We sliced our last tomatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. Wanted to share them with the family. I know this is the latest we have ever had garden tomatoes. I hope next year is just a good as this year!

Claudia said: I hope next year is just a good as this year!

Angie, I am filled with envy at your lunch plate, after gazing sadly at my last two green tomatoes which have barely made it to a yellow-pink state.

Made green tomato soup with the last of mine. Yum, flavored it with arugula, which mainly grows in fall and winter here.

I'll have to try that green tomato soup next year, Judy. Arugula grows all year here. I tried some seed called "wild olive leaf arugula" this year—it was milder than the usual kind but had thin leaves that made it a pain to harvest. I went back to the standard variety in August.

Don:

I have a windowsill full of red, ripe tomatoes now and am struggling to eat them before
they go bad. Many salads, some ham, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, anything that
can boast tomatoes has been garnished with them. I was hoping they'd ripen more
slowly than they have. I may even have enough to freeze another batch before it's all
over! How crazy is that, freezing homegrown tomatoes in December?

Uh, I'll be starting tomato seeds this weekend, for plant out 02/11/17!!

My, how time flies! Woo Hoo!!!

Hugs!

Linda, are you able to grow two crops of tomatoes every year? Or is the one you'll be starting this weekend the one and only? (I have a really hard time keeping track of when everyone in the various parts of the country is planting and harvesting!!) And what varieties are you growing this year?

Somewhere around 2/11 I'll be at least thinking about starting onion seeds...

And up in the Great White North---we are just ordering our tomatoe seeds!

Which varieties will you be starting?

It is fun to see the southern gardens start up!

Hi, Guys!

This is my one and only tomato crop of the year. I haven't had success growing a fall/autumn crop. I transplant the tomato seedlings in mid to late winter here, under protection of covered hoops. If we don't get them in that early, our brutal heat will keep the pollen from flying and there won't be good pollination. When things go well, weather wise, I'm finished my harvest by mid-June, and start ripping out the vines.

Historically, I've been pushing the heirloom tomato envelope, however, I've yet to get the bumper crop I need/want to start canning homemade tomato sauce. So, this year, I may bite the bullet and go with the tried and true garden varieties (it hurts my stomach to even say that...) so many gardeners here swear by: Big Boy and Better Boy, Celebrity, Juliette, and a new variety called "Tycoon," which is a Texas Superstar tomato recommendation.

And, while I cringe over the thought of growing "garden variety" tomatoes, I may at least end up rejoicing with the local gardeners who end up with enough leftover tomatoes to start leaving them on doorsteps, LOL!

A bushel of "garden" varieties is worth two dozen heirloom seeds, perhaps?

We each do what we have to do!
I grow one for production and others for taste.

To help select Tomato varieties to try, I went through all the threads in this (and other) forums, noting those said to have better than average flavor. The list is here:
The thread "Tomatoes Recommended for Good Taste" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

Thanks @Donshirer for that list.

I also love hearing what our southern gardeners are starting--it gets me excited for our upcoming season, even if we are just at the seed-ordering stage as Caroline mentioned.

I already have placed my order with Sampleseeds.com last week, and have a few more orders to go that will probably wait until after Christmas. One of my MG colleagues that grows tomatoes for our plant sale has already sent me her list. Love people that are so proactive--it makes my job so much easier

I won't be starting seeds until the end of Jan., but a few of what I'll be starting are
as follows:

Mortgage Lifter
Better Boy
Rose
Jaune Flaume (sp.)
Black Krim
Caspian Pink (trying again)

Instead of using the 2 liter bottles this year, I'll try the 16 oz. bottles and plant only
2 seeds in each. I'm hoping I won't lose many seedlings this way. Has anyone tried
this before?

Hemophobic said:
Instead of using the 2 liter bottles this year, I'll try the 16 oz. bottles and plant only
2 seeds in each. I'm hoping I won't lose many seedlings this way. Has anyone tried
this before?

Angie -- are you "winter sowing" in the bottles? I've never tried WS tomatoes, I don't "think" they would sprout soon enough where I am that way, so I start them under lights. I'm sure it would have much more chance of working well for you -- and there are no doubt people on the winter sowing forum that could share their experiences, if no one does here.

Sandy: I have to admit that I was one of those doubting Thomases about
WSing working with tomatoes, but it does, at least for me. Yes; I am a WSer.
It's been the only way I've ever been able to prevent weak, leggy seedlings and had
any luck with getting poppy seeds to sprout as well. My tomato seedlings are little trees by the time I plant them out in May and they do well for me. Why don't you try a few seeds along with the light method and see if it works? Can't hurt and if it works, you'll have a new trick up your sleeve!

I might just do that, Angie!

I did try here in what was zone 3, and now they call it zone 4.
They germinated in June, and there were green tomatoes in September.
But it might be an idea to try it again.
A different year with different weather?
And green tomatoes in September can ripen on a windowsill.

I don't remember which Variety--maybe really short season ones would work better? I'll need to go back in my Journals to see if I wrote down the variety.

Thanks, Caroline -- that's actually pretty much what I would expect to happen, with the plants coming up too late to be very useful. Almost might as well wait for the volunteers to grow -- which do occasionally give me ripe tomatoes, but not reliably and always really late.

I used to live in Buffalo ny and the WSing thing doesn't work for tender annuals like tomatoes if you have short season. Always had to start tomatoes under lights in Buffalo. Here in zone 7 season is so long I can start tomatoes and many things outdoors from seeds after frost date. But I stil like to start early under lights just to have ripe tomatoes in June.