Barbara,

Last year, my plants survived a one-day rainfall of 12.89" and then another 6-7" in the 4 to 6 weeks following it. I thought they'd all die. They wilted, they discolored, they stalled, they stunted. I let them live. I had the best tomato harvest I'd had since moving to OK.

My soil, by the way, is Red River clay and drains horribly. They survived anyway, and not all of them were in raised beds either.

My vote is to give them a chance. It is amazing how quickly they can turn around once the soil dries out a bit. Even if they stall for a month, they'd likely produce more quickly than new transplants.

Dawn

Wow! Thank you SO much Dawn!

That's really encouraging to me.

My soil there is very rather loose sandy loam.

It just happens to be sitting in a low area I thought was safe to plant in, since I mistakenly figured the heavy spring rains were over. Boy was I mistaken.

We got WAY more than the records showed. I had an empty crock sitting out in the open that had at least 7" of water in it.

Still, it may have been the emergency trenching and your pitchfork idea that saved the day!

Pressing on...I now feel like getting out there and hoeing around them to help dry the soil a tad more. Fortunately, we had some good sun today along with some drying winds :)

Thanks again,

Blessings on you and your garden,

Barbara

Barbara,
Although I know it is hard to imagine I have experienced some wet periods and even years here. Just hasn't been in the last 3. I have very deep, well draining sandy loam soil. Even at that I've had times when they have become over watered temporally.
Tomatoes over all are very hardy. I've always found if I give them a chance they usually recover. Sometimes if I see lots of yellowing and signs that indicates a deficiency I will give them a one time boost with a foliar spray. There is a fine line there. Otherwise just time.

I have 2-3 plants out of 101 that seem to be struggling especially with the onset of the heat again. Debating whether to leave or pull and add one of the healthy looking plants from the frames I will be discarding this weekend. I feel they might recover but the plants in the frames are nice and a good dark green color. If I knew what the rest of the summer held I would know what to do. Jay

Jay,
I decided to leave them after Dawn's encouraging post, and now your's. I did go out and hoe around them good. For sure no mulch...at least yet!

Like you said, if you only knew what the rest of the summer held. That's the big question.

After such a glorious spring harvest for me here, I have a weird feeling this isn't going to be a good tomato year. And of course, that's the ONE main thing we all look forward to.

I wish you the best with your's :)

Barbara

Barbara,

I have that feeling too. The heat arrived too early and it is going to dramatically affect fruit set. Since we're at the mercy of the heat, there's not much we can do about it either.

Dawn

Dawn,
Remember last year when we encountered the heat wave and blossom stall?

You suggested Blossom Booster.

I got some and it did seem to help both the sweet peppers and tomatos.

Barbara

Barbara,

But I suggested using it just in advance of an approaching cold front that would temporarily knock the temperatures back down to the level that allows pollination. All the bloom booster fertilizer in the world won't help your tomatoes or sweet peppers if the temps are high enough that pollination/fertilization is impeded. It just gives you more flowers that will drop unfertilized because heat has either made the pollen sterile, or made it sticky so it won't move around and do its job.

When the temps are hot enough to impede pollination, about all you can do is pray for cooler weather. Or, be like me, and plant 30 or 40 tomato plants that produce bite-sized fruit because they are not affected by heat like the plants that produce larger fruit usually are.

Dawn

Dawn,
Well, that let's that idea out:(

I am praying for cooling weather, but that prayer may not get answered for awhile the way things look.

I do have some "nice" bite sized tomatos going if and when they start producing.

And a lady gave me 6 unknowns. Said they were "cherry" tomatos. Well, I planted the darned things on an outside chance, and wouldn't you just know..now they have little tomatos dangling on them for all the world that look like the Juliet's I hated with such a passion last year.

Too late to pull them now........

I think I'm going to put an ad in the local dot.net for "tomatos" for sun drying. Grrr!

Barbara

Barbara,

Maybe they aren't Juliet. Maybe they are Grape or one of the other similar varieties. I like the flavor of Grape much more than Juliet.

I grow Juliet and Jelly Bean both for dehydrating. I don't like 'em fresh, but they are tasty when dehydrated.

I am watching the temperatures closely and am grateful that I had good fruit set early because we'll be harvesting those tomatoes through June. I'm not seeing new ones setting though. It is just too hot.

And, I should add that it is the combination of high heat and high humidity that tends to affect pollination and fertilization of tomatoes and sweet peppers. Someone in a much drier area like Jay probably gets fruit set better than we do in more humid areas during high heat.

Dawn

Dawn,
I've been surprised so far at the fruit set overall. Not great but most of the early ones have some fruit set with moderate on a few. One of the exceptions is Royal Hillbilly. It was loaded with blooms up until the last few days. Haven't seen a greenie yet. Lots of bloom drop while others next to it are setting. You and I have grown enough we know many times there are no answers. Every year you have issues that make you stop and ponder why? True Black Brandywine was vigorous and set well from late mid season on last year. This year it started out the same. And now like my early Apfelsin has stalled and had a yellow tinge to the color and some curling although little if any purple veins. The Apfelsin has set a few. After a 7-10 days I gave both a foliar feeding. Not much change. I may give them some seaweed/fish feeding today. The plants around them look fine. And the other Apfelsin I have out which is a later plant looks great. So far the plants in the 2nd year area seem to be growing faster than those in the main garden. They were later plants. Many from the stalled tray and also really root bound when planted 14-18 days later. If this is the worst troubles I face this year I will be happy. Our humidity has been higher than usual with all the rain around us. 58% this morning. Sure it will drop by the afternoon. That is another thing that makes being left out on the rain so bad. We are suffering from abnormal humidity without getting the benefit. I started watering again Thursday. The next 3 days could all be 100 before we possible drop back into the mid 90's. Some are saying possibly July 1st before any real relief. Jay

Jay,

That's pretty high humidity for an area with such low rainfall! I complained in early June about having high humidity without rainfall and Seedmama reminded me that April was the same way. It isn't fair to have to endure the humidity without the rain.

Most days here our humidity is in the 90s or low 80s before sunrise, then down in the 60s or so by noon---and we'll likely have seen our highest heat index of the day by then. After that, as the temp goes up, the RH comes down and the heat index stays pretty stable. Yesterday, though, the Heat Index was in the mid-90s by noon and 100 by late afternoon so it didn't drop like it had been doing. Our heat index finally dropped below 100 degrees around 9 p.m. I was trying to work in the garden late and it was miserably sticky.

Our nights are worse than our days in terms of tomato pollination. Most nights it is still 83-85 degrees at midnight and then it gradually drops to 76-78 by sunrise, so the nights are too hot even if they days weren't--but they are, so I guess its going to be a relatively-tomato-free summer. I am sure we'll have enough toms for eating and drying but maybe not so many that I'll be canning a lot like I did last year. That's OK though, because plums and peaches are going to fill up all the jars.

I just came in at 9:10 a.m. to cool off and the heat index is 89 although the temperature is a relatively cool 83 degrees. The humidity is in the 70s right now. It is sad to think this is the "best" time of the day to be outside working, because it is already quite uncomfortable out there.

Royal Hillbilly has been more variable than most for me. One year it set great in April/May and another year it didn't set well until late June (and it was a hot, dry June so the lack of humidity may have helped).

My happiest plants are the ones in the heaviest clay. How's that for irony? The ones in lighter, fluffier soil are too hot and are whining about it. The ones in heavier clay have better color, better growth and more fruit per plant. I guess in this odd spring, the heavier soil has held more water (but not too much) and the plants seem to like that.

Yesterday, I harvested fruit from JD's Special C-Tex, Indian Stripe, and Cherokee Purple. Of those three CP types, JD's had larger fruit by far, and it was the starring attraction on our BLT sandwiches at lunch time. I also tasted the first Fabulous, and despite what taste-testing surveys said about it, it was only OK and didn't taste 'fabulous'. It wasn't bad, but it was just your ordinary run-of-the-mill home-grown tomato and nothing special. JD's was marvelous. Once I had a basket full of tomatoes, I really couldn't tell CP, IS and JD's apart that easily except that I knew JD's was the largest of the three. IS had set more fruit early though.

None of my tomatoes look as happy as I'd like. It is just too hot too early in the day and there's few clouds to give them a break from the unrelenting sun. I'm adding some mulch to some beds today in an effort to keep the ground cooler.

I'd better get back outside before the heat index gets too high.

Dawn

Can I whine too??? LOL

My desktop picks up the temp and weather info from the local airport so it is up to the minute.

It is 9:48, Temp 88, Humidity 75 and Heat Index 102.

I am not having a problem with fruit set that I can tell, but our night time temps are falling to around 76.

We are trying to dig out the little patch of Yukon potatoes this morning. We can't stay out there very long without coming in to rest a bit. It is hot!!!

Even as small as my tiny little bag garden is with only 8 tomato plants, I'm seeing firsthand how tough tomatoes can be. First, I bought about half of the plants too early and carried them in and out of the garage for what seemed like ages until the weather warmed up enough to plant them. Second, as everyone is experiencing, the crazy weather ... heavy rain, then heat, then back to rain, then heat again. Last Monday we had all that rain and now they are baking in the heat. Third, bugs. Something ate every single leaf off one of the Sweet 100s and there was nothing left of the plant but stems, but I decided to leave it and see what would happen. Lo and behold new growth came out and yesterday I saw the first little green tomato on it! Not one of my plants looks pretty, but we've already begun harvesting and eating a few tomatoes (yay!!!!). I'm certain we won't get a huge crop, but we'll be happy just to have enough to eat and if we're lucky we may have some extras to give away.

By the way, I bought a tomato plant for each of my 8-year-old and 3-year-old grandsons and helped them plant them in pots at their house. They love tomatoes and I wanted them to have the experience of tending their plants, seeing them grow, and eating their own tomatoes. Jackson, the 3-year-old, who occasionally might be mistaken for Dennis the Menace, decided to aggravate his older brother and pick his tomatoes for him. Unfortunately they were still green!! Thankfully my DIL intervened before they were all gone. They are just now beginning to ripen, so I'm sure the fun will really begin now when they get to eat their own tomatoes.

Suzie

Yep...it's just toooooo darn hot! I sympathize, Carol. DH left for work @ 6 this morning so I was out in the "Salsa Garden" by 6:30 to feed and mulch. (I'm way behind Dawn and the rest of you, but SOME DAY...I'll have more time!) I fed the peppers with Fish Emulsion and laid out 12 big bags of mulch around my 31 peppers. I don't know which smelled worse...me or the Fish Emulsion! When I came in at 8:45, the temp was 85, humidy was 78 and the heat index was 94...ugh. No wonder the sweat was burning my eyes! Set the drip system for an hour on the 30 tomatoes and came in for a shower!

Suzie - that is TOO funny about the boys & their tomatoes! Kids and gardening make great entertainment!

What's everyone's opinion about how often to water toms & peps in this heat? I have real sandy soil but we've added lots of amendments to the Salsa bed so it's pretty nice dirt. The toms are almost all 6 ft. tall now and most have fruit. I plan to get out again over the next few days to finish mulching the tomatoes and also give them some fish emulsion. Just not sure how often or how much to water them.

I'm envious of the rest of you that have already tasted a tomatoe!!!! I've got lots of green ones...but none are even turning yet. Funny how a thread about water-logged plants and yanking them has turned to solutions for heat stressed plants & gardeners!

Paula

Yeh Paula, and all of those weather conditions can happen in the same week in Oklahoma.

We came back inside because we were expecting a call from our son who has been in the air since yesterday flying from Nigeria. He is on the ground in Tulsa, and will be starting his new job in B-ville on Monday. Hooray, three and a half years in Africa was long enough.

Carol, is your son in the service? Coming home is such a great, emotional thing. I was soooo glad when my son got back from his tour of duty in the Red Sea during Desert Storm. Of course, so was he. Being on an aircraft carrier for 8 months straight could drive you crazy, I'd think! He was sure glad to set foot on God's green earth.

My Jet Star has really slowed down in production, but the Rutgers keeps churning out tomatos. It really is a work horse for me. The Supersweet 100 is just now setting tomatos, but I got it in late.

My poor little Victorian Dwarf is having a bad case of leaf curl - probably due to heat; needs to be potted up in its final, larger container, etc. - at least I hope that's what it is. I really have to watch these little plants in smaller containers because they need to be watered so often.

I made a really bad mistake and left my bags of Tomato Tone and Flower Tone on the porch during the rain storm last week. I thought they were close enough to the house that the rain would not get them. I should have known that the large amounts of heavy rain we got would leave nothing unscathed. Anyway, they are both soaked, and the fertilizer swells up and looks like mud now. Still usable? I don't know. If not, I'll have to get some more next week. I'm wondering if I can put some in a bucket (handful) and add water, and use it as a soluble. What do you think? I'm thinking I need to fertilize the Rutgers at least cuz it is in a 5 gal. container and watered much more often than the others in bigger pots.

Let us know how your tomatos do, Barbara. I am sending good thoughts and tomato wishes your way.....

Susan

I will add what I pulled on a container plant. I had noticed one plant out of 19 containers showed a little yellowing. Otherwise didn't look that bad. The other 18 were a dark green color. So yesterday when watering containers in a hurry before going to work on a call out I noticed that I had never drilled holes in that container. So thought I will come back with the cordless drill and do it. This morning the plant was wilted. I then went and got the drill and drilled the holes. The water smelled sour as it came out. Will let it dry some. Remove it add new mix and plant another plant. I chalk this all up to the "Old Timers" memory problem I have. LOL. Jay

Jay, You could have just not admitted to it! LOL

I have never done that with a pot, but when I had transplants in large cups, I hadn't noticed any problems with the plants, but I had so many, that a few could be overlooked. I went out to water one day and I had three cups that were wet about 24 hours after watering. As I looked at the stem, I could see roots trying to form on the stalk of the plant above the soil line. Still I didn't know why they had that weird looking stem so I reached in and pulled one of them out of the jungle of seedlings. You guessed it. All three cups had no drain holes. Funny thing is that I punched holes, they drained, and they were all OK. They had probably been in that cup for a couple of weeks when I noticed. Old age ain't for sissies, isn't it? At least, no one expects us to be perfect now. When my mother was this age, I thought she was really old, now she is almost 99.

Susan. I forgot to answer your question. No, my son is not in the service, but works for an oil company. Only one of our children has been in the service (both he and his wife). I guess they got enough of it while they were children since my DH was in the AF 23 years.

Carol,
In the past I probably wouldn't have. Now it don't bother me. We all make mistakes no longer how long we've gardened. I added nine new containers this year in a hurry. Just can't believe I missed noticing it for that long. And then to find it and forget it till I saw the wilted plant this morning. I usually drop what I'm doing and fix a problem like that when I notice it. But I needed to get to work. And so was in hurry. That is what happens when a person gets in a hurry. Jay

I am stunned with what my tomatoes have put up with this year. I had numerous volunteers (due to lazy cleaning up/composting last year). This year one of my 18 tomatoes in raised beds had some kind of blight or fungus. It looked really bad so I pulled it and put a volunteer in its place.

So far it is doing REALLY well (tons of fruit and no signs of the fungus or whatever attacked the other plant). Another tomato snapped off at the base. Grew right back. Several more died back in frost (planted too early, I am an eager beaver). My husband told me to pull them but I refused. They came back dead from the ground GANGBUSTERS.

They are such a dichotomy...so delicate, tender, and delicious, but when really put to the test they often pull through!

Susan,
I'm still watching the previously waterlogged tomatoe plants. I did loose some unfortunately, but the one's now in question seem to be perking up, greening up a bit at the top, and at least not hanging their heads down as if there still sufficating. Looks like they may all make it, except for maybe one or two which I'm still keeping an eye on.

Yes, since we all LOVE tomatoes, it practically breaks our hearts when we have something like this happen. But I'm SO glad I listened to Dawn and Jay and didn't just pull them all up.

Thanks for the good wishes! May your own tummy be nurtured with many delicious BLT's this summer and fall.

Barbara

Paula,

Just check the soil and water when they need it. Since you have sandy soil, you may have to water pretty often unless there's a pretty high water table under ground. When you check your soil, use a trowel to sort of open a 'test hole' about 4" down and stick your fingers down into that area to check for moistness. Remember that your goal should be evenly moist soil, and not a cycle of wet-dry-wet-dry.

For everyone else, I hope your tomatoes are pulling out of their too-much-moisture-funk.

The 2.5" we had here lasted about 3 days and then we were back to being as dry as a bone with the soil cracking and all. I am not expecting very good production from most of the veggie garden if this hot weather sticks around. We need some cold fronts to cool us off.

Normally, in an 'average' summer, if there is such a thing, my garden produces great until July when the heat tends to shut down production of some veggies like tomatoes, sweet peppers, green beans, etc. This year, the typical 'shut down' heat of July arrived in late May and I think it shows in the slowing production in the garden.

Our temperatures are looking high for the rest of June and the heat index numbers aren't great either. I'm not joking about building a shade canopy over my garden. I'd do it if I could. I bought a 30' x 6' shade cloth yesterday to suspend over one bed of tomatoes to give them some relief from the heat. Now, I have to decide which tomato bed gets the shade cloth.

Dawn

Barbara, I'm so glad to hear that some of your tomatoes seem to be perking up, that's great news!

Dawn,Shade cloth! What a great idea!

I had to water my garden for the first time today since the torrential downpour a week or so ago. It took about an hour and I did it EARLY in the AM. I only watered my veggies, if the flowers in the front die, they do.

Already, a few hours later, things are wilting, drooping, and looking sad, sad, sad.

I came in from watering feeling hot and sick. I threw up and took a nap. I don't know how some of you do it.

Is there a good place that I should look for shade cloth? I need to protect all of my hard work...at any expense.

Jo Ellen,
Please be careful! What you experienced sounds like heat stress.

My system can't handle that kind of heat anymore.

Some folks body temp regulators don't work as they should.

Try to stay in during the heat of the day, and stay hydrated. And rest until you get to feeling better.

This heat is seriously dangerous.

I don't like my DS working in it but he sometimes thinks he's superman, and then pays the price later.

Barbara

Jo Ellen - mercy, Girl! Be careful! Once you hurt yourself with too much heat....you never really react the same. Several of us have made this mistake.

Dawn - I remembered you telling me how to check the moisture last year so that's how I've been doing it. Since we laid that drip irrigation, watering is a breeze! Thru trial and error, I've figured out that an hour every other day is just about right for them. They get a good soak that way that lasts them until the next watering and they don't dry out completely before it's time to water again. Doing the same with the peppers that are on the other side of the bed. Our water pressure is not the greatest out here so we really can't water the whole thing in one day anyway. I fed the peppers Saturday and laid a thick layer of mulch. They're looking much, much better now. I'm not too worried about the pink brandymasters because ALL of the others are doing great and setting fruit. The PB's just think they're the queen of the bed so they're just being a little lazy! I got to eat my first cherry today!!! Some of the others are beginning to blush.

That shade cloth idea is a good one! Think maybe Tractor Supply would carry those? or Atwoods? I have to be careful where I go. My family held an intervention and I've been banned from ANY garden center since I can't seem to leave one without another pepper plant.

Paula