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Growing Tomatoes

Affect of extreme heat on fruit set

15 years ago

Hello

I have grown about 60 plants this year (40 varieties) and all are thriving (plant and foilage wise) however the fruit set is low in certain cases and the harvest is late. We had a series of days in June where temp were in excess of 100 for at least 3 days. One day it reached 111 where I live. Plants have some time in shade so they were not too exposed.

Some of my clients who live closer to the ocean have spectacular plants and fruit set.

I assume the excessive heat caused mine to have this "set back"

Any suggestions?

Thanks

John Lyons

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Comments (8)

digdirt2
15 years ago
You may wish to review all the discussions here on "blossom drop" as that is most likely the cause of your problems. There are some current discussions just down the page a bit and I linked more of them below. Check out the FAQ on it too for the basics.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop discussions
lyonsy
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Dave

Also..why am I not getting a reminder in my email when response is posted? I ticked that box when I posted the message

Thanks

Lyons
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You can OVER water in extreme heat....P.S
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First off..Hello Andrew and you are welcome... Mn_citrus..I would have to guess it may be all relative depending on many factors? I hope I am alright to assume that many here kind of know what is too hot for their plants and how they are affected. If not, then they need to be more in tune with their plants, the containers they choose to use, and most of all the mix they grow in. Also how their containers can heat root sysytems compared to more stable temps for trees in the ground. How often to water, how fast their mixes dry out and what color the pots are used are all important factors to vital root health. For some, just the temps alone into the 90's can over heat roots such as mine, and then to have pots in full sun at those temps in black containers can bake roots like mine. Root rot usually occursin the winter for some. But root rot in the summer is invariably blamed on poor drainage and overwatering too. I wonder how much root death from overheating may also contribute to the summer root-rot phenomenon. (It's almost ironic that it's recommended to place Bonsai affected by root-rot in the shade after treatment - part of the cure?) Even some of the winter occurrences of root-rot may have had their origin in summer heat killed or damaged roots. (Now, there's some interesting studies to be performed). And finally, I think it's fair to say that high summer temperatures and placing certain plants in full sun throughout the growing season probably have some negative effect on a plants roots. Precautions such as midday shading and watering to cool down the containers might be in the best interest of plants, especially many of my Bonsai and Citrus. (I may even rethink the layout of my growing area and move some trees to more shade in the deep summer). Tamela..No problem...:-) I would water my plants if they were drying out that fast...For those plants that sit in damp mixes even after hot weather for days, I would be very careful is what I am saying... Mike
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Heavens!! No one was trying to twist your arm....only to let you know that it is possible to grow these in your location. FWIW, there's lots of places in the US where it hits above 100F in summer and these hydrangeas are extremely common across the country. If you don't want to risk it, don't grow it. Comparison of heat zones to USDA hardiness zones are really meaningless - one has nothing to do with the other. They should be used together as a guide (only) as to what should be able to grow successfully in your locations. If PeeGee hydrangeas are listed to heat zone 9, that means they will grow where they receive as much as 120-150 days of temperatures above 86F. Luis, I don't have an answer for you but I do have a theory :-) In areas that have mild winter climates, like zone 8 and above, the focus by nurseries seems to have been on those hydrangeas that are best suited to quite mild climates - macrophyllas, asperas, serratas, etc. Arguably, these species tend to be less sun and heat tolerant than do the paniculatas, yet you see them sold frequently in very hot climates - Texas, SoCal, the southeast. Until just recently, when all the new cultivars began flooding the market, you couldn't find paniculatas in my area either. Now they are sold as frequently as other, less cold hardy species.
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My tomatoes are finally ripening here in the middle of Missouri, and it looks as if the heat will finally fade a bit after this weekend. I'm at work in town and we got a fair amount of rain today....hope my place north and west of town didn't get skipped as it often does. For a while, I was mainly getting cherries and German Eggs, but now all my full sized fruits are ripening all at once. There is little fruit on most of the plants because none set during the extreme heat. I must say that what has and is ripening tastes pretty good to me. I've had a couple of excellent Terhunes, and though I don't normally like yellows all that much, the few Golden Queens I've had tasted good to me. Maybe I'm just reacting to the small amount of fruit I'm getting, but the taste seems up to par, and I wish the yield was, too! I wish I could make it to the KC tasting. DW made a tomato tart last weekend when we first had enough slicers to do the recipe, and it was amazingly good. Recipe was from Southern Living and used puff pastry for the crust. We had Terhune, NAR, Paul Robeson and Golden Queen slicers, though the PR were really small, and then she topped it off with some chunks of Black Cherry, Juliet, German Egg and Garden Peach, so it was very colorful. I just talked myself into stopping at the store after work for some puff pastry and Feta cheese and whatever else was in that recipe. It might use up almost all our remaining tomatoes, except for the cherries and the very productive German Eggs. Chuck
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digdirt2
15 years ago
Depends on your email settings. Check your Junk box as they may be getting auto routed there.

Dave
desertfarmerjohn
15 years ago
Excessive heat will definately impact tomato production. Mine pretty much stop producing in late June when the temp begins to consistantly hover around the 100 degree mark. The Heatwave and Sunmaster varieties put on fruit longer than others. I have a Sunmaster that has set a few tomatoes in the past couple of weeks with temps in the 105 to 110 range. Check out my blog linked below for a few pics of my tomatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening in the Desert
sirmac
15 years ago
I'm in the same zone and I live with no marine influence. I used to resort to the grape tomatoes but i've found that these varieties do well here:
sweet 100
celebrity
heatwave
sunmaster
red lightening (if you like acidic tomatoes)
fishymamas
15 years ago
Yes it's the heat, you can try shading, loads of water, but basically it's the heat. During July & Aug that's when the cherry toms keep comming and the larger ones quiet down. For next year, start them earlier and set out sooner (I plant out by my Bday in mid Feb each year, as a convient reminder), once it beging to cool in Sept, expect your plants to put out your fall flush of toms, till then just keep the plants in the best condition you can. (Or you can have 2 sets of plants a spring set and fall tomatoes if you wanna fiddle with that, I usually keep my spring vines alive thru summer, simplier for me).

These keep going for us the last few years:
Sweet 100
Yellow pear
Black from Tula
Sungold
tomatogreenthumb
15 years ago
try Early Girl.........they supposedly do well in all zones.
they are better than the cardboard maters at grocery stores
Might try Ultimate Giant too for a large tasty mater there in the heat.
lyonsy
Original Author
15 years ago
Talking of Sungold. I put in a garden for a friend last year and went by early in the season.. May ,,and to my astonishment her Sungold was laden with hundreds of fruit...it got through the winter and looked terrific..not raggedy at all!

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