I've got a little tomatoe the size of a pea!!! yeah :-)

Hey, those little tomatoes get bigger every day, and then they ripen, and yummy!

One advantage of being so far south is that I almost always start harvesting in May, and sometimes even in April. BUT, the downside is that sometimes the heat shuts down production really early here in zone 7 and those of you in zone 6 may not see your production shut down quite as early.

River, you'll be harvesting tomatoes in June, I am sure. They grow and ripen so quickly once the heat arrives!

Dawn

I've got blooms on some of mine that I started from seed. Not as good as the fruit of course, but I'm thrilled. What's the temperature they stop producing flowers? Isn't it over 90?

Of course I have no tomatoes, but I have lots and lots of blossoms. Even one planted in the ground is blooming. I also have cucumber blooms and that little pot of yellow wax beans is just starting to bloom. It is almost that time. Yeh.

Had lunch with friends today and my dish was the salad. The lettuce, sugar snap peas, and broccoli all came from my garden. I would love to have some tomatoes, but .............. Carol, you almost live in Missouri, or Kansas, remember, it's northern Oklahoma. Guess I am suffering from tomato envy. LOL

Mine are smaller than the petite peas...except for one that is about smallish marble size :)...weird year - I really don't know what to expect, but it's ok...I will finally have my own tomatoes again and that's what matters!!

I 4 tomatoes on an Early Girl Plant, they are about the size of an half dollar.

the other tomatoes plants are just now starting to bloom.

I am south, but with the crazy cool weather we had, mine are just now starting to take off.

I haven't even had squash or cucumbers yet out of the garden, and with past years, I would be picking by now..
and I think I am about 3 weeks away from picking anything, as the plants are still growing,

But over the past 20 years, my Veggie garden has mostly in the shade in the afternoon, due to trees from the ditches.. shade is good on them when our temps get even hotter, but the down side is that cooler weather we had, hurts my gardens...

Flowers are also taking off here in the last week.. and got all my weeding done..
other then the new butterfly garden, and that looks like a weed patch.... I will just wait and see what comes up next year in it.. :) AS I have no idea what the plants should look like in it.LOL

Your so lucky Dawn.

My containers are in shade part of the day also, but I think that is a good thing. That means by the time the sun would be in position to beam in on those black pots, the tree will begin to provide shade. The plant itself should get sun for a while longer.

My in-ground garden does not get sun in all areas all day long, but that has never seemed to bother anything. I have considered moving my pole bean trellis to a more sunny location, but decided to try it again this year where it is. My beans were not as plentiful last year as normal, but that was probable mostly lack of care on my part. With my broken foot, I didn't do much after planting season.

I have 10 or 12 trees and most of them are very large so I don't have a lot of sunny area. I have one area on the south that borders my neighbors property that is very sunny, but has lateral lines to consider. I hope to plant a long line of shrubs there. They should get plenty of sun and as soon as they stretch their roots a little they should find plenty of water since they will not be far from the lines. I just have to be careful what I plant.

My garden is behind my house in a fenced area, but I have a tree, my neighbor on the north has a tree and the one to the west has two storage buildings. They all help in terms of the wind, but they all provide some shade at different parts of the day. So far that hasn't seemed to hurt much. I think Oklahoma heat combined with sun all day is sometimes just too much for plants.

The smaller container plants would be easy enough to move if necessary, but the indeterminate tomatoes will just have to live where they are. If they don't produce well there, I will have to add some to another place because I can't move those. They are there to stay.

I have five more in pots that are going to have to find a permanent home fairly soon because they are soon going to be to tall to move around. I may have to put them in the garden along the chainlink fench and let them run along the top if I don't get some more cages built. Maybe I have too many tomatoes. NOT.

Lucky you, Dawn! My largest tomatoes are marble sized. But I'm just happy to have some. :) Tonight we grilled some steak and salmon, and had a salad on the side. DH commented how he couldn't wait to have a tomato that actually tasted like a tomato. I can't wait! My largest tomatoes are on my Cherokee Purple plant, both DH's and my favorite tomatoes!

In answer to Mary's question about the heat shutting down pollination and fertilization, the approximate temperatures that shut them down are daytime highs in the 92 to 95 degree range, and higher, and nighttime lows in the 72 to 75 degree range.

Tomatoes pollinate best when the nighttime lows are in the 55 to 72 degree range, but I still get pollination and fertilization with some plants even when the nighttime lows are close to 80 degrees. These temperatures mainly relate to larger slicing and beefsteak type tomatoes. The smaller cherries, grape and paste-type tomatoes often produce all summer long despite the temperatures. And, there are a few tomatoes that produce well in spite of the temperatures too, including Arkansas Traveler, Merced, Celebrity, Carnival, Nebraska Wedding, Persimmon/Russian Persimmon and Bradley Pink. And, pretty much any of the recent hybrids that have the words "Sun", "Heat" or "Solar" in their names are supposed to set fruit at higher temperatures.

Most years, in southern Oklahoma, I get new fruit set through at least the third week in June, and sometimes later, depending on temps. Our nights are already really warm here, staying in the mid to upper 70s, so production may slow down early for us this year.

I know the rest of y'all will have ripe ones very soon.

Remember that EVERYTHING I do with my tomatoes is geared towards meeting my goal of harvesting tomatoes in April or May....from starting seed very early (Super Bowl Sunday) to potting up plants into progressively larger "pots" (usually paper cups or plastic cups), to planting as early as humanly possible (mid-March in most years), etc. It IS so much work to try and baby them through cold spells like this year's late freezes, but it is so worth it for the early harvest. And, since it often goes from "too cold" to "too hot" in about a 2 to 4-week period here in southern OK, I have to push the plants as hard as I can to get fruit set before the real heat arrives.

Next week I have to make my list of fall tomatoes and start planting seeds in paper cups. It seems like there is hardly time to catch a breath between getting the spring tomatoes off to a good start and then starting their fall replacements!

Happy Tomato-ing Everyone. I hope y'all get some ripe ones soon. And, I hope you put up with my whining when I start complaining that there are too many and I am having to spend too much time, picking, sorting, washing and either canning, drying or freezing them. I think my major bean crop, potatoes, onions and tomatoes are all going to be ready for harvest at about the same time. In a year where the nights don't stay cold as late as they did this year, the beand usually run ahead of the others a little, but not this year.

Dawn

Dawn, I'm so-o-o-o jealous!!LOL Mine are just blooming.
Keep up the good work.
Your Arkie neighbor,
vickie

I am green tomato green with jealousy!
The only tomatoes I have are all on the smallest bush I have....five of them on a plant which is so small it looks like the weight of the tomatoes will be too much for it....haha. It was in a container and it was not growing so I felt sorry for it and planted it in my garden late yesterday....lol.
The other plants are growing like crazy and making some gorgeous plants but so far I have not seen any tomatoes on them.
Enjoy those tasty tomatoes extra well for all of us who are still mouth watering hungry for them.

I actually bought some tomatoes last week which were not bad at all. Even ate some on a tomato sandwich and I could tell what I eating. So that helped me out in my tomato hunger.

G.M.

Hi Vickie!

Haven't seen you in a while. I'm way down here in southern OK where there's been little rain and quite a lot of heat, so the tomatoes are going NUTS. If I'd had the weather here that many of you in Arkansas have been having this year, I doubt I'd have any tomato plants left, much less have ripe tomatoes. I hope all your Ozarks forum folks have come through the storms and floods safely.

Hey G.M., I am sure you'll have tomatoes soon. You know how obsessive I am about having early tomatoes....I am sure I drive my whole family nuts with the seed starting in January, and planting in pots in February, and carrying the pots in and out in March, and planting in March/April and having to cover them up on those cold nights right into May this year......if I did all that and DIDN'T have early tomatoes, I'd be depressed!

I'm already starting to get into panic mode....as in, "What am I going to do if all these tomatoes ripen at once....." but, I already have friends stopping to tell me that....."if you have any extra tomatoes to share, I'll take them off your hands....." LOL And, I really intend to can and dry and freeze as many as I can for the long winter months, so I may not be giving away a lot, which probably will disappoint some of our friends. One of my tomato-growing buddies stopped by yesterday to see if I had any ripe ones yet. (He's kind of competitive.)

My plants struggled through that period where we had the very cold nights and then the very hot days with high winds, but have really taken off and are growing like mad for the last 2 or 3 weeks (and it is about time!).

Dawn

Thanks Dawn for the temperature info.

I picked my first one today. It was a Goliath about the size of a tennis ball. It should have been left until tomorrow morning, but I wanted it for the hamburgers of the guests today. I won't have any more for about a week to 10 days, but at least I had one by Memorial day, which was my goal.

I also picked a couple of sweet banana peppers. The jalapenos are about 10 days away.

The best news: blueberries will be plentiful and only about 15-20 days away.

Mary, You're welcome.

Scott, Congratulations on making your Memorial Day goal!!!

Today or tomorrow I get to pick one that is fairly big for an early tomato....about 8 to 10 oz. I have lots of small peppers, but I kept the plants in their paper cups on the screened-in back porch longer than usual because of the cool nights, so mine probably will be a little late this year. I will have lots of them though. Looks like the first ripe ones will be 'Alma' paprika peppers, which are great for stuffing.

Oh, it is thundering here right now and I think the rain storm that just dumped quarter-sized hail on Ardmore may be about to hit us.

Dawn