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Texas Gardening

Set out tomatoes too early?

14 years ago

Hello All, I may have gotten a little too excited about the spring garden this year. My fall garden was mostly destroyed when we had some work done on our house and I think I got a little itchy after the New Year. I started Early Girl, Sweet 100's and some patio tomatoes inside by a north facing window. I've transplanted them to larger pots already and nearly all of them have flower buds on them. I stated hardening them off this past Friday because it was so beautiful here in Houston and now I'm worried I might have jumped the gun on that as well. I have been bringing them in at night. I just don't think they were getting enough sun in that window. Today I don't think we hit 60 degrees which makes me a little nervous, but we're supposed to be warmer the rest of the week. What do you think? Did I mess up all of my tomatoes?

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Comments (6)

yummykaz
14 years ago
Out of about 50 I have going I have only planted about 6. I usually plant all mine by Presidents day and cover if needed. This crazy cold has me in a bind. I have mine in rectangle clear buckets. I put them out during the day, in at night. I have actually been more worried about the windy conditions as I have seen stores lose whole racks of tomatoes to wind. Go to Wabash or Another Place in time this weekend and get some new heirlooms to add to what you got! I won;t put mine out till nights are over 40 degrees.
jerrytx
14 years ago
I agree with Yummy, I have 2 dozen that were started in november, had to pot-up twice, now in 1 gal. pots waiting for the nights to warm up a bit. Mine too has flowers on them, but that won't hurt them to get bigger before planting outside. Just plant them DEEP when you do! Unfortunately, mine will have to go in the ground soon, as were leaving for Fla. for 10 days, I'll cover them with remay, and hope for the best I guess....
Jerry
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They look great. How many do you have, versus how many do you need? If you've over-prepared, I'd say get the tallest of those into the ground if the weather is at all workable. If they fail, you have backup. Update: based on your other thread, I'd plant some tomorrow morning, or the next. Especially if some are going in containers which can be moved in response to a a weather surprise. This post was edited by johns.coastal.patio on Thu, May 8, 14 at 9:33
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Comments (23)
Ah, the joys/perils of being a new tomato grower. I live in zone 7 and I planted my first plant on January 15th. The last average frost date here is April 15th, so my plant date is around May 1st. yes, I knew this would be a big plant, but it was a husky Cherry that I planned on putting in a 5 gallon bucket or eartbox and could be moved in on these colder days. Now I started some other plants around Feb 15th and they are getting kind of crowded. I have been trying to let them get a little sun recently to because my lighting area is not big enough for what I started. As soon as I place them outside, it gets too windy. I am taking about 20-25 mph winds on seedlings. Or it is too cold in the morning when I leave to place them outside. So my mistakes this year is 1) Starting too early 2) Planting too many for my lighted area Last year, I really was fubar. I bought all of my plants at walmarts or nurseries. Some of my earliest plants were not staked or caged! Talk about clueless. So imagine big bushes laying sprawled all over the place. When I started staking, I didnÂt prune. So part of the bush was upright, the rest bent or broke. I also planted the things a foot or two apart. Yet, I still got a somewhat decent harvest. It certainly is a learning experience.
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Comments (1)
That's great news. :) I've had tomatoes on south window light in foam cups, with a very early form of Solanum cheesmanii and to a lesser degree with a descendant of what I believe was Grape F1 (maybe it was on F5), in the early spring, and maybe the late winter, too. They weren't prolific there, but they did produce. They were in 20oz foam cups without drainage. I think the soil you use makes a big difference, too. The S. cheesmanii fruits tasted the same after the transplant in the ground that year (pretty good). However, I direct-seeded some outdoors in 4-gallon buckets in 2017, and their fruits tasted a whole lot better.
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kelgalon
Original Author
14 years ago
Ohhhhh, good advice...I haven't been to Wabash in awhile. I love that place. And Thanks for the advice. I will just keep bringing them in at night for awhile longer and plant them when the nights warm up a bit. I actually do have some heirlooms going as well but got those started a couple weeks later. The plants aren't as large yet so I wasn't worried about getting them in the ground just yet.
yummykaz
14 years ago
Jerry...you are leaving! How silly of me,,,,I made me and my daughter a cruise for May 8. I told hubby over the weekend that he is IN CHARGE while I am gone over the tomatoes! I am more worried about leaving them, than my dog! My first instruction was "NO! Don't water the leaves"! He wants to be sure to do it right as he knows how important my tomatoes are. One year we cruise on June 7th. I left my friend in charge. Told her to pick when pink as the bugs will eat them. She did what I was told...but put in fridge! I lost some awesome Cherokees to that!
plantmaven
14 years ago
My father was in the produce business. Years ago, he told me tomatoes will be ok with night temps 50 and above. You are doing ok by bringing them in at night.
FYI: lightly thump your blooms and that will help them polinate and maybe set fruit.
jerrytx
14 years ago
Yummy; I can relate to that! LOL I left my son in charge of mine a couple years ago when we made our annual 'pilgrimage' to the gold coast, and I returned to a lot of pretty much toasted plants! Ended up replacing them with "box store" varieties that didn't do well at all.
I guess i've decided to take my chances with the weather this year, non-gardeners just don't understand do they?

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