Glad you have had such a good year. Yes planting early helps. Big plants can help also. The problem here is the late cold spells we continue to have. When it drops into the low 20's or even the teens in late April and early May and then into the upper 90's by mid May it makes it hard to put out much early here. Next year I should be back to working close to home so going to try to plant things earlier especially in large containers. I will put them in the lean to and then move them out once the weather warms up at night. Then the hail got all the early ones I had out. When I replaced the plants in late May and early June I bought a few large plants in gallon containers. Overall the smaller plants that survived the hail I had in my frames have passed the larger plants and starting to set better. If a person can set out early and avoid weather problems that is the best. But after 40 plus years of gardening I've learned to never put all my eggs in one basket. Over that many years I have found that those plants I transplant in late May to July 1st will usually produce more in the end. So again finding methods that work for you is what is important. I'm thinking of using some hot kaps next year also. And would like to put up a tunnel I would cover with plastic early and then shade cloth later. Lots of ideas but not enough time.

Seeing your harvest makes my mouth water for a BPT sandwich. I do have a couple of questions. Do you prune your plants? And do you have sunscald problem with that little foliage? Or do you have good shade? Here in the open I have sunscald problems unless I have good foliage cover.

Heinz 1439 is a good variety. I grow 2 other Heinz varieties. Heinz 2653 and Heinz 1350. It seems they all set and produce well, heat tolerant and disease resistant. Bella Rosa didn't do well for me last year. Always interesting to see others results with the varieties I've grown.

Hope your harvest continues through the season. Jay

Erod, Congrats on your best year ever. I'm having a pretty good year but certainly not the best year ever.

Getting the plants into the ground early and having them large enough to start flowering/fruiting early makes a huge difference. I do most of the same things you do, although I don't spray with the Blossom Set spray. I don't find it necessary, but since I'm further south, it is likely our temps are warm enough in late March and in April for blossoming to occur on its own.

In addition, I put 8 large purchased transplants into big pots in mid-Feb. and carry them inside on cold days and on all nights. Usually they are flowering within a week or two of being transplanted. I start harvesting from those large pots in mid- to late-April every year, which adds at least a month of ripe tomatoes to our harvest season.

We had some temps in the mid-90s in mid-April, so the plants had to work hard to blossom and set fruit in the weather we have had. Luckily, the weather fluctuated a lot in May and we got good fruitset on some days before the awful heat arrived to stay much too early at the beginning of June. I imagine if I had set out the plants even a couple of weeks later (mine started going into the ground during the first week in April) than I did, I wouldn't have had many tomatoes this year. We had a late freeze on May 3rd but I was able to cover up all of them and keep them from freezing, or it would have been a really bad tomato year!

Here's the report on which tomato varieties have produced the best here in our garden:

These have produced large numbers of fruit per plant:

Early (in containers):
Big Beefsteak
Husky Red Cherry
Big Boy
Better Boy

Early (in-ground):
Early Goliath
Cluster Goliath
Goliath

Bite-sized types in ground:
SunGold
Fargo
Ildi
Black Cherry
Matt's Wild Cherry
Tess's Land Race Currant (a volunteer plant)
Mountain Magic

For Salsa:
Heidi
Heinz 1439
Santa Clara Canner
Astro
Black Plum

Early to Mid-Season:
Indian Stripe
Jaune Flammee
JD's Special C-Tex
Gary O Sena
Taxi
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Azoychka

These have produced some tomatoes per plant, but not very many:

Mosvitch
Marmande
Nebraska Wedding
Russian Persimmon
Black Krim
Michael Pollan
Black and Brown Boar
Large Barred Boar
Brandysweet Plum

These haven't given us a single ripe fruit yet:

Red Boar
Pork Chop
Franchi Red Pear
O Sena Green
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Chocolate
Spudakee Purple
Evan's Purple Pear
New Big Dwarf
Freckled Child
Beauty King

I deliberately planted a lot of hybrids this year to give me large numbers of fruit per plant. I know from experience that many heirlooms produce poorly here during drought years.

I wouldn't say I am disappointed with how our heriloom tomatoes have performed, because they have performed pretty much exactly as I expected. The few heirlooms that produced well will be back on the grow list next year. I'm not sure that the others will be....but, then, I'll change my mind a million times between now and then anyway.

I've been freezing tomatoes for salsa-making lately, although I was giving away tons of fruit earlier. I finally stopped sending tomatoes to work with DH and DS so I'd have some left for salsa-making. Now that I'm harvesting jalapenos, I can start making salsa. I'm off to a late start on the canning this year, but I kind of got burned out on it last year, when I canned a little over 700 jars. I'll probably start canning about a batch a day of something, starting with salsa and probably then some jellies and jams.

My peppers stalled during May's nonstop rains but them resumed growing and blooming in June and now all of them have lots of flowers and fruit. We're just now starting to harvest peppers that have matured to their "ripe' color, including some red jalapenos and orange 'Yummy' peppers. I could harvest many more in the green stage, but except for the jalapenos, I like to let the peppers mature to their fully ripe color. With the jalapenos, I harvest them green for fresh eating, for poppers, and for canning as hot pepper rings or candied jalapenos and for green jalapeno jelly. I harvest some red for roasting and eating, for red jalapeno jelly and to add a little color to jars of canned green jalapenos.

Many tomato plants have enough fruit on them in various sizes and stages of development that I think it likely we'll get a good harvest through the end of July, but only the bite-sized tomatoes and some of the paste tomatoes are still flowering and setting new fruit.

Everything else that's left in the garden is producing really well (okra, southern peas, winter squash, summer squash, watermelons, muskmelons, sweet corn, lima beans and even bush snap beans) so we have plenty to keep us busy even after the main tomato harvest winds down, assuming I can keep the remaining plants happy and healthy.

I've scaled back my plans for a fall garden unless significant rain falls. We've only had 13" this entire year, and half of that was in May. At our house we only had about a half-inch of rain in June, so June's been a really dry, hot month and that is so hard on the garden, although the grasshoppers have been liking this weather just fine.
We had a really great tomato and pepper harvest today, so I'll likely make a batch of salsa this afternoon and another tomorrow. I don't think I'll make as many jars as last year, but you never know. It is possible the paste tomatoes will keep producing enough to keep me making salsa for quite a while yet.

Every year some things do better than others, and this year the tomatoes are neither the best nor the worst--just sort of middle of the road. The best producing plants were onions, pepper, lettuce, early corn and leeks. The poorest producers were broccoli, cabbage and snap peas. We got too hot too early.

Oddly, I harvested broccoli heads today from Piricicaba, I had left a row in an area shaded by taller tomato plants but it had stalled ever since April and just sat there and didn't do anything. Still, it wasn't in the way, so when I yanked out the Packman broccoli and cabbage, I left tfe Piricicaba in place because it is supposed to produce well in heat, and it has. Who would have thought you'd get usable broccoli in a month where the highs have been over 100 one out of every three days?

I wish some of the tomato plants would surprise me by setting fruit on insanely hot days!

Dawn

Dawn,
Your results are about like I would expect with a few exceptions. This is another year where it isn't fair to judge a variety for poor results with all my plants have been through. From my work situation, to the hail and throw in the wind, heat and drought. I've been paying a little more attention to mine the this last week. Overall I'm surprised by the set I'm seeing as I wasn't expecting much if any. The cooler nights I'm sure is helping along with the very low humidity. It looks like many of my op/heirlooms are setting at least some fruit. The one I'm always surprised to see you get good production from is Indian Stripe. CP has out produced it every year here but one and that year I only had 1 CP and lost it. Every year I think about not even growing it and growing more CP. This year the hail got all of my CP but one Spudakee. I bought one CP also after the hail. But have 3 Indian Stripes out and not sure I have any set on them. The heat seems to affect them worse. It is still too early for me to make any judgements and really post much. I see some that are surprising me but will wait a few more weeks before I start posting much. So far the best set I'm seeing on the hybrids isn't on the ones most usually talk about. If they continue like they are now I will be changing the list of hybrids I grow in the future. Mountain Magic looks good so far. Jet Star is disappointing again. The greenhouse/nursery owners I visit with say their customers have had poor results the last few year with Jet Star. Evidently it doesn't like wind, heat and drought. I'm not surprised to see many of the Gates varieties not setting well for you. They don't here either. So far the varieties that survived that I have from the NM grower are looking good. Of the hybrids so far Beefy Boy, Talledega,Sungold, WOW and Beefmaster are a few that are looking good. I lost all of my 4th of July plants in the hail. I would of picked fruit 2 weeks earlier at least if I had not lost them. And couldn't find any replacements. They sold out at every greenhouse around here. The varieties that I got from Gary that the TMD grows that survived the hail are looking good so far and setting. Purple Haze F1 and the PL version from Laurel haven't blinked yet in these conditions. And then some like Carbon are reliable every year. I know after July has passed that the list will change a lot. So one reason I didn't list a lot of names yet. By mid August I can then start making fair judgements. Jay

Fortunately, we only had two minor hails this year- I have made 'hail guards' from 1/4" hardware cloth that I place on top of my tomato cages (then try to move them up on stakes when the tomatoes outgrow the cages).
My major problem is birds- I lose one or two tomatoes every day to bird pecks, even when using bird netting and chicken wire cages. Also lost some green tomatoes to rats, but think I have cured that problem.
I tried everything(?) (much watering, fungacides, fertilizer, etc.)to keep my tomatoes growing for a Fall harvest last year with absolutely no results. I have had a few small successes with Fall tomatoes, but I am not even going to try this year.
JAY- I prune a little as the plants are developing, then extensively once the fruiting starts- I do try to leave some leaf protection for the fruit, but seem to have huge leaves that I feel suck up the nutrients from the fruit. I do get some afternoon shade. I had bad sunscald on my early plant leaves, but have not had any tomatoes affected. I do not prune the determinates as much- I grow them mostly in containers.
Here is a pic of one of my Early Girls on June 9:

Gardenrod,

Congratulations on your early and bountiful tomato harvest. I also enjoyed hearing about your technique and that salsa looks great.

An early tomato crop is mostly a gardener's dream around here for the reasons Jay enumerated. However, your success encourages me to aim for an earlier plant out date-April 8, the average date of the last 32 degree temp, rather than April 20, only a 10% chance of additional 32 degree temps.

Do you use soil warming techniques in your tomato beds before planting?

Tom

Jay,

From the very first time I tried it, Indian Stripe has produced well for me, and this year it has produced the biggest fruit, and probably the most fruit per plant ever. And, ever since I started growing Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate and Green have just stopped producing here. It's like their feelings are hurt and they are retaliating by not setting fruit. It makes no sense to me.

I'm really disappointed the Brad Gates' varieties haven't performed better. They started off doing really well, but once the heat hit (and it hit so early!), they dropped blossoms like crazy. I'd like to try them again if we ever again have a cool, rainy spring and summer like we had in 2007.

This heat is wearing me out. I don't know how you work outdoors (and in hot engine rooms!) in it all the time. I get hot just picking tomatoes in the early morning hours.

If my plants keep ripening fruit through the end of July, I'll be happy. It appears the Big Boy set several new fruit in the past two weeks despite the heat! I might put a plant or two in a container for fall, and wrap the cage with Agribon right after planting to try to keep the grasshoppers, blister beetles, spider mites and stinkbugs off the young plants.

Everything I do from this point on depends strongly upon rainfall or a lack of rainfall and also on how many fires we have. If fire activity stays lower, I might have more time to fuss over the garden. Conversely, if we get real busy, I pretty much have no time left to garden.

Gardenrod, I used to have trouble with birdpecks. So, one year when I put up the Christmas ornaments in the attic after Christmas, I kept some red ball-shaped ornamenets downstairs in a box in the coat closet. Once I had green tomatoes enlarging, I hung the red balls on the tomato plants. The way it is supposed to work is that the birds peck the hard 'fruit' and learn there's no water in them. Amazingly, it worked well for me....and the tomato platns looked so festive with those red balls. Nowadays, I just keep aluminum pie plates of water in the veggie garden for the birds and a bird bath in the flower beds. They leave my fruit alone most of the time, although I did find a pecked fruit this morning. I'll put it out on the compost pile tonight for the deer.
I do have a turtle who lives in the garden and likes to eat an occasional low-hanging tomato. However, he seems to eat lots of bugs as he (or she? who knows?) patrols the garden daily, so he's earned his fruit.

We have voles here, but my cats keep them out of the gardens and yard. Cats can be pretty good little garden helpers.

Dawn

Tom- I do not use any soil warming techniques, other than placing a few gallon milk cartons around some of the tomatoes. I have about a dozen Wall-of-Water and Kozy-Coats, but have not used them. I've ground planted in early April the last three years and have not lost any tomatoes due to frost or freezing, although I've had a few scary nights.
Dawn- I've tried flashy hangers, diskett tape, etc., and have saucers of water and two birdbaths close to the garden. The birds are a mixed blessing- my wife loves them, uses tons of birdseed and puts apples on spikes for them, and we have lots of trees and shrubs close to the garden, so I have to live with the birds.
I did enclose an 8' by 8' raised bed with chicken wire for some of my bigger varieties, and have not had any trouble there, so, next year means another building project.

This is meant to give you guys a laugh or two:

1) Freckled Child - not a bloom; fighting spider mite
2) Mountain Spring - a couple of blooms, one large tomato set early, but was gone in a day due to some sort of puncture wound followed by rot
3) Jet Star - Has just started blooming
4) Black Cherry - not a bloom; fought spider mite early on
5) Sunsugar - stressed, but my heaviest producer - I've gotten about a half dozen tomatoes, lol
6) Roma - healthy plant, no blooms
7) & 8) - my two Red Siberians planted from seed (my first)...they got a bit of a late start, but I put them in the ground anyway. They are the healthiest, sturdiest plants I have had in a long time, and have just started setting fruit - go figure, for a Russian early-producer!! I think these two will be around into the fall.

To qualify everything above, these tomatoes were planted into Murphy's Rich Mix, amended at the planting site with compost from my pile, and with Tomato Tone at the time of planting and a couple of side-dressings since then. They are mulched with shredded newspaper and grass clippings over flat drip hoses. The soil is cool to the touch under there and I water when I need to. I have no idea why this year is so BAD for me! I turned on Victory Garden and about gagged when I saw their 5ft plants, healthy and dark green, practically dumping truckloads of fruit at their feet....they're NOT in OKLAHOMA....sigh.

Sharon

Thanks for the updates and tips. I look forward to next spring!

Congratulations! WOW! Your tomatoes look wonderful!!!!

Oddly enough I am having a decent tomato year from my half-dead plants. I have a huge amount of tomatoes we can't eat and need to figure out how to freeze or can some sauce, pronto.

My most prolific tomato this year is Siberian Pink, and the thing tastes HORRIBLE. Bitter and disgusting. Dody has one too and she hates it as well. I am so glad that one is pretty much dead. :P

Jo

My tomato plants are looking fairly decent and are from 36-48" tall, but are nothing at all like what they were last year. So far I've only harvested a dozen or so of the Sweet 100 and 3 Golden Boy, although all the plants seem to have started blooming now. I just gave them a shot of Blossom Set in hopes that it will help.
Golden Girl is one of my favorites, but it has not begun to produce.
I wondered if the heavy grass-over-newspaper mulch might be keeping the soil too cold, but it's the same thing I've done for the past two years and they were fine. I moved them to a new location this year, in what looked to be better soil, tilled in a bit of compost, put in some tomato spikes like I always do, and I expected to see a whole lot more tomatoes before now.
We've had very little luck with the heritage tomatoes. I tried them for 3 years, using different varieties, and won't plant them again. They did not produce well at all, and the few fruits we got were so misshapen that they were unusable.
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I was going to ask if anyone uses Wall of Water to get them started, and it's already been answered. Maybe next year I'll try building a coldframe with a hinged top so the temperature inside can be controlled. Has anyone tried that? It would be cheaper than investing in grow-lights.

Pat

I'm having a great year, despite starting almost two months late and having the tiniest plants ever planted. Cherokee purple has been fantastic and speckled roman is right behind in production. Reisentraube, though, is a worthless sputter, and not even very productive for a cherry. Tastes like a grocery store cherry.
If I'd planted on time, or even three weeks late, I would have been frozen out this year.

I only have three Sweet 100s planted this year, and they're coming along. They have more green fruit on them right now than they've ever had, and I'm getting more blossoms too. I've only harvested about five semi-ripe tomatoes off of them, and I lost three more to birds by foolishly thinking I could let them try to ripen on the vine. I can only imagine how well they might have done if we'd have had better weather.

I wanted to try the Black Cherry next year, but now you guys have me worried that they'll be a dud!

Miraje,
I would encourage you too try Black Cherry. It produces average for me and has a very good taste in my opinion. You will never know until you try it. That is why I was so disappointed that the hail not only got my BC and a few others I've grown before but some I have never grown like Ambrosia Gold which I was looking forward too. The AG has a higher brix rating than Sungold and several feel is as good and supposedly does better here in my climate. It was developed in NM which has a climate closer to mine than varieties developed further away. Jay

I don't want to bore you, but here are my pics from this AM after harvest: