollinating (although there can be some cross-pollination caused by insects).

I've never had it happen where an apparently healthy tomato plant just didn't product any fruit at all, and I don't have a clue what would be going on there...

All of my heirloom tomato plants have stopped producing due to heat and blight. The blight appeared slowly and took over all the plants except the hybrid sungold. I am about to pull them all out and sterilize the containers for next year. I had one - Georgia Streak - that never set one fruit. Huge bush, a few flowers, no fruit. And no, I didn't fertilize it with excess nitrogen LOL. It got the same treatment as all the others for awhile, then I stopped using fertilizer on it at all. I was a pretty good year for me for tomatoes though. I think I will start a few dwarf variety seeds to plant in buckets for the greenhouse.

beclu727 said:All of my heirloom tomato plants have stopped producing due to heat and blight. The blight appeared slowly and took over all the plants except the hybrid sungold. I am about to pull them all out and sterilize the containers for next year. I had one - Georgia Streak - that never set one fruit. Huge bush, a few flowers, no fruit. And no, I didn't fertilize it with excess nitrogen LOL. It got the same treatment as all the others for awhile, then I stopped using fertilizer on it at all. I was a pretty good year for me for tomatoes though. I think I will start a few dwarf variety seeds to plant in buckets for the greenhouse.

That is the mystery as to why some do so well and others poorly.

This year growing lots and lots and lots of heirlooms. Unusual for me as it was always mostly hybrids. So yup, lots more blight in the garden than I am used to seeing.

As to no fruit, that was always my experience with various types of Brandywines I tried thru the years. This year doing a strain called Cowlick Brandywine and it is phenomenal. A really nice amount of tasty, tasty fruit.

To clarify about fall crops

Tomatoes: I pull out tomato plants as they get blighty and try to take cuttings of healthy parts of plants. This fall I have two tomato plants in flower. One is from a cutting taken a month ago, the other is from a healthy sucker on a stem and cut away the rest of the unhealthy plant.
Both plants have healthy leaves and are flowering.

Also have green bean plants that were seeded in August, just now getting big enough to flower.

Today planted rutabaga and tomorrow some kale. In pots on deck I will put chard seedlings, those should last all winter.

One of my favorite heart shaped heirloom tomatoes, Sylvan Guame, got crossed with what seems to be an unknown black, most likely Cherokee Purple or Brad's Black Heart. This year I got the result. I have saved seeds and we will see what happens to the F-2 next year.

PaulF said:One of my favorite heart shaped heirloom tomatoes, Sylvan Guame, got crossed with what seems to be an unknown black, most likely Cherokee Purple or Brad's Black Heart. This year I got the result. I have saved seeds and we will see what happens to the F-2 next year.

They are nice looking and hopefully taste great too.

Two really nice "chocolate" tomatoes in my garden. Both of which I really love and will be growing again next season.


Chocolate Cherry. Another of the dark cherry sized tomatoes. I also grow Black Cherry and have for some years. First year growing Chocolate Cherry and I like it much better. Pretty much the same size., cracks much less and sets tomatoes much earlier as Black Cherry is very late for me.

Going to be growing CC from now on and pass on the BC.




Black Icicle. I have posted about this one before. A kinda Roma shape but longer so maybe torpedo shaped might be a good decription. Excellent, excellent taste. A wonderful saladette tomato and great for cooking too.

Am growing a fall crop of tomatoes since our weather was so mild last year. So far so good, one plant is a cutting from back in July, another is a healthy sucker on a blighted plant. The bed is in full sun most of the day so even tho sun has less intensity this time of year they are growing. Interesting to see what I get.

It is good to experiment!
When do you get the first frost?

These fell off the Cherokee purple yesterday. I don't know if they are ripe. Any input?

Close. Give them a couple of days and they will be ready. Cut into the darkest red and see for sure, but the top needs to be a darker green, almost brownish green. See Rita's Choc Cherry above. They will get darker as they ripen. Looks good.

Robynanne:
     I had a couple of Cherokee Purples fall off last week that were not as dark as those in your picture. Several days on a windowsill and they ripened. (At least I think they did. My wife grabbed them for her lunch before I could taste them!) You have enough to sacrifice one as an experiment.

Thanks! I'll watch them and see for a bit. Hopefully soon! I think these are about the extent of my cherokee harvest, the plant never really thrived and then it lost the bulk of the leaves it had to what I think is bacterial spot.

I'm learning that everyone just kinda calls the end of the season disease on tomatoes 'blight' so I've been calling it that too.. but they are all spotty, not sure if it matters. It is the same thing that hit the tomatoes last year, although this held off a lot longer. I think it got started on the yellow pear plant - it was the instigator last year too.

Looking forward to implementing everything I've learned next year and seeing some better results.

CarolineScott said:It is good to experiment!
When do you get the first frost?

That is what I was wondering. When is first frost usually?